You might be surprised to see "Market and Audience" so early in this book, after all, isn't that where the game ends last? But that's exactly why you need to think about it now. This is especially true if you want to sell your game. Knowing what market you're going for will give you an advantage when deciding which features to remove or add later. Don't forget to be happy with it too; you can't make a good game if you don't like it. In the illustration, you can see a magician performing a trick in front of an amazed audience. Yet, in the distance, there is someone who does not feel surprised. They may even be intrigued by how others react. You see, magic tricks (at least the garden ones) target a young age. When you get older, you're not impressed by a little bunny coming out of a cage or popcorn popping "like magic." To reach an older audience, the magician must perform tricks that interest older people; in doing so, they risk losing their younger audience. Sawing a volunteer in half is an impressive feat; it may entertain an adult audience, but a child in this place would probably freak out. By studying your target audience, you go from randomly choosing between rabbits and saws in your design to knowing exactly why you should choose one over the other. Traditionally, businesses tend to think about the customer's age, gender, income, and neighborhood/culture. These are basics that you need to cover with some research; they always change. You need to choose a specific group, like males aged 12-20, and then you can branch out and try to win over other audiences without alienating your core fan base. But wait, there's more! As a game developer, there are two other groups you need to look at: casual... middle of paper ... This doesn't mean you can't enjoy or create hardcore games (or vice versa). Keep in mind that the reason for this is simply to make informed decisions going forward that will cater to one of the groups in a way that is consistent with your RPG. Now that we've discussed the market, we need to look at why these people are playing RPGs. The bottom line is simple, roleplaying games are built around character development, so it makes sense that role development is an important reason to roleplay. I will talk about it in depth in the two chapters which will be devoted to it later; For now, we should look at other reasons why people play role-playing games. Basically, there are six, which can be broken down into several categories: problem solving, treasure hunting, story, showing off, exploration and destruction. Problem solving is a common element in games; in fact, that's probably what makes a game valuable.