This Is How Cannabis Impacted The Gaming Industry

Via AskGrowers

Cannabis consumption can be very occasion-specific. Some people like it when they wake up when they eat, before they go to sleep. At concerts, with friends, by themselves….The list could go on forever. There is no denying that most cannabis users have their preferred situations for partaking.

It’s equally true that the cannabis industry has, for the most part, done a good job of capitalizing on this. Walk into any dispensary in the United States and you’re sure to be greeted by a knowledgeable staff who will ask you what you’re looking for and be more than happy to direct you to the appropriate strain.

But what happens if you tell them you want to find the perfect strain for gaming? Between cell phones, consoles, and computers, there are hundreds of millions of gamers in the United States alone. Many of them enjoy cannabis.

Who are these CannaGamers, and what should be done about them? In this article, we take a look at a key demographic that the cannabis industry should seriously consider taking notice of.

Who are the CannaGamers?

When one thinks about cannabis use and video games, it’s quite easy for the mind to wander to a smoky dorm room, or a musty basement. While these locations have undoubtly hosted the occasional CannaGaming session, they are far from being the only places you can observe the hobby.

In fact, CannaGamers appear to be a diverse lot. Roughly half of all cannabis users ingest marijuana while they game. Already, this statistic takes us well beyond the smelly dorm room. But how far beyond?

Women?

While men are more strongly associated with video games and cannabis use, statistics tell a different story. In fact, both hobbies are surging quite rapidly with women. A recent survey revealed that 53% of women use cannabis at least sometimes compared to 42% of men who say the same thing.

While gaming stats aren’t quite so stark, they do tell a similar story. Female gamers have increased steadily over the years, with 42% of women saying they play video games at least some of the time. Of course, not all of them are cannabis users, but many of them will be.

Family Folks

Though once a youthful pursuit, cannabis use has penetrated so deeply into the mainstream that it’s found its way into the hands of parents all around the country. In fact, more than half of all cannabis users are parents and many of those parents have children under the age of twenty.

The world of gaming has experienced a similar phenomenon. Video games aren’t nearly so old as cannabis products so assumptions concerning the past time are still evolving. While the Pong generation did not necessarily transition into Pokemon and Zelda players, it seems that gamers of a certain age never left their childhood past times behind.

In fact, the modal gamer is 35 years old. Children make up a relatively modest component of the video gaming market share.

Conservatives

Button-down republicans have never been imagined as the average cannabis user. In fact, they are not. The majority of cannabis users have been and remain liberal. However, conservatives make up a larger percent of the market share than many would assume. Over 30% report using or at least experimenting with cannabis.  The vast majority of them also support legalization efforts, suggesting a broader and burgeoning receptiveness to cannabis.

Perhaps less surprisingly, conservatives also enjoy video games-though at a modestly lower rate than liberals. While it would probably be a stretch to say that conservatives make up the average CannaGamer, it’s also quite clear that at least some of them are receptive to it.

The Perfect Pair?

Are video games and cannabis really a match made in heaven? From a purely marketing perspective, the answer seems to be yes. People like both, and at the end of the day, what is commerce about if not giving the people what they want?

And yet there is the nagging fact that statistics seem to suggest gamers are better off abstaining from cannabis, at least while they have a controller in their hand.

That’s right! Fun though the combination may be, cannabis has been shown to diminish gaming performance. Granted, for many, this revelation will be as actionable as that of the fact that potato chips are fattening. You know it’s true but why disrupt your day to do something about it? There might be hundreds of millions of gamers out there, but many of them are quite casual about the hobby.

Still, some are not. Can the cannabis industry make a serious, sincere appeal to the gamer who takes what they do seriously? It may ultimately come down to the marketing.

While no honest appeal will likely claim that cannabis enhances gaming performance, manufacturers may consider highlighting strains and doses that are conducive to good gaming.

For example, an intense, disorienting strain may be suitable for relaxation or sleep, but it probably won’t help you boost your Halo kill count.

On the other hand, a more mild, energizing strain kept at a low dose, may appeal to the gamer who wants to enhance their relaxation while still retaining a respectable stature in the competitive gaming community. Like a person who enjoys a good glass of wine over a competitive game of chess.

 What does this mean? For the cannabis marketer, a complicated picture emerges. On the one hand, people love cannabis, and they love video games. It seems obvious that some sort of product marketing opportunity exists within these intertwining facts.

We can perhaps even disregard that cannabis diminishes a player's performance. People are pairing the two anyway, right? From this fact, an opportunity may emerge for the cannabis company that can discover and recommends the right strains and doses.

If the CannaGamer does present a marketing hurdle, it may only come in the form of assumptions, which will inevitably be challenged by the facts. In the last twenty years, cannabis and video games have both experienced an enormous surge, both in popularity and in public approval.

Video games are no longer just for children. Certainly, cannabis is no longer for “lazy stoners.” Both have a broad market appeal that encompasses far more people than stereotypes could ever suggest.

Right now, the CannaGamer market is broadly untapped. Surely, this will not remain true for much longer. Public interest in cannabis and video games is far too large to be ignored. A lucrative opportunity exists for cannabis companies that can appeal to the increasingly large number of people who like to relax with a vape in their mouth and a controller in their hand.