Alienware Co-Founder Frank Azor Discusses Intel Graphics and Women in Gaming

Status
Not open for further replies.
cageymaru

cageymaru

Fully [H]
Joined
Apr 10, 2003
Messages
21,717
Alienware Co-founder Frank Azor was interviewed by Jayesh Shinde of the India Times where he discusses Intel graphics, women in gaming, growing the gaming market and how Alienware defines success. Mr. Azor is optimistic that Intel will have a good product that fits into its place in the market. He thinks it is unreasonable to expect Intel to compete with the NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti at launch. While he is tempering his expectations for the initial product launch, he does think that it would be great if Intel eventually does offer solutions in the high-end space. Frank Azor discussed how women are becoming more visible in gaming and the latest Alienware Legend product lines that are meant to appeal to them. He is passionate about Alienware supporting esports teams and fostering growth in the gaming market.

We've helped build this (the gaming market) to what it is today. When we started, the gaming market wasn't even considered a market, it was considered a use case on the PC. And we've helped contribute to and participate in the incredible boom, that is the gaming market today. We've done that by focusing on growing the gaming market. And that being one of our principal focuses as we grow the gaming market. We know that what we do on the product side, we will gain our fair share. If we build the right products and we compete effectively, we will get our fair share. But I'd rather have my fair share of a billion than my fair share of a million, you know. I'd rather have 25% of a billion than 100% of a million.
 
cageymaru said:
We've helped build this (the gaming market) to what it is today. When we started, the gaming market wasn't even considered a market, it was considered a use case on the PC. And we've helped contribute to and participate in the incredible boom, that is the gaming market today.
Click to expand...

Now we know who to blame for this modern nonsense, huh? :p

I liked the market a whole lot more when games were just one of many things people did on their extremely versatile general computing PC's, unlike today with "gaming" everything, which just means that you take a subpar version of something else, and tart it up with LED's and racing stripes.
 
Intel has the resources to disrupt the GPU market.

Lets hope they dont Pull a Matrox.

The G400/G450 were both awesome then Matrox dropped out of the high end gpu market. I think NV paid them off or frightened them IMO.

My G400 was awesome.
 
PhaseNoise said:
Oh no, I sense a pink laptop coming. Please god no.
Click to expand...
I have two daughters - they both hate anything pink. One likes cyan, the other is into alternative music. Her desktop has bands she listens to.
One plays Fortnite, both play the Sims. They used to play Minecraft (with female skins, no Steve) and Stardew Valley. I've tried to get them into a few RTS and FPS - no interest.
 
Women in gaming. Yeah, but not really. Words with Friends on mobile? Yes. AAA release game? No.

I'm not sure how Alienware would market to them economically.
 
Can honestly hope Alienware get's back to the basics.. building top notch computers, pushing performance, and crushing with top notch quality builds. As far as building with women in mind...slender curves, thin.. and appealing would be how they would male the hardware but maybe Looking into it far to much.
 
Elf_Boy said:
Intel has the resources to disrupt the GPU market.

Lets hope they dont Pull a Matrox.

The G400/G450 were both awesome then Matrox dropped out of the high end gpu market. I think NV paid them off or frightened them IMO.

My G400 was awesome.
Click to expand...

My first 3D GPU was a first gen Matrox Mystique 3D i bought in 1996. I bought it because I had such awesome experiences with the 2d Matrox Millenium cards that came before it.

The experience was really cool. I had never seen smooth 3D graphics before. It just didn't have many titles that supported it. There was some motorcycle game that came in the box with it, and there was a patch you could download for Mechwarrior 2 which was cool, but that was about it.

Once the Voodoo1 exploded onto the scene I completely regretted having bought the Mystique.

Funnily enough, my Mystique just up and died about 11 months into my 1 year warranty. Not knowing any better at the time (I was 16) I took it back to the retail store where I bought it. Still not sure how this happened, but I wound up with store credit for it. The big box store employees probably didn't want to have to deal with some disappointed kid. I immediately turned around and bought a Miro Hiscore 3d 6MB Voodoo1 (same board as the Canopus Pure 3D, just marketed with a different name in Europe where I lived at the time)

Guess what, I used my old Matrox Millenium as my 2D card, and kept that 6MB Voodoo1 way longer than most. It was still in my Pentium 150 (pre-MMX) @200Mhz, with an old 486 HSF rubber banded to the main voodoo chip to allow higher clocks for a very long time.

My freshman year in college in 1999 we were the first dorm to have wired Ethernet, and would do floor-wide Doom2 battles. Everyone was amazed that my old beige POS hackjob of a PC was beating everyone elses brand new "off to college" PC's their parents had bought them. I tried to explain the benefit of discrete 3D video cards, but it fell on deaf ears.

I finally replaced it when I did a ground up new build in the fall of 2000 after working and saving all summer. A Duron 650 which hit 950Mhz and a Gefrice 2 GTS. Skipped several generations there.


Anyway, sorry for digressing. Talking about Matrox just brought me back :p
 
steakman1971 said:
I have two daughters - they both hate anything pink. One likes cyan, the other is into alternative music. Her desktop has bands she listens to.
One plays Fortnite, both play the Sims. They used to play Minecraft (with female skins, no Steve) and Stardew Valley. I've tried to get them into a few RTS and FPS - no interest.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I don't understand how women put up with it. It's kind of insulting and pandering to come out with a "for women" version of a product, and the only difference is that it is pink.
 
Joust said:
Women in gaming. Yeah, but not really. Words with Friends on mobile? Yes. AAA release game? No.

I'm not sure how Alienware would market to them economically.
Click to expand...
My nieces love GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 1&2. They enjoy Resident Evil games, basketball and football. Oh I forgot the Sims. They are addicted to drowning babies in the pool with a fence.
 
cageymaru said:
My nieces love GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 1&2. They enjoy Resident Evil games, basketball and football. Oh I forgot the Sims. They are addicted to drowning babies in the pool with a fence.
Click to expand...
And I'm sure they are some really cool cats. I also know some female gamers. However, those are not representative of the population.
 
PhaseNoise said:
Oh no, I sense a pink laptop coming. Please god no.
Click to expand...
Its in the video I linked. ;) It has rounded corners and stuff that appeals to women. Guys seem to enjoy the crazy sharp designs it seems.
https://venturebeat.com/2019/01/08/...f-area-51m-desktop-replacement-gaming-laptop/


Here is the "female" laptop in all its glory.

alienware-area-51m.jpg
 
Joust said:
Women in gaming. Yeah, but not really. Words with Friends on mobile? Yes. AAA release game? No.

I'm not sure how Alienware would market to them economically.
Click to expand...

The thing is - that market of actual women gamers doesn't want a "female tailored laptop" whatever the hell that would mean. Just something with high performance, quality, at a good price. Just like men! <brain explodes>

There may be a casual gamer market which wants rainbows and sparkles or something, but I don't think they are going to buy an alienware one way or another.
 
Elf_Boy said:
Intel has the resources to disrupt the GPU market.

Lets hope they dont Pull a Matrox.

The G400/G450 were both awesome then Matrox dropped out of the high end gpu market. I think NV paid them off or frightened them IMO.

My G400 was awesome.
Click to expand...

You're forgetting the Parhelia, which was Matrox's last-ditch effort to fight nVidia and AMD. I owned the Matrox Millennium and Matrox Millennium II paired with Voodoo I and Voodoo II respectively and really liked their products.

I hope Intel does come out with something competitive and we won't have a repeat of the i740.
 
Upon further reflection, if I were Alienware, I'd be scouting female gamers with great zeal. Capture that market on your team and you will have more white knights flocking in than King-frickin-Arthur.
 
Among the swath of instantly recognizable ROG gear at CES 2019, we’re showing off a totally different group of peripherals. The ROG PNK LTD line includes the ROG Strix Flare keyboard, ROG Strix Fusion 300 headset, ROG Gladius II Origin, and ROG Sheath desk mat. Each one is colored in a combination of warm pink and a soft grey that’s almost purple. They’re a world away from our usual color palette but the construction is unmistakably ROG, with RGB lighting, powerful features, and thoughtful tweaks designed to help you up your game.

upload_2019-1-28_17-35-28.png
 
Joust said:
And I'm sure they are some really cool cats. I also know some female gamers. However, those are not representative of the population.
Click to expand...
What you believe in and want to do later in life is predicated on the life experiences that you gained as a child. So if you don't expose your daughter to things like car racing, sports, video games, etc and treat her like the next cook, then she will most likely not like video games and stuff. I bought my nieces Mortal Kombat and a machine to play it on. They LOVED my SEGA Saturn and Dreamcast. :)

The bad side of that is that one of them never returned my Bruce Lee collection. :(
 
cageymaru said:
What you believe in and want to do later in life is predicated on the life experiences that you gained as a child. So if you don't expose your daughter to things like car racing, sports, video games, etc and treat her like the next cook, then she will most likely not like video games and stuff. I bought my nieces Mortal Kombat and a machine to play it on. They LOVED my SEGA Saturn and Dreamcast. :)

The bad side of that is that one of them never returned my Bruce Lee collection. :(
Click to expand...

I think we may be talking past each other a bit.

I'm not saying in the least bit that girls make poor gamers or have a natural predisposition to cook brownies rather than beat Contra.

I agree with your view. People gravitate towards things they are -at the very minimum- exposed to.

That said, there isn't a market there now. I doubt that offering seafoam laptops and bedazzled headsets is going to affect exposure. On the other hand, maybe in another generation there will be a market.

It's not that I think there should or shouldn't be more girls in the space -" they simply aren't there.
 
Elf_Boy said:
Intel has the resources to disrupt the GPU market.

Lets hope they dont Pull a Matrox.

The G400/G450 were both awesome then Matrox dropped out of the high end gpu market. I think NV paid them off or frightened them IMO.

My G400 was awesome.
Click to expand...
That was a high end 2D card that had a D3D 6.0 Accelerator chip, yes very good for its time but also used a licensed proprietary rendering tech called Environment Mapped Bump Mapping which was only used by them and the ATI 7200. When Dx 8 rolled around the tech was obsolete and the GeForce 3 and Radeon 8500 cards were crishing anything they were put up against. Matrox and most of the others dropped out of the game because they hadn't put anything into the research and the licensing was too costly for what they were willing to put into it.
 
dgz said:
Where does it say it's a female laptop, whatever that is. I don't even see the port!
Click to expand...
Ha ha! It is in the article under the header "Q) Alienware Legend is a new design direction for the brand. Why now? Where is this coming from and what does it signify?" The next section talks about some of the women that had input on the design.

You will see that they designed this laptop to appeal to the female demographic also. They have a new "Alienware Legend" branding for products that were created to appeal to women.

Personally I thought it looks better than most "portable desktop" laptops. :) Insert joke here.
 
Women are definitely into gaming! Candy Crush, Zuma, Diner Dash, Bubble Bobble, Sims, Plants vs Zombies, Animal Crossing, Nintendo Pets, Hidden Objects: Treasure Hunt, Papa's Cupcakeria, Sexy Beach 3, etc.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Yeah, I don't understand how women put up with it. It's kind of insulting and pandering to come out with a "for women" version of a product, and the only difference is that it is pink.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's about it being a pink PC. Rather, he was stating something along the lines of women prefer form over function more than men. Most guys I know who are heavy gamers have pretty dull computers. Ridiculously fast and powerful, but not exactly aesthetically pleasing.
 
hell no. never buy a prefab in my life :p hate to not control what items i use in a pc, for most u pay a premium also. laptops not exactly first choice, it is like a expensive gimped pc :p i think it is the games themselves that drive it. sure pc gaming have always been biased to the guys but.
 
Elf_Boy said:
Intel has the resources to disrupt the GPU market.

Lets hope they dont Pull a Matrox.

The G400/G450 were both awesome then Matrox dropped out of the high end gpu market. I think NV paid them off or frightened them IMO.

My G400 was awesome.
Click to expand...
And here is me, thinking that the market had embraced 3D graphics, and Matrox never even received the memo...
 
Alienware got on my bad list early on with their ridiculous prices. Many of us routinely complain against store builds vs. quality and price. Since day 1 many could save upwards of $1000 or more over most Alienware stuff. Shame is how many got on board with their business model as it has either influenced or dominated the markets today. On the other hand, they've also been an inspiration to me to keep doing my own builds.
 
Squall_Rinoa89 said:
Can honestly hope Alienware get's back to the basics.. building top notch computers, pushing performance, and crushing with top notch quality builds. As far as building with women in mind...slender curves, thin.. and appealing would be how they would male the hardware but maybe Looking into it far to much.
Click to expand...

While Alienware's desktops could still use some design work, I do like their laptops -- not beautiful or pretty designs, but they feature a much more robust cooling system than most of what ASUS/MSI has to offer (thus, no GPU throttling due to high temps), so you get the most out of your GTX 1070/1080 mobile GPU.

Incidentially, throttling is what many of the recent Razer gaming laptops are known for. Why go for their GTX 1080 option (and now some of the RTX stuff), if it's gonna heavily throttle down to GTX 1070 levels?
 
My wife is better at overwatch than I am, and she plays 7 days to die with me and we can easily sit there for a whole saturday having beers and cussing at zombies lol. Her pc she built and it is white with a window and a couple pink led fans.
 
Darunion said:
My wife is better at overwatch than I am, and she plays 7 days to die with me and we can easily sit there for a whole saturday having beers and cussing at zombies lol
Click to expand...


gaming with the wife, or significant other, is just.. AWESOME.


i think me and the wife will have to finally finish up grim dawn this weekend
 
katanaD said:
gaming with the wife, or significant other, is just.. AWESOME.


i think me and the wife will have to finally finish up grim dawn this weekend
Click to expand...

Oh for sure! I used to just be fine with dating a girl that was tolerant to it. But after finding one that would want to play with me for enjoyment not just 'to make me happy' I could never go back lol.
 
Darunion said:
Oh for sure! I used to just be fine with dating a girl that was tolerant to it. But after finding one that would want to play with me for enjoyment not just 'to make me happy' I could never go back lol.
Click to expand...
They weren't around back in the day. Probably a good thing for me.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top