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Trend: Older Players Will Drive New Sims, Less Fantasy
by Staff
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December 29, 2008
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Concluding his series on the 'megatrends' of the gaming industry, veteran designer Pascal Luban (Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory) says that the aging gaming population will broaden the number of 35-and-up players in the audience, forcing publishers to adapt their products and develop games specifically for this audience.
"As slow as this evolution is, it is unavoidable," says Luban. "It will create a new category of players, or at least new needs. We do not approach gaming in the same way if we are 20, 35 or 50 years old."
The designer notes that older gamers are more interested in themes currently under-represented today, such as economic or political simulations. Titles that assign a greater importance to game-generated emotions and moral dilemmas may also be more popular with more matured players.
He adds, "It will become increasingly difficult to establish suspension of disbelief for such players. Mature gamers will have a harder time becoming immersed in less believable plots or universes."
It's possible that traditional video gaming press will choose not to cover these titles or consumers, but publishers will surely note that this market possesses greater purchasing power for impulse buying.
To satisfy this new class of player, studios might provide more games with less fantastical characters and situations. "Video game characters often possess a marked lack of believability. Yet, it is quite possible to give real depth to game characters, including those of action games," says Luban.
"Metal Gear Solid 3 is a good example of this," he continues. "The use of real screenplay writers, at least as consultants, should become a more widespread practice. Let us not forget that a professional screenplay writer also knows how to write good dialogue, an important component in the final quality of the work."
Publishers may look to political and economic simulators, according to the designer. "It's an extraordinarily rich domain: such games could conceivably feature a direct link with current events, thus giving them an extended lifespan."
Hybrid products, such as garden simulators or half-training, half-gaming products should also be expected -- Majesco's expanding Mama line (Cooking Mama and now Gardening Mama),f or example.
Luban also believes that publishers will focus more titles that allow several generations to play together. Conversely, he predicts that companies will release more adult games, commenting, "We all know the financial weight of the sex and pornography market. Games will be its new vector of development. We are starting to see erotic MMOs, and we can also expect to see half-game, half-socializing website hybrid products."
You can read the full feature, which details more game design megatrends, such as player-created content and "the emergence of emotions" (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from other websites).
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I prefer to play games that do not restrict me to gun play as the primary play style. Where are the games that offer rewards based on my power of deduction and intellect. I would love more games along the lines of the older adventure games but with more serious and modern themes.
I think that is more of the change that we will experience. We will still enjoy play styles we like growing up, but we will no longer be able to bear the amateurish levels of story and design currently represented by the games industry.
I'm 36 and Pascal Luban does not speak for me, nor anyone that I know of personally.
I like "variety" in my gaming and I'm pretty sure it's the same for most gamers. I really wish developers would stop trying to funnel us into what they think we should be playing -- EA's Wii effort is an example of this sort of nonsense.
I don't think Luban suggests an abandon of the traditional videogame themes, is more like he wants devs to extend the thematic portfolio as a means to appeal to the increasing aging crowd of users.
Videogames are still too centered in the young demographic (for obvious business reasons), of course people who grew playing this type of games may still be attracted to them as they grow older but that's not the absolute truth for everybody.
It was amusing for me reading Luban using MGS3 as an example since i think the series he has worked on (Splinter Cell) is better paradigm to back up his claims in this particular case.
If there's a trend that can be gleaned from aging gamers, it's that our time doesn't want to be wasted. My suspension of disbelief is alive and well, but you have to design a game around a story to suck me in.
Make me the star of the show and let me discover the story as I play, like a movie. For all it's lackluster ratings, the PC version of Advent Rising is a great example of the kind of game that I like at this age. It offers a dramatic narrative that invests you in the main character, music and cutscenes that further the story and keep you immersed, and a progression of powers that is well taught and used as the game progresses. The end result for me was that I was entertained and felt like the protagonist, a hero in the rough who learned to be brilliant at the climax of the game.
Another less heroic example is Portal. There's a game that makes you think just enough, then lets you in on the backstory with in-game narrative and visual clues. I was wildly entertained by it. I felt like I was in the movie Cube trying to escape with my life. It was great stuff!
Anyhow, I think you all get the idea. Immersion through depth of story and not through graphics will get you further with us 'old timers'.
I think the core of what he's talking about is what you all will want. It's what I want. I want game devs/publishers to push out more solid products rather than the crap they usually throw out on the shelves to make their money.
Think about the adventure game market. When was the last time you played one...or if you play them, how many have you played in the last year that weren't pixel hunts with ridiculously insane puzzle requirements (light bulb + chewing gum + silicon implants = gun)? You might be thinking realism = you doing your job in your cubicle but that's not true. Realism is Fallout 3 having day-night cycles. Not you pushing papers on a desk in Fallout for 30 hours of gameplay.
The simulations comment is probably the only thing that's out there really. I like econ sims (again, they're 100% about escapism...I might build start-ups but they take forever and don't always succeed...where else can you get $20 million and build a global conglomerate but in games?). But, it's a tough call to say people are going to want more of these sims in any serious quantity. It's always been a niche market and always will.
One last thing. You have to remember...you're not the best example of the entire game market. I don't consider myself a middle-of-the-market gamer. I consider myself hardcore (otherwise, what the hell am I and are you all doing on this site?). The rest of the population and, especially 20-somethings, are not all that dedicated to some games and game franchises. I know I grew out of the console platformers a while back because after a while it just got boring. A lot of the people responding to this are in there thirties (I'm 37) but we grew up with a nascent game market (I still miss Autoduel on my Apple //e). The more recent generation of gamers has been living in a much more mature gaming market so they've been bludgeoned with games since birth. At some point, they're going to be less interested in games without some substance and more interested in some of the ideas expressed in this article like engaging characters and stories. I have friends who vary in their interest in games. Some are hardcore (like me) and some aren't. Those that aren't end up spending more time with work and family and when they come back to game play, it's either limited to something of quality (because time is precious) or something they're playing with their kids. When their kids grow out of LEGO Indy, you really think they're going to keep playing it? Some will, most will move on.
As far as some people saying that current games don't take advantage of their thinking ability I would have to disagree, and potentially offend your thinking ability. I've always considered myself a thinking gamer. By thinking gamer I mean that I have always felt that I have obtained my gaming edge due to my ability to out-think my opponent as opposed to out-react them. Even FPS games are at least 80% well thought strategies and planning instead of reflex. I don't really see how you can make more of a game to take advantage of your thinking and deduction abilities (that people will appreciate) when people haven't even mastered today's game mechanics in that respect.
Many of us have watched the technology change and games get more complicated and better looking. Games have matured to a degree, but not to the degree that i need them to.
I need games that expand with me.
For example: A fishing game;... When i go fishing, I have several normal methods of fishing and that's pretty much where the game ends.
I wanna play a game that goes beyond that. I want to see the game go into the rpg realm, where I can claim a parcel of land and start a fishing camp that can build into a full blown lodge, breeding ponds, in-game economy by making baits, selling baits, gear and fish to other players and in-game NPC's info tagging of fish, leasing and competing with other players trying to cultivate the best fishing experiece available. I'd also like to work with in-game wildlife angencies to promote real world conservation and respect.
But it goes farther than that. Other genre's of games need to grow too and not all of them in the same way.
As I get older I seek out games that have moral issues attached. And games that can help me with real life issues.
I've always been an advocate for AO games, and i fully support the initiative to get them out to those who do want them... And I ain't talkin' about more cussin'.
A lot of the article above seems to be angled towards the lapsed gamer, covered earlier this year here on Gamasutra. The ones who had a Sega or a C64 and left gaming when they outgrew them. For those people, of course the wii is a godsend, it's gaming on a similar level. It brings all the rewards with fewer of the challenges they associate with pc or other-console gaming.
The irritation in a lot of the replies above seems to be coming from all of us over-35s being lazily lumped into one "like the wii, sims and politically motivated games" bundle. We're a pretty disparate bunch. So while I can see a lot of the above applying to lapsed gamers, or those in mortal fear of what they perceive to be twitch-gaming, it doesn't hold true for a lot of the people in that age bracket that the marketing bods want to hit up for some cash.
Produce good product and we'll buy it. That's true no matter the age of the purchaser. Have to say though, in agreement with Matt, I think the market for political/economic sims is very very niche - in any age bracket!