8. Environment
Although for our
family labs we hadn't needed to think too much about the playing environment,
our Silver Gamers found this more important. Our lamp lit test lab (aka sitting
room) turned out to be too dim for some, and we needed the main light.
We also
found that our sofa was rather too soft for comfortable gaming. In fact once we
had swapped in some dining room chairs, the whole process seemed to improve for
some.
Now this is obviously
out of the control of the game itself, but many games seemed to make
assumptions about how close players were to the screen. This impacts our
previous points about font size and readability.
But more specifically, in our
tests the gaming setup seemed to impact the performance of the Wii-mote, which often
struggled when players sat back on the sofa.
"Can you buy a more powerful
remote control for it, so I could use it from back here?" enquired Linda.
And we had to admit this was an interesting idea - surely Nintendo could sell a
more powerful version, to ensure better results at great distances.
9. Play Over Distance
One of the more
technical features appreciated by our Silver Gamers was the online play.
Although it took a little while to explain what it was, and convince them that
they really could play and talk to people in different places, once they got
the concept they loved it. "This will great for playing with my son in Denmark - we can play Uno and chat at the same time."
 The 360's built-in
communicator headset was popular in this respect because it meant the gamers
could guarantee that they could talk to their family (in different locales) as
they played with them.
Not so popular, though, was its physical design. "Why
do they have to make it so uncomfortable? I worked in a call center 10 years
ago, and those headsets were better than these," commented one of our
gamers.
Although the 360 headset seems a million times better than that on the
original Xbox, looking at it through their eyes we can see that they have a
point.
10. Game Length
The final comments
from this group were about length of each game. They definitely gravitated
towards shorter experiences. The most popular games were those that took just a
few minutes.
Cow Racing in Wii Play
seemed to deliver the ideal combination of fun and duration. "I just want
to have a quick go, then see how I've done," said Derrick, one of our
participants.
These shorter bursts
of play also seemed to fit around the group's desire to talk about and reflect
on their performance. They certainly seemed to enjoy strategizing their next go
with each other.
"It's just more fun to be able to talk to each other
between games," said one. Another added "The games are fun, but at the
end of the day when I see my family I want to talk to them first and foremost,
if we play a game it needs to fit around that - like board games do."
Conclusion
So there we have it. This
is what our Silver Gamers wanted from games. As we found with the Family Gamers
last time, it's not until you sit down and spend time with a group like this
that their requirements become apparent. We were surprised how keen they were
all to have a go, and at times disappointed at how badly their needs had been
missed by game makers.
But the message here
is that we are not a million miles away. With a great focus on player
assistance with repeatable tutorials, printed manuals, better readability and smaller
jargon barriers to them removed, getting these gamers involved and playing can
be surprisingly easy.
Couple this with a
wider range of games, and experiences that can be played by a variety of
abilities and these Silver Gamers will be quick to get involved. Round these
changes out with greater consideration for the playing environment, player
posture and game time and we start to have a product that is a lot closer to
what our Silver Gamers want.
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This is a tricky line to stand on. At one point, I welcome more players to join in on this new evolution of media and entertainment, but at the same time, I fear the video games industry will go the way of Hollywood and start creating WAY too many stupid mass appeal content. Lets hope not...
A New York Times article from September 11, 2007, (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/technology/12social.html?ex=1347249600&en=437b
4c69f257fa39&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss) made some related points about what older people bring to online usage:
* According to Nielsen/NetRatings, the number of Internet users who are older than 55 is roughly the same as those who are aged 18 to 34.
* Venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky observed that older people tend to be "stickier" than younger people. Once they subscribe to a service, they tend to retain that service longer.
* Consultant Susan Ayers Walker noted that older people have more money, and suggested that they are more attentive to advertising.
From these points, and from the observations in Andy Robertson's article, a casual persistent world game that offered features appealing to older people could be particularly effective. A MMORPG designed to be playable in short sessions over a long time, and that was wrapped around some enjoyable activity (i.e., probably something other than slaughtering hordes of NPCs for their loot and XP) might be worth exploring.
BTW: We're looking for venture capital; - contact me for business plan.
A.
A.
This is what I'd like to see in an MMO hunting game... It's incomplete, but I'm sure you'll get the idea
Here's a few of the basics of "My Mountain" MMO hunting game.
It's an economic hunting game.
"My Mountain" is an individual mountain that can be purchased in-game by hunters where they can privately hunt, guide, live, and make a living. ( would best be played in scrolling first person views.)
Players can eventually hunt their way to buying a "My Mountain" and build it from a simple hunting campsite to a full blown hunting lodge. Making an enormous fortune and earn the fame and respect of trying to become one of the best and reliable hunting lodges for hunting everything from rats to world record size trophies.
Only players with permission from the mountain owner are allowed to hunt on someone elses mountain. (Finding the owner can be a task until he/she establishes a certain level of reknown)
Other hunters may get permission from the "My Mountain owner" to hunt freely on that owners mountain without being guided, but may or may not be required to pay an in-game fee to do so. (That's up to the owner of the mountain.)
To guide other hunters, the owner of the mountain must have traversed all area's of the mountain first. And can only guide hunts of animals they have taken "5" or more of. (A map will reveal the area/s that have been traversed and those that have not and a list of animals that can be guide hunted will be displayed)... Players may also obtain permission to guide their own hunts on anothers mountain.
To be guided on a "My Mountain" hunt by either a mountain owner or a player who has permission to guide a hunt on that particular mountain, other hunters must obtain permission from the mountains owner. The guide of the mountain can only guide hunts they are skilled enough to lead. For a guide to be eligible to guide species specific hunts on anothers mountain, they must have harvested at least half the required species specific animals that the owner of the mountain is required to have harvested to guide. The required amount of species may have been harvested elsewhere.
"My Mountain" has all the animals and evironmental elements needed to support the animals for it's region. Such as rivers lakes, dense forest, sparse locations, caves etc.
The more the owner feeds the animals on "My Mountain" the larger they can get. Making each players mountain unique in how much they put into it... If a player decides they want to make their hawgs bigger, they must use hawg feed, same goes with all the other animals, each species has their own feed.
"My Mountain" owners will have to buy feeders and feed to feed the animals on their mountain. The feeders need to be placed by hand... The owner can set the feeders and fill them themselves, or hire players to do it... or hire an NPC to do it. Owners may also trade a day or weekend of hunting on their mountain for filling and/or placing the feeders, remote camera's and area informational devices that send valuable information about each feeder, the amount of feed in the feeder, digital camera's and photo's or video of each area that has a camera installed and operational, and the weather in that particular area.... If a player wants to trade items or weapons or services for the right to hunt on a specific mountain owners land, that can be done too..
Lodgeing, once it's built to a certain degree or level of lodge can be decorated and offer various items and services for buying, selling, renting and trading. Lodges start out a simple campsite and eventually are built into a full fledged multi faceted and beautiful hunting lodges, if so desired.
Different levels of lodges will afford the mountain owners the abilty to hold various types of hunts with vehicles that eventually leads to hunting from helicopters. (Not necessary, but very very cool)
Players earn enough money via hunts and guideing hunts before they can afford to purchase a mountain.
"My Mountain" owners can earn money with all the ways mentioned above, and possible in-game magazine, television contracts, and high brow hunters searching for the ultimate treatment in hunting.
Lodges and guides can be rated by in-game NPC's, in-game websites, tv, magazines and other players. Only players who have actually hunted on the property may rate that property. (If a customer of the owner get's a trophy animal, the player cannot rate the experience less than a 5 of 10. This will cut down on other players wrongfully rating the experience to drive up their own rankings. )
All players stats are recorded in real life via leaderboards, websites, etc.
Players may communicate, advertise services, and hunt with each other via MMO, in-game message boards etc.
It may be possible to form hunting lodge partnerships between real players and NPC's, and real players with real players if the "My Mountain Owner" wants to.
Players will not be able to fire weapons on a mountain they do not have permission to hunt on. (If animal attacks are part of the game, the hunter/s seeking the Mountain owner may protect themselves.)
If a player kills an animal they do not have permission to take, they have to pay the owner of the mountain 10X's it's worth and do not get to keep the animal (does not apply to attacking animals)... After a third wrongful kill, the player is is expelled from the property and must wait a designated amount of real time before they are allowed to return, provided the mountain owner approves. The mountain owner will know before approving any permissions if any hunter hunting their mountain has taken the wrong animals on their mountain and others mountains and which animals and the specs of each of those animals.
Animals will reproduce at a set amount but can be influenced to reproduce slower or faster depending on how the owner of the mountain controls the population of each individual species... The owner of the mountain is not in total control of the population, they can only influence it a little at a time.
Has lot's of potential for real world hunting gear developers, manufacturers, and distributors in-game advertising. (Sponsors)
That's it in a nutshell, the rest would need a greenlight for future development. (As if you couldn't figure the rest out...LOL)
Many thanks