Game Industry Facing a "Collision" With Aging Gamers

[gellert1984]

Games companies will just blame pirates and used games.

 

[Djinni]

I think its hysterical that so many people don't equate loss of hearing, vision, etc to be a disability. And before people jump - there are many types of partial vision loss so you could still play games depending on resolution, contrast, etc.

And apparently people don't realize how many people have arthritis in their hands - be thankful all the older people you know don't complain about it more. But what about back issues that make it painful to sit for periods of time, or things like Carpal Tunnel syndrome?

And these are just off the top of my head. I thought gamers would have more imagination... ;P

 

[Jfswift]

What?

Unless you get arthritis in your hands (bummer) then there's not much that's going to stop you from pushing buttons on a controller/keyboard and mouse.

One problem here is that poor controller design does lead to hand injuries imho.

 

[Terramax]

How would a game for people with a hysical disability work, they would have no way to interact with the gme.

They would. the industries commonly refer to it as a 'movie'. XD

My dad takes a look at a controller and he is instantly turned off from playing. "Back in my day, we didn't need 13 buttons!" and all that.

My mother was like that. Wouldn't play anything with more than 2 buttons i.e. nothing more advanced than the master system.

Then we introduced her to the Wii and have slowly been getting her to play games on the gamecube pad now. Now I'm introducing her to Saturn Bomberman.

It's only a matter of time until I have her playing Halo with me

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Right, I can kind of see this. But then again, there's one notable difference I can see.


Pong, the NES, the Nintendo 64, all those old consoles, were much simpler. One stick, two buttons or three if you were a fruity indie controller, and that was all.

Now we have four shoulder buttons, four main buttons, a d-pad and two analogue sticks. How much more can they reasonably add to a controller?

I would say not much. I think the main problem would come down more to the fact that anyone gaming in the 70s was used to bare bones hardware, it was nothing to do with the software or the content of the games. In other words, as long as they don't make any radical changes to the controllers, this 'problem' is not even going to be a blip on the average gamers radar.

And everyone knows that Kotick's real plan is to murder anybody over the age of 21 unless they sell him their soul.

 

[Danpascooch]

And other media didn't ever have to adapt for "ageing audience", Movies didn't suddenly have to be at a larger volume and with larger subtitle sizes and important details to counteract vision/hearing degradation.

You don't have to jump up and down for an hour to keep the movie playing.

That was a stellar failure of an example. They didn't have to change because they are not interactive media, all you do is sit and listen or sit and watch. Even there, there was change to accommodate disability: Closed captioning system ring a bell?

Well I never had to jump up and down to play Metal Gear Solid, I never had to jump up and down to play Half Life 2. In fact it seems to be only the RECENT development of Wii, Move and Natal that require much physical investment, the core of video game still don't require large and tiring motion-sensing gestures but just a keyboard + mouse or gamepad which are designed to be as easy as possible to use. Actually, the only thing requiring close to "jumping" are Dance Dance Revolution games.

But have most games not had subtitles as standard for decades now? And sorry I didn't associate that with age related hearing loss but with people who are deaf for variety of non-ageing related reasons. You want to beat me round the head with a baseball bat for that? Or maybe do you want to calm down for a sec.

Why are you getting so aggressive and combative with me when I just wanted some damn clarification of (a) what they want to be done, and (b) where they think the industry is going in the wrong direction at the moment.

I agree with you, does this guy thinks he needs to jump up and down to play a videogame?

He must suck at videogames.

 

[Danpascooch]

What?

Unless you get arthritis in your hands (bummer) then there's not much that's going to stop you from pushing buttons on a controller/keyboard and mouse.

One problem here is that poor controller design does lead to hand injuries imho.

What kind of controllers cause "hand injury"? Are you taping razors to your 360 controller or something?

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Seriously gaming would only be a problem at 80+ my Grandad is 74 and still very fit and active and is far from decrepit. Also wasn't the Wii supposed to be more accessible as someone already mentioned and easy mode. If they have been gaming that long I really think they can handle the Wii and or Easy mode.

 

[Marik2]

This is a load of bull I had substitute teacher who was 65 and never played a videogame but was able to learn how to play CS and Halo on the PC.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Make more turn based games and don't make them about stupid, teenage power fantasies.

 

[hansari]

I dunno about you, but a cash "disability" is what will likely prevent me.

Gone are the days when your allowance could solely be spent on your own entertainment...now you have bills, mortgages, student loans, car payments....

 

[12capital]

Wait Wait Wait....So pretty soon people are going to be too disabled to play video games? that's a laugh, because I thought a lot of people were already disabled because of video games. Do tell, What can you do if you can't play a simple video game?

 

[Blind Sight]

What disabilities are they refering to? The inability to understand how an Xbox controller works? I think they don't understand that, like any other kind of art or technological advance, the young will eventually take the place of the old. You can't keep catering to that audience, that's not how the market works, it's evolve or die, not the reverse.

Though I do believe that motion capture is working to keep this demographic active, and I have no problem with that, it's an advancement, rather then a step backwards to the 'good ol' days'.

The article is about the hardcore crowd growing old, and the disabilities in question are related to stuff like losing your hearing, vision, and arthritis that impair your ability to enjoy games. Check out my message at post #36.

Good points in the post, but I still find flaws within their argument. Most people I know who played games in the 70s and 80s no longer do so, or they have adapted with the times. In many ways, the aging of gamers is similar to the aging of people who play sports. Eventually you can't remain as active as you used to be. Health concerns should not play a major role in how games are made it my mind, simply because they're tailored for the general population, not a specific age group (age rating systems aside). As the first generation fades away, new gamers come in to take their place. There's still a vast library of old games to look into, but I honestly don't believe that the industry will lose 3 billion out of this. In fact, I don't think they'll lose much money at all with the way that gaming has become mainstream.

Although I can see the problem with a large group of gamers dropping out of their hobby, this just screams to me of industry fear-mongering, which seems to be quite common lately, especially with the recent attacks on used games sales.

 

[Slaanax]

Its an actual problem though when you get older your reflexes slow and such so at some point your going to have to make options for a slower game play style. To think older people aren't gaming my dad is in his 50's is downstairs playing fallout 3. I don't think he is going to stop gaming anytime soon at this point.

 

[Jfswift]

What?

Unless you get arthritis in your hands (bummer) then there's not much that's going to stop you from pushing buttons on a controller/keyboard and mouse.

One problem here is that poor controller design does lead to hand injuries imho.

What kind of controllers cause "hand injury"? Are you taping razors to your 360 controller or something?

hmm, that would explain why it hurts so much

 

[manaman]

And other media didn't ever have to adapt for "ageing audience", Movies didn't suddenly have to be at a larger volume and with larger subtitle sizes and important details to counteract vision/hearing degradation.

You don't have to jump up and down for an hour to keep the movie playing.

That was a stellar failure of an example. They didn't have to change because they are not interactive media, all you do is sit and listen or sit and watch. Even there, there was change to accommodate disability: Closed captioning system ring a bell?

Well I never had to jump up and down to play Metal Gear Solid, I never had to jump up and down to play Half Life 2. In fact it seems to be only the RECENT development of Wii, Move and Natal that require much physical investment, the core of video game still don't require large and tiring motion-sensing gestures but just a keyboard + mouse or gamepad which are designed to be as easy as possible to use. Actually, the only thing requiring close to "jumping" are Dance Dance Revolution games.

But have most games not had subtitles as standard for decades now? And sorry I didn't associate that with age related hearing loss but with people who are deaf for variety of non-ageing related reasons. You want to beat me round the head with a baseball bat for that? Or maybe do you want to calm down for a sec.

Why are you getting so aggressive and combative with me when I just wanted some damn clarification of (a) what they want to be done, and (b) where they think the industry is going in the wrong direction at the moment.

First off, you are only reading what I posted as aggressive and combative. I was just pointing out that you cannot compare a non-interactive media and an interactive media. It just doesn't work that way.

What they are looking into is making games more accessible to a wider audience, one they are leaving behind with recent advancements. They are looking into way's to fix that issue. Nothing is set in stone right as of yet. Why is that an issue?

 

[Evil mr dave]

I'm going to call bullshit on the accessibility thing, with the fact that my father is a man in his late fiftys and is able to do almost every mission in spec opps alone and sometimes faster then my self. In other words as long as you have working hands then you should be fine for most main stream games.

 

[Xanadu84]

Having game material that appeals to older audiences is definitely a big issue. I think that we are slowly adapting to that reality, and getting games with more mature subject matter. But this article seems to be suggesting something different, and frankly, not as big of an issue. What medical conditions would prevent you from gaming? What prevents you from moving your fingers or hand an 8th of an inch? Maybe it's harder to see the full extent of the graphics, but that's not going to prevent you from playing. Twitch reflexes may go down, but that just makes you less skilled at the game, and with difficulties and games getting easier, it's not much of an issue. The only thing that is really an issue is reading words, but it seems a little ridiculous to predicate this whole hypothesis on, "Our words have too small font. Unless we deal with this, we will lose millions."

The strange thing for me is that I had always figured that as long as I have a few working fingers and enough sight to make out shapes, I can play games. If were talking about the medical conditions of getting older, I honestly am baffled about what these people think happens to you when you get older. I mean honestly, it's not physically taxing. To put it in perspective, Video Games are easily less physically taxing then Bingo.