Gaming When We're 64 132
Via Kotaku, a post on the Aeropause site about gaming as we get older. Richard has a great 'get off my lawn you damn kids' rant, and some insightful commentary on the problems we'll face as we get up there. From the article: "The other issue older gamers will face is the ever increasing difficulty of games. Games have come a long way since the simplicity of the A and B buttons. Today's controllers are becoming more and more complicated and require greater dexterity to master. While this is no problem for gamers right now, as we get older and lose some of our dexterity we will need to come up with ways to simplify the gameplay or the controller."
Who says older folks don't play games? (Score:5, Insightful)
I may be a young whippersnapper and know nothing about being "old", but my parents and grandmother play computer games. My mother loves Simcity. Do the big console companies not realize that the over-30 market is...well, huge? Back in the NES days, adults would actually play the console games. Maybe its just my experience, but that doesn't seem to be the case any more.
I don't know why that is, but I have a feeling the complexity of modern games and the reliance of so many games on reflexes (read first person shooters) puts a lot of would be casual gamers; I believe most people over thirty could be classified as the casual gamer type. Whatever happened to the trivia, puzzle and strategy games adults seem to love?
Maybe Nintendo's Wii will work its way into this market.
Slower Reflexes, Slower Games (Score:4, Insightful)
He also really takes his time. It's no race for him, and he doesn't have a problem returning to old saves. He's played Guid Wars with my brother and I, but he doesn't chat because he can't type that fast (I haven't got him set up on Ventrilo yet, bad son). He tried DAoC and EQ2, but he just doesn't like grouping with people because he'd rather take his time.
I'm guessing that as I/we get older, we'll look for games where we can take our time too.
Answered his own question.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Obviously the Wii is something that could be improved upon over the years, and just might become the senior's console of choice.
As Nintendo has already stated older gamers is one of their targeted demographics with the Wii, I believe we'll see less dependence on buttons and a stronger focus on immersion in games as motion control and "VR" type systems get better and cheaper. The gaming system in 20-40 years may have no buttons whatsoever.
Trying to predict anything about life in 20 years, much less technology, is a total crapshoot.
Assumptions (Score:5, Insightful)
I see one right there. The Wii is clearly an example of a controller that's actually become *less* complex compared to it's contemporaries. Frankly, I think we've seen the peak of controller complexity.
Wrong issue (Score:4, Insightful)
No, today's controllers require a grip which does not comfortably fit in the hand when you want access to all buttons all at once (and a game that requires that probably shouldn't be released.)
Here's a quick way to handle most situations (assuming you have what I have, a Cyborg P2500):
- Left palm on left grip, right palm on right grip.
- Middle fingers on shoulder buttons.
- Left index finger on D-pad.
- Right index finer on 6-button array. Most often, you won't need to press more than one of those buttons at once.
- Left thumb on left analog stick.
- Right thumb on right analog stick.
Alternativly, rest the gamepad on a surface, and use another grip you perfer.
BTW, if you have dexterity problems arising from this grip, you'll probably have dexterity problems handling a simpler controller. Dexterity issues primairly arise from the D-pad or analogue controller, not reaction on when to press a certain button.
If you instead have arthritis problems, I can't comment on what to do then. However, you'll probably have the same issue from regular controllers unless you use a "non-standard" grip.
I don't think I've slowed down (Score:3, Insightful)
In the last year or two I've played through Far Cry, GTA:SA and Doom 3. I'm now approaching my mid-forties and as far as I can tell I'm as fast as I was 25 years ago (if not faster). Perhaps some older people have difficulties because it's the first time they've tried gaming. I don't think kids are any more coordinated when they play for the first time.
I'm sure that I'll still be gaming in 20 years!
Re:Bollocks (Score:3, Insightful)
Games within that era:
- Generally didn't have saved games. (Passwords/passcodes qualify as saves.)
- May have loading times between screens.
- May rely on manually creating maps to navigate around.
- In case of puzzle games (which were common at the time), cause the game's plot to be blocked if the person can't solve a given puzzle.
- Usually had a fixed number of "lives" (that emulates an arcade-continue system with a fixed number of credits).
- Sometimes did not receive the technology from the U.S.S. Framerate.
While Head over Heels does not experience all of these problems, these are the exact things that can prevent people from playing these old games (ignoring emulators.)
BTW, "hours" of gameplay is not a good metric for puzzle-oriented or adventure games - these games generally focus on puzzles where time to the solution may vary based on trial or error, logic, or some other tactics. Regardless of solving path, it just takes one deadlock that prevents the player from proceeding - unless he uses a walkthrough which disqualifies him from finishing the game within the 30-hour contest.
The same applies to the IFComp [ifcomp.org], which scales games to two hours - it just takes one puzzle that you can't solve to force you past the two hour-barrier.
Re:Who says older folks don't play games? (Score:3, Insightful)
He had to settle for silver.
KFG