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."
Re:Who says older folks don't play games? (Score:5, Interesting)
I play with musicians in their sixties on a regular basis and sometimes with musicians in their seventies and eighties. I wish some of them would lose some damned dexterity so I could bloody well keep up. I've also noted that a piano accordian is more complicated and has more damned buttons on it than any game controller I've ever seen (although the controller sounds better); and if you want a complicated "controller" just have a look at an Irish pipe player, pumping the bellows with one arm, squeezing the bag with the other, fingering the pipe itself, hitting regulator keys, stopping the end of the pipe against his knee while the other leg stomps time.
Don't you know how the old saying goes?
Use it or lose it.
You don't lose dexterity when you get old, you lose it when you quit.
"Doctor, doctor, I lose dexterity when I don't go like this!" Figure out the rest on your own.
KFG
wrong! (Score:5, Interesting)
Why do I even bother with Games postings...
Re:Who says older folks don't play games? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd like to see more games for older people to play come back. Before the current generation there were TONS of those games around then they went to the PC area but lost the multiplayer aspect of the game so kids could no longer play with parents.
I remember back in the NES days my parents were usually willing to play a game with me (naturally it was harder for them since everything went so fast) My dad didn't care for it (cause the two baseball games we played had weird rules, one was androids and if you stole a base you had to fight for controll and the other had kids that defied gravity and do special hits and what not).
My mom was more willing to try but she to had problems, She never really stopped gaming though. When we got our first computer (a Commodore 64 I think it was, her dad sold it to us for $100) it came with a couple of games but somehow we came across a magazine that sold ALL kinds of games for it and we ordered a couple and she played a few of them but her favorite one was Jeopardy cause it was simple to play (course the keyboard helped the most). She Still plays games but it's mostly just Zuma, Diner Dash, Mystic in ( a clone of DD) and stuff on Pogo.com.
She played all the Spyro games (except for those on the GBA & PS2) she completed the first two games to 100% to, So if they could get more games that offered a challenge but not to the point it just makes you want to quit (like Ninja "Bad camera" Gaiden on the xbox) they would keep more in gaming, just because a controller has a bunch of buttons doesn't mean every single one of them HAS to be used.
With the Wii though, they are looking at everyone for this, from little kids to the elderly to people who can't react quickly. Everyone can flail their arms around and being able to play a game doing that will make people feel happy.
Re:Who says older folks don't play games? (Score:4, Interesting)
How much do you want to bet there's a huge boom in MMOs about the time the Gen Xers reach retirement age?
Imagine how easy it will be to take care of senior citizens in nursing homes then .. forget bingo and Scrabble, just plug them into their MMORPG of choice and just keep bringing em coffee (or soft drink, whichever) .. by that time you won't be wondering if that hot blonde elf you've been cybering is being played by a 14 year old boy, but a 70 year old codger in an assisted living facility. And hey, LAN parties every day ..
"Ms. Daisy? Time for your evening medicine Ms. Daisy .. come on, time to log off, the Covenant will be there in the morning Ms. Daisy .. now, Ms. Daisy .."