Former Gamers Want More Social Games 114
Gamasutra is running a series of studies on what people from certain demographics want from games. Their most recent article takes a look at former gamers, from the age of 25 to 35, and how they view their old hobby. Many seem to have replaced games with social networking during their non-productive time, and they also tend to favor games they can play with friends in the same room, rather than anonymous online interaction. Previous parts of the study focused on family gamers and older gamers.
"We had some of our test consoles rigged up to an internet connection to see how these Missing Gamers would respond to online play. But whilst they were initially impressed at the ability to play with other people all over the world, they soon picked up on the fact that many of the people they were playing with were either too good, or too immature to endure for any length of time. It wasn't long before the online games were abandoned in favor of the simpler split-screen local multiplayer offerings. The ability to nudge, rib, and cajole each other on the sofa (not to mention share snacks and drinks) was simply too much fun to resist."
Online games (Score:0, Insightful)
Ruin gameplay because of OTHER PEOPLE.
Social networking replacing gaming (Score:5, Insightful)
"they also tend to favor games they can play.... (Score:3, Insightful)
"they also tend to favor games they can play with friends in the same room"
So, that's sex then.
Explains the missing gamers.
Next...
That's me, in a nutshell. (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been playing since the Atari 2600 games. My favorite game? Battle tank, against my friend who owned the Atari. I've pretty much played every game type since then. But there are two trends I noticed in my gaming:
- time to game has gone down steadily.
- tolerance for internet asshattery has gone down as well.
- more and more people game.
The result? Gaming is now a social activity for me. My favorite moments are when my friends and I sit around a table and play some random WC3 mod or beat each other up in a game of VF5 or Halo. I still play single-player games, and I still play network games. But the #1 thing I look at in games is how well it will work with friends in the same room.
Do you hear that, Blizzard? No LAN play might look like a good idea, but you're completely ignoring the current social trends. It's indeed possible to play everything over the internet - but the fun factor of playing L33tH4x0r666 over my internet connection pales in comparison to the fun factor of beating my buddy in Halo. Or crushing them in Starcraft. If you truly want to make the best multiplayer experience, include LAN play. It's a must.
Re:Split screen gaming (Score:4, Insightful)
Even without multiplayer gaming, we can at get our 2-D nostalgic fix from games like Bionic Commando: Rearmed and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night if we don't have an original NES or SNES with a shitload of games. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that there are more of us out there who put gaming down around the time the original Playstation came out(well, except for Metal Gear Solid and the Final Fantasy series, heh).
Gaming in general isn't dead -- it just smells funny.
Get off my lawn! (Score:5, Insightful)
I used to spend a fair bit of time playing FPS (mostly Quake and UT) online. Shooting real, unpredictable people and having a bit of a rivalry is much more fun than taking it out on some lackluster AI.
I still play the same kind of games, but I haven't been online in years. Reason? The advent of voice integration. I don't mind playing against a bunch of immature 13 year olds, but I don't need to be continuously reminded of the fact by some snot-nosed momma's boy whining in my ear to stop circle strafing him. (Ok, that time it was funny.)
I know, you can turn off voice chat, but voice did help usher in a new era of team based games. I enjoy the extra strategy and team play of those, but you can't get by without the voice now. Even in an FPS, there's stuff going on on chat you need to know about.
If it all felt less like elementary school playground, I'd probably get into it again, at least occasionally.
Re:Split screen gaming (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Forced social games (Score:4, Insightful)
MMOs killed my favorite.. LAN gaming. We had an active group of LAN gamers that got together about every other month. We had about 50 or so people show up to game and talk smack and drink bawls. Then Evercrack, DAOC, and finally WoW whittled away the people that showed up. When the LANs finally died we had about 20 or so people, and about half of them would log into their MMO accounts.
One bright thing though, there is an annual LAN coming up next month, and since it is rare, there is less MMO bullshit going on.
Re:Split screen gaming (Score:5, Insightful)
Now there are so many other aspects that the designers' attention is divided, and the games themselves suffer. In a nutshell, the spell is broken.
I think it's more of an "EA Madden syndrome" type thing where there's so much money at stake that they have to stick with what sells. There's kind of a
You are a:
( ) Cyborg
( ) Ex Con
( ) Soldier
Fighting a:
( ) Evil corporation
( ) Alien mastermind
( ) Illuminati
( ) Zombies
At:
( ) Outer Space
( ) Post-holocaust
( ) Dystopia
( ) Ancient ruins
Kind of mentality to almost all action games. Too much of the above and not enough American McGee's Alice.
Re:Online games (Score:3, Insightful)
This is a very debatable subject and it varies with the game mechanics and the foresight of the designers. There are many games that get ruined by scamming and ksing, but there are many games that have very altruistic guilds set up. I remember in diablo 2, after I became well equipped on 2 characters, I set out to start a clan that helped out noobs. Eventually, we had a large group of people that had a lot of fun together. We would have the decently equiped lite sorcs do normal and nightmare rushes for many people, and the hammerdins would do hell and get hellforge. The runes would help the noobs a bit, and some of the rushed accounts were made into common accounts that any guild member could use. We only got a few well equipped, and only high ranking members could use those. But it was fun for the noobs to instantly try out a new build with decent equipment without having to build one up alone. Only a few accounts got stolen (there will always be a greedy person), but not so much was lost that we utterly lost trust. We even had inter-clan duels with mid level naked characters for fun. We did a bunch of clan tournaments and events that greatly enhanced the experience of the game to a point that no one could really do alone. Has anyone who played d2 ever done cow level and other quests with 8 summon necros? I only lagged out once and another member lagged out twice, but it was still VERY fun. Another fun event was naked cowing with 8 fire druids. The d-torches made for SOOOO much fire it was hilarious (we had mercs with infinity).
Re:Split screen gaming (Score:5, Insightful)
Or it could be that, as an adult, your expectations have changes? I've been gaming since the 2600 days as well. You seriously need to go back and play some old games on emulators. Games that had me mesmerized for dozens or hundreds of hours have a hard time holding my attention for 15 minutes nowadays. You also forget that the ratio of brilliant-to-crap was about the same (ET was just the most exceptional crap).
The astoundingly powerful hardware we have simply opens up possibilities. Yes, you have the AAA titles that are expected to push graphical boundaries, but there are lots of titles that are all about the gameplay. I'll use myself as an example - in the past week, I've played three games on my Xbox that I can recall: Oblivion (playing through the expansions), N+, and Puzzle Quest. But the great thing is, now we have a *choice* of games. I occasionally enjoy a purely visceral experience. Do you think Dead Space would be as scary without the amazing graphics and audio? Other times, I hook up with friends for multiplayer N+. Other times, I just feel like relaxing with a slow-paced game of Puzzle Quest.
I think you can find plenty of examples of fantastic gameplay that matches or exceeds anything the past can dole out. You need to take off the rose-colored glasses.
I'll get off your lawn now.
Re:Split screen gaming (Score:3, Insightful)
I love old games and have owned and played damn near every major console from the Atari 2600 to now - trust me, while there are plenty of old gems, there was far more dross. It's just that the dross isn't as memorable since you likely didn't spend nearly as much time on it. 8^)
Re:I tried to read TFA but stopped at Integrated S (Score:1, Insightful)
LAN parties?
Party Games?
Nothing wrong with videogames as a social hobby, it just requires either LAN play
I may be showing my age here, so I'll post anonymously, but have you heard of this archaic institution called an 'Arcade'?
And I'm not talking about the watered-down 'room with a couple of games in it' stuck in the back room of a pizza joint, where the only games they have are either broken or some variation of DDR. I'm talking about a real-life honest-to-goodness big ol' establishment full of games and people to play them.
Places where you could get some snacks, some beverages (alcoholic, even, in some places) and play games against actual people standing right next to you. There is absolutely nothing that can compare to the adrenaline rush you get by going toe-to-toe with some guy you've never met before and being so evenly matched that the game comes down to the last few pixels of health and it could go either way in the last few seconds. When you've gotten an enthusiastic crowd gathered around you cheering both of you on while you frantically try to not lose your grip on the joystick due to your ever-sweatier palms.
That's real social gaming and that's what consoles connected to the Internet and PC gaming have all but killed off. It's a sad realization that future gamers won't know the kinds of thrills that come from beating a skilled opponent or how to lose graciously (or win, for that matter) because the guy you're playing against isn't some faceless voice on the other end of an Internet connection, but an actual person standing inches from you who is fully capable of kicking your ass if you gloat too much.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I think there are some kids on my lawn that I need to take care of.
Maybe they realize today's games suck? (Score:3, Insightful)
If you're between 25 and 35, you've been around long enough to have played a countless amount of first person shooters, fighting games, racing games, MMOs, sidescrollers, and more. Honestly, there are very few new ideas, so it's harder to get into things. We're still playing the same core gameplay of those genres. They're well-established now.
Kids are into it all because, to them, it's new. Twilight Princess will seem pretty amazing and innovative if you never played Ocarina of Time ten years earlier. Halo multiplayer must seem revolutionary if you weren't around doing the same thing in a trash-talking Quake clan in 1996. StarCraft II will be totally awesome if you hadn't already played StarCraft 1, WarCraft 1 and 2, C&C, and so on.
Incidentally, I miss the old PC Gamer CDs where you could get about 20-30 shareware games, almost all of them coming from different genres. It was a cool time to be a gamer. I feel burned out every time I play yet another first person shooter. I've done all this before!
Former Gamers Want More Social Life (Score:2, Insightful)
Whoops, I meant games. But seriously... I have absolutely no interest in social games. And I'm a former gamer. So score one for the opposing team.