If I asked you to tell me the average age of a video gamer what would it be? What if you were asked that same question 10 years ago? Your answer would probably be a whole lot different. Today's gamers are not the 10 - 14 year old stereotype they used to be labeled as. Those same kids grew up, but that doesn't stop them from buying at least one new game each paycheck nowadays. Games in recent years, the top selling games to be specific, have been heavily mature in terms of theme. Bioshock, COD4: Modern Warfare, and Gears of War have all been blockbusters, but if you notice, they aren't anything like the games of 15 years past; Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy VII, or even Super Metroid.
Gamers grew up and so did their games, Hollywood Reporter writes. However, what they're really talking about is how now that we have these gorefest type games already out of the way, maybe we can now experience some deeper, more narrative based titles. Games cited were Alan Wake and Heavy Rain. Young teenagers seem to like what is out of this world - blood and guts all over the place; things they don't see in their "civilized" societies. Alan Wake is possible now because of the maturity level of gamers has deepened once they've gotten a bit older - or so that's what I'm lead to believe from reading the article. Although, I know far too many people who'd rather play Madden and Halo than ever consider playing a "good" game in their life, but let's just go with this for now.
"Traditionally, in the video game world, 'mature' means about 14 years old, but that's not what were talking about now," said Matias Myllyrinne, managing director of Finnish-based games group Remedy, which created the best-selling "Max Payne" franchise and is working on the hotly anticipated mystery title "Alan Wake" for Microsoft. "If you make just the hardcore WWII games, the hardcore fantasy games -- you know, with the big-breasted women who slice people up and drink their blood -- you're limiting your audience."
So what he's saying is that the audience has widened. You have your grown up gamers, then you have the younger set, and then finally the casuals. If you're making the same repetitive violent games every few months then you're limiting to who you can offer it to in those 3 markets. When I first saw Alan Wake, what turned me on was that it wasn't another Bioshock, or Dead Space - not to say they weren't amazing - but I was glad to see a game in which its environment wasn't covered in the red stuff from wall to wall. I can't wait to try it out Wake when it comes out.
But anyway, off the main topic, I started thinking about something. Where were the 20 something gamers a decade ago? And what about the 10 - 14 year olds now? What are they playing? They seem to be stuck in a limbo of playing what their older brothers (or sisters... pfff) are playing, and what the kids at school think is good - which in my opinion is skewed ginormously compared to what my generation thought was good when I was a kid.
Anyway, it got me thinking and it might make you too.
[Via Hollywood Reporter]
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Ricardo Trejo
