Diary of an Aging Gamer

eToyChest has an insightful column up looking at the realities of the modern game store shelf, and how the titles there relate to the youth of today. From the article: "This year's summer trip to the software store made one thing very clear to me: In its efforts to follow initial adopters into adulthood, the videogame industry has--inadvertently or otherwise--left children in the dust. There is no denying the fact that today's kids aren't going to have the same experience we had when we were young. Back then, the bread and butter of the big game companies (i.e., Atari, Sega, Nintendo and others) was the child market. Games were appealing to grown-ups, too--if only for the tech factor--but appealing to the kids was where the most money could be had. Walking into the game store meant finding a wall full of games dedicated to the young player."

Comments

Re:No Adult Left Behind

[Seumas]

Actually, making fun, innovative games

You mean like Mario, Mario, Mario, Mario, Mario, Mario, Mario, Yoshi, Yoshi, Mario, Mario, Mario, Mario, Mario, Yoshi, Yoshi, Mario and Zelda?

Yes, rehashing the same characters over and over and over and over - innovative indeed!

Kids Games

[salesgeek]

Even worse - I had to explain two things that a Dad doesn't want to have to explain to an 8 year old daughter after a stroll through the game isle at CompUSA:

* Why do they always show pictures of girls with their underwear on on the front of boxes?
* How come people like blood so much?

Of course, I cut through the phone isle to miss the pop CD section...