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Teens Losing Interest In Gaming?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the come-back-to-us-kids dept.

Survey firm Piper Jaffrey has results saying that teenagers are losing interest in videogaming. From the Gamasutra article: "Interestingly, almost 80 percent of teens indicated that they intend to spend less time playing video games in 2006 and nearly 70 percent indicated that their interest in playing video games is decreasing." What do you think could be causing this drop in interest from young people? Sequels? Mature themes? Sequels?

15 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. Dumb dah dumb dumb by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Radical idea. Puberty hits. Older kids get interested in girls. Making friends. Socializing.

    I'd post more, but I don't want to frighten off Slashdot's majority population.

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    1. Re:Dumb dah dumb dumb by JeanBaptiste · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Puberty hits. Older kids get interested in girls. Making friends. Socializing."

      Those are strong words. Strong, bewildering words.

    2. Re:Dumb dah dumb dumb by ottothecow · · Score: 3, Interesting
      That being said, I thought I should add that as someone who is only seval months away from not being a teenager any more: I play games less now.

      I'm in college and there are simply a lot more things to do whether it be work or walking down the hallway to someone elses room. No longer to I get home from school like I did in 10th grade at 3:00 to an empty house and load up a game of counterstrike since thats where all of my friends are, now my friends are down the hall (and really, though people still play CS to this day, gamers are much more spread out than they were back then). Even still in high school I started playing less. Last year I certainly played less. There were definately games that I would devote my time to (such as HL2 when it came out) but there was much less compulsive multiplayer action. Frankly, by then my friends and I all could drive, I had a part-time job and a girlfriend who was closer and more readily available than the girlfriend I had through so much of my counterstrike time.

      there will always be computer games, I played some WoW over the summer (and intend to play again this summer) and I still will hop into a CS:s server or something in college when I feel like some gaming (the HL2 expansion gets released the first day of my reading period before finals week, its probobly going to kill me) but other things certainly have priority over gaming.

      --
      Bottles.
  2. Better Things to Do? by dankney · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm not suprised because I've never really seem the appeal of hard-core gaming. Sure, a game can be a nice distraction once in a while, just as a movie can. But in the long run, stimulating activities (books, athletics, social interactions, programming) are always more interesting.

    1. Re:Better Things to Do? by Krach42 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Your point is much more intelligent, unlike everyone else in this forum, who's going on about "teens think screwing > gaming", I'm not going to take as much of a narrow view. Reasoning why? Kids were playing these games hard-core to begin with over sex.

      Sex has little to do with the change of interests here. What's actually the case is that fads, and popularity of things are generally determined by what other people are doing. These kids were playing video games because their friends were all playing video games, and they didn't want to be left out.

      Same reason people bought Pet Rocks. You bought them because everyone else was.

      Unlike Pet Rocks though, video gaming is not a useless exercise, and contains a reasonable enjoyment level, similar to television. I expect to see gaming decrease in popularity as kids find other entertainment to do, and we'll see the amount of gaming level off.

      God, heaven forbid table-top RPGs ever become truely popular with the in-crowd. Then when they all would lose interest, everyone would think that RPGs would be dying out, when they would really just be returning to normal levels. Just like what's happening with gaming right now

      --

      I am unamerican, and proud of it!
  3. Saw it coming by falcon5768 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Between the cost of gaming these days (prohibitive on the PC unless you have a new computer, outragious on the systems) and the sheer lack of anything decent new or inovating unless its by Nintendo out there. The writing was on the wall for another Video Game Crash.

    --

    "Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."

  4. Technology and Creativity by vga_init · · Score: 3, Insightful
    On one hand, I believe that technological advances in video games and computer games has decreased dramatically. It's true that games kept getting more and more sophisticated graphics, but I don't think the graphical difference between games today and a few years ago are that great. Compare that to when I was a child (late 80's, early 90's), each new game offered something totally different, and most popular games took unique approaches to graphics that enhanced the game. Even newer games released for the same platform were significantly better--you see this less and less on modern platforms.

    Also, I also like to believe that games were more fun and creative. When was the last time you played a game like Quest for Glory? How about Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure? I'm sure there are still creative games being made today, but it gets difficult to find the gems among the rest of what's being produced (I liked Katamari Damacy ;).

  5. Maybe... by plantman-the-womb-st · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They are just growing up and have better things to do than sit in front a screen wasting time making pixels kill each other all day.

    Perhaps they've discover this thing called "Real Life".

    --
    Say bad words about my book, in cold oatmeal, or I shall sue!
    1. Re:Maybe... by Evangelion · · Score: 4, Insightful


      Sure it does. Us adults have already discovered 'Real life'. We're running away from it.

  6. Are they being honest? by AnotherBlackHat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Of course people said they were "intending" to play less.
    Smokers usually "intend" to quit too.
    Saying it isn't doing it.

    -- Should you believe authority without question?

    1. Re:Are they being honest? by The-Bus · · Score: 3, Informative

      As is expected, this is a usual cut-and-paste from a press release with little to no analysis. As alarming as this may sound, I believe the parent poster is correct. I'm going to guess that a large majority of teens also "intend to" exercise more, watch their health, and do better in school.

      Anyway, let's take a look at some past Piper Jaffray survey results:

      Percent of surveyed student households that have at least one video game platform
      Q1 2006: 81%
      Q3 2005: 79%
      Q1 2005: 76%
      Q3 2004: 81%
      Q1 2004: N/A

      Percentage of students state who state they are occasional game players (playing at least monthly)
      Q1 2006: 59%
      Q3 2005: 58%
      Q1 2005: 49%
      Q3 2004: 54%
      Q1 2004: N/A

      Now, this is only over a two-year period, but correct me if I'm wrong, I'm seeing a (possible) slight increase in the number of occasional game players and a somewhat steady number of households with at least one video game platform.

      I didn't look for their past surveys so I don't know what the mindset was in 2003 and earlier.

      To me, it doesn't look like anything is moving. Also, bear in mind just because you spend less time playing games doesn't mean you're going to buy less games: it could just mean you're playing each game less.

      Add all this to the fact that Piper Jaffray seems more interested in where teens are buying shoes that I am ready to write this off as non-news.

      --

      Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.

  7. The new baby boomers. by AdamThirteenth · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We're just a generation of video gamers that's older now. Gen X-Y played/plays video games... This new generation doesn't. It used to be that target markets were 12-20, now we're older and its changed along side us to 18-30.

  8. The Hollywood effect by caffeination · · Score: 4, Insightful
    A cash cow starts to get fat. The parasites move in. Sequels and remakes become the norm. Flashy style takes precedence over substance. Innovations move from the product itself to the maximisation of profit.

    Sound familiar? It's the same thing we constantly take the piss out of Hollywood for every time movies come up. At the forefront of this are the likes of Bethesda and Bungie - flashy graphics, sequels and series, micropurchases, and universally unsatisfactory gameplay saved only by a few major strengths.

  9. Lack of compelling games by ShawnDoc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm going to take a stab at this and say its the same reason I find myself playing less (or one of the two main reasons). There's just not much new out there I want to play. I haven't been excited by a game release since GTA:SA, and even that was muted since I knew it was more of the same. I have no plans to by a 360 or a PS3 (I own both companies current gen systems), because I don't see any reason to own them. It looks like more of the same, but with better graphics. The only system that I'm even paying any attention to is the Revolution, just because it seems to be the only one that has any potential for "new" games. Heck, I just installed Baldur's Gate II on my PC to play (never played it before) since there was nothing out there that I wanted to spend $40-60 on. I think this is a real problem for the industry. There's nothing truely new on the horizon, and there's a HUGE back-catalog of games for much less to choose from, that besides graphics, offer essentially the same gameplay and what's coming out.

  10. Teens are not the market anymore... by binaryspiral · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now with $500+ consoles, $60-$80 games, and monthly subscription fees that exceed what I used to spend on gas in a month -

    Adult gamers are the cash cow of the gaming industry - teens are a secondary market.

    This is news, how?