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Gaming When We're 64
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."
By the time we're 64 we'll be able to control the games just by shitting in our pants.
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
You can still play the games. But you still suck just like you did when you were younger. Some things just don't improve with age.
Since when don't older people play video games?
I may be a young whippersnapper and know nothing about being "old", but my parents and grandmother play computer games. My mother loves Simcity. Do the big console companies not realize that the over-30 market is...well, huge? Back in the NES days, adults would actually play the console games. Maybe its just my experience, but that doesn't seem to be the case any more.
I don't know why that is, but I have a feeling the complexity of modern games and the reliance of so many games on reflexes (read first person shooters) puts a lot of would be casual gamers; I believe most people over thirty could be classified as the casual gamer type. Whatever happened to the trivia, puzzle and strategy games adults seem to love?
Maybe Nintendo's Wii will work its way into this market.
I foresee no retraining will be necessary. Grandpa's power wheel chair will have a USB plug into the computer. When he's done driving around town cruisin for hot grandmammas, he just plugs his cart in and plays with the chair's controller.
Funnypics
It's obvious. 10 years from now, everyone will have neural implants for playing games and activating blast doors on starships.
We'll also have mass-produced flying cars.
How about the fact that my new joystick is a fair bit stiffer than my old one was and makes my arm sore on long races :(
;p
:)
I'll leave the innuendo/jokes to the rest of ya
hurfy
online gamer for 25 years
My dad just retired, and he's been playing and loving Diablo-style games since, well, Diablo. He has played any number of knockoffs, and seems to have found a new one every time I visit. In addition to those, he spends a fair amount of time playing RPGs and adventure games. He saves early, and saves often.
He also really takes his time. It's no race for him, and he doesn't have a problem returning to old saves. He's played Guid Wars with my brother and I, but he doesn't chat because he can't type that fast (I haven't got him set up on Ventrilo yet, bad son). He tried DAoC and EQ2, but he just doesn't like grouping with people because he'd rather take his time.
I'm guessing that as I/we get older, we'll look for games where we can take our time too.
From TFA:
Obviously the Wii is something that could be improved upon over the years, and just might become the senior's console of choice.
As Nintendo has already stated older gamers is one of their targeted demographics with the Wii, I believe we'll see less dependence on buttons and a stronger focus on immersion in games as motion control and "VR" type systems get better and cheaper. The gaming system in 20-40 years may have no buttons whatsoever.
Trying to predict anything about life in 20 years, much less technology, is a total crapshoot.
Today's controllers are becoming more and more complicated and require greater dexterity to master.
I see one right there. The Wii is clearly an example of a controller that's actually become *less* complex compared to it's contemporaries. Frankly, I think we've seen the peak of controller complexity.
No, today's controllers require a grip which does not comfortably fit in the hand when you want access to all buttons all at once (and a game that requires that probably shouldn't be released.)
Here's a quick way to handle most situations (assuming you have what I have, a Cyborg P2500):
- Left palm on left grip, right palm on right grip.
- Middle fingers on shoulder buttons.
- Left index finger on D-pad.
- Right index finer on 6-button array. Most often, you won't need to press more than one of those buttons at once.
- Left thumb on left analog stick.
- Right thumb on right analog stick.
Alternativly, rest the gamepad on a surface, and use another grip you perfer.
BTW, if you have dexterity problems arising from this grip, you'll probably have dexterity problems handling a simpler controller. Dexterity issues primairly arise from the D-pad or analogue controller, not reaction on when to press a certain button.
If you instead have arthritis problems, I can't comment on what to do then. However, you'll probably have the same issue from regular controllers unless you use a "non-standard" grip.
Will we still be playing Castle Wolfenstein?
On emulators ported to WINE?
If there's a walkthrough on quarter to three, with some ancient lore?
Will ya still RUN me,
Load-eight-comma-one me,
My C-64?
I could be handy, slip you a disk, when your drive has gone.
You can bunny-hop with the rocket tube, then go back to Quake and some DOOM.
Slower reflexes, arthritic grips, who could ask for more?
Will you still need me,
Duke Nukem 3D?,
AMD-six-four?
Send me an Inter-net through the tubes, stating point of view.
The night of the LAN party we'll take Geritol,
By Sunday morning, we'll pwn 'em all!
Well past my half-life, emulate STEAM, Duke Forever IV.
Will ya still phone me,
Will ya still pwn me,
When I'm 64?
Only now are games rated in terms of hours gameplay. And what's considered a good game offers 30 hours. I challenge any youngster to finish, for example, Head Over Heals in that time.
In my opinion, intelligent gamers just can't be arsed to play this modern rubbish, based on the same stuff as the year before, only with slightly smoother graphics. This is why the Wii will probably be successful. Not because it's Nintendo, but because it offers some actual gameplay developments over the previous 20 years.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
When I was a lad, all our games ran on Steam!
"And then I visited Wikipedia
Turn based, baby!
You'll take my 4X games from my cold dead hands! Literally...
We may finally be playing Duke Nukem Forever by then.
-tgpo
Yeah, right. Kids today have it easy. When I was young, there were no such things as save or pause button. When your friend called you, too bad, can't come to phone right now mom.
64 years should be enough for anybody!
...still doesn't include Duke Nukem Forever...
As always, all IMO. Insert "I think" everywhere grammatically possible.
I have a hernia!
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Pity this point wasn't made higher up in the thread, as it's key to the discussion at hand. Features like pause and save game have made games considerably easier to beat than games that existed before such things were common place. I once beat Half-life without taking any damage (aside from the freezer) but can RARELY get passed the third level on Marble Madness.
Every game I buy now I find I'm quite capable of completing, with skill to spare no less. Older games will no doubt outpace me as I age, but I doubt the new ones will. As long as there's an audience there will be game makers to cater to that demographic and ensure that the games aren't frustratingly difficult...
...retirement. I have a big plastic box and within it are original boxes for each of the 35 Infocom text adventure games that were released. What more could I want?
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
It's early friday morning and the clock watching has already started until the 5:30 freedom call, and in my blurred 'havent had sugar/coffee' state I just assumed this was an article about the Commodore 64. I got all excited, and then I find out it's all about the few people that have actually grasped technology that wasn't around before they hit 30. (RIP DNA)
When I first read this I though they were talking about 64 bit.
Shouldn't it be "Get off my server you damn kids!"?
You can't even read the statistics you're citing properly. That link says 25% of gamers are 50+, not that 25% of those 50+ play games. That's a huge difference, and indicates that 50+ gamers make up a large percentage of the market.
Why do I even bother with Games postings...
It seems that many older games made up for technical limitations on content by being very difficult. Donkey Kong for Atari 2600 is hard, because it has to be. Otherwise it wouldn't provide more than five minutes of entertainment. (One could reasonably debate whether it provides much more than that as it is, but at least it's still a good challenge.) Modern games are, in my opinion, on average less difficult because they don't need the difficulty to compensate for lack of content.
Note: difficulty is not the same as time required to beat the game. WoW can take six months or so to get to level 60, but doesn't really require much skill. Many 8-bit nintendo games, on the other hand, can be beaten in one sitting but require far better reflexes.
In the last year or two I've played through Far Cry, GTA:SA and Doom 3. I'm now approaching my mid-forties and as far as I can tell I'm as fast as I was 25 years ago (if not faster). Perhaps some older people have difficulties because it's the first time they've tried gaming. I don't think kids are any more coordinated when they play for the first time.
I'm sure that I'll still be gaming in 20 years!
I just started working for a casual gaming company, bigfishgames.com. I didn't even realize there was a market for this sort of thing, but they've grown hugely in the past year, and the overall market is expanding as well. The main demographic is over 35 and mostly women. Go figure. The games are really cool, but you can play for 20-30 minutes and get something out of it, as opposed to most games these days, which take weeks (or longer for old farts like myself at 38) to even get started. Older folks don't have the patience or time for that. Making a game that can be played and enjoyed with little time commitment (and be fun and cool at the same time) is pretty challenging. Great job, beats the hell out of working for an ISP.
...At least, I think it was on slashdot. Those videos of the old woman playing side scrollers and stuff in her chair, swearing away at the console? Anyone remeber that?
Not sure where it is, but it was called "Old Grandma Hard Core" or something. You might try googling for that, but I won't.
I have freaks! I did something right...
From TFA:
I guess he never played Defender.
My grandparents are in their seventies and they still play games. Of course they only play games like Myst but still they play games none the less.
I'm 40. I picked up WoW the other day and I'm busy playing around with Combination and Hetheru, my warlock and shaman. I also really like the little logic games as a good break at work. Time is an issue since I have a job, wife and two kids, so I'm not exactly powerleveling, but that's fine.
Age doesn't have to mean that you stop gaming.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
It doesn't seem to me that the problem with older gamers will be with the ability to control the games, the problem will be with the interest in available games.
I used to play a lot of games, prefering the arcade and adventure type. I enjoy games along the lines of pac-man, battlezone, asteroids, diablo (I-II), warcraft (I-II), starcraft and things like morrowwind. As games shifted more to the side-scrolling fighters and shooters, my money and interest went elsewhere.
Current generations will face the same problem when the next generation genre comes out. New style that just doesnt fit their interest and time to hunt the bargain bins for older titles.
Kevin
The website is indeed a blog called Old Grandma Hardcore and it chronicles Grandma's hospital visits and back surgery as well as her video gaming addiction. The lucky old gal even gets free shit from Microsoft, Sony & Nintendo, which surprises me a little considering how she refers to the bad guys in their games as "fuckers".
Stroller.
I hope I'm gaming when I'm 128!
I suggest you play F-Zero GX on 'Master Difficulty'.
What's the origin of this phrase? I'm seeing it, or variations of it everywhere, but can't seem to track down what it all came from. Some movie I'd guess, but I don't know which one
google isn't much help, as the (ab)use of the phrase has really taken off, and it's now everywhere, and it's hard to tell who used it first.
Somehow, I suspect that by the time I'm 64, lines like this will apply:
:)
"Whoa! Check out those neural kinetics! They're way above normal!"
And maybe video games are the cure for Alzheimer's.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
They don't even take into account the Wii controller. I wonder if we'll still have the energy to play some of the games like Mario tennis on the Wii. Think of a first person shooter when you're hand normally shakes up and down just holding the controller, that'd be a sight to see. Maybe by then we'll just play Uno with cards instead of on the Xbox1280.
"To be is to do." --Socrates
"To do is to be." -- Aristotle
"Do-Be-Do-Be-Do..." --Sinatra
This may come as a surprise to many, but there are old people out there right now as we speak! In fact, there is quite a large number of 'em - for some reason, there was a huge Old People Boom recently, an unexplainable echo of the Baby Boom 40-60 years ago...
Frog blast the vent core.
I reckon that the current crop of Nintendo titles would easily appeal to senior gamers for much the same reason that they appeal to younger gamers:
I'm talking about things like Mario Tennis, Double Dash, Golf and such like. The concepts involved in these games have been around for ages; these are just the latest version. I've watched my kids from age 4 play these with their Grandpa age 65. The games tend to have multiple ways to control them - if you can only manage to use button A then the game copes with this and gives you basic control.
Plus, you're going to need the 4-way multiplayer mayhem of "Super Smash Brothers Melee" in that retirement home!
Moore's law is not a law. Theory, yes; Predictable trend, certainly; Law, no.
Or Ikaruga. I got the the 4th world after a lot of effort on my part, then put the controller down forever, because there was no way in hell I was ever getting past that rotating ship thing. Good lord.
Ikaruga and F-Zero GX are 'For Closers' only.
I'm downloading myself into the matrix way before then!
When I was a kid all we needed was the IJKM or WASD keys and the space bar, AND WE LIKED IT THAT WAY!
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
"Do the big console companies not realize that the over-30 market is...well, huge?"
;)
Wait until you hit 35 your waistline will get wider too, you little smartass!
"...I have a feeling the complexity of modern games and the reliance of so many games on reflexes (read first person shooters)"
My reflexes are still pretty good, it is the coordination of quickly finding the right key in a hurry that is hard. Using macro keys isn't a solution because I'd still have to find the right macro key (now what does M3 stand for again?). That is why I prefer roles in FPS games that call for patience and thought more than just twitchy fingers, like sniper or engineer in BF1942.
It is also a reason I like turn based games, or at least ones that let you pause, like RPGs so I can test my thinking instead of just my reflexes.
If you can still read the lettering on your WASD keys you are still a young'n.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
When I'm 64 and older, I'll (hopefully) have the time to pull out the old rulebooks and funny looking dice and play AD&D like I did when I was in high school. Little things like working and raising children are getting in the way right now. :-)
Indeed, I think that it's a trade-off between practice/experience and dexterity. In a new situation, the older person might not be expected to be as dextrous, but with something he/she is experienced at, that person will probably do just fine - with some possible loss due to things like arthritis, etc.
:-)
Basically, I'd expect an old music could keep on wailing on a sax or a guitar, and an old gamer will probably still be a good gamer depending on how varied the games are from his/her experience. Even if your grandpa can't beat you at DDR, he might still kick your ass at Mario and Donkey Kong
I left console games behind with the Super Nintendo. For me it was a mix of seeing that console games were not evolving quickly enough (even though a new version came out every two years), would never surpass computers for flexibility and overall superior performance and yes, the controls were getting too complex for what should be a simple handheld controller.
Therefore, since I matured into computers games, I don't expect my gaming experience to change much more over the next 30 years than it has changed over the past 20. The underlying technology (chips, memory, HD) will continue to get faster and larger, the graphics will continue to move towards realistic 3D rendering possibly to the point of holodeck type projection and the software will continue to get more complex. However, we've been using the keyboard and mouse for nearly 30 years. I doubt that will change very drastically. Having 105 keys on your keyboard and an interface capable of navigating 3D space qualifies as the ultimate controller to me. Those of us that can touchtype 65+ wpm definitely have an advantage, but that's a learnable skill.
I probably will be playing WoW 2056. I've gamed in UO and WoW with 50 and 60 year old players. They're definitely no slackers. I expect to be in the same situation when I reach their age.
As for the kiddies with their limited-ability game consoles, let their parents keep wasting money on them each year and may they eventually learn the power and the longevity of computer gaming.
I am now in my 30s... I can definately say the golden age of gaming, for me, was about 23-26. I was on top of my game then. Between family, and deteriorating reflexes, I am not nearly as good as I was.
:-( People of my generation are getting older. My friends still play games. One of the guys in my LAN group pushing 50. Another guy is just a year or two behind him. I hope to still be playing in my retirement years... maybe with enough practice, I can play like I did when I was 23!!! :-)
Don't get me wrong, I am still a good FPS player... but not where I was a few short years ago.
Hopefully these will become tools for the elderly to help hand & eye coordination & keeping the ol' breadbasket in shape. Don't you want to be able to drive yourselves rather than public transit or relying on the slightly younger generation for a ride. If there aren't some sort of memory enhancers by then I don't see why gaming can't prove to be an alternative. Besides...I'm over half-way there. Here is to looking to the future. May your thumbs be red from the blood in your veins!
I'm here to kick a$$ and chew bubble gum...and I'm all out of bubble gum!
Not really, I'll be 54 in a few weeks, I just used that line as a headline because it ryhmes with "when I'm 64".
I have played computer games since the early 70s. I was old enough to go to bars when Pong showed up in them. I love to play games. I also love to write them. I was part owner of a small game studio in the early '90s and I teach game programming. I'll bet I have spent more time writing games and reading the source code for games than I have spent actually playing games.
I really hate most modern games. Oh, I can sit and play tuxracer for hours. And simcity has been known to keep me up all night. But, most modern games just aren't any fun for me. RTSs are fun, and addictive, But they take so long to play and so long to learn. I have yet to see an FPS that was anything but wander around and kill stuff. I like wandering around, but there are trails and malls and cities for wandering around in. And, I don't like being shot at or having to shoot at everything that moves. I've been shot at and I've shot living things (I used to do a lot of hunting and stopped for moral reasons) and it isn't to be taken lightly. I played D&D from the orignal folded paper pamphlets and loved the game. Modern RPGs are too complex, take to long, and get boring really fast. MMOGs... well, I have to much to do to be able to participate in a clan. Wondering around on your own just gets you killed. Seriously, I got over wanting to be a Captian Kirk, Luke Skywalker, or a 10 level troll warrior (best character I ever had) a long, long, time ago. I want to be me, not pretend to be some famous fake character.
I'm a martial artist and at 54 I can move faster than many of the younger people I train with. Maybe that is why I don't spend a lot of time playing games. When I have a couple of hours to kill I can spend that time training or meditating and improve my real mind, body, and spirit rather than adding phoney points to made up stats. OTOH I have run into console games that were impossible for me to play because I do not have the thumb dexterity of people who have been playing consoles since childhood.
I still go into game stores once in a while and look around. I read reviews of games. I keep hoping to find games that I want to play, but it looks like game companies either to not care about my demographic, or it they do, they do not understand us well enough to write games.
Stonewolf