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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 */
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.
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.
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?
When I was a lad, all our games ran on Steam!
"And then I visited Wikipedia
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.
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...
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!
Games within that era:
- Generally didn't have saved games. (Passwords/passcodes qualify as saves.)
- May have loading times between screens.
- May rely on manually creating maps to navigate around.
- In case of puzzle games (which were common at the time), cause the game's plot to be blocked if the person can't solve a given puzzle.
- Usually had a fixed number of "lives" (that emulates an arcade-continue system with a fixed number of credits).
- Sometimes did not receive the technology from the U.S.S. Framerate.
While Head over Heels does not experience all of these problems, these are the exact things that can prevent people from playing these old games (ignoring emulators.)
BTW, "hours" of gameplay is not a good metric for puzzle-oriented or adventure games - these games generally focus on puzzles where time to the solution may vary based on trial or error, logic, or some other tactics. Regardless of solving path, it just takes one deadlock that prevents the player from proceeding - unless he uses a walkthrough which disqualifies him from finishing the game within the 30-hour contest.
The same applies to the IFComp, which scales games to two hours - it just takes one puzzle that you can't solve to force you past the two hour-barrier.