|
In an interview with Edge Magazine not too long ago, Gabe Newell talked about
getting back to what makes gamers scared. Newell thinks this has changed
quite a bit over the years, because when pressed he told Edge what he
thinks gamers are most afraid of is "The death of their children [and]
the fading of their own abilities."
I don't think anyone would have said this ten years ago. But according
to my favorite mind-blowing statistic from the Entertainment Software
Association, the average age of a gamer is now 35 years old.
Considering
how old video games are as a medium, that should make perfect sense,
but it's surpassing because it challenges a common stereotype that many
people have about video games; namely, that people stop playing them.
Contrary to popular belief, the average gamer doesn't just get "too old"
to play video games, so we have a generation of gamers that keep
getting older.
And that means they change.
The 35 year old gamer is a long way
from being scared of Cyberdemons. Most are no longer scared even of the
sort of image Newell talked about evoking for the original Half-Life,
which focused on adolescent sexual fears (mentioned in Half-Life:
Raising the Bar).
The quote about fading abilities and children only
makes sense if the target audience is no longer composed mainly of
adolescents. These are adult fears, and visceral ones at that.
The game that has best dealt with these themes is probably the
original Silent Hill. The furtive search for her is really powerful,
especially with how her presence is everywhere but she's frustratingly
out of reach and who knows what's happening to her.
This classic "save
the princess" plotline is underscored by the fact that Cheryl could die
at any moment, or worse, and the player would be helpless to stop it.
I don't know how Half-Life could engage the same sort of fear.
Although
I would love to see where Gabe Newell would take this thought, I really
hope that other designers, as they grow older themselves, start
recognizing that these issues will speak to the heart of their audience.
I'm only twenty-four, but I'm getting older and Newell's talking about
the sort of things that are more and more often in the back of my mind.
|
All industries have generalized standards that define processes and procedures. Given that the age of the average gamer is 35 years old, its time for the game industry to develop their own standards that define the physical dexterity and reflexes of an "average" player. Because here's the reality: players who can play every Guitar Hero or Rock Band song on expert, who are at the top of the leader boards of every game they play or who finish in the top three of every multiplayer match they play are not "average" players. They are elite players and they are only a tiny minority of the total audience. By cater and pander to these elite players by creating games based on extreme hand - eye coordination difficulty, designers are excluding, frustrating and alienating the "average" players. This trend simply must end.
In short, the industry must choose whom they are trying to please. 1% of their audience or the remaining 99%.