I discovered this awesome survey about “Boomer Gamers,” which you can read HERE.
It’s on the long side, but it’s worth reading. The “older gamer” market is booming right now, and they are changing the way games are made and sold. Some of the more interesting facts were:
- Women over forty are repeatedly outpacing all other groups as the fastest growing gamer population.
- 35% of parents play video games
- Baby Boomers are spending anywhere from 10-40 hours a week playing games.
- The PC is their platform-of-choice.
- When asked to list their ten favorite games, adventure games were included each and every time (the top five were Myst, Syberia, Dreamfall, Broken Sword, and Gabriel Knight).
I’m finding this absolutely fascinating. When I first started designing freeware games in 2001, I felt very foolish. I was 25 years old, and I was hanging out in game forums where the average age was 16-20. It’s nice to see that changing. I like this new trend very much indeed.
October 11th, 2007 at 12:24 PM
I think you’ve found and audience that will definitely buy your games. These people have money, and they are probably happy to spend it on entertainment. At least if they’re like my dad.
The real trick is, how do you introduce your games to these people?
Maybe you should start playtesting your game with older audiences and get some feedback from them.
The only thing is that these people are still used to physical media, so I’m guessing they would like to buy something from a box, and I’m not sure how they find things in the first place. I bet there’s another article about baby boomers and the web or something.
Next time I see my parents, though, I’m going to make them play Blackwell to see what they do… I’m curious to see what happens!
October 11th, 2007 at 12:50 PM
Agreed.
Another thing is, I hypothesize that baby boomers wouldn’t be huge fans of pixel art, considering that most of them were “too old” to be gamers during the 8-bit era. They’ll likely also be put off by unintuitive interface design, which we game designers may not even notice because we’re so accustomed to using those interfaces that they’ve become second-nature.
On a more tangential note, when I worked on CSI: Hard Evidence, I recall suggesting to the team that since the game’s primary audience was over-forty women, there should have been more male eye candy. If TTG makes another CSI game, maybe one of the cases will be set in a Chippendales. *shrugs*
October 11th, 2007 at 2:01 PM
I hear that argument alot, Deirdra, and for the most part it makes sense. I would often counter by pointing to “Aveyond” by Amanda Finch, which is about as old-school and pixelated as you can get. I often thought it was just a fluke, but then realized that there is nothing like “Aveyond” in the casual space.
This is doubly interesting, because the usual tactic in the casual market is to copy whatever is hot at the moment. Look at how many clones of “Diner Dash” and “Mystery Case Files” there are. I was convinced that there would be a huge influx of old-school RPGs after the success of “Aveyond”, but that didn’t happen.
Why? Because it requires a lot of writing talent to make a game like “Aveyond.” Not many casual game writers are willing to write the 2000+ lines of dialog necessary, in addition to developing the assets and gameplay. It’s very unique in that respect. I’m hoping that adventure games fair the same.
October 11th, 2007 at 2:50 PM
My above post doesn’t make any sense unless you know what Aveyond is, to begin with.
It’s an old-school RPG (Final Fantasy 6-ish) that became a huge hit in the casual market. You can read more about it at http://www.amaranthia.com.
October 11th, 2007 at 10:42 PM
Final Final 6, eh? Was that the final one?
Ba-dum-tish
October 12th, 2007 at 6:43 AM
*uses his moderator powers to make his stupid mistake magically disappear*
October 15th, 2007 at 1:20 PM
Dunno, my dad spent a while playing a bunch of computer games back in the day. I think he’s definitely more comfortable with 2D pixelated graphics than 3D, as long as it’s not Manga-like or anything…
October 15th, 2007 at 2:38 PM
I have a friend who’s dad played a PS1 in his underwear…that must’ve been traumatic…
Then again, I wished that my dad was more like that…he’s so old-fashioned (very religious and traditional)…
Long Live Two Dimensional Graphics!
November 17th, 2007 at 8:21 AM
As a woman over forty and an avid Aveyond fan, I couldn’t agree with you more. I’m not a traditional gamer, dislike shooter games, and am nauseated by 3-D graphic game play (motion sickness). I like the simplicity of the graphics and the fact that I can set the pace for the game, that it’s not all about reflexes. I also love the writing (I dabble in writing a bit myself so lame dialogue irritates me)–I don’t just want to vanquish monsters, I want to be entertained, solve the character’s personal problems and deal with subplots. Summing it up, I want a strong female character and a fairytale wedding.
Aveyond fulfills these wants. The sequel will be out in December and that’s not soon enough for me. I’ve looked high and low and not found anything that comes close.