Games are overwhelmingly made by and marketed to younger generations, argue analysts, while the older demographic is being ignored
They’re busy playing the stuff of their young days.
Any game that relies too much on quick reflexes will usually not be good for older people. Easier difficulties can mitigate that somewhat. Turn based games are perfect for all ages, you can take as long as you want to think your stuff through. You don’t need to make these games “for old people”. I also remember seeing a video that talked about a 70yo man who began playing Asheron’s Call (a 1999 MMORPG) with his grandson and really enjoyed the game, to the point he kept playing until it was shutdown for good.[1]
The industry has spent 40 years chasing the same narrowly defined audience because it was the safest bet, until everyone was chasing it. Imagine if Hollywood only made movies for 18-year-old men. That’s roughly the bet games have been making.
True for big studios, false for indies, who, as always, prove time and time again that you can achieve success with “non standard” formulas, such as Balatro, Stardew Valley, Return of the Obra Dinn, Undertale (some survivorship bias is being applied here, lots of indies, even those that follow “standard formulas” more closely, fail to find success, even with good games)
There is a mismatch between the general investment in tutorials for the first few minutes, relative to where actually the player loss happens,
Make the fucking tutorial OPTIONAL and something you pick as an option in the fucking main menu. This isn’t rocket science.
But that brings you down to other categories that have been growing, like cosy[sic] games, casual games, and retro. And retro has an advantage in that audience in that you don’t need the latest [computer].
There is an important thing to keep in mind here: most casual games are predatory mobile shit. That market has been an absolute cesspool for something like 12 years now, which is almost as long as they existed. Yes, the games are “enjoyable”, because they’ve been finely tuned to be as addictive as possible.
“Give me those 60 year olds who watched Star Trek the original series,” he concludes. “Come on down, play Star Trek Online with me.”
STO? Pass. Unless we can kill this dude:
Found this massivelyop link, but the video is unavailable https://massivelyop.com/2017/01/11/check-out-one-of-the-oldest-asherons-call-players-in-all-senses-of-the-word/ ↩︎
If i could introduce europa universalis to some old people who like history, it would probably ruin their lives…
Old people games:
You mean like halo?
They can always go play LoL
Haven’t they suffered through life enough?
Can they, though? According to the article their dumb boomer brains can’t remember how to play between gaming sessions. Does LoL give them a play tutorial every 15 minutes so they can enjoy gaming?
Bullshit. Plenty of games oldnpeople can enjoy.
Balatro
Stardew Valley
Peglin
New heroes of might and magic
XCOM
Civilization
Flight Simulator (plus a ton of all the other sim games on the market).
Man I’ve seen my fair share of old people rocking it to Best Saber and and Synth Riders. Just play on the right difficulty…
My grandpa played Flight Simulator every day until he passed away at 100. He loved that game.
Did not read the article just saw the headline and thought that’s gotta be the dumbest thing ever that’s all.
I’m not sure having games made for you would be better than having games you can play. There’s plenty of shit out there that’s not marketed towards me anymore, but I still enjoy it. And yes, it’s rarely AAA games. Even more enjoyable AND cheaper.
Kinda figured we’d just make games for eachother
They are making games for retirees
AARP.com has a long list of games, and all the leaderboards resets everyday at midnight.
My grandma, who has dementia, and severe arthritis, has an alarm to get up at midnight to go play the games so she can be #1. Every night. She loves being #1.
She’s 82 years old. Just broke her hip for the 3rd time, and she asked if we can bring her laptop so she can play her games.
I’m gonna pwn your grandma no cap
Bet
EVE Online exists? (sorry! couln’t resist, don’t pod me!)
also World of Warcraft: Retired housewives
Call of Duty: Almost retired Mall Ninja Dads
Candy Crush: Actual Grandmas
conspiracy Youtube: Grandpas
Is there a WoW - retired housewife connection I’m not aware of?
anecdotal evidence only :D
Uh, every sandbox vehicle construction game?
Every factory optimization game?
I had to quit playing most of them because they each one could count as a second job.
Minecraft, Factorio, Satisfactory, Space Engineers, E.V.E, Terraria, Stardew Valley, Kerb Space Program, Don’t Starve (Together), Dragon Quest Builders 1/2, No Man’s Sky, Fallout 3/NV/4, Borderlands 3/4, Slay the Spite 1/2.
There are tons to games to last (the remaining) lifetime. Hell I would have enough with solely Factorio
don’t forget my summer car
I used to know an elderly gamer, he was very sad he no longer could play FPS and car racing games. He instead mainly played Heroes of Might and Magic and its clones.
Pretty sure my dad just wants to play Skyrim forever.
Old people don’t make games. Young people make games. When old people start making games about their life experience I’m sure we’ll get some games that make boomers happy. Until then, pick yourself up by your bootstrap gramps, and be the change you want to see in the world!
Wamp wamp
