Game On for the Grandparents - What They're Playing
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There are certainly older gamers who get into the same kinds of games as their grandchildren. These days, the "little old lady from Pasadena" might be tearing up Gears of War or shutting down players decades younger than she is. But judging from the stories, the violent games aren't quite as popular with the older set. There could be any number of reasons for this. Perhaps they find the realistic gore distasteful. Or maybe their reflexes aren't quite as good as they used to be. Then again, they may not like the longer "stories" and plot lines of many first person shooters these days. And then there are always the grandchildren to consider if you're trying to look dignified; you'd have to hide the Playboys AND the Grand Theft Auto.
Nintendo came out with Brain Age in 2005. It was probably the first video game aimed at senior citizens. It features a variety of puzzles to help keep a player's brain active, and even gives you a "brain age" at the end. It is supposed to encourage players to work to keep their brains "young" and sharp.
Puzzle and casual games seem to be very popular with the older gamer. PopCap was not alone in noticing the demographic for its casual games. Beatrice Spaine, marketing director of the popular casual games website Pogo.com, notes that "Baby boomers and up are definitely our fastest-growing demographic, and it is because the fear factor is diminishing. Women come for the games, but they stay for the community. Women like to chat, and these games online are a way to do that. It's kind of a MySpace for seniors." Electronic Arts, the company that runs the site, said that people 50 and older made up 28 percent of the visitors in February but accounted for more than 40 percent of total time spent on the site. On average women spent 35 percent longer on the site each day than men.
These numbers mean big business in the gaming industry. And they translate into big money. If you like to play games online in your browser, as many casual gamers do, then you've noticed the pre-roll ads on many games as well as the display banners; you can hardly avoid them. Still, they're a small price for playing a fun and terribly addicting game for free. This small price adds up to big bucks: the casual gaming industry raked in $900 million worldwide in 2006 from advertising and subscription fees, according to DFC Intelligence. And that money will just keep growing; it's projected to reach $2.5 billion by 2011.
Games that duplicate sports and other real-life non-violent activities are also popular with the older gamer. Kaija Ekstam started with a race car game. Dick Norwood has his Wii bowling league. Even Old Grandma Hardcore loves Guitar Hero II, though she freely admits that she is phenomenally horrible at it. On the evidence, one would have to say that Nintendo truly struck gold when it designed the Wii to appeal to a wider range of ages by making it simpler and by including a selection of sports games.
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