Podcast Suggestion- Who are games FOR?

[RandomRob]

1) If the people who buy the bulk of games are in their mid-30's, why are studios still designing and marketing based on a teenage audience?

2) are they trying to reach women?

3) Don't the continuing popularity of puzzles and retro side-scrolling games prove that the marketing assumptions about what gamers want from AAA titles are incorrect?

4) Is there any evidence photorealism has increased the 'maturity of games'? Or has it done the opposite?

[Pedro]

Interesting questions!

[RandomRob]

aw I hope so -

[Li-Ion]

1) To reach a wider audience, same as with movies. Summer blockbusters aim for the teenage audience and assume that adults will head there anyway, due to lack of choice.

2) Not that I'd notice, apart from Bioware.

3) Would retro-platform and puzzle games still sell like cupcakes if they would cost 60$ each?

4) The only thing it did (in my opinion, obviously) was to push more games on the wrong side of the uncanny valley, or right into it at worst.

[RandomRob]

Originally Posted by Li-Ion

3) Would retro-platform and puzzle games still sell like cupcakes if they would cost 60$ each?

well this is a good point, and if 60$ is for 'movie-like production values', frankly, they can keep that shit, because it is not making games better. It's making them bloated and silly.

Tools for storytelling does not equal storytelling. More is less. Too many options for the palette kills the painting.
Too many musicians playing too few notes does not make a symphony. Games are not movies.

They need to derail this 'trying to be like films' business model. It's death.

[K-Unit]

The big developers continue to make crappy games for teenage audiences because these are the exact people who have proven time and again that they don't know a bad game when they see one. The older audiences have grown up and no longer have time to play mostly boring but pretty games. On the other hand, teenagers have little in the way of responsibility and tend to buy these games before knowing whether they are worth their time. When was the last time you as a parent with responsibility and time constraints purchased a game without at least reading a few reviews or talking to a friend about it? It is this buy first and complain later mentality of the masses of brainless teenagers that allows giant developers to repeatedly put out games that sell well but don't provide a satisfying experience in the end. This cycle will likely only change when gamers in their 50's and 60's care just as much about getting a good product as gamers in their 20's.