Age-Friendly Design for the 50-Plus Gamer
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- Опубліковано 16 тра 2024
- Video games are now a significant part of life for those aged 50 years and older, with over 50-million players. This talk features Northeastern University and AARP discussing the AARP research on 50-plus players, their needs, and the market opportunity.
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The Nintendo generation turns 50 in a couple of years. Those that were 8-12 in 86. That should be reason enough for accessible games.
And a decent chunk of today's 45-55+ were the arcade players, the folks who played on Atari & Amigas & Commodores & ZX-Spectrums, the ones who made PC gaming and home consoles a thing. It's really just ageism that the games industry ignores such a significant market.
This is what we mean when we say "accessible games"
Young gamers of Yesterday will be the senior gamers of tomorrow, let's pave a friendly path for them starting today.
I'm in this category. I've been playing games since the early 80s non stop. I'm as good now as I was then.
I sucked then too.
I always wondered about that. Like, we that grew up playing are kind used to adapt to different kind of interfaces doesn't matter how complicated they are but for older people the thing is different.
My father in law is 65 years old and he plays FC24(former EA's FIFA) like crazy and every time a version is released is like he playing a total different game, because the UI is non-intuitive and inconsistent. Even a game we joke about being the same game being released every year they can't even turn the UX familiar for older players.
The gripe I got about RPG Maker churning out the same game no matter who designs it goes by the wayside because it's such a familiar template. Sort of a stick-to-what-works approach. I get the feeling that's actually why JRPGs on Play-Station didn't quite continue into even PS2 and on--they're always different enough from one another that it's like learning yet another language.
My Great Uncle plays Diablo 2 and my Great Aunt plays WoW, they’re both in their mid 70s. Lots of people like games and while there are trends in what’s popular among age demographics lots of different people of all ages play all sorts of games
Ouch! I'm 55
😂😂
It seems I'm writing games for my own demographic LOL 😆
@@CyborgPrime Hell yeah! Be the change we wanna see! Plus its nice targeting a group of people who have money they want to spend :)
Im 32 not 50 but i observe that with age it takes me longer (or maby feel longer cause of frustration)to get hang of things in new games, i fell overwelmed with ui, quest logs etc
I'm generally wary of advocacy groups who's income depends on finding problems to solve (lobbying firm). The specific survey data was interesting, but there was a lot of the presentation that was selling AARP itself and taking credit for things which they didn't prove they had an impact. The short pitch is: AARP's case is that 50+ gamers will spend enough money to offset the costs of modifying games to suit that audience. That's a big ask if your game isn't already compatible and you don't have a whole team to tackle the issue.
54:00 This lady's advice is super useful, Thank you
This is the best and most helpful game dev talk I've seen. Thanks guys!
53 here been playing since Pong and Intellivision. It is my main hobby. Play probably an average of 20 hours a week.
Great talk! Been proselytizing for older-gamers as a "Blue Ocean" demographic for at least 15 years!! Grandparents sharing a nostalgia-toy with their digital-era grandkids made my first commercial game a success. Unfortunately, there's widespread resistance in the industry to even acknowledge older gamers, even as the populations age in the largest markets (US, Japan, S. Korea, most of Europe). Studies like the AARP's help, but it's not unlike the pushback against other underserved demographics (esp. women) despite decades of hard data disproving "conventional wisdom". Fine by me - less competition as a dev for that prime audience 🤑
If only the games industry would stop closing studios en masse for whatever reason. Maybe enough people in the games industry would have enough skills making tons of games to accommodate older players in current ones
interesting
50+???? People in their 50s were brought up on gaming... Not just that, they stick a 75 year old on the thumbnail
50 years means you're old and doomed, don’t be delusional
@@--.-- haha true, we are all doomed, even you!
Bc 50+ includes 75
Mgs4
UI scaling, subtitles, less emphasis on multiplayer, an automatic journal, let us play in short bursts and have a damn pause button.
Oh this is about representation
Oh it's 202x and the GDC logo is now a rainbow.
Oh.
Oh.
Yeah less of this. That'll get you a 50+ audience. Less of THIS.