Hello Weekend

I realize it seems like an eternity since the last podcast, its just been impossible to get enough people together and find time to record. At the moment, I have a cold, that is impeding my speaking abilities, and no one wants to listen to that. In the meantime, here's something I was thinking about last night, while surviving work.

Why do older people not "get" video games? I'm looking at 35-55 here, so I suppose "middle-aged" is a better descriptor, but to me 25 is "older", in a purely ordinal sense. So don't be offended 35-55 aged people, just read on.

Thinking back it would seem to me that these people would have had a lifetime of possible contact with the medium, and that it would require concentrated ignoring to not play any games in the last 25-40 years. According to Wikipedia, the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) was released in Japan in 1983, and the US in 1985. As in 25 years ago. The Atari 2600 was released in 1977, the same year as Star Wars. 32 years ago. Pong? 1972. 37 years ago. If you are 55 now you would have been 18 then, and surely had access to the game. The point is, these things have been around. They have been in popular media, and in the public eye ever since their creation. And yet, there is a large population today that simply doesn't "get" them. Let me give a few examples- to clarify my position.

A 39 year-old Mom goes to Gamestop and buys a Wii, and 40 dollars worth of stick on plastic garbage, thinking it necessary to play "the game". Had she been someone who had grown up with video games, she would know that those accessories were not necessary. Its simple thinking, "does a piece of plastic augment an accelerometer-wielding wiimote in any sort of meaningful way?", and unless you are playing the clueless card, the answer is no.

A 46 year-old politician decries today's games for "giving you points for killing people". To be fair, there was a time when that may have been the case. It has not, however, been the case for quite a while. In addition, the games he is referring to are most certainly shooters, which usually are devoid of any points system. Remember when you played through Halo and got 500,000 points? Kind of hard to remember something that cannot exist. The point is that this guy has clearly ignored the medium for around a decade, and truly has no idea what he is referring to.

Now that we are on the same page as to what I consider out of touch, I want to propose a reason why. Clearly these people did ignore games for the last 25 or more years, but the question is why? Thinking about it I believe I know the answer. Marketing.

Presently, video game marketing targets all groups of people, something they didn't used to do. Walmart's MW2 commercial features a roughly 40 year-old man talking about the game with his roughly 35 year-old buddy. Wii commercials show people who are very young playing with the very old. Playstation 3 commercials are targeting people who are post college. Back in the 90s, ads targeted young boys, and more young boys. The 80s? Same deal. Basically, if you didn't happen to be born and hooked during this period, the advertising is a complete turn off.

In conclusion, I'm going to blame advertising for at least part of the older-generations disconnect. The same reason I'm not playing with Bratz dolls seems to be why they aren't playing games. Its a shame, but it seems plausible.