Grown-Ups Like Video Games, Too!
FileFront now has an archive of many issues of Computer Gaming World in PDF Format. Going back over some of the older issues (some of which I never read), I am reminded of why I loved this magazine. And how much it deteriorated in the last decade (though, as I have said before, it had been improving somewhat under Jeff Green's management over the last couple of years).

Here's an excerpt from April, 1994 - a preview of the (never-released vaporware) computer game version of the pen-and-paper RPG "Champions" (one of my favorites):

Yet, the contrapuntal harmony to this bestowment of power is the sense of responsibility inherent in the superhero's creed and the awesome struggle with the misuse of power by the supervillain. In a real sense, the comic book mythos is an acculturating influence that teaches the young male that raw power is not a solution to the challenges of life. Rather, it is the creative use of that power that provides the real victories in life. In later life, the comic mythos is a reaffirmation of this lesson to those who, at least temporarily, may feel powerless and disenfranchised. It is a reassuring reminder that victory is possible to those who are creative and flexible upon facing the vicissitudes of life.

What this means is, "Superheroes are fun!"

So they mock their own pedanticism and use of ten-dollar-words, but that still didn't stop them from sprinkling their articles with quotes by philosophers and historians, or using language that was a bit above the 5th-grade level used by most modern gaming rags. Take, for example, the opening to the preview of Ultima VI:

The late 19th Century American lawyer-politician, Thomas B. Reed, is reputed to have said, "One, with God, is always a majority, but many a martyr has been burned at the stake while the votes were being counted." Such an acerbic warning against the assumption that having a conception of Virtue and Right is equivalent to a mandate to search out and destroy other ideas seems to be a vital part of what the second Ultima trilogy is about.

Now both of these uncredited articles might have been the product of Johnny Wilson, who's eduction included studies of English Literature, Drama, and the Old Testiment. But he set much of the tone for the whole magazine. As did Russell Sipe, before him. They didn't talk down to readers. They assumed readers were educated adults who were interested not just in what were the coolest, most overhyped games to buy, but also in the whole hobby of Computer Gaming.

In fact, Sipe attributed this attitude to the success of the magazine following the collapse of the videogame industry in the mid 1980's, in his retrospective in this month's issue (the very last issue of Computer Gaming World, before it changes it's name to Games For Windows):

"Then came the videogame crash of 1984. It took down the majority of the computer-game magazines with it. By the winter of 1984, only a few such magazines remained - and by summer 1985, CGW was the only four-color computer game magazine left.

"The manufacturers who survived the crash and prospered during that time were those companies that, for the most part, targeted an older age group (especially those who were interested in strategy and adventure games as opposed to arcade action games). Fortunately for CGW, our readership has always been dominated by the adult strategy/adventure gamer; an audience that was not only interested in the games themselves, but also in the personalities that designed the games and the companies that manufactured them."

Bingo. Now I don't think of myself as a snob, but I don't like reading reviews that seem oriented towards 14-year-olds, either. I don't think I enjoyed them at age 14, come to think of it. I like the idea of having discussions about games, like we might about books or movies. I like talking about experiences playing games, the "Great Game Moments." I like the idea that computer games can actually spur discussion of politics, or even philosophy.

And I don't think I'm alone. According to the ESA, the average game player is 33 years old. There are (precious few) websites that seem to have taken this to heart (GamerDad and The Escapist come to mind). But so much marketing, press, and of course political vitriole is being focused on this idea that the majority of game players are minors, or at least stuck in Mom's basement long after they should have been kicked out to join the real world.

Somehow we gamers grew up, but the perceptions of the mainstream media and marketers never did.

It seems like this is changing, gradually, the way change usually happens. Hurrah for casual games causing more and more women age 40+ to become gamers, and perhaps accelerating the acceptance of the concept. Every so often, I see an article or a bit of advertising that seems to be waking up to the idea that the average gamer is not only not a child, but is old enough to have children of his or her own. But they still treat it as a novel idea.

I think it's amusing that Computer Gaming World was making that assumption twenty years ago, when the "average" gamer was only 19 or so.

Labels: casual games, Game Design

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 3:24 PM (Permalink)