Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Iraq war veteran shoots down gaming stereotypes

Jeffrey D. Barnett, an officer in the US Marine Corps, has written a most excellent article about video games on a blog called Home Fires hosted by the New York Times.

It turns out this Iraq war veteran is a long time gamer. He started playing video games in the early 80s with his dad on the Atari 2600.

His article talks about social gaming, gaming by adults and how the stereotypes of gamers are just flat out wrong.

The killer quote from the article is:

I think steak knives and swimming pools pose a greater threat to children [than video games], but nobody is trying to restrict adult access to those tools…


Well said, sir!

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

2006 Gamer Demographics

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has again published their annual Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry paper.

The basic demographic numbers are pretty much unchanged from the 2005 numbers. The average age of a gamer is still 33, according to ESA.

Video games aren't just for kids, folks

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal says:

"The assumption that all videogames are toys for children rather than entertainment for a variety of different audiences is one of our pet peeves."


You and me, you and me.

Mr. Croal was recently invited to talk about Manhunt 2 with CNN's American Morning. It appears that the reporter doing the interview had the typical, but mistaken, idea that all video games, including Manhunt 2, are for kids. Mr. Croal did his best to correct the stereotype, as he writes in his blog post about "Infantilization of Videogames", as he puts it. I have my doubts as to how successful he ended up being.

I do wonder what will it take for people to understand some video games are designed for adults and how long will it take for video games to be treated the same way as movies in this regard. The latest available gamer demographics information says the average age of a gamer in the United States is 33, after all.