The 80-year-old YouTube network red, although the mother of four children, the grandmother of nine grandchildren, and the great-grandmother of a great-grandson, their eyes far beyond the attention of the family dinner. At first, a casual task brought her into an underground cave. It was the deepest world under the vast territory of "The Elder Scrolls: Skyline". There was no partner, and there was only a lonely echo of the underground waterfall.

Grandma Shirley released more than 200 video games and had 130,000 subscribers. It also triggered comments and heated comments from numerous netizens. Her identity caused controversy and spawned a lot of discussion about this cultural phenomenon. Shirley?, who is called "Game Grandma" by fans, breaks the rules and ignites a wave in the field of game video, which is usually spoken by young people. In the past two years, countless reports have highly valued Shirley’s contribution to the game’s communication, and enthusiastically praised her video as “a must-see game show for life”. Some reports praised her for “having all the charm of a kind grandmother. At the same time, it is also a hardcore game fan." Grandma Shirley will even be on the face of a new issue of AARP magazine, and, due to her deeds, this issue will adjust the topic to focus on the “similar to the traditional age model style”. Older people.

However, despite the large number of Shirley grandma powder, the playful title, and numerous media reports, game developers and gamers still repeatedly miss an important message.

Grandma Shirley is not that unique, at least on a larger scale. Even she does not think she has anything special.

Growing older players

In fact, there are thousands of players like her. These older players of the golden age are one of the biggest drivers of the game industry. Every year, when the American Entertainment Software Association (ESA) publishes its report on "Mega Facts in the Video Game Industry", the most prominent data is the average age of gamers: 35 in 2016.

Despite this concern, many people have yet to realize how many sites in the industry are dominated by older players. According to the same report, players aged 18 to 35 account for 29% of the total number of visitors, while players over 50 account for 26% of the total, which is very close to the proportion of players under 18 (27%).

According to the ESA, in 2015, older players actually surpassed teenage teenagers, with a total of 35 million. More than the entire population of Canada.

At the same time, the number of these older players is still rising. According to Bob De Schutter, a professor of applied game design at the University of Miami in Ohio, by 2045, the number of 35 million old players will increase dramatically to 105 million in the US alone, if the United Nations is on demographic trends. Predict the correct words.

Deschute and many other researchers predict that the majority of future players will come from today's young players as they grow older. But even if the game industry can launch games that suit the interests and needs of these old players today, once the number of old players in the future suddenly increases, they can't cope.

Old-age gamers are often simply and rudely regarded as an anecdote in this world, and even the bowling game leagues held by the elderly are also used as jokes by many articles. Usually, people like to recommend "exercise mind games" such as "brain training" to the elderly, and specifically mention that they can keep players young.

3DS game "brain training".

“We need to develop special games that specifically address the more age-appropriate people in the older age group. I have no doubt that creative game designers will respond to the call of this era in a timely manner.”

The above is "the father of video games," Ralph Baer said in the 2010 AbleGamers preface on how to get more people closer to the game. Barr invented the world's first commercial home video game console, Magnavox Odyssey (Odyssey). In front of this sentence, Baer also said that he himself hopes that anyone from "5 to 100 years old" can play Odyssey game consoles , and if necessary, can add a knob to adjust the difficulty.

Researchers generally agree that today's society has formed the concept of misunderstanding and age discrimination for older players. When this generation of players reaches retirement age, those wrong ideas will have a major impact. Although the misconceptions will hinder the game industry from realizing the vision expressed by Barr, it is still uncertain, but it is worrying in the hearts of academia, developers and fans.

Portrait of an old gamer

For Deschute, the relationship between older audiences and video games was once an interesting essay topic.

In 2008, Deschute just completed the development of "Blast From the Past", an educational game on the Nintendo Wii console, which is used by young and older players to allow different groups of players to teach each other differently. Knowledge of cultural history. He began to contact other researchers with similar ideas, and set up a committee with the “Meaningful Play” seminar as an opportunity to hold an academic conference once a year to discuss the development of the game industry. In the following six years, the research results of the elderly players have gradually enriched and steadily increased. Some rehabilitation institutions such as SilverFit and Lumos Labs began to serve the elderly.

However, Deschute and others found that by this stage, most of the research still considered potential older gamers (the elderly who used game-rehabilitation games to rehabilitate) as opposed to "active players." An isolated group. According to Google's academic literature, from 1980 to 2000, a total of 14 academic papers on games and old age topics were published. In the new millennium, it has increased to 43 articles. From 2010 to 2014, the number of papers published in this field has soared to 208.

In 2013, Deschute became an assistant professor at the University of Miami, Ohio. He reconnected with his old colleagues and set up a new committee at the “Meaning Games” seminar on October 16, 2014. That weekend, at the Dublin Square Irish Pub near the Michigan State University Student Union, Deschute and several colleagues informally established a community called the “Gero ntoludic Society”. It is an international organization of scholars and game developers who specializes in designing and creating "game experiences" for older players.

Deschute's research continues to evolve, bringing him to a digital playground with many older players. He found that players in this single crowd have a very wide range of differences. Some players will beat him to win in a challenging quick-response game or strategy game, while at the same time inadvertently revealing the embarrassment that they feel obsessed with video games, some people are outspoken about their shame. A player named Bernadette (a pseudonym) even quoted the Bible to justify his time playing on a game console.

“When I left home to play games, I found others to think of me as a madman. They felt that I was demented. But the Bible said, “I tell you the truth: if you don’t turn, become a child’s style. Can not enter the kingdom of heaven. In the Deschute report, Bernadette quoted the Gospel of Matthew (Chapter 18, Section 3).

“Talking to these people and understanding their outlook on life can be a life-changing influence for me,” Deschute said. "With the elderly, their attitude is always calm, they seem to say, 'Look! This is my life.' Or, 'I am such a person.'"

Deschute believes that the natural results of the elderly group gaming experience show that the elderly game group is not only the most diverse group of players in history, but also the most difficult to develop targeted games in history, even if they do not consider their inaccessibility to the game. .

“There is no 'single old player', this is a false proposition,” Deschute said, referring to the same old-fashioned player image – waving the Wii controller and holding the game console like a high-powered baby. Look like that. “If you are 18 years old, your parents’ career and socioeconomic background may be different, but for older adults, that’s just their starting point, and their path to life is shaped by each person.”

Deschute, like other scientists, has a keen interest in how to best classify the variables he touches. He found that older gamers can be roughly divided into the following five categories:

Killing time type: This type of person will only play the game when he is doing nothing, and will stop once more important things appear;

Freedom Fighter: These people play games to enjoy the thrill of controlling their own destiny. Usually they are decades of senior office workers working for the boss;

Compensatory type: These people play games in order to obtain the experience they have always lost, or to retrieve things lost because of old age, such as incomplete family, lack of interpersonal circles;

Pursuit of value: This type of person has a clear goal in playing games, that is, to hope to gain "worthy things" through the game experience, or to increase knowledge. For them, the game is a channel to other fields, not just an experience;

Old urchin type: refers to those grandparents who are born to love all kinds of games, whether it is video games or other games.

However, research does not end with classification. Deschute and other researchers have received personal insights from many players who do not agree to classify themselves into simple categories.

“I often stay alone at home, and I rarely see people every day. To be honest, I am not a person who likes to be alone,” Deschute reported referring to 66-year-old player Georgette. “So these games are very important to me, I I will play all day long. This is really a cure."

In many things in the gaming and technology world, the problems come from both developers and consumers.

Aiming at the future

In the 1980s, David Mullich, the famous horror game master, worked very easily on one of the first educational and entertainment software vendors: Edu-Ware, where he served as vice president of software development. Mulik was only 23 years old, and most of his colleagues were also young people in their twenties. One day, an older gentleman came to his office to interview a programmer. In his resume, he has long experience in programming in the aerospace industry, which is very suitable for the company's requirements.

Mulik thanked the interviewer and directly rejected him.

In 2014, about 30 years later, Mulik found himself slipping to the other side of the allegorical interview that year: he was applying for a junior position in a big-name studio. At that time, he had experienced the game master design of Activision, 3DO and other companies in his professional career, and his own consulting company also succeeded. The British magazine "Imperial" also named Mulik's pinnacle "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" as one of the best PC games in history. Regardless of any aspect or goal, Mulik's resume far exceeds the requirements of any company.

Screenshot of "The Vampire's Avoidance of the Blood". Source: gog.com

However, Mulik did not even receive any interview calls, usually receiving a simple rejection email. In the five-year job search process, he was not the first to be rejected by mail, nor will it be the last time.

"At the time, my thoughts (as a 23-year-old young man) were biased. I asked in my heart, 'How could that person be able to mingle with our young bachelor?'" Mulik said. "You see, I used to practice age discriminatoryism because I am not mature. The whole game industry is not mature. I have never considered it more extensively before."

From the young Mulik to today, has the game industry advanced to allow older developers to enter this field? A manager in charge of recruitment said that Mulik may be "too arrogant" because of his brilliant resume, so he decided to behave humbly, but in exchange for others to think that he was doing his job and lost his job.

According to a 2015 survey by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), only 1% of developers in the entire game industry are over 50 years old.

In the gaming arena, more than a quarter of the consumer group is less than 5-10 years old (or has already retired). Therefore, the lack of a sense of old age will likely cause game development studios to collectively miss something that is really attractive to older players.

“It’s not that you have to hire developers who are exactly the same age as the audience. But you must know that there is such an audience,” Mulik said. “I really think that the issue of age discrimination is coming from a culture that is formed within our game developers.”

In the IGDA survey, the age of respondents covered people from 18 to 81 years old. 26% of respondents are from the age of 25 to 29 years old. As the age rises, the proportion gradually declines. However, when it is over 40 years old, the proportion is free to fall. In the IGDA report, the statistics of older developers are almost too small to count. According to the report, the statistics show that “the most typical game industry practitioners are white males of 32 years old, who have university degrees and no children.”

“Many studios are small, people are close, just like a family atmosphere, so they look forward to being able to 'integrate' members,” Mulik said. “Acquiring young people, especially younger ones, can accept long hours of work, and newcomers who are new to the line have lower wages. When interviewing older job seekers, they will ponder, 'this person does not seem to I will be happy to go out for a beer with us after work, and I will not play games with us during the lunch break. 'Beyond the technical aspects, he will not integrate into our social circle.'

In the marketing strategy, the problem also exists. Products sold to older people are trying to convince them that these games can offset their age effects rather than accept them, Deschute said. Brain games like Lumosity and BrainHQ try to sell a hypothetical “opportunity” that improves brain function by doing “fun” mathematical puzzles, even though science The world generally believes that it is impossible.

"The sales of mind games are certainly impressive, but your sales strategy is based on the assumption that older people are afraid of getting older and are afraid of Alzheimer's disease," Deschute said. "People driven by fear can buy anything. The message conveyed by these games is: As an old man, you should strive to restore your youth. Because you are not young, you have nothing to do with society. Is this a mess? ”

Celia Pearce, co-founder and design consultant at Indiecade Studios, released a study of baby boomers (born after World War II), shortly before Nintendo launched the Wii console in 2006. Pierce also noticed Nintendo's distinctive show at the AARP conference that year.

“Obviously, they are targeting that part of the audience. There are many surprises from a cultural perspective,” Pierce said. “There are respects for the old in Japan, China and Korea. This is what we Lack of. Especially the Japanese, they first studied the impact of mind games on Alzheimer's disease. And we basically just said, 'Hey, you are too old to work; or you are not in good health, Let's still focus on what you are."

If the game industry is not ridiculing old players and senior programmers, then simply ignore their existence. The problem of driving female players away from the game, such as the content of sexual harassment, gender discrimination, etc., also makes it impossible for older players to join certain game communities.

"The fact is that those people don't seem to exist in the gaming industry," Pierce said. “The game industry doesn’t even think about it or study these people. I used to work for a certain vendor, and their business has an online community part, and the players inside it call it the 'sexual harassment simulator’. I have suggested that you can do something. Improvements to protect the player's personal space. Their answer is very concise: 'Well, there are few female players anyway, it is not worth adjusting.' I have to say 'The reason why there is no female player is exactly here.' Older players are the same. Game makers know why people love to play their games, but don't know why people don't like to play."

In 2014, Pierce joined the IGDA Developer Satisfaction Survey, which has been quiet for several years. This survey included non-mainstream developers, students, and academic researchers for the first time. The results of the study show that age discrimination is the second discrimination after sex discrimination in the most commonly mentioned discrimination.

“We already know that our attitude towards gender is problematic,” Pierce said. "This is obvious. But I think that before the investigation report came out, we did not really understand the depth of the problem of age discrimination. This is not a fantasy world or a dream, this is a business opportunity."

AARP has begun to make a profit on this opportunity. Each month, AARP's online gaming platform has 1.1 million unique users. Recently, AARP has increased the number of free games that are frequently cycled online from 25 to more than 100. This size is at least partly attributed to the association's #DisruptAging theme and its recently published research report on older gamers.

“People often love to say, '50 years old is the new 30 years old'. This is not right; 50 years old is the new 50 years old. People should be the masters of age, not bound by that number,” AARP Digital Digital Chief Digital Officer (CDO) Sami Hassanyeh said. The association's research supports most of the facts discovered by Deschute and Pierce, and points out that more than 50% of these gamers identify "fun" as the primary motivation for their game, not rehabilitation.

From this perspective, the AARP recently co-sponsored the game development activity “Social Co nnection GameJam” at E3 2016 in Los Angeles, and awarded a $10,000 grant to an independent team of three student developers. A total of 28 teams were selected for the event. The campaign challenged applicants to create a game targeting players over the age of 50 to help them expand and improve the quality of their social networks. Hassanye said that this strategy comes from the AARP inter-generational STEM seminar. The students' work was judged by well-known insiders, including Civilization developer Sid Meier, Funomena owner Robin Hunicke, YouTube star Freddie Wong, and well-known actor John Ratzenberger.

“We will definitely pay attention to how technologies such as virtual reality can help people, whether they improve their lives, improve their socialization, or reduce their sense of loneliness,” said Hassan. “One of the reasons we did this with ESA is to Tell the game developers that you missed a large wave of potential consumers who have a trillion-dollar net worth. You should develop some games for them and communicate with your audience. This is the key to success in any industry."

The shame that plagues older gamers is not unique to this industry.

"(Older people) don't think they are gamers themselves," Hassanje said. “We also saw this in other studies. When we asked the respondents whether they were (in family relationships) a caregiver, they didn’t think so. But actually they are actually taking care of their spouse, Grandchildren, uncles (舅舅) or aunts (aunts). We tend to classify them quickly into a certain category, but I don't think people will easily put themselves on a label every day."

Another obstacle that older players need to overcome exists outside of game development and game culture. The 80-year-old YouTube red "Snowy Grandma" has also received some comments from the audience.

“I like to chat with the viewers who come to see my videos every day, so that I can really meet some people,” said Grandma Shirley. "The reason I am very frank about my age is that I want them to know me. However, there are often young people who leave messages maliciously, such as 'roll, you don't belong here, you are too old.' I think the game industry There are also faults because they don't agree with older players. I talked to many older gamers about this. They generally don't tell others about their age, but hide behind the anonymity because of the malicious ones I received. Comment. They told me that I was so grateful that I was so grateful because they felt they could not do this."

We all get older

Deschute believes that 2016 will be a year in which the gaming industry has finally begun to seriously address these issues.

“At this GDC, I felt for the first time to participate in the feeling of an unprecedented home in any previous conference,” he said. “Before, I often felt that people didn’t know what to do. In the past, I talked with some companies, and often I went to talk to them. Although it was not directly rejected, the response was mostly: 'Ah, the idea is quite interesting. We I will talk in the future, but not today. 'At this year's GDC, I made a speech. Suddenly, the 400-seat lecture hall was packed, and the audience either paid attention to this issue from a social point of view (because we all have to get older), or I care about this topic from a business perspective. Many people have told me that they like this "new" market and can make more money while doing a good thing."

From noon to evening, Deschute's schedule is full of people, and some of the industry's biggest people want to discuss with him the future of the game for the elderly audience. When Deschute was asked, given that older players are often limited by certain factors – such as the apparent lack of motivation for the elderly, cultural hostility, and even the most basic point, that is, the elderly are less likely to touch the game – then When a large number of players who grew up with the game gradually became old people, the above factors will not be offset naturally. He replied that he believes that some factors will still be ubiquitous, such as their health and the world view. Also need to be open.

Just as players are always happy to think that the future of the game is bright for everyone, game makers must also figure out how wide audience they are developing and selling.

"Actually, what you are concerned about is a very important social phenomenon that will affect the success or failure of the participating players in the industry," Deschute said. “Which companies can sell their games to the elderly, they will be as successful as a company with a younger customer base, which will happen ten years later, or five years later, or just tomorrow.” Lal Mr. Barr believes that the game community will open its arms to meet the loyal players who have come along, and their number will increase. The next generation of older players will flock to which gaming experience, how many of them will resist the ubiquitous challenges and stick to it. The current answer is still unclear. Innovators and leaders in the industry can't repeatedly ask the "father of electric travel" how to think, because we will all grow old.