Video Games Meet Middle Age Emotions

Note to Self

WNYC Studios

Self-improvement, Tech, Note, Npr, Education, Public, Wnyc, Manoush, York, To, New, Self, Radio, Business, Technology, Relationships, City, Society & Culture, Zomorodi, Newtechcity

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2014

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The first crop of video gamers are facing middle age with no plans to put down the controller. So the games have to grow up too. Expect less blood splatter, more reflection. (This is part 1 of 2 about new kinds of video gamers. Listen to part 2 here.)

Enter the Elder Gamers

At 61 years old, Dena Watson-Lamprey is a fierce Street Fighter competitor. Probably because she's been playing the one-on-one combat game for decades. And also because she hates to lose. "I’m not happy with low scores. So I work at it a little bit," she says with a charming laugh in this week's episode. Though she plays Street Fighter, she dreams of a new kind of game that speaks to her stage in life. A game that doesn't exist yet, but soon will.

'Kid in a basement;' 'Dude in a man cave;' '#Gamergate flame wars;' All of the stereotypes of video gaming paint it as the dominion of young, single men, but when you look at the data, older women are the fastest growing demographic. Add to that the original cohort of young gamers coming up on middle age and there's a swell of demand for a new kind of video game experience.

How Games Will Change

The response from game designers is fascinating. From dealing with a family member’s cancer to managing depression, new games are exploring real-world phenomena like emotional loss, existential doubt, and a simple quest for beauty. They cultivate deeper connections between players, and even among players and their families.

“Our fundamental feeling is that as the audience of game players grows up, there’s a huge opportunity to make things that grow with us,” says Robin Hunicke the cofounder and CEO of Funomena, a game studio in San Francisco.

Mentioned in the show Here's what the guys of Dude Mountain look like. Joey is the one in the hat. Joey McDaniel and Dan Lawrence. (Casey Miner)

What Luna looks like, the next game from Robin Hunicke: Luna (Funomena) Subscribe to New Tech City

If you liked this episode, or this topic, do us a favor and send it two elder gaming friends, or post it on your Facebook wall and tag them. You can subscribe to the New Tech City podcast — it is different than what you hear on WNYC on Wednesday mornings — iTunes, or on Stitcher, TuneIn, I Heart Radio, or anywhere else using our RSS feed.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello friend, this is an episode of Note to Self, but from when we used to be called New Text City.
0:06.9	Same good content, just the old name. Enjoy.
0:11.6	I was talking with my husband, I just got married, he's 33 and he plays a ton of video games
0:16.6	and I was like, are you ever gonna stop playing video games?
0:19.1	And he looked at me like I was a crazy person, like why would you even ask that?
0:24.1	I would love for the characters to grow up, the storylines to grow up and match a lot of the people who are playing
0:31.1	and talk about fears and wants and desires that I have now.
0:39.1	Hi, it's Minu Summer Odie and this is WNYC's New Text City, where digital gets personal.
0:45.1	This is part one of two episodes about video gamers.
0:50.1	This first episode is specifically about gamers who are getting older, aren't we all right?
0:55.1	They're growing out of the shoot-em-ups and they're trying to figure out how to be the first sort of generation of aging video game players.
1:03.1	Reporter Casey Minor brings us this story.
1:06.1	And so Casey, what I love about this is that moment with your husband sort of led you on this quest.
1:12.1	Yeah, and I was sort of like, oh, so you're a grown man with a job and this is not something that you're...
1:18.1	that you see yourself ever growing out of nor do you see a reason you would want to grow out of it.
1:23.1	People say to me later, you know, why would I stop reading books or watching movies?
1:26.1	So I heard that from a lot of people, but it occurred to me that that's probably going to become more than norm,
1:30.1	unless like this weird, man-child phenomenon.
1:34.1	And you discovered that it's not just man-children set to grow old with games, but there are actually a lot of older lady gamers who are paving the way.
1:43.1	I want to start out introducing you to Dina.
1:46.1	I'm a Californian for most of my life.
1:49.1	I lived in Berkeley since 1977, raised kids here.
	...

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