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Devs desperately trying to shed the 35 average age gamer image
ThomasN7
87.18.7.148Member CommonPosts: 6,690
It has been a known fact for several years now that the average age of gamers is somewhere between 28-35. I firmly believe developers want to shed that image in the worst possible way because to them catering to the older crowd does not equate into long term profits because they feel that when player get older they lose interest in gaming which ofcourse has been proven wrong on so many accounts already. They feel by making our games look like Disney cartoons, more accessible to a larger audience ( which really means lets cater to the 10 year olds ) and dumbing down content just for the sake of sales is the right way to go. Here are just a few examples..
1. WoW - Cartoonish graphics and character models used to attract the younger crowd and trying to make the game more accessible to younger players. I think at one time the average age of WoW players was 18-19 but I believe that has changed drastically now. Heck most people are leaving this game because Blizzard made WoW super easy to appeal to younger players. Ooops almost forgot to mention pandas!
2. Warhammer Online - Used almost the same art style to accomplish the same goal as Blizzard. They failed miserably.
3. The Old Republic - The stylized realism term was highly used with Bioware. They tried to actually convince us that is wasn't WoW 2.0. Obviously the attempted failed miserably as well.
4. Guild Wars 2 - ArenaNet's art style was a failed attempted at getting rid of the older mature players in the game for in favor of the 10 year olds once again. Not only the art style but the actually storybook like cinematics they used was just god awful.
5. Diablo 3 - Blizzard completely changed the art style in their game just to make it appeal to a larger audience meaning once again, the 10 year olds. it sold something like 12 mill copies but the game only sold thanks to Blizzard North's great reputation.
6. Everquest Next - Same thing, the game looks like a Walt Disney cartoon. They want the game to appeal to the much younger crowd. This game will not be for the hardcore players or even the mature audience. Yep headed for failure yet again.
7. Dragon Age 2 - Completely redid the art style, results were quite messy to say the least. The actual game was actually bad compared to the original as well.
You could also throw in Free Realms, Aion and Wild Star.
So this is only part of the reason why mmos for almost the past 10 years have had minimal success to complete failure. The truth is that the average gamer between 28-35 is never ever going to go away. So if developers keep on trying to shed that older gamer image mmos will always continue to have average to near failure results.
Here is also a little bit of factual info I found about the average age of gamers. This poll was taken in the UK.
Comments
You opinion is horrible...
Why would a game company want to "get rid" of any profit.
The only company that does this I know of is "Abercrombie and Fitch" because they don't want obese people wearing their clothes... because people wearing clothes is a marketing tool.
That would be a bonus but it has more to do with ensuring smooth running on a greater number of machines(more peopel being able to run it = more profit) and in EQN's case saving resources for emergent AI and a destructible world both of which will require more demand on your computer than static worlds and AI to render.
Logic fail.
The fact is, game companies are embracing gamers of all ages, and as technology spreads, more people across all age groups will be playing them. Trying to "shed" older gamers would be one of the dumbest business moves of all time. Big games, such as ones you mentioned , need as many subscribers as possible and the developers surely don't care how old people are.
The stylized graphics are easily explained and have nothing to do with your theory. I'm not even going to bother discussing it further, because if you really think games like EQN have stylized graphics because they want to get rid of older gamers, then you and I are unlikely to get very far in a discussion.
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
Darksiders and Darksiders 2 failed miserably. Dragon Age 2 was hardly a success either. Sure SOME may have liked these games but they hardly even came close to financial success.
I thought that GW2 graphics and style looked great. What broke that game for me after 2 weeks was:
Logic fail ? I guess you missed the factuall link I posted as well. Not to mention you can look it up on the internet yourself. So much for logic eh ?
Exactly, I am 37, and I love comic, manga, Anime... I also love Movies, Reading, Football...
I know what to really appreciate... good fun, social friendships, and kickin the crap out of some bad guys.
Yes there is more as to why games fail but their initial intentions are to carter to the much younger crowd.
Darksiders is based on a popular comic so the IP is itself is still successful otherwise they wouldnt have chosen it to make a game in the first place. Obviously the game was successful enough to make a sequel and a third is coming along the way. I dont know what you mean failed miserably just because they are not big hits? Just because Dragon Age 2 wasnt a success because of its gameplay and small world, it is still visually better than the first one and not cartoony at all.
And still the fact is ages 25-35 are fans of many things with stylized art.
Seriously where do you guys come up with this crap?
Art style appreciation has nothing to do with a players play style. I would fall into the sub-set of hardcore gamers (play and raid a lot), yet I loved the EQN graphics.
What sort of surveys or metrics have you gathered that support your claims about the relationship between casual gamers and stylised graphics?
Someone who actually did do some research found that the average WoW age was in fact 28 - http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/world-of-warcraft1.htm
That means over half the remaining players, around 4 million, are over the age of 28. Hardly what I would call immature or childish.
TLDR: Stop making up things to try and prove your own agenda. There is no correlation between art style and the age of players, or their playstyle. Quite a lot of hardcore raiders are looking forward to Wildstar, which is also heavily stylised.
Lol, I was thinking the same thing.
I am 35 and I am not going anywhere anytime soon. Gaming has been part of my life for too long, even if I don't live in my mom's basement anymore....
And not since I was 21 either.... Lol.
EQ2 fan sites
Logic fail.
The fact is, game companies are embracing gamers of all ages, and as technology spreads, more people across all age groups will be playing them. Trying to "shed" older gamers would be one of the dumbest business moves of all time. Big games, such as ones you mentioned , need as many subscribers as possible and the developers surely don't care how old people are.
The stylized graphics are easily explained and have nothing to do with your theory. I'm not even going to bother discussing it further, because if you really think games like EQN have stylized graphics because they want to get rid of older gamers, then you and I are unlikely to get very far in a discussion.
Logic fail ? I guess you missed the factuall link I posted as well. Not to mention you can look it up on the internet yourself. So much for logic eh ?
Welcome to 10 years ago. And yes, logic fail.over 20 years of mmorpg's and counting...
You do realize that THQ is no more right ? The success those games has were so outstanding right ? Obviously you are not going to please everyone because everyone has different tastes but as I said the long term stability of mmos have been such a huge failure because of their initial intentions of wanting to cater to a much younger audience. I will give you that there are some people above 25 who love comics and cartoonish art style but they are clearly the minority in a much larger mmo world here. I even still love some spiderman comics but I know I am in the minority considering my age.
Free to play = content updates for the cash shop. Buy to play = content updates for the cash shop.
Subscription = Actual content updates!
This is just another one of those ..."I stubbed my toe on a rock while looking up so clearly the sky is out to get me " type of " logics "
I and many many millions of adults enjoyed playing wow even with all it's cartoony graphics. It wouldn't have been my first choice for art style but it didn't stop me from playing a good game.
The only thing that should drive a real adult away from a game is it being a bad game design. A mature rational decision, not a knee jerk reaction to something...or worse. Peer pressure dictating to you that adults can't play a game that has xxxx in it because only kids like that.
um everyone knows that THQ went under due to mismanagement not because their games sucked.By your reasoning franchises like Company of Heroes,Warhammer 40k :Dawn of War,Saints Row and others were horrible and failures.
And Darksiders wasnt the reason why THQ went down, it was actually because Saints Row 3 failed and because of the UDraw device they made. Nordic Games still have Darksiders, all they need to do is find another publisher. Oh and Bioshock is a big hit with adults and that games art style is very similar to EQ Next
Black Desert will be what you need then. I'm 33, love stylized art in games. They don't get outdated and are easier to upgrade later. It seems that Black Desert might be what you are looking for. It certainly isn't stylized.