This is a little off topic as it's not about any particular game, but about gaming as a whole.
I've noticed over the last few years this weird phenomena amongst gamers that I've mentally dubbed "gamers mid-life crisis." Let me illustrate:
The above image macro was posted on reddit earlier this week due to the game-o-sphere's preemptive knee-jerk reactions over GTA V's yet-to-be controversies. My initial reaction was, "
thirty???" This just sounds like a lie. Either the creator doesn't know the difference between average and median or its using only the most inclusive definition of "gamer."
People were quick to call bullshit, and people were quick to say "nuh-uh!1!" "I'm a 30 year old who loves games" ipso facto I must be the game devs target audience and thus the average gamer. I had an argument with my best friend about the very subject over a year ago. On the one hand, there's truth to it, their target fits most aspects of their profiles (editorial example: "Did they buy the last piece of shit we shoved their way?") but the late 20 to 30 age is merely coincidental, and certainly not who game devs market towards.
They market to, as the have for the last 10 years or so at least, to 15-25 year olds (and I think I'm being generous with the 15 because its probably more like 10.) However "gamer culture" also has this "take me seriously" complex and if the medium is largely focused on kids (young adults) then it's hard to call yourself a serious medium. At least, in their eyes for some reason.
Its like the animation ghetto. For a long time animation was the cheap, disposable alternative for children's programming. It's matured over time, as have video games, and has resulted in some great masterworks. (And I don't mean "rated M for mature, mature".) Even with your Akira's and your Coralines, or Finding Nemo's, or Persepolis' animation is still largely aimed at kids. And to me, as an animation fan, that's perfectly fine. I can still go and enjoy Monsters University even if I know it wasn't made with me in mind.
Video games have certainly progressed since Burger Time, but even with all the Bioshock monsters and grizzled protagonists with guns, are those any less targeted at teens than say The Conjuring 2 was? Aged gamers seem to be forgetting that they still liked the same things as a kid that they do know. They like the brave hero, they like the "cool badass" theme and scenery, the gorey monsters just as they did when they were younger. Maybe they can contextualize it better and appreciate it more now in their late 20's, but that doesn't mean the games not for the 16 year old version of them that still would be jonsed to play. It's why people like Han Solo or Jabba the Hut and turn around and hate Jar Jar Binks -- because Jar Jar was "
meant" for kids and wasn't cool or menacing
for kids.
This is my theory: I grew up in the time where video games and internet were growing up together. Gamers connected together and with developers and there was that magic point where we were all in high school and had walking around money to buy games and devs were happy to oblige. Even into college maybe games still was an integral part of our lives. That crop of gamers, maybe the first era to label themselves as "gamers" as a lifestyle choice, felt they were the center of the gaming universe. Yet, they over loo the fact there is a mass of new high school kids also discovering online communities to go along with the games they've played since elementary. And as the older gamers get older, they only become harder sells with rent, taxes, babies, etc competing for their money. Who is easier to sell to: a thirty year old with mortgage and a wife and a "entry level, 5 years experience, Great Recession-era" job or the 17 year old who got $100 from his job or dad doesn't know how to spell the word "retirement"?
I don't mean to say there is some age where games are no longer an acceptable hobby (much like there's no age yet where cartoons and legit children's tv or books stop being enjoyable to me.) I just think it's laughably naive when I hear a gamer my age say that developers are still making games for "them" and not for a younger demographic.
What do you guys think?