Old Gamers are Old
And by old, I mean in their 30’s (not there yet, I’m safe!). A brutally accurate summary of what lies in wait for me in the coming decade:
Some oldsters don’t even bother trying to outwit the kids with age and experience. “As you get older, your want to be schooled by a 15-year-old supergamer disappears,” says game writer Chet Faliszek, who works for Valve and worked on Left 4 Dead. “You know you can’t beat him.”
Faliszek says that many older gamers gather on the forums of his company’s Steam service to start private matches in Left 4 Dead, a cooperative shooter that forces four friends to work together to survive the zombie apocalypse. Online, it pits players against each other in teams: four humans versus four infected zombies. The situation seems crafted to suit older gamers like myself, who would rather play together than die alone.
That was supposed to be the hook of MAG. The game’s massive battles are meant to bring players together by throwing them into smaller units, each of which is led by a more experienced tactical player.
These leadership roles would seem to be tailor-made for the older gamer, interested more in tactics than being on the front lines. But the job of trying to transform a squadron of teenage strangers into a well-oiled machine must require the patience of a saint — like herding cats, if the cats stopped every so often to call you gay.
Bummer, man. I just hope Portal:2 and Half-Life 3 are out by then.
["21st-Century Shooters Are No Country for Old Men" - Wired]
Tags: Video Games
Pop Transhumanism | Kyle Munkittrick | 
February 8, 2010 3:27 pm
