Is it that in order to enjoy computer and video games you need to grow up with them?
Perhaps, but I'd like to offer an additional explanation. I think that games are growing up as well, not in the sense of becoming more mature, but simply becoming, well, better, in terms of audio visual experience and the encompassing experience they provide.
(1984 - AlleyCat by IBM) AlleyCat could not catch the attention of a 20 years old like it can of a 5 years old. In order to capture the imagination of more mature people, complex games are needed. As games grow complex in graphics and content, so does the age group of the people who find them enjoyable.
In short, it's all about the effect of Suspension of Disbelief. As we grow older our Suspension of disbelief threshold grows with us. As the ability of games to draw us into their universes grew, so does the age of the people who are mesmerized by them.
This thought came up after a conversation I had with Shirley, regarding why I find theater boring in relation to Television or Movies; I had to excuse my lack of cultural sophistication to the fact that when I see theater, that's all I see: Actors, a stage, and a script, I never buy into it, because I've been exposed since the day I was born to mediums that suspend my disbelief much better.
It came to me that the same process takes place with computer games, after 3 days in a row that I spent all my free time playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, first time in years that I found myself drawn so powerfully into a game.
4 comments:
... k then, i have not got much to add ... YAY my name is mentioned.
grrr ... i'll do better next time
Shirley - Of course you have nothing to add, perfection cannot be perfected! ;)
Hmmm how long will it take before al 65+ people quit gardening and start spending all their time behind a desktop?
I disagree. I think it is simply lucky for gamers that there's enough demand for this stuff. Unfortunately or fortunately, market forces allow for and create the continuous increase in the quality of computer games rather than romantic sentiments one may have toward computer games. Accordingly, it would be quite difficult to find a 25 year old did not grow up playing computer games, who is hooked to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or the equivalent. In other words, the correlation you are implicitly drawing between the power of habit and the rising sophistication of computer games is irrelevant.
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