Old Gamers
May 14, 2009
I was reading Charles Stross' keynote address. He mentions that gamers of the future will be old, since presumably those of us currently playing video games won't stop. And like seniors of today, we'll have the most disposable income and leisure time, so the games industry will probably be catering to us. This made me think of the kinds of games I'd like to play in 20-30 years.
Physical fitness games. Wii fit is a good prototype for this. Also DDR.
Ubiquitous games. Presumably we'll all have awesome portable devices with ridiculously fast wireless Internet access. We need to use this to have always on MMORPGs that reward you for meeting other players in real life.
Social games. The older I get, the more friends I have, especially since it is so easy to keep in contact with them via facebook, twitter, and blogs. We'll need ways to play large-scale, asynchronous games with all the contacts we built up over our lives.
Games I can play on the beach.
DC: 2009-05-18 09:39:27
To add another point, the research on the elderly (i.e. beyond the 20-30 years from now range that you mentioned) indicates that the most pressing concern is loneliness. I think we'll want games that help us meet and interact with new people more than games that we play with our old friends.
The other thing I consider is that we probably won't have hands that are quite so spry or minds that operate quite so quickly. I suspect we'll see more ergonomic controls and more turn-based games over the years.