Broken Base Lookback #5: Or...Wow...I got old too quickly...

[GreyLord]

Broken Base Lookback #5: Getting Older
Posted Today at 08:03 PM by GreyLord
This will probably be my last of this set of articles in relation to a broken base. This one also is perhaps what strikes closest to home for me, as well as what ultimately I see as the BIGGEST divider of the gaming base...that of getting older.

It's not getting older per se...but all the responsibilities that rise up that take us away from gaming with kids, jobs, and other items.

In fact, it's a miracle that I am still gaming looking at how it all wraps up. Amongst all the kids I knew that gamed when I was young...I know VERY few that actually still play the game.

I looked for articles in relation to this, but you know what...I really had a hard time finding one that addressed this specifically. The closest I found that sort of addressed this actually dealt with younger gamers (comparatively, these are the older ones who played Video games of the 80s and such) who played video games and their take on video games now.

The article is full of pretty vulgur language, so be forewarned...and because of this I won't be posting most of the article here. I will post the relavant paragraphs, some a tad edited...

5 Ways to Tell You're Getting Too Old for Video Games | Cracked.com

But ... a lot of the complaining I hear about games (some of which I hear out of my own mouth) isn't really about the games. It's about us, and the fact that once you hit a certain age, you're no longer the target audience game makers have in mind. Here are some signs that, sadly, you might be outgrowing your favorite hobby.

I actually don't think you outgrow RPGs in many ways, but I do think that sometimes you may cease to be a game's target audience...not all, but some of them out there probably are focusing on those younger than you (though you may have a larger disposable income than those young people...which in some ways is irony).

When you're older, getting even four people your age together on the same night could take literally months, and requires the construction of an intricate scaffold of babysitters, vacation days and placated spouses. And then, when it finally all comes together, the novelty wears off after an hour or so and all that is left is the frustration of being absolutely horrible at the game. These games are electronic sports, they require practice. That's why my own kids can head-shot me on the run while jumping off of a building and switching weapons in mid-air.

This I think is the heart of why so many fall away from Roleplaying games as they get older. It's not that they don't like them, but time constraints come in as well as getting with others of your age. I think that's why many sometimes go to hobby shops, gamestores, or conventions to find people to game with. Some get lucky and hunt them down at work or other places like me...but I see many who game look elsewhere.

Boredom is a young man's disease. For me, every minute I spend playing, more stuff is piling up in my work inbox. No, I don't need a game that will kill time. I need a game that will give me the most possible fun in the precious few hours of spare time I get in a week. Trust me, if you ever see me reopen my World of Warcraft account, it means I probably got fired from my job.

So, shorter then the others, and talks about the newer phenomena of video games rather than RPGs, but I think much of it is relavant. There are a TON of Roleplayers out there that no longer play. I think the number of ex-roleplayers probably outweigh the number of active roleplayers on a magnitude that many may not even be able to guess.

Why do they stop being a part of the hobby?

When you only have so many hours in the day and so many things to do...you have to set priorities, and for many the priority to play an RPG is far down on the list, especially considering the effort and time it may take in relation to something else you could be doing.

And hence in truth I think if you could find someway to fix this broken base (good luck, I think people have been looking for that repair to aging and not having enough time for the hobbies you want to do for thousands of years and no one has really found a solution yet) you may have an incredibly HUGE influx of gamers.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Thanks for doing this. As a person who's in between being young and old, I really don't want to give up my gaming, it's a part of who I am. You just got to adapt I guess.

Aren't there older game makers making things that appeal to older game players? I can't name any of the top of my head but they should exist somewhere...

 

[Mark CMG]

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” - George Bernard Shaw

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Aren't there older game makers making things that appeal to older game players? I can't name any of the top of my head but they should exist somewhere...

Depending on what you mean, specifically, all of the retro/OSR games would apply, as would almost everything published by Goodman Games or Necromancer/Frog God.

 

[saskganesh]

Aren't there older game makers making things that appeal to older game players? I can't name any of the top of my head but they should exist somewhere...

My guess its retroclones. I suspect its an older crowd, largely people who started playing in the hobby's first decade.

 

[Rogue Agent]

Open Gaming Table

In the process of changing my gaming life.

It's true that we have less time as we get older. It's also true, however, that the types of campaigns we prep and the way we schedule our games has changed over time. The modern form suggested by most games and adventure products is one which makes it much more difficult for people with busy schedules to play.

 

[jonesy]

When I was a child and got irritated at how adults were behaving I made a promise to myself that I would never grow old. That child would be so very disappointed in me now.

 

[Desdichado]

I think a fatal logical flaw of these broken base articles is the notion that the "base" is somehow this solid thing that can be broken and then reassembled. No customer base is like this; and this post in particular (as well as the video games one) seem to be predicated on somehow finding ways to either recover losses to getting older, or mitigate losses from people migrating to video games, or whatever.

Those people are gone for good. The base is a much more fluid concept then these threads presuppose. In fact, the customer base for any product pretty much is. The solution isn't to stop the base from breaking off and being lost, the secret is to build the base up with new customers at a rate that equals or exceeds the rate at which customers are lost on the other end.

 

[AeroDm]

I think a fatal logical flaw of these broken base articles is the notion that the "base" is somehow this solid thing that can be broken and then reassembled. No customer base is like this; and this post in particular (as well as the video games one) seem to be predicated on somehow finding ways to either recover losses to getting older, or mitigate losses from people migrating to video games, or whatever.

Those people are gone for good. The base is a much more fluid concept then these threads presuppose. In fact, the customer base for any product pretty much is. The solution isn't to stop the base from breaking off and being lost, the secret is to build the base up with new customers at a rate that equals or exceeds the rate at which customers are lost on the other end.

I think this is a good point and easily illustrated with the aid of the video game market (appropriate given the articles GreyLord used for this post). The video game market polarized around PS3 and 360 despite being very similar systems with similar functionality. They have a few differences to distinguish themselves and that was enough to create firm camps. At the same time, Wii shot off on its own, going for a simpler experience that is every bit as fun as the intense PS3/360 games but very much distinct.

It is possible that a new console will come along and win the entire PS3/360 portion of the base, but the Wii enthusiasts are probably never coming back into the fold. When a base fractures, it fractures along fault lines. Those new bases can then better serve their audience and become better games as a result. Sometimes a broken base is the first step to something great.

 

[Umbran]

Hm. A thought that maybe hasn't been considered....

D&D had a major heyday in the 1980s, with lots (millions?) of teens playing, right? Those teens then went off and had lives.

A kid who was 12 in 1982 went to college in 1988, and things started getting busy. He (or she, though at the time the hobby was pretty male-dominated, I'm led to believe) got married after college (after 1992). Today, that kid is 40+, and has kids of his or her own.

But, in a few more years, that kid will be 50. The kid's kids will be off on their own. He'll still have a career, but will have fewer day-to-day commitments...

Anyone thinking ahead to how to get those older folks back into the market? I'm not talking about a retroclone - retroclones are the same game you played back when you were a teen. Accept for a moment that 30+ years and raising children and a career later, the kid's a changed person who will want different things.

Anyone thinking of a game to appeal to that older, changed person? You wont' get all of them, of course. But,if there were so many of them, maybe it is worth it. And there'll be a constant flow of old lapsed gamers who have time falling back into their hands...