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Grandma loves the 360

J

jiggle

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10303022/from/RS.2/



---For more than a week, Barbara St. Hilaire has been logging heavy leather recliner time, snacking on a big Tupperware bowl of jalapeno-flavored popcorn, yelling grossly unprintable words at her 35-inch TV -- all the while trying to kill ghosts in the horror video game Fatal Frame 3. The 69-year-old grandmother is a gamer, no joke.


---In fact 19 percent of all computer and console gamers are over the age of 50, says the Entertainment Software Association, the industry's trade group..


---Still, a 69-year-old who spends a Saturday afternoon in Wal-Mart test-playing Xbox 360s is no ordinary gamer. "I'd kill for one of those," St. Hilaire says.


---"Last night, Grandma did it. Final time on Growlanser III: 64hrs 45 min. Final time on Growlanser II: 31hrs 10 min. Total combined time on Growlanser Generations: just under 96 hours. Solid. Total bags of popcorn consumed: 37. Total cans, 12oz Diet Coke consumed: 54."




Wonder if I'd still be playing when i'm 70. PS9 will be out by then?
 
---In fact 19 percent of all computer and console gamers are over the age of 50, says the Entertainment Software Association, the industry's trade group..
Click to expand...
I'm sorry, but that's complete bullshit. But then, so are most of the ESA's statistics.
 
Link said:
I'm sorry, but that's complete bullshit. But then, so are most of the ESA's statistics.
Click to expand...

Note the word "computer" in the stat. Does your 52 year old mom play solitaire or slots on her PC? (mine does).

Yup, that makes her a gamer.
 
Link said:
I know that's how they get the results. It's still complete crap.
Click to expand...

Why? Because those games weren't paid for? I mean, it isn't "how" they got their results... those ARE the results. They ARE using playing an interactive electronic game. My mom started with slots and solitaire and is now hooked on some of Popcap's games. They ABSOLUTELY count as gamers, IE people that consume videogames... that participate in the medium.

If you wanna get into other stats, like console gamers, or people that PAY for games instead of what is preloaded on their machine or what can be found online... then that data is out there too.
 
GDJustin said:
Why? Because those games weren't paid for? I mean, it isn't "how" they got their results... those ARE the results. They ARE using playing an interactive electronic game. My mom started with slots and solitaire and is now hooked on some of Popcap's games. They ABSOLUTELY count as gamers, IE people that consume videogames... that participate in the medium.

If you wanna get into other stats, like console gamers, or people that PAY for games instead of what is preloaded on their machine or what can be found online... then that data is out there too.
Click to expand...

No, it's bullshit because they applied the wording as, "In fact 19 percent of all computer and console gamers are over the age of 50."

I doodle drawings now and then to pass the time, but I'm horrible at it, and all I use is whatever pencil or pen I have on me and on whatever medium I have on me (usually a napkin). I'm weaksauce.

If someone called me for a survey and asked me if I was a physical medium graphic artist, I'd laugh and say no. If they'd said if EVER IN MY ENTIRE LIFE HAVE I DRAWN OR PAINTED ANYTHING EVER NO MATTER HOW BAD, I'd say sure.

Then the group would publish some outrageous poll result calling 99% of people paint or draw.

Then some article uses it and calls 99% of the population "painters."

That would be absolutely thrown out by any editor on this planet, because painting and normal people are something that editors know about, because it isn't a niche hobbyist industry.

Gaming is a niche hobbyist industry, so bullshit polls like this can come out and suddenly every old person who's ever played solitaire on their PCs is a bona fide "gamer."
 
This is just disgusting.
Why must this old hag invade my hobby. Go and knit.

Who agrees with me ?!!
Down with old people who play Video Games.

She is female as well. What is this.
Boys have videogames,lego and transformers.
Girls plays with barbies and my little ponys.

And why play games not designed for her?

Now puzzle games, that I could agree with. Or the little mermaid games, those are for girls.
 
hahahax said:
This is just disgusting.
Why must this old hag invade my hobby. Go and knit.

Who agrees with me ?!!
Down with old people who play Video Games.

She is female as well. What is this.
Boys have videogames,lego and transformers.
Girls plays with barbies and my little ponys.

And why play games not designed for her?

Now puzzle games, that I could agree with. Or the little mermaid games, those are for girls.
Click to expand...

balloonknot
 
hahahax said:
This is just disgusting.
Why must this old hag invade my hobby. Go and knit.

Who agrees with me ?!!
Down with old people who play Video Games.

She is female as well. What is this.
Boys have videogames,lego and transformers.
Girls plays with barbies and my little ponys.

And why play games not designed for her?

Now puzzle games, that I could agree with. Or the little mermaid games, those are for girls.
Click to expand...
This was a joke right? :lol
 
jiggle said:
---Still, a 69-year-old who spends a Saturday afternoon in Wal-Mart test-playing Xbox 360s is no ordinary gamer. "I'd kill for one of those," St. Hilaire says.


---"Last night, Grandma did it..."
Click to expand...
:O
 
Well he was being a stupid fucking troll in the FF4 Advance threads, so I imagine that didn't help him either. Knowing his other posts, his post in this thread probably was NOT sarcasm.
 
Juice said:
That would be absolutely thrown out by any editor on this planet, because painting and normal people are something that editors know about, because it isn't a niche hobbyist industry.

Gaming is a niche hobbyist industry, so bullshit polls like this can come out and suddenly every old person who's ever played solitaire on their PCs is a bona fide "gamer."
Click to expand...
There's a much wider gulf between what typically qualifies one as an artist vs. a doodler, as compared to gamer and non-gamer. If grandma can play solitaire, she can play Diablo. Also, as you point out, calling one a "gamer" only qualifies someone as a hobbyist, whereas referring to someon as an artist generally implies that its a profession, a calling in life. The threshold for entry is much higher in the latter case than the former.
 
kaching said:
If grandma can play solitaire, she can play Diablo.
Click to expand...
That's some damn specious logic right there. My mom plays solitaire on her computer all the time, but can barely play something simple like Super Mario Bros., let alone anything more complex.
 
If grandma can play solitaire, she can play Diablo
Click to expand...
yeah I gotta disagree with that. hah, I remember reading an Ensemble interview where they said they playtested AoEII with a bunch of non gamers and after just letting them loose on the tutorial for a little while they were getting comments like "I noticed that when I move my guy near the dark spots it makes the island grow bigger"; turns out every freaking body in the panel though the little lighted area was the entire world.

Hah that also explained why the AoE II tutorial was so painstaking. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE 'BLACK' AREAS OF THE MAP ARE PARTS OF THE MAP THAT YOU HAVEN'T DISCOVERED YET. 'Fog of War' is an advanced concept for Solitare players man.
 
Link said:
That's some damn specious logic right there. My mom plays solitaire on her computer all the time, but can barely play something simple like Super Mario Bros., let alone anything more complex.
Click to expand...
Different set of mechanics - please note that I went from one point and click game to another, not from a point and click game to one with arcade style controls and a greater dependency on hand-eye coordination. But, I'll concede that Diablo could be regarded as more than a little strenuous in that last regard at times. So, I'll amend my example to say that if Grandma can play Solitaire, she can play point and click adventure games like King's Quest, Monkey Island, Myst, etc. all regarded by many gamers as seminal works in the hobby.
 
But the point is, yeah, maybe they could play those games, but they don't, and have no interest in doing so.

I wouldn't consider my mother a gamer, and you know what? Neither would she.
 
I don't know why people have such a problem with the research showing that more and more older people are gaming. Yes the lines are blurred between what constitutes a real gamer and somebody who just plays hearts, on the other hand the research does break down the stigma that people over 20 who play video games need to grow the fuck up.
 
The point of my response to Juice was that there's a fairly low threshold involved in getting them there from where they are, which is why there's merit to stat as they've reported it.
 
Link said:
But the point is, yeah, maybe they could play those games, but they don't, and have no interest in doing so.

I wouldn't consider my mother a gamer, and you know what? Neither would she.
Click to expand...

In regards to the REVOLUTION AM CRY remark, what is going to make someone want to play, say, Nintendogs, then? If a non-gamer has the ability to play a "seminal work" and isn't interested, they probably don't want to be gamers. Maybe non-gamers. I guess.
 
kaching said:
The point of my response to Juice was that there's a fairly low threshold involved in getting them there from where they are, which is why there's merit to stat as they've reported it.
Click to expand...
Mechanically maybe, but the comfort gulf between playing a card game on the computer and playing something like Myst is huge.

In any case the point turns on how you define 'gamer' and I think it's apparent that the ESRB is using the loosest definition possible; A stricter definition would provide much more useful data.
 
At least she most likely won't be one of those grandparents that will buy games like Grand Theft Auto for the 10 year old grandchildren and then complain about the violence in it. That's one good thing about playing games at her age. ;)
 
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