Grandma ♥ DS
Friday, December 7th, 2007
Penny Arcade had a fantastic post and comic a couple of days ago describing their revelations around how non-gamers approach games.
I was particularly interested in Tycho’s comment about Brain Age being a gateway drug to other game content in that the casual market can warrant spending time with it as a kind of chore. “Gym for your brain” indeed. The thing is that when I go to a real gym I actually tend to enjoy it at the same time. You get the rush of endorphins, maybe listen to a bit of music while you’re there, get a bit of downtime, and as a bonus you’re getting fit and healthy. It isn’t nearly so much of a chore as Brain Age, which isn’t very fun to play, and is potentially a very stressful experience.
But the game has still been hugely popular because it has tangible relevance to the casual gamer’s real life. People are ready to throw time at any inane activity as long as some reliable source says it’s good for them. I wonder how much more we could expand the market if we actually made these experiences fun and explorative at the same time, as well as being certified “good for you.”
4 Responses to “Grandma ♥ DS”
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I guess I don’t really see it so much as a Gym for my brain, rather its probably closer to mental stretching . Its the boring thing you have to do before you workout so you don’t pull a muscle.
I agree though, however I do enjoy how sweaty I don’t get from playing it.
A gateway drug? That’s actually quite a funny idea! Game developers aren’t usually compared to drug pushers… unless you take WoW into account. I tried Brain Age once, and can see how people think it’s good for you.
If only I could get them doing something even more useful… like doing my tax returns for fun! Now that’s meaningful play :D
I’m just commenting about videogames in general here…
I don’t find it strange that RockStar released ‘Table Tennis’ for the Wii, following it’s violent videogames releases – because they played this sport in real life. I have semi-retired from videogames playing because of the trend towards more and more violent videogames. In the last few months I have been getting back into playing real Table Tennis and enjoying it more than ever.. Anyway – developing non violent videogames or less violent is only limited by one’s imagination – and it has always been easier to design destructive and violent videogames than creative generative productive games. I remember an old BASIC computer game listing in C&VG called “Engineer” in which you built a simple bridge, and then have some guy walk across it. With todays computers, etc it would be wonderful to see a modern day version of this with all the bells and whistles possible now.
Well, I have seen a few bridge building games, albeit without all the bells and whistles…
http://www.chroniclogic.com/
There’s games there called “Bridge Construction Set” “Bridge It” and “Pontifex”, which all sound like what you’re talking about. I see they also have free demos there too if you’re interested :D