The changing demographic of the gamer

Anyone who’s played video games has heard the stereotype that engulfs them. The anti-social, nerdy teenage male sitting in his parent’s basement, yelling at people over the internet through his headset and rambling on about mana points and such.

Whatever people want to believe, the type of people who play video games is changing. Who says so? The Entertainment Software Association, that’s who.

According to ESA statistics, women of age 18 or older make up a larger percentage of people who play video games (30%) than males age 17 or younger (23%).

Talk about breaking stereotypes.

In fact, the average age of a video game player, according to the ESA, is 33 years old.

It’s an interesting thought: the idea that those Wii commercials with the family sitting down and playing a rousing game of Mario Party is not all that unlikely. Why? Over two-thirds of household heads (69%) play video games.

That’s a large chunk of Americans who are settling in for a night with a joystick, and not necessarily the chunk that people like to believe.

You may think I’m pandering to the ESA by regurgitating such statistics, but those stats are the reason people are seeing changing views with the video game industry.

First of all, games have become “mainstream.” Madden sells a million copies every year, and has all sorts of national tournaments and a televised show to accompany it. Halo has become a pop-culture phenomenon, and the more recent Grand Theft Autos have attracted a wide variety of adults looking for a virtual playground. It’s trendy to have the Nintendo or Atari logo plastered on your clothing, or to carry around a DS or PSP much like you would an iPod. Games are cool.

Another way to look at the way games have become mainstream is through the way they’re advertised. Advertising for video games has taken a more advanced rout. In a lot of ways, certain games are advertised like movies. What I mean by that is that actual gameplay rarely shows it’s face in a national television ad. Instead, advertisers are putting together thirty seconds of cinematic cut scenes involving the story surrounding the game. Everyone knows it’s a video game, but the ad makes the game feel more like an experience, and less like Pac-Man or Pong.

Add to that the countless other items not directly related to the industry that are pandered towards gamers: energy drinks, snack foods, furniture, etc. and you have a whole culture being created, much like the culture around the modern film, television or music industries.

All of the effort by corporations is to accommodate the change in who’s sitting behind the controller. So, ladies and gentlemen, sometimes numbers do matter.

In the end, it’s the changing face of a “video game player” that is making the market more viable and more mainstream. Much like movies, it may not be long until video games truly carve out their place in the entertainment industry.

Because, at some point not to far in the future, no one will remember what it’s like to have never played a video game.

- Drew Quandt

How Nintendo keeps turning back the clock and finding success

Nintendo as a console manufacturer was essentially left for dead during their Gamecube generation. They were clearly in third place when it came to the home console market, and some questioned if they would even remain a console maker for much longer.

My, how things have changed. Now the Big N is dominating the console sales charts with the Wii.

The question is, where can you attribute such a turn around in sales success?

Admittedly, the Wii is not a powerhouse machine with the capability of next generation graphics like the PS3 or 360. It’s games don’t push the envelope as far as new ideas or radical new franchises like Gears of War or Killzone.

In truth, extreme innovations and franchise rennovations were Nintendo’s mistake with the Gamecube: Mario with a waterspray cannon, Luigi with a vacuum in a haunted mansion, A cel-shaded Link, a double-team style of Mario Kart, and a first person Metroid.

What’s the theme? All of the characters and places seemed familiar, but everything about the games was just too different.

Then add the uniqueness of Pikmin, Mario baseball, and Eternal Darkness. All of which are quality titles, but fell far from the traditional style of Nintendo games.

That was Nintendo’s problem. People play Nintendo games to reminisce, and they couldn’t do that with most titles on the Gamecube.

With the Wii, Nintendo brought back a lot of familiarity in their franchises. A traditional Zelda, A more familiar style of Mario game play, even the concept of a first-person Metroid had a comfortable feel to it thanks to its market on the Gamecube.

The new concepts still exist, albeit in a different form: their control.

The Wiimote has allowed Nintendo to innovate while keeping people in familiar worlds. The Wii doesn’t have the power to produce fantastic graphics. However, with great art design, new and improved controls and a gamut of games from very casual to very hardcore, Nintendo has found success.

The hardcore gamers have the Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Metroid Prime 3. The middle-of-the-road people have Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy. New video game players have Mario Party 8, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, and WiiSports. All of these games combine responsive and innovative control schemes with fantastic art and game design. Those are the reasons why nearly everyone played Super Mario Brothers and a number of games on the NES. It was new, fun, addictive and accessable.

Those same reasons have driven Nintendo’s return to power. With the Wii, Nintendo has made their games new, fun, addictive, accessable and familiar.

Forget the Wii’s novelty. Novelty alone doesn’t sell tens of millions of units and create empty shelves 2 years after a system’s release. Nintendo is going back to their roots, all while bringing the video game industry, lots of money and the general public with them for one heck of a fun ride.

- Drew Quandt

Xbox 360 Intercoolers - Yay nor Nay?

Every video gamer who owns a next-gen console lives with the constant worry in the back of their mind that their marvelous console is going to “explode” unexpectedly. Whether it be a Playstation 3, Xbox 360, or even a Wii, the most likely cause of a console’s death is usually overheating. Such is generally the cause of Playstation 3 malfunctions and Xbox 360’s infamous red rings of death.

If there is one thing marketing strategists know about sales, it is that fear is an excellent purchase motivator. In response to gamers’ fears about their systems overheating intercoolers have been developed to provide additional airflow and thereby a supposed increase in cooling capacity. Perhaps the most popular of these intercoolers is the Nyko Xbox 360 intercooler, which is essentially an attachable fan for the back of the console. The great debate out there is whether or not such an intercooler is effective, necessary, or even safe.

My reading on the topic suggests that no, placing an intercooler like the Nyko Xbox model is neither necessary nor completely safe.

For starters, Microsoft has told Xbox users NOT to use the intercooler systems. They are not factory equipped and therefore they void the three year warranty against the red rings of death. Don’t you think if Microsoft thought the 360 needed a set of cheap fans attached to its back they would have placed them there themselves?

Another scary thing about the Nyko intercooler is the astronomical number of negative reviews the thing has gotten. Users have reported everything from lowered voltage delivery to the system itself all the way up to unit actually melting to the Xbox. Some users even say the additional airflow over the stock fans caused them to wear out because they were forced to operate at RPMs they were not designed for. Spending money for an attachable unit that is going to void the system’s warranty and potentially damage the unit at the same time seems completely irrational.

That being said, the cooling needs of console systems cannot simply be ignored. Any game player has to know the limitations of their equipment - just like you have to know the limitations of an automobile to be a good driver. The Xbox, for example, expels warm air out of the back of the system and draws air in through the top (if the unit is placed vertically - which i suggest it should be). The design is such that placing an Xbox in an enclosed area with the front facing out will develop a heat loop where the hot air is pushed out the back, filtered to the front, then drawn into the machine again to be heated even further.

Avoiding problems like a heat loop does not require the use of an intercooler at all, it simply requires the use of some common sense. Consoles should be placed in the orientation that leaves the most surface area in contact with the air (vertical), the heat vents should not be obstructed in anyway (nothing behind or against the unit), and they should be given the chance to cool from time to time. Six hour game stints are not out of the question, i just suggest you let the machine rest once in awhile. Take your game manuals advice and rest your eyes for a bit every hour.

~Skyler Dowling

The Autosave Podcast Ep. 1

The first ever edition of The Autosave’s weekly podcast is online. In it, I talk about the suprising rebound of Sony’s PSP and the anticipated release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl!

Click here to listen

Coffee Tables - not Just for Coffee Anymore?

Microsoft has an interesting new toy out on the market that seems to be flying a bit below the radar – perhaps because the thing costs more than a small car.

Microsoft has developed “Surface” a 30-inch tabletop interactive display computer system (for lack of a better description) that has some interesting, yet somewhat far-fetched, possibilities.

The coffee table style computer will run you a painful 5000-10000 dollars, but man – it sure looks like playing with personal photos is a blast in Microsoft’s ready made videos featuring actors who look like they know about as much about computers as my dog.

The screen does feature one thing that gives it great promise as far as a video gamer is concerned. Multi location input – meaning the screen can draw from any number of inputs (fingers) at the same time. Think of the real time strategy game potential when four hardcore gamers can sit around a table and all control units with their fingers in an epic high-speed multiplayer environment.

My overall take on this attempt by Microsoft is that it came too early. The technology is too expensive for any kind of mass marketing at this time, meaning there are very few developers who are going to produce practical software for this machine and others like it. Surface is not a practical purchase – it provides novelty item type entertainment at best. Any task the Surface can perform can be done more efficiently with any number of cheaper computers. Microsoft’s vision for a Surface style table around every corner is a long ways off. Prices must fall, software must be developed, and Microsoft must prove the machine can do certain tasks better than a conventional computer (Starcraft 4 shipping for the surface??? – never hurts to dream…).

Perhaps it would be impossible for me to completely describe exactly how the unit functions – thankfully Microsoft has provided some ready made promo videos that I recommend anyone interested in this fascinating piece of machinery check out.

~Skyler Dowling