I am 34 years old. Still a young man you would say. So why is it that when I speak to my nephew about video games he always looks at me in a funny way and suggests I should have better things to do at my age?
Video games have, over the years, always been aimed at a younger audience. However as product sophistication has grown, and revenue potentials been realized, so has the target audience at which games are targeted. A good example of this would be the Grand Theft Auto series. Given an 18 rating certificate by the board of classification surely this game is targeted towards a more mature audience?
In some respects this is true. However, much like the 'alcopop' drinks are clearly targeted at an under age audience, so are many video games. Now, I like Grand Theft Auto - a bit. Its a good game and I can see how it has done so well. But I believe the reason is has done so well isn't so much in spite of its 18 certificate but because of it. As a teenager is is seen a highly cool to be seen with anything which has an 18 certificate attached to it. Lots of violence, swearing, nudity and prostitution - these are all super cool things to a teenager!
However, for a man in his early thirties, running around shooting people and having sex with virtual prostitutes isn't really my cup of tea. I prefer to indulge my gaming urges with something which requires rather more thought and strategy.
Some of my favorite all time titles include the Football Manager and Total War series of games. Both require serious time and thought to really gain their full potential. That's not to say they are a hard slog, if that were so then obviously they wouldn't get played - but rather they are enormous fun, just not in the urgent 'shoot em up kind of way.
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