What adults want from games

This industry is all grown up - it's time for our games to act like it

Words: GamesRadarMatthewKeast on May 28, 2011

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GamesRadarMichaelGrimm - May 28, 2011 4:50 a.m.

All hail Matt Keast.
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garnsr - May 28, 2011 4:37 a.m.

I've always enjoyed the exploration in Tomb Raider, and hate when the combat has to kick in. And Uncharted has never really seemed like Tomb Raider light to me, it's more like Gears of War light, in that Nathan is much lighter and more pleasant (to me) to control than Marcus is, but you play the games mostly the same, hiding and shooting, rather than really exploring like in Tomb Raider. I really wish there were more real exploration games, that's one of my favorite things to do in a game, and we don't get to do it that much.
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DeadlyViper95 - May 28, 2011 3:51 a.m.

(picture of ivy <3) LEAVE IVY OUTTA THIS!!!!!!!!!!!! HER AND HER GINORMOUS TITS ARE AMAZING AND SHALL_NEVER BE CHANGED OR REDUCED IN SIZE
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jaffa_5 - May 28, 2011 3:46 a.m.

i agree fully with every thing in the artical. i think games have gotten stupidly easy cause it holds ur hand the whole time. dev's let me explore the world u spent the last how ever many year creating like i did back in the day. give me characters that well rounded and female ones that come in all shapes and sizes, and checkpoints that dont make me replay 30/60 mins of gameplay and result in broken pads due to fustration. oh and this isnt in the artical but STOP! using us as beta testers im not paying £40 to wait 3 weeks for a patch to fix a game because u didnt want to miss the release date, that shit isnt cool and i never had to do that till this generation of consoles, no excuses sort it out!. rant over :)
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mhendon - May 28, 2011 3:19 a.m.

You get a gold star, sir. This was an excellent article and I wholeheartedly agree with everything you suggest...except for the very last thing. I think that idea sucks. If this sort of toggle became a mainstay in games, it would stand to reason that maturity and immaturity would have an equal presence in every game. It would force writers, who are held to higher expectations by this article, to create a story and characters that can be presented as either mature or immature at the same time. While this might be an interesting challenge, it would shackle a writer in a lot of ways--like Isabella in DA2. She is meant to be a ho. Slapping a turtleneck on her in "mature mode" would simply be out of character. If you didn't want this to be true, you would have to fundamentally change her personality to conform. Lastly, I think that sort of mode would be giving a lot of developers a license to be immature. Why don't we just continue to encourage our favorite medium to move towards the points made in this article and put our Custer's Revenge away once and for all? ...and yes I realize I'm probably taking that last suggestion waaaayyy too seriously. Cheers! Thanks for the great article.
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EnragedTortoise1 - May 28, 2011 2:58 a.m.

Yknow, not all teens are those kinds of teens. I'm 15, I game a lot, and I agree with all those points. It's sad how the stupidest reflects on the majority, instead of the smartest.
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Spartan11794 - May 28, 2011 2:49 a.m.

The only thing I disagree with here is making things age based, it's too easy to get around those things, and I made damn sure my teen brother did not turn out like the stereotypical teen, so I'd personally feel shafted if he couldn't play games just because he's 16, instead there should be a way to determine maturity, perhaps a sort of personality quiz, that way the mature young'uns could still enjoy the benefits that come with a higher level of maturity like you described, and alsoage does not immediately grant you maturity, but implementing a personality quiz could be just a s hard if not harder to do, though it'd still be easier to really find the mature people
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NearNRiver - May 28, 2011 2:49 a.m.

Another 17 year old, and while I could say that many 18+ are as idiotic as teenagers, I can defiantly agree there are a high proportion of immature idiots in the under 18 range, and unless you go into get to know each other gamer, the difference between a high-voiced swearing 13 year old and a 17 year old who enjoys real discussion and knows you probably know more. Also, Portal 2 seems to fulfill... all of these. Yay Valve!
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Losermagnet - May 28, 2011 2:45 a.m.

That whole bit about sexism is a two-way street you know. I'm quite tired of most human male protagonists being beefy he-men with some sort of military background.
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Yeager1122 - May 28, 2011 2:43 a.m.

I would love less Handholding in games like you said were not morons let us figure things out by trial and error part of the fun of a game is figuring things out.
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Mfchimichanga - May 28, 2011 2:40 a.m.

Cmon Im 15 and I don't laugh at boobs or gauff at exploding heads, given that I do enjoy a boob here and there and exploding heads, I do so in a mature matter. Not digging the generalizations here ):< but I agree that violence doesn't equal gameplay however violence does come with the territory of certain games and violence does wonders for gameplay..
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AirickG - May 28, 2011 2:27 a.m.

So I understand that because I'm 17 my words don't mean jack shit for another month, but I would like to say that this is an amazing article! Good Job PS: Why the HELL hasn't there been parental control options in games? Is it really that difficult?
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JohnnyBullet - May 28, 2011 2:26 a.m.

What a great article. Developers everywhere PLEASE TAKE NOTE!!
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Genericide - May 28, 2011 2:16 a.m.

@ mackshizzle: I would argue that the metaphor is not at all comparable, considering that actions figures are pieces of plastic and 'video games' covers an entire medium of expression, same as movies or books. Of course, video games as toys for children are certainly not something that has to go away, but I see no reason why we cannot also have more mature games as well. I don't agree wholeheartedly with all of the points on this list, but they all have a least a hint of truth to them. Well said.
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mackshizzle - May 28, 2011 1:54 a.m.

I always viewed video games as a child's medium, kinda like toys. When you got older and realized your action figure was childish, did you send a letter to the company and complain to make it more suitable for an adult? If you still play them and collect them, fine. But don't expect things to change just because you do. I honestly don't think the industry was meant to support 30 something year old guys who couldn't put down the Super Nintendo controller back in the day.
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Daruniah - May 28, 2011 1:52 a.m.

Weird, I justed started playing Psychonauts yesterday. Also, these points seem to be less geared toward adults than to all gamers. At least the last half of the points do.
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Markoose16 - May 28, 2011 1:43 a.m.

I agree with a lot of this. The game that showed me how bad developers can be at misjudging their audience is Fable 3 (and 2 as well). The game is rated M or 16+ but the developers seem to think we're brain dead. If your game is rated 16+ why on earth are they making it playable for 5 year olds? I know how a map works so give me a map not a 'golden bread crumb trail' or a 3D representation of the area which actually makes the game harder to navigate. The humour is good and one of the few games that can make me laugh (those damn gnomes every time) but when I played it I felt I should be sat there with drool falling from my mouth whilst someone mopped this piss from the floor around me.
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TheHungryLemur - May 28, 2011 1:41 a.m.

The funny thing is, I'm 13, and I can agree with pretty much all of these points!
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NEVEC12 - May 28, 2011 1:35 a.m.

Oh look a grown man complaining about everything. Deal with it
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juicenpancakes - May 28, 2011 1:30 a.m.

I'm actually optimistic that these things will all slowly creep their way into games. As far as being a form of media, games are still in its relative adolescence and are consistently growing. I do not have a doom-and-gloom outlook regarding the future of games (as many do), but a genuinely bright future. And it all begins with the guidance of Keast.
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