What adults want from games

This article makes me think of some of the forum topics that have been popping up at The Escapist, particularly one asking adult gamers if they would be willing to pay extra to ensure a child-free atmosphere, at least for M-rated games. I'm guessing that Keast here would vote Yes. Most of this article I agree with, more or less. A few of these, I want something slightly different from but not by much. On the topic of violence, what I want is Specific Violence rather than the generalized violence against faceless masses which is really just killing time (which is supposed to be on our side. This ally killing will not stand!), somthing adult gamers don't have a lot of in the first place. Two of these items, namely the Nudity related one and the non-sexist portrayals of women are very much interconnected. If women's bodies were viewed as nothing any more offensive or sacred than a man's body, you wouldn't have artists in various media constantly obsessing on designing costumes that get as close to showing body parts that are regularly shown on their male counterparts without getting around to showing it, no matter how badly that makes their costumes clash with everyone else's costumes. That 'carrot on a stick' (or should that be melons in a sack?)/imminent wardrobe malfunction-tease approach to female character designs is played out. The idea that having more fat and glandular activity in one part of the body make it off-limits is a profoundly immature idea in and of itself. Once the female body is demystified enough, you'll likely see a lot more diversity in female character models, at least as much as there usually is in male models in any given genre. If a game could turn out to be as mature about 'nudity' as Kirikou and the Sorceress (and have the same diversity of character body types), I would be pleasantly surprised. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me8O56MqjR8&playnext=1&list=PL92818F103CBC7B85 Hand-holding is necessary to an extent when things such as context sensitive button presses, sensitive movements on the analog stick (what new gamer knows to lightly press the analog stick rather than push it all of the way? Every other button or lever in their levers either works or it doesn't save a gear shifter. Who expects a game control stick to be the same as a gear stick without being told about it?!) and analog sticks being used as buttons. I recall being somewhat confused for a bit when the R3 button was mentioned in Grand Theft Auto 3. If games don't have a new player friendly tutorial, then game systems should have a built-in tech demo (or free down loadable game) game that goes over every possible control method for a game on that system. After that, they will know enough to be able to guess which control scheme the game is going with.

I would just like to say that even though I'm 16, I don't feel like I know everything. Also, my gamer friends and I have intelligent conversations about games and other things (mostly games). All I'm trying to say is, not all the people under 18 are stupid dumbass pricks. Great article though, I agree with pretty much everthing.

Hear, Hear! Great article. Send multiple copies to every game dev!

Damnnn I love features Matt writes, so long, thoughtful and above all good reads.

In a perfect world... *Sigh*

Great article. Mandatory reading for developers out there.

Although I agree with you on most/all of these things, the last one would be quite weird to implement for most games you are probably thinking about. Most of these games are rated mature so in theory the people playing them should be over 17, but thats not going to be true, and it would be weird if the game is for people over 17, yet they have a separate online system for people under 17. The press would have a field day with that. I could see the headlines "Game Developers promoting adult games to children"

I hardly see Portal 2 as a good example of as it was mainly played by children and could be comprehended by a frog thats been hit with a sack of batteries. And hav u seen dem virtual boobs? Only reason I buy games now.

What Matthew Keast wants from games.

Agreed, these are things games should have regardless of age...