Atari founder and Pong co-creator Nolan Bushnell has blamed the increase in violence for gaming becoming a male dominated area and its change from a casual activity to hardcore.
"I like to talk about [how] 1983 was sort of the break point where games went from casual to hardcore," said Bushnell to MTV.
"They got violent. They went long form. The violence lost the women and the long form lost the casual gamer. I actually sort of stuck to my roots, and the console game market moved away."
Being the youthful bunch that we are, most of the CVG team weren't playing games back in 1983. But considering notable releases were Pac-Man and Manic Miner, we're not sure we can agree that a sudden wave of violence took over the gaming industry.
Regardless, Bushnell is happy where games seem to be going. "I actually think the future of gaming is going to be much more emphasis on games that are casual," he said. "The Wii was as much about a return to fun games - what I call universally accessible games - as much as it was about the controller.
"There's clearly been a demand for games for everybody else, and that's why I think this is getting so much attention."
Ive yet to meet a lass that wont have a go on a SNES, Mega Drive or 2D XBLA & PS2 games. Give them a 3D space & joystick though & they are completely lost.
I disagree - most women I talk to see games (and sports) as a bit of a waste of time, and would rather do something like 'scrapbooking' or some other creative s**te. The fact that games are violent is screw all to do with it - after all, not like there's not a LOT of non-violent games to choose from.
"The Wii was as much about a return to fun games - what I call universally accessible games - as much as it was about the controller." b******s.
Those kind of games have been around forever. Just because one genre or style is popular doesn't stop developers making another kind. So if you're blaming anyone, blame the sheep-like bandwagon-jumping developers for not making anything suitable for a non-violent market.
Remove the motion controls from the Wii and the current market wouldn't be any more interested in that than they would be the 360 or PS3. That's what got them interested, that's why they're still playing.
Yeah, cheers Nolan. Thanks for telling us something we didn't know. Cuh. Next he'll be telling us that the rise of the home console was what killed the amusement arcades.
Well my Sisters love GTA and Resident Evil and they are most defiantly casual gamers as they are always asking for my help and even my nieces play GTA, although I don't think I agree with any 6 and 9 year old playing those games they don't seem to be changed by it at all they are pretty down to earth and mature saying its only a game what's the big deal!
in my opinion, violent video games are only ever going to appeal to the hardcore gamer. the big turning point i think was international karate in the arcade and the only thing i have noticed in the past few years to attract to the fairer sex / casual gamer are the dance machines. this Wii phenomena is mostly from the excellent advertising / marketing they have had from the word go. take a look at sony's track record on the tv. adverts that make you wonder what the hell you've just been watching, like a perfume advert, what the hell was that all about. take a look at the Wii adverts and you see a guy swinging a golf stick, you see a girl swinging a tennis racket and you see the in game graphics. this sells it to the casual punter and gamer alike. Wii fit, great advertising to all the porkers (and trust me there are a few in the UK) mass body index weight measurement. great advertising nintendo and nothing to do with games!!!! they've got it sussed.
I create games for the PC casual download market. This market is big.
For example BFG: www.bigfishgames.com/index.html?afcode=afd819bbfd81 has millions of subscribers and 70% are females between 35 to 60 years old. Yes, you read it right. They don't call themselves gamers even if some of them are spending many hours a week playing casual games. My guess is that we never had such a big % of female playing video games ever before.
I create games for the PC casual download market. This market is big.
For example BFG: www.bigfishgames.com/index.html?afcode=afd819bbfd81 has millions of subscribers and 70% are females between 35 to 60 years old. Yes, you read it right. They don't call themselves gamers even if some of them are spending many hours a week playing casual games. My guess is that we never had such a big % of female playing video games ever before.
Resident evil 4, metroid, zelda etc etc... All of these are pretty violent. Also, if violence has caused women and casual gamers to leave the scene why hadnt the same thing happened with violent films. The guy clearly has some reason to say this about the wii, probably has a new game on the way or something.
I create games for the PC casual download market. This market is big.
For example BFG: www.bigfishgames.com/index.html?afcode=afd819bbfd81 has millions of subscribers and 70% are females between 35 to 60 years old. Yes, you read it right. They don't call themselves gamers even if some of them are spending many hours a week playing casual games. My guess is that we never had such a big % of female playing video games ever before.
"The Wii was as much about a return to fun games - what I call universally accessible games - as much as it was about the controller." b******s.
Those kind of games have been around forever. Just because one genre or style is popular doesn't stop developers making another kind. So if you're blaming anyone, blame the sheep-like bandwagon-jumping developers for not making anything suitable for a non-violent market.
Remove the motion controls from the Wii and the current market wouldn't be any more interested in that than they would be the 360 or PS3. That's what got them interested, that's why they're still playing.
I agree entirely with you there. Good points well made.
As for the casual market, my wife has been playing mah jong and other similar stuff on the net years before the Wii came along. She plays Lumines on her PSP almost every evening and when she gets a chance, she'll happily play Bomberman, Worms or Hexic on Live Arcade.
Stick her in front of CoD4 or Oblivion however and you'd think she had absolutely no time for gaming. So he might be right that women aren't interested in violent or "long" games.
Saying casual games have made a comeback is an odd statement. Its debatable they ever went away, considering how popular Tetris and the Gameboy was from 1989 onward, the Playstation and its mass market explosion was in the nineties, and games like Buzz, Sing Star and Guitar Hero have been this decade.
Basically, wtf is this guy talking about?! No wonder Atari went to sh*t!
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