gaming studios are full of people who are squarely in the target market for the product they're developing. this has downsides but in many ways is a huge edge, so in a sense ageism seems more justifiable in games than elsewhere as a close proxy for audience understanding
The average age of a 'gamer' is actually a lot higher than you might think. 35-44 according to this: https://venturebeat.com/business/esa-ceo-64-of-u-s-adults-ar...
Industry veterans get candid on ageism in gaming
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Re: Industry veterans get candid on ageism in gaming
#12gaming studios are full of people who are squarely in the target market for the product they're developing. this has downsides but in many ways is a huge edge, so in a sense ageism seems more justifiable in games than elsewhere as a close proxy for audience understanding
Re: Industry veterans get candid on ageism in gaming
#13So many crap games get made, surely we could afford to cut half of them and redirect the resources towards the other half?
Re: Industry veterans get candid on ageism in gaming
#14It’s weird that people just accept an insane working culture of staying every day until midnight. So many crap games get made, surely we could afford to cut half of them and redirect the resources towards the other half?
Re: Industry veterans get candid on ageism in gaming
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
The average age of a 'gamer' is actually a lot higher than you might think. 35-44 according to this: https://venturebeat.com/business/esa-ceo-64-of-u-s-adults-ar...
That's older than the median age of a human being. Granted, people don't tend to play games before the age of about 7, but that still seems suspect.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/us/census-median-age.html
Re: Industry veterans get candid on ageism in gaming
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
The average age of a 'gamer' is actually a lot higher than you might think. 35-44 according to this: https://venturebeat.com/business/esa-ceo-64-of-u-s-adults-ar...
That's older than the median age of a human being. Granted, people don't tend to play games before the age of about 7, but that still seems suspect.
And I'm sure there are folks older than me who picked them up in their 20s and 30s.
Re: Industry veterans get candid on ageism in gaming
#17It’s weird that people just accept an insane working culture of staying every day until midnight. So many crap games get made, surely we could afford to cut half of them and redirect the resources towards the other half?
Re: Industry veterans get candid on ageism in gaming
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's older than the median age of a human being. Granted, people don't tend to play games before the age of about 7, but that still seems suspect.
Why? Elder Millennials and younger GenXers (born late 70s and early 80s) were arguably the first generation to grow up where video games were mainstream, and that's just a little older than that age bracket. I'm in my early forties, and I've enjoyed everything from the original Final Fantasy to Baldur's Gate 3 over the years. And I'm sure there are folks older than me who picked them up in their 20s and 30s.
I keep having this vision of a retirement home full of aging gamers, electronic and TPRGs.
Re: Industry veterans get candid on ageism in gaming
#19The only way to avoid this in the merciless capitalist culture we live in is to get a contract, and of course employers don't want to hand out contracts (unless you're in the executive suite, where everyone gets a contract).
Indeed, it's a fair argument to say that the artistocrat-serf divide under medieval feudalism is mirrored in the contract employee / at-will employee division under investment capitalism.
A key element in unionization efforts is the promise that all employees become contract employees, thus if the corporation wants to do a mass round of layoffs and re-hires to cut labor costs, severance pay under contract makes this an un-economical option for the executive suite.
For some mysterious reason, this reality is never taught in high school economics courses.
Re: Industry veterans get candid on ageism in gaming
#20I'm aware ageism is a problem, but I'm not sure we should be feeling overly sorry for executives that make far too much more than the (much younger) people below them.