Technology

Games are overwhelmingly made by and marketed to younger generations, argue analysts, while the older demographic is being ignored

They're busy playing the stuff of their young days.

Any game that relies too much on quick reflexes will usually not be good for older people. Easier difficulties can mitigate that somewhat. Turn based games are perfect for all ages, you can take as long as you want to think your stuff through. You don't need to make these games "for old people". I also remember seeing a video that talked about a 70yo man who began playing Asheron's Call (a 1999 MMORPG) with his grandson and really enjoyed the game, to the point he kept playing until it was shutdown for good.^[Found this massivelyop link, but the video is unavailable https://massivelyop.com/2017/01/11/check-out-one-of-the-oldest-asherons-call-players-in-all-senses-of-the-word/]

The industry has spent 40 years chasing the same narrowly defined audience because it was the safest bet, until everyone was chasing it. Imagine if Hollywood only made movies for 18-year-old men. That's roughly the bet games have been making.

True for big studios, false for indies, who, as always, prove time and time again that you can achieve success with "non standard" formulas, such as Balatro, Stardew Valley, Return of the Obra Dinn, Undertale (some survivorship bias is being applied here, lots of indies, even those that follow "standard formulas" more closely, fail to find success, even with good games)

There is a mismatch between the general investment in tutorials for the first few minutes, relative to where actually the player loss happens,

Make the fucking tutorial OPTIONAL and something you pick as an option in the fucking main menu. This isn't rocket science.

But that brings you down to other categories that have been growing, like cosy[sic] games, casual games, and retro. And retro has an advantage in that audience in that you don't need the latest [computer].

There is an important thing to keep in mind here: most casual games are predatory mobile shit. That market has been an absolute cesspool for something like 12 years now, which is almost as long as they existed. Yes, the games are "enjoyable", because they've been finely tuned to be as addictive as possible.

"Give me those 60 year olds who watched Star Trek the original series," he concludes. "Come on down, play Star Trek Online with me."

STO? Pass. Unless we can kill this dude: