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Originally Posted by Angel Netherborn
Are you implying that the older generation actually prefers games that are geared towards long-term satisfaction and not instant satisfaction? On what basis?
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These older younger generation classifications are somewhat annoying since it involves age. Age distinctions aren't really best, since they aren't definitive.
The distinction shows in general play style. The hip crowd just between games, identifies itself with latest greatest item, but cares little about anything.
The mature gamer will strive towards personal goals. It doesn't matter if the rewards are simple or for beginners. Mature player will likely value personal or group acomplishment over some symbolic token as defined by game itself. FoW is defined as "best" by game. As such, for the hip crowd it becomes a must have item. A mature gamer will choose the armor they prefer aestethically.
There is no guaranteed correlation between age and "maturity", but there is a relation.
Studies with regard to that were performed to limited extent in existing MMOs, most of it was done in WoW. They included not only the grind related aspects, but also whole gameplay experience, including the interface, personal and social aspects of players, and overall in-game acomplishments. The most notable ones are the number and level of characters vs. age and gender, preference of 1st perspective vs. 3rd perspective, as well as guild allegiance, and choice of activities.
The general bias between both age and gender has been shown to be vague in certain aspects, but very distinct in others.
Best conclusion that could be made for general case, is that younger players prefer to treat games much more directly as a game (1st person perspective, characters are purely functional characters - twinks). With age, these preferences go to completely other scale (3rd perspective, a single, distinguishing character that serves as their representation with much less regard to character's in-game functionality).
This is obviously related to one's perception of the world. With age, the immersion into the game changes. Most notably, younger player is more likely to treat the game as it is, or compared to other games in terms of features, options and presentation. With age, this perception becomes less relevant, and is superceded by more indirect goals, which may be meaningless withing game terms, but have very high personal value.
Note that all of that was performed for existing MMORPGs (not even all online games, and only on very small sample sizes for other types, like MUDs).
* the above is from a two statistics sites which did extensive studies and also longterm data samples, but I'm unable to find the link right now. Not all of the data there is considered conclusive
The rest can be extrapolated from other genres, especially the content length, and turnaround. As it stands right now, most volume is still generated by younger players, with middle-aged group mostly making purchases for their children.
There is currently no content geared towards senior generation, especially due to large rift between cultures (most notably, US vs. eastern Asia), since each of them has completely different perspectives. Japan has especially different perspective with regards to senior population, coupled with high technological advancement.
So right now, the western markets have either decided to target the proven models for younger players, or continue to develop their brands, by completely disregarding market demographics, and focus on staying true to their genres.
There is currently no long-term proven design that would aim specifically towards older gamers. As such, it's simply impossible to say what works, or what should be provided, since all the data that is available, is based on existing markets, showing only what the desires within current offerings are.
Perhaps the greatest developments were made in China and Korea, with completely casual games like Habbo Hotel, or Audition (DDR online of sorts), which attracted subscriptions of millions and even tens of millions.
Making a distinction based on age has yet to prosper, the only pattern that seems to work reliably, is by making games that are "simple", involve real-world paradigms (none of that killing orcs with +5 axe - "killing", "orc" and "+5 axe" are all completely fictional terms) or use completely abstract concepts. From global perspective, anything that involves various acts of killing, stats and modifiers, or even fictional worlds is already considered hardcore.
Even online, games that have longest reach are simply "games". Not chess, but more like 4-in-a-row.
The MMO market seems to be continuing this direction, with hardcore games becoming overspecialized again, returning to their roots, and alternate games taking a complete break from all those gameplay concepts, and going a completely different direction.
And as such, the classifications between ages withing the scope of current games seems almost redundant. Current games simply cannot be expanded into other markets by any notable margin, but they simply cannot expand beyond the gamer market as it is today - which doesn't include much of senior generation. This market will need to prosper within an entirely different concept of games.
