I worked in the industry for a long time and I witnessed two events that forever fucked the computer games industry.

- Wing Commander IV. In 1995, Wing Commander IV came out. It cost 12 million dollars to make and had voice talent by Malcolm McDowell. It made money but raised the bar on development costs. From this point onward computer games became huge investments and huge risks to produce. Smaller, more innovative games were cut from development, and the age of the multi-million dollar game began. Instead of game developers working on 5 smaller titles, they'd to one big one. Small developers were wiped off the map.

- John Romero. John Romero, of DOOM fame, was hired by Eidos. They gave him 50 million to start up a new studio in Texas. Several years later and a few dozen million more, he came out with Daikatana, which was an epic flop. Eidos died a quick death after that and this caused computer game companies to become even more stingy with development money.

The effect of these two events caused a massive change in the games industry. The days when a creative designer could come up with a concept, present it to a company and get his game produced are long gone, replaced by huge budgets, focus grouping, and endless sequels and movie tie-ins. And sales have suffered.

Computer games are not console games, and the console game industry has always been a big budget affair - with a bigger audience. But the same principle applies and I see the same things happening there. As budgets for these games increase, the risk of producing them gets bigger and the companies become more conservative. In turn this makes their offerings less interesting.

"I am over 50 and just not one of them."

That about says it. Games may never reach your age group, but I am 40 and it certainly reached mine.

To imply that playing games are a symptom of permanent adolescence is pretty insulting. Computer games are simply part of our culture and anyone who grew up after Pong is affected by them, and many if not most people still play.

I play WoW with a guild of other middle aged folks.

-Most have kids.

-Most pay mortgages.

-In the group we have several computer programmers, a librarian, a landscape engineer, a soil scientist, a geologist, a dermatologist, a model builder for films, and a lot of other people with adult-sounding jobs.

-About half have played other MMORPGS, the other half played computer games but are new to massive multiplayers.

And before you say we are exceptions, I suggest you read the research done on average gamer ages. We are not unusual - we are normal people of our age group.

My previous letter concerned the change in the computer games industry over the last 13 or so years. I was not implying that less people were playing games, especially console games, but that there are less games out there to play and less truly innovative games being made. I have played nothing but WoW now for about a year, and one reason for that is there just are not that many good new games coming out. Most gamers will just stick with a game they like until something better comes along - they don't become "ex-gamers".

Anecdotal evidence may not convince you that average gamers are in their thirties, but there has been a ton of research into the matter.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9342

"The average gamer was said to be thirty-three years of age, with 31 percent under eighteen years of age, 44 percent between eighteen and forty-nine and 25 percent fifty years or older. The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is forty years of age"

This was a couple of years ago too. I'd predict the age is even older now - probably thirty five. Sounds like there is

an awful lot of "extended adolescence" out there.

WoW just passed 10 million players. Here's their breakdown:

http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/001365.php

"From the survey data, the average age of the WoW player is 28.3 (SD = 8.4). 84% of players are male. 16% are female. Female players are significantly older (M = 32.5, SD = 10.0) than male players (M = 28.0, SD = 8.4). On average, they spend 22.7 (SD = 14.1) hours per week playing WoW. There are no gender differences in hours played per week."

Face it. Games are mass market. They will continue to be mass market. They are marketed to adults as well as kids. While the industry might be a bit stifled right now, the audience is still there and still playing.

Yawn. Such "controversy".

Is that the yipping of Rush and his doggies? No. Its Salon with nothing else to do.

Congress has a shitload of very important things to do. Reid and Pelosi are the leaders of congress. I don't care about Burris. No one cares about Burris except the talking heads. I want to make sure I can pay my mortgage. I want the economy fixed. I want the war to be over. I want sanity restored. That's what they are there to do. They are not there to walk the minefield of punditry. They are not there to satisfy liberals. They were elected to solve problems.

Fuck the right wing shriekers. Fuck the left wing shriekers. Fuck whatever pet ideology you happen to hold. I don't care. Let congress do their job - which is not to please everyone, its to solve problems.

She's whining that the press took her Russia comment out of context, but it's interesting to note that "You can see Russia from Alaska." is fine and factual OUT of context, but when you put it IN the context of foreign relations and politics, the statement is ridiculously stupid.

Star Trek (any of em) is for kids. Babylon 5 lost me with the annoying russian alien. Doctor Who is fun but silly. Firefly? Missed that season. Stargate and its half dozen spinoffs? Never even bothered.

There is no serious competition. BSG is by far the best SF ever on TV.