Tuesday, December 21, 2004 07:43:25 PM
TECH
New Products For The Aging Gamer
Since the average age of the hardcore gamer is 29,
companies are creating a new generation of games to
accommodate this maturing demographic. The time of
wholesale "death and destruction" is becoming less
entertaining. Aging gamers now demand games that reflect the thrill and exhilaration of "real life,“ while providing the escapism and graphics of cyberspace. Here are some of the new game ideas currently on the drawing board:
1) Grand Theft Audit: The player is required to accumulate wealth by locating kickbacks, contraband and other sources of undeclared income, and hide them before the Tax Man can audit their Piggy Bank. The game has 17 levels, each with a different Tax Code and Tax Bracket. Those reaching the top level are exempted from the Tax Man, but are set upon by the Charity Hordes and The Paparazzi, seeking to knock the player down a few levels.
2) Staff Reduction of Doom: Up to 16 players compete online with each other over a dwindling numbers of staff positions within a global conglomerate. Each player is required to do anything possible to make him/herself appear less expendable than the rest. The player is allowed a choice of assorted sabotage tools, including Slander and Blackmail. Successful players move up a level. All others are tossed from a 40-story building by a caricature of Donald Trump, into a garbage can surrounded by homeless people.
3) Moving Violation: Patterned after many of the most popular driving games, this next generation game requires players to navigate a maze of traffic jams, elderly drivers, car-jacking thugs and small town policemen with ticket quotas. The goal is to make as many trips back and forth between home and work, without losing one's insurance coverage.
4) Sims Child Support: An interactive game, a player must meet,
marry and divorce a SIM before child support payments crush their financial
stability. Players can play in one of two modes: Fertile Fergie or Philandering
Pete. In the Fertile Fergie mode, the player must reproduce as quickly as possible, gaining points and Child Support for each child born. In the Philandering Pete mode, the player must divorce his SIM before she gives birth to more children than he can support. There are no levels in this game, and the player that dies with the most money wins.
5) Consumer Castle of Credit: Players are required to maintain their opulent lifestyle, while keeping their credit manageable. Players borrow and pay off Debt, looking for the perfect balance that allows them to climb the Social Ladder without being knocked off by falling sandbags of Minimum Payments. But watch out for increasing interest rates that can send you back to Level One! This game boasts 256 levels of increasing difficulty.
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