Scary food for thought. The video games industry is trying to grow the interactive games business. That is what experts in this area told me this morning on BBC radio. What this means is getting more games to appeal to a wider audience; the existing players are near their limits. Selling to kids has gone nearly as far as it can in developing games based around sports and various forms of combat. Most parents have been driven totally insane in the process by the waves of demands from children as innovations move on.
What does widening the market mean? The expert said that growth needs "building games around personal interests". "OK," said the interviewer, "I'm interested in opera. What kind of game can you build for me?" The expert was caught off guard and came up with some weak ideas: training opera singers for a concert (come on!), games that build around the stories of some operas (more interesting), or being the conductor (those interested are already wielding their batons, real of mythical).Now, I saw the way that my wife was very excited by her young nephew's Wii, which he got as a Christmas present. Her interest was not just because it has a good tennis program but because she liked the energy the kids had to use to keep the games going. You can see in the video clip the kind of action that got her going (and that is not her playing).She even tried it and this lady is as anti-video games as they come.
I see the potential for Wii games that would horrify many a man. One activity that has a large potential audience that never seems to falter is SHOPPING. This must be the basis of THE GAME OF GAMES. Without much imagination you can foresee games about filling shopping trolleys, either at speed or in quantities, or based around types of goods, etc. You can even make it "narcissistic" by having a game based around Internet shopping. It's almost endless because you can have whatever you want as goods on the shelf.
If the makers of Wii follow this idea of games based around shopping I will expect to get more than a pittance in royalties.
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