The trade group’s “casual/social games” category – which doesn’t include MMOs – now account for almost a third of all games played online. According to the Entertainment Software Association’s 2014 survey, the average age of the “most frequent game purchaser” is 35, an age when sinking 1,000 hours into a grind-y MMO such as Rift might not be possible. We’ve already seen casual and not-so-casual experiences, such as the planetary rover sim Extrasolar, in which players check in with the game periodically to issue orders, see old responses, and that’s it. ![]() Games may even adapt on the fly, tailoring themselves to players who schedule/select/enjoy short or long sessions. There are fewer games that one may “succeed” at, and play sessions shorten dramatically. The emotional states associated with “gaming” continue to diversify. ![]() ![]() Here’s what the future may look like: We play more games in which we only expect to experience a small portion of the game’s universe, or a small number of its mechanics. The rush away from traditional, linear forms of video games and into a mode that could be described as “hobby” games – games that one plays in a tinkering process, like someone who wanders down to a model railroad set after dinner – has been so dramatic that the surge in the general direction of Minecraft and Terraria no longer resembles a mere trend but an awakening in game forms and expectations.
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