my brother's at the university thats doing the tests, i'll have to send him undercover to figure out what their hidden agenda is


There's still a little bit of your taste, in my mouth,
still a little bit of you laced, with my doubt.

I'm surprised it hasn't happened earlier. gaming is big business now and so far the psychology of games/gamers has been largely empirical, partly because it's still relatively new, also because of an inherent social prejudice against gamers (after all, it's *only a game* ) and it simply hasn't been taken seriously enough. Developers have had to rely on their own experience and likes/dislikes and translate these into something with mass-appeal.

There should be enough raw data now though for a thorough scientific analysis of what makes "gamers" tick though, a study which is now being seen as essential to the planned growth of this industry, as much as it is to the op industry or tv production or big-budget films. This will mean less wasted effort, fewer projects dropped at critical stages, and for the bulk of gamers, more of the things they like.

however - theres always an however, isn't there? - it might also mean a general levelling out of games, as standards and content might become more homogenised. if all game developers and publishers have access to the same data, and compete in the same market, might they not tend to come up with the same/similar answers? Every now and then there's a game that's highly original and pushes back the boundaries as it were, and sets a new standard; you may well see less of this in the future, as a lot of the gaming community is happy with pretty graphics, simple plots, and big guns.

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content might become more homogenised

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thats what i was thinking about. if they find out what the consumers like, they'll only be making that, and only in that way, and you get a very narrow variety of games. but its human nature to want the best, so from that narrow range of games, the best will be picked out and bought, so essentially, you get a recurring cycle of 'survival of the fittest' games, with increasingly narrow ranges of games.

at times, you might just get the producer who was original and adventurous enough to put a foot out and make some groundbreaking game. but if this goes on we'll pretty much become robots, playing only certain types of games.

That in itself is self defeating don't you think....they'll only find out what consumers like AT THAT POINT IN TIME. It very much is like US network tv broadcasting.

They are losing viewership every year but they still persist in trying to push out
cookie cutter programs because all they want to do is stick with what workED.

Even if you want to approach things on a lowest common denominator basis, that lowest common denominator also changes over time.

They are looking for aspects that make us tick, not in a type of game. I don't think we should be too worried about similar games across the industry. Small developers will always look for something to make them money, therefor they spend more time on it. The big companies who are still going to be around even if a game is total pants will not be able to plug out the same game with better graphics. Something new has to come out all the time. I for one will make a point out of not buying a game just because the graphics are great. Sure, i'll unwind with some manhunt which has nice graphics and a simple plot. But i believe that older generation gamers want nice storylines, because you can't capture any form of emotion in beat-m-ups. Unless of course you love Chun-Li from Streetfighter!

Don't really get what they're trying to achieve - of course the heart rate, the adrenalin levels etc will go up if you get immersed in the game. Perhaps some FPS is more likely to produce higher outputs than, say, some puzzle or a simcity-type game. Still, different people like different things, and I have a feeling it's going to move in the same direction as movies - more action, more sfx, forget the plot. Dunno, time will show.

Life is sexually transmitted

Meh, it seems pretty pointless to me. Gee, playing "fast-paced" games such as FPS's increases adrenalin levels; I never would have guessed *rolls eyes*.