One of the most interesting responses to my recent 30-something blog has come from user TheFool. While he touches on one of the real issues that makes it harder to play games as you get older - lack of time - he nails down what is probably the most important reason.
I love World of Warcraft (orcs) and Battlefield 2 (guns) and will argue with anyone that gaming is a valid and unique artform, but you know, it's hard to really disagree with his statement. I was flicking through a PC games magazine - it's been a while - on the train the other day and felt embarrassed reading something in public that had page after page of "guns and war and orcs". And yes, I know games mags are aimed at a much younger audience - Edge aside - but seeing the sci-fi/fantasy hegemony splattered across 90 odd pages made you realise that the industry has a long way to go if it wants to gain or retain the interest of adults whose cultural interests extend beyond Lord of the Rings and Star Trek. Or, as TheFool puts it, "is gaming incompatible with a full, culturally broad, grown-up's life?"
"All these guns and war and orcs and girls in leather bikinis ... It's like they rehabilitated and cloned the Columbine boys in game design departments across the planet."
