Should gaming in general be more focused on families?

[Peench]

Think back with me for a moment to the "good old days" when families sat around their kitchen tables and played with a deck of cards or with a trusty Milton Bradly game. Were those games designed to bring families together or was that just an offshoot of the game design itself?

While the original Atari had games that led themselves to multiplayer (Pong, etc), many games since those days appear designed to give the single user more of a movie-like experience that you may or may not be able to experience with friends or families. Is this a trend?

Lets face it, having grown up through many of the these gaming consoles we've seen the whole spectrum of different experiences when it comes to gaming. From single player only games to multiplayer only games, to family style or party games and more. Nintendo seems at this point to have the most "family-style" titles, but it appears that Microsoft sees this as a viable market with the release of the Arcade console and other titles.

Is this a fad or a shift in the industry? Or is it an addition to the industry? I don't know, but it is interesting to me. Scene It was just released for the Xbox 360 as was Viva Pinata Party Animals - both of which are games designed to bring members of the family or friends together in front of the TV. Are the gaming companies trying to bring families back together or do they simply see these party style games as something fun for everyone?

Or am I reading too much into these titles? Should existing or even new gaming companies focus on bringing titles to the market that encourage more "family time," or should the trend towards more FPS games simply continue?

[Thornes70]

I remember writing up an article about this a while (long while) back. Sales trends, as most of you are probably aware of, spiked and showed that the majority of gamers were not actually kids, but adults (google it; it's out there; I don't have the info anymore). So for a while, games were really going where the target audience pointed to.

Enter the Wii. Everyone made fun of it, thought it was a "fad," and would not last. I remember on my old site, I posted a debate & said the Wii would be the #1 console before this Christmas. Everyone said I was crazy! Look what's up now? Damn, I'm good...

Anyway, it's the market trend. Seeing the huge success of the Wii (my main argument was price, but also that the simplicity of the games, lack of many shooters, family participation & "exercise," etc), MS and Sony (which has always been more family-friendly, imo, than MS) see that cash cow & want to get in on that; was taking a more serious-gamer attitude actually a bad idea? Certainly not. But that's a huge market there, and the only obvious thing is to get in on it.

Back in the board game days, I think those were meant for the "family night" thing - had to do more than watch a movie, right? There wasn't a whole lot of video gaming to be had, so it was the next best thing... Today, people are so damn busy, that video games kind of fill a void of some sort. Now that they're so main stream that people don't just think of them as "toys for geeks," they're becoming a family commodity. But you're not gonna find too many families sitting around & creating a CoD4 clan, so the easier, quick pick-me-up games like Arcade are having a huge pull on getting families to spend time together...

It's an addition to the industry. People are still gonna have their shooters, single-player RPGs and whatever; but with easy to play games, families are now pulling on the video gaming market, too. It's here to stay.

[Peench]

Great points Thornes! I too see it as a valuable addition and would love to see more titles that I can play with my family. I love me some shooters and love playing with you all, but every now and again I want to get the family together and show them that my "gaming habits" aren't horrible and that they too can enjoy it. It is hard, though, to find games to play with the family on current consoles. I'd like to see more of them so that my wife (and I imagine many other wives similarly situated) won't view my gaming habits with such disdain!

[Gordon]

Smash Bros isn't a game for the whole family?

[Thornes70]

Xbox does actually have quite a few games that they consider "family:" LINK

But I think the best console to get for family fun is the Wii. Gonna get one for Christmas, most likely - then even the grandparents can jump in on this (I can't see my Grandmother sitting down & playing Halo 3 with me, saying, "I'm gonna pwn you, n00b!").

[AlphaQ GehaD]

I dont mind if they start making more family orientated games, but i believe that also these games are made to attract harder to reach customers like parents who want to interact with kids who are stuck on Video games all day long. Im pretty sure that Most parents dont want to bond by playing videogames, Maybe a boardgame where you talk and think, or go out together. As it is I hear a lot of wives complaining that their Spouses are playing videogames too much


I believe its hard to make a Video game that is family orientated a success, There were a few, Mario Party could have been one, but also Frat boys could have got together to play that, or a game like Scene It. But nothing feels better than playing those games on a board at a table or on the ground.

Most of the time i believe its just the offshoot, or at least started as that, then when they relized it started bringing families together they started adding that during the commercials and such. Im talking about Boardgames and card games mainly, The Wii is a more family orientated gaming console, And they focused on that cause its a good selling point for hard to reach customers, and that anyone can play it cause its Waving your hands around. Wii Sports was definitely a good family style game. Sorry to say that i would take Cod4, Gow, Halo3, Gta over it anyday

[D_Litch]

Nope. Families have Monopoly and chess, leave the Xbox alone.

[Im a Manatee]

The market is there, look at the success of lego star wars.

However, I still want ample decapitations.

[Peench]

The market is definitely there and I hope more companies capitalize on it. I want to play some quality games with my son and find it hard to find them. I thought Simpsons might be one, but there were more shouts of "ass" "shit" and other unnecessary terms that I ended up deleting the demo before I got very far into it. It simply didn't fit the bill for what I was looking for to play with my 6 year old.

[churchv50]

I'm all for more family style games being made. I want a Wii, and not just for Metroid Prime 3. I think that having more family oriented titles will only help the video game industry. Is Scene It for the 360 another murder simulator? No. It is a game for a system that can appeal to all tastes in gaming. I enjoyed being jackie estacado and eating mobster hearts (iron helps us play!), but I also love a good movie trivia competition.

Really, my preference in gaming concerns the quality of the game, not necessarily how graphic the themes are. Man cannot live on disemboweled nazis alone.