Spotted today on the Gamasutra blog is an interesting article about the current generation of young gamers are shaping the future in an interested way.
The entry's essayist takes care to point out that in just a few short years the youngest consumers in this country have become individuals that take in their gaming via everything from fake plastic instruments, to web browsers, to table tops and slim, sleek mobile devices. We are certainly a group that's leapt past square, analog Mario Bros. of yesterday, into a present state where we have both short attention spans and a myriad of accessible technology and information sources.
Whether that's a deadly combination or not, Polack observes that Gen. Y is,
"used to constant feedback from others (preferably praise) and we prefer the dynamic of a team. Years and years of academic life where tasks were group projects, paired assignments, and peer review have raised us with a familiarity and comfort in group work. As Generation Y gets older, the continual exposure to group activities and group projects throughout academic life manifests in unique ways. We're a generation in constant communication with one another; we text, we Twitter, we Facebook, we use just IM conversations with ease, and it feels weird to work at a computer without an internet connection.
Members of Generation Y are generally perceived to be sheltered, stressed, and entitled as a result of special treatment or attention due to the focus of parents who were acting opposite of the lax parenting in the 60s-70s "
And Polack concludes,
"It's hard to know how to properly evolve game design in ways that will fully appeal to the changing demographic...What does seem somewhat helpful going forward is recognizing that the people who are growing up now have a different set of expectations for what games are and what they should be than the teenagers from a decade ago."
And interesting case study, indeed. To check out the full article, jump here: Gaming Generation Y
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