Topic: Games for adults

[Ian Sane]

No I don't mean "games for adults" as in adult entertainment or anything like that.  I mean for actual adults as opposed to kids, teenagers, or college students.  I just read this article and it really rings true.  What I especially notice is the lack of time for playing games.  Developers will go on and on about how long their game is.  I just don't have time to play some 100+ hour game and I don't have a wife and kids.  I'm a single guy and yet my job and standard grown-up responsibilities eat up enough time alone.  For a family man, it has to be even worse.
 
Your standard videogame is targetted at young people with a lot of free time.  In that sense having some 300 hour quest makes sense.  That same type of game does not work as you get older.  A lot of adults enjoy casual games like Wii Sports and Angry Birds.  That makes sense as those games require less of a commitment from the player.  Something that you can play for about an hour or so, here and there, fits a typical adult schedule.
 
But I don't want to play games like those.  I find them incredibly bland.  The Wii Series is like a great example of how lame teenagers think adults are.  Everything is very safe and inoffensive and generic.  The Miis are like the Michael Bolton of videogames.  I'm not like that.  I want to slay dragons and fight aliens like I did when I was a kid, but I want a way to do it that fits my lifestyle.  I typically have an hour or two of free time on weekdays before I go to bed.  I live with my brother and I find that when we decide to play videogames during this time we've lately been sticking to retro games like SNES or Genesis titles.  It's just easier to get into one of those games and play for an hour.
 
What I really want are games that involve some sort of narrative quest, like a standard videogame, that aims for about a 10 hour length to beat the game.  It needs to be largely devoid of filler.  No long tutorials, no mindless fetch quests, no padding, no endless time sinks to unlock content.  One should be able to jump in, play right away and jump out.  Saving needs to be quick and easy since we don't all have time to hunt around for 20 minutes to find a save point.  The game also has to be friendly to the idea of not being played for a couple of months at a time.  The game needs to get the player back up to speed on what's going on when you load up a save or be short enough that starting over doesn't sound like an ordeal.  It has to focus on single player because old people can't get their old people friends together to play games and don't want to play with teenagers online.  Oh, and this has to cost no more than $30.  $60 for this just doesn't make sense.
 
It doesn't seem like there is really anyone targetting this audience (assuming this audience isn't just me).  If it's a typical "kill the bad guys and save the world" game it's made for teenagers.  Anything else is adult comtemporary casual fluff.  I think there needs to be something in between.  Something for a casual investment with core gamer tastes.

[NWR_insanolord]

I don't think there's anything that is short, not "casual fluff," and not mindless action, at least according to your sensibilities. You can get two out of three in a lot of ways, but something that fits all of them is hard to come by.

[MegaByte]

Virtual Console and many modern games like RPGs have real-time saving so you can jump in/jump out whenever you feel like. Modern platformers save after each level. Space shooter-type games and action puzzle games typically require little commitment. Indie games are especially tailored with this mindset. I'm not sure what it is that you're missing.

[NWR_insanolord]

Based on Ian's posting history, I'm sure he can find reasons to declare all those things as parts of the categories he dismissed. The "at least according to your sensibilities" was a very important part of my post.

[UltimatePartyBear]

Regarding your price requirement, just wait and buy your games on clearance.  If you only want to play single player, then you don't need to get the game during the peak months of multiplayer activity.  That's what I usually do.  It makes it harder to jabber excitedly with everyone else about the latest games on forums, though.

Also, PC games are often better than console games for quick sessions.  Saving anywhere is simply how it's always been done on the PC, but it's rare on consoles.  It's usually easier to cheat in PC games, too, to avoid the lame parts.  Gaming PCs are a lot more expensive than consoles, but PC gaming fits my lifestyle a lot better than console gaming at this stage in my life.

[Chozo Ghost]

Ian, you don't have to play those 100 hour games in one sitting, you know. That's why they invented this thing called "game saves" that you halt your progress and then resume it at a later time when you have the time for it. If you invest even just an hour a day you can still beat those hundred hour games, but it would just take you 100 days to do it is all.

[ThePerm]

i find that if i game doesn't make you addicted than it has failed.

[Ian Sane]

Ian, you don't have to play those 100 hour games in one sitting, you know. That's why they invented this thing called "game saves" that you halt your progress and then resume it at a later time when you have the time for it. If you invest even just an hour a day you can still beat those hundred hour games, but it would just take you 100 days to do it is all.

Why would I try to beat it in one sitting?  100 days is a long time and that's if I play the game EVERY day for an hour.  That's over three months of the same game and that is dedicated effort put towards playing it.  In reality it would probably take at least a year for me to do it.  But I'm probably going to get sick of it by then.  It sounds, frankly, like a chore.

I'm just remarking that I don't think game publishers are really thinking about this market.  I think it might be an opportunity for game designers as a niche that has not really been focused on.

Funny how the Virtual Console came up.  Nuts to that!  I've been playing on the REAL classic hardware.   But those are old games.  It shouldn't need to be old games or retro-styled new games.

[that Baby guy]

If you have a PC or a 360, try out Bastion. It's about six or eight hours long with simple, but fun gameplay, variety in weapon choice and a great narrative. It's the first game I've given 5 stars in my year and a half of reviewing, and it seems like something you might be interested in.

[Stogi]

Chess.

Play Chess.

[Ymeegod]

"I just don't have time to play some 100+ hour game and I don't have a wife and kids."

Odd, I finish tons of games that don't require anywhere near that much, even RPGs.  Not sure what genre you're taking about but there's plenty of games for adults that don't require much time at all.  Are you looking for story?  Alan Wake, Heavy Rain, hell even LA Noire can all be finished between 10-15 hours.

[BlackNMild2k1]

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-to-tell-youre-getting-too-old-video-games/

[Dasmos]

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-to-tell-youre-getting-too-old-video-games/

You do know that that article is what this thread is about, right? Ian has a link to it in his opening post..

[BlackNMild2k1]

TBH I skimmed over most of his post and then skimmed over most of the replies and somehow missed that link buried in the OP.
But that explains why the article was so relevant to this thread.

[pearlsparrow21]

I Understand what your are going to ask . Don't worry about it their are so many kind of game that for adult. Here i tell you the name it's Hitman a stealth game series developed by the Danish company IO Interactive. list of this series are Hitman: Codename 47 Hitman 2: Silent Assassin Hitman: Contracts Hitman: Blood Money Hitman: Absolution going to launch in 2012.

[Fatty The Hutt]

Downloadables might be a way to go.
I found Costume Quest thoroughly engrossing and about 5-6 hours long. Joe Danger is great and something you can peck away at in short bursts. Jett Rocket seems good on WiiWare. Plenty more examples.
 
I played Red Dead Redemption failry addictively but only about 1-2 hours at a time. Then I put it away for a loooong time and came back recently. I'm over 50 hours of quite satisfying gameplay but I didn't do it all at once or even in a row. It can happen even with long games.
I've been sinking time in bursts to Puzzle Quest (the DSiWare version) and sunk tons of time, off and on, into Dragon Quest IX which, though epic, was easy to pick-up-and-play when I felt like it.
 
I found the Uncharted games not too long, not too short, and quite satisfying.
 
I agree with your premise and want to see more of what you are talking about. At the same time, I think there are some good choices available now too.

[lolmonade]

No I don't mean "games for adults" as in adult entertainment or anything like that.  I mean for actual adults as opposed to kids, teenagers, or college students.  I just read this article and it really rings true.  What I especially notice is the lack of time for playing games.  Developers will go on and on about how long their game is.  I just don't have time to play some 100+ hour game and I don't have a wife and kids.  I'm a single guy and yet my job and standard grown-up responsibilities eat up enough time alone.  For a family man, it has to be even worse.
 
Your standard videogame is targetted at young people with a lot of free time.  In that sense having some 300 hour quest makes sense.  That same type of game does not work as you get older.  A lot of adults enjoy casual games like Wii Sports and Angry Birds.  That makes sense as those games require less of a commitment from the player.  Something that you can play for about an hour or so, here and there, fits a typical adult schedule.
 
But I don't want to play games like those.  I find them incredibly bland.  The Wii Series is like a great example of how lame teenagers think adults are.  Everything is very safe and inoffensive and generic.  The Miis are like the Michael Bolton of videogames.  I'm not like that.  I want to slay dragons and fight aliens like I did when I was a kid, but I want a way to do it that fits my lifestyle.  I typically have an hour or two of free time on weekdays before I go to bed.  I live with my brother and I find that when we decide to play videogames during this time we've lately been sticking to retro games like SNES or Genesis titles.  It's just easier to get into one of those games and play for an hour.
 
What I really want are games that involve some sort of narrative quest, like a standard videogame, that aims for about a 10 hour length to beat the game.  It needs to be largely devoid of filler.  No long tutorials, no mindless fetch quests, no padding, no endless time sinks to unlock content.  One should be able to jump in, play right away and jump out.  Saving needs to be quick and easy since we don't all have time to hunt around for 20 minutes to find a save point.  The game also has to be friendly to the idea of not being played for a couple of months at a time.  The game needs to get the player back up to speed on what's going on when you load up a save or be short enough that starting over doesn't sound like an ordeal.  It has to focus on single player because old people can't get their old people friends together to play games and don't want to play with teenagers online.  Oh, and this has to cost no more than $30.  $60 for this just doesn't make sense.
 
It doesn't seem like there is really anyone targetting this audience (assuming this audience isn't just me).  If it's a typical "kill the bad guys and save the world" game it's made for teenagers.  Anything else is adult comtemporary casual fluff.  I think there needs to be something in between.  Something for a casual investment with core gamer tastes.

I can feel your pain.  Since getting married, going to grad school, and getting ready for an incoming child, my time has become a premium and I find it hard to truly invest in a game that requires considerable time.  It really has to hook me in with fun gameplay (inFamous 2) or be something that both the wife and I can invest heavily in together to have "married time" (Super Mario Bros 3, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Tetris Party).

Maybe us old types can comprise a list here of games that meet the criteria of games that are:

1) Engaging
2) Relatively short game length (5 - 15 hours)
3) Fun
4) Not overly simplistic/redundant (Angry Birds, Plants v Zombies, other iphone type games)

[Morari]

I don't know how you guys are having a hard time finding short games. It seems like it's almost impossible to find anything that lasts longer than 20 hours nowadays.