There have been a few really interesting articles on Gamasutra recently; it’s about time I took them out of my blog feed and put them here.
The State of the Casual Gaming Industry provides a good introduction to what are casual games, where the industry is now, and where it might be going in future.
Emotion engineering: a scientific approach for understanding game appeal presents a complex analysis of the ways in which the interactions that take place can affect the players’ emotions. Includes a table that relates specific emotions to variables in the game. There isn’t much evidence to back up this theory (other than common sense) but I think it’s an interesting perspective nonetheless.
What do older gamers want? According to this article it’s repeat tutorials, printed manuals, legible text, removal of jargon, a wider variety of subject areas, family play, not having to stand up, a comfortable playing environment, collaborative online play at a distance, and shorter game length. (Although there is no indication of exactly how many people took part in this research or how generalisable it is.)
I’m so an ‘older gamer’ by that description!