Though many people hear the word “gamer” and think of adolescent males, studies have shown the number of men and women who play games is almost equal, and the average game player in 2015 was 35 years old. Following up on this information, analytics firm Quantic Foundry released a report on “gamer motivations,” with insight into how players’ interest and excitement in games shifts as they grow older.
One of the major takeaways from the study, which collected data from more than 140,000 participants, was that competitive gaming is a young man’s game. Competition motivated young men (ages 15 to 25) much more than their female counterparts, but guys tend to lose interest in that competitive gameplay when they enter middle age. By 45, men and women were equally motivated by competitive gameplay.
Interestingly, the young male player base that gets excited about competitive gaming closely mirrors the group most likely to identify as a “gamer.” According to a 2015 study from the Pew Research Center, 49 percent of adults play video games, but only 10 percent of those who play would call themselves “gamers.” At the same time, a third of men between 15-29 use the term to reger to themselves, according to the report.
Across the board, it seemed people become less motivated to play games as they age. The study attributed that to a general shift in lifestyle, including “a broader range of responsibilities and pursuits.” At the same time, it asserted that being less actively driven to play, doesn’t necessarily mean older players enjoy their games less.
“‘Low Excitement’ implies a specific kind of gameplay, and calm/stress-free gameplay is no less valid than fast/stressful gameplay,” Quantic Foundry co-founder Nick Yee said in recent blog post.
Case in point, the study showed that interest in strategy — not necessarily strategy games, but the act being strategic in gameplay — rarely made gamers as excited as competitive gaming, but also shifted considerably less as players get older.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.