Gamers get it, and so does the industry that provides for them.

First; w00t! Video embeddage went perfectly. Gives me ideas for future entries. Meh, another time.

Now, onto the point. It is about why people in the game industry get it.
The average gamer these days isn't the gamer of yesterday. Isn't the 13 yr old geek on Mountain Dew sitting up to late hours of the night (well, not exclusively anyway) and early hours of the morning playing online games. The gamers of today are older. Instead of 12-21, the spectrum has become much broader. It is now from as young as 8 to as old as mature workers into their thirties (I've met gamers who are in their late fifties as well, but they're in the minority).
The great thing about the workers in the game industry is that they have adapted again and again to suit their demographic. As an aside, this is quite unlike most software development companies (ie: Microsoft (no pun intended)) that have been as rigid as a stick when it comes to their target audience. The thing is, they have no idea who their audience is anymore. It used to be the corporations, but now its the casual housekeeper as well. They just haven't realised it yet.
Anyway, the game industry have realised that the people they were pushing to five, maybe ten years ago are getting into adulthood, and are not only becoming more casual gamers due to full-time jobs and such, but have also changed their tastes. Also, with the adaptation by the public of internet (it has almost become a standard of living in non-third world countries to have an internet connection) then online capability has become a big thing. The game industry workers have seen these changes, and have worked towards achieving a goal to meet these needs magnificently.
Nowadays, online play of some sort is almost a must. People have begun to crave the interaction with other people. In games like Oblivion, these are a shortcomings on Bethesda Soft's part. Online play almost could've got me to buy it... almost...
Also, more games are adding casual areas of gameplay. For example, NCSoft is a developer that tailors almost exclusively to the casual gamer. Hardcore players can get through Guild Wars: Prophecies in a few days, which is the same with Guild Wars: Factions. However for the more casual gamer who stretches their gameplay time widely, these games are perfect over other MMORPG's such as World of Warcraft, where it's good to have a solid four hours to go on raids and play through instances and such.
However as I said before about game companies adapting to the needs of their demographic, Blizzard has incorporated (and is also in the planning stages of adding more) areas designed for the casual gamer, where you can still get some decent loot, and have a fun time with your friends, but the area takes a shorter amount of time to complete.

Take for example, Spore. Will Wright, the god behind the 'God' genre, spawning games like The Sims, and now Spore. His company has been a step ahead of the gamers. Will Wright was created games designed for casual and hardcore gamers alike back when the word Gamer was used as a derogative rather than a label. Spore is no different.
Allowing you to create your own breed of creature, you are born into a fictitious world filled with other made-up characters that are retrieved from the Maxis/Electronic Arts central database for your creature to interact with. You watch your monster grow from an infant into a fully grown creature, along the way experiencing life from the perspective of a range of ages. You can spend as much or as little amount of time on games like these. That is where Will Wright is a genius, and that's why so many people like him.

Most people that inhabit the game-development industry are gamers. This definitely helps the way the games are made, because the employees understand what the gamers want, being apart of that league themselves. This can't be said for other such industries though (are you telling me that Steve Jobs and the creators of iTunes were once recording artists? I don't think so). If you have the bonus disc of Halo 2 that runs through the making of's and such of the game, you'll know what I'm talking about when I say it's comforting to know that these 30-something year old guys are the people behind my games, because you can tell that these people practice what they preach.


So if you're reading this, and you're a gamer, maybe you should consider a career in game development. You never know, you may just have a significant, positive impact on the outlook of game developers being an intense gamer yourself.



On another potentially interesting and probably boring subject, emoticons make life so much easier. I oft wondered by I liked talking to people over MSN more than speaking to them over Skype (sometimes anyway). Perhaps it's my freakishly fast and abnormal typing speed. I can type as fast as I can think. Which means it's a whole lot easier to get out blog entries.
But more than that I think. I believe it has something to do with the fact that despite if I'm feeling sick, stuffed up, tired, hyper-active, or neither of the above, in the language of text I have a universal voice. Not only that, but the genius that came up with emoticons should be blessed seven times over by all the Gods of the land. I don't have to say "I mean this comment in jest by the way". Instead, I can just insert a little smiley face with his tongue poking out, which has become the world recognition for implying jest. Or I can imply that I have a hemorrhoid by putting the red smiley face in (I think it's supposed to represent anger, but honestly, it looks more like a guy who needs to take a dump).

That's it.
Out.