Reach into the well of your mind for a moment and recall your childhood - perhaps long ago, perhaps only recently past. What images do you draw? Do you remember that birthday when you gathered every ounce of enthusiasm in your body and ripped open the thin paper barrier keeping you from the latest and greatest video game system, and how marvelous it appeared to your impressionable eyes? Do you remember being amazed with Sonic's speed or Mario's jumps? Do you remember what made you a gamer?
If so, now ask yourself this: would you want anyone else deprived of the opportunity to one day drink from this same wonderful well? Likely not. And yet it seems many, both developers and gamers, have forgotten what they once were: children.
The demographic of Wii, based on the words of Shigeru Miyamoto, encompasses everyone ages 5-95. The older end of that range exposed to Nintendo's new console seems to have responded fondly; Wii Bowling leagues for the elderly are even sprouting up across the United States, just to cite one example. What about that range's other extreme, though? Do we simply assume children are taking part and deriving their satisfaction, to the point that little needs to be said? Because outside of institutions like the U.S. Senate, little discussion is found regarding younger gamers.
Maybe this is a result of younger games simply not representing a large-enough portion of the market. After all, only about 40% of game players today are under the age of 18, according to data compiled by the Entertainment Software Association, and one can reasonably assume the percentage decreases to 30% or less if the age bar is shifted down to about 13. As such, children wouldn't seem to require the greatest focus from game makers. But take careful note of a crucial point: that other 70% of people were once children.
Chances are you're apart of that 70%, as am I. We've aged and matured (hopefully) and our tastes in games have accompanied that growth. Mario and Sonic may still be dear to our hearts, but perhaps we've expanded our interests to include other genres, characters and content. We have new demands from our games - that they challenge us, scare us, make us cry or consider the morality of our choices - and that's perfectly fine in itself. It ceases to be fine, however, when we impose our power as a majority in an effort to wholly satiate our own demands, and in doing so deprive following generations of the experiences we enjoyed.
It is not uncommon to see a parent purchasing a game such as Grand Theft Auto for their young child these days. While such software may be well-produced and worthy of purchase, consider this: only about twenty years ago, that game would have been Mario or Sonic, rather than GTA. Sociologically, one can argue this occurrence from many perspectives. One argument might hold that children are being asked to mature more quickly in order to deal with the mounting pressures of academia and our global society; they show a greater interest in more mature games as a result. Some truth might be found there, but I argue otherwise - that children, by and large, simply don't have much of a choice.
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