Feature: 'Soapbox: Difficulty and the Interstitial Gamer'Feature: 'Soapbox: Difficulty and the Interstitial Gamer'

Today's main Gamasutra is a Soapbox feature by former game journalist and current game instructor Michael Eilers, discussing the problems of the more mature gamer who doesn't necessarily have as much time to put into his hobby, and making suggestions for game designers to help this important market. As Eilers explains in his introduction to the Soapbox: "Flexing tired hands as you grip the controller, you desperately maneuver your virtual self for cover as sniper fire seeks your vital organs. The last save point a distant memory, you sneak past the armed guardpost for the umpteenth time. The stakes are high – if you fail to reach that save point several hours of gameplay will be lost, and your next attempt will be yet another stolid trudge over the same familiar ground. Meanwhile, your spouse systematically turns out the lights and goes to bed. You twitch, knowing that every moment you stay up past your “bedtime” you will be rewarded with withering silence over next morning's cold breakfast cereal. Cursing the cruelty of some unnamed level designer, you trudge on, feeling the crosshairs of the sniper creeping across your shoulder blades. This is the world of the interstitial gamer – one who grew up on games but then got a life, or one who gave them up to take on career and child rearing and is now trying to return to the fold. Not quite casual but not quite hardcore, this type of gamer is dealt a cruel hand by today's game market, and many market trends seem set to exclude this type of gamer even as the ranks of this demographic swell." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the subject (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).