Grown Up Gamers

A couple of Salon pieces that appeared today caught my eye.

First, one of their established columnists gave a resounding sneer to a campaign for a new EA game that promises to shock your mom. While pointing out that the majority of gamers are women in their 40s.

And at the same time, there was a sweet article about a woman in her 40s getting through her divorce with a little help from WoW.

No, I’m not on Salon’s payroll. However, these articles made me wonder if the time has finally arrived to pitch my “how WoW helped me quit smoking” article. For the record, this June will be three years of freedom from cigarettes. I am still addicted to nicotine gum, and if you try to take mine away I will poke you with my letter opener. And I don’t exactly shun smokers, although at some point in that three years I realized smokers smell bad, and there is no way I would let one move in with me given my personal susceptibility to the habit. I credit raiding, for giving me something more entertaining to do with my hands.

Speaking of aging decrepit middle aged people, I was pondering Indiana Jones recently while running my third WoW character through the quests in Uldum. Given the fact the last movie about him tanked, and Harrison Ford is now a senior citizen, it’s pretty apparent that Indiana Jones is a generational thing. So why do game designers still seem to think he’s an object of fascination for all gamers?

First Sims 3 was annoying me by insisting I send my sims to a disturbingly depopulated version of Cairo to steal antiquities from law abiding citizens’ basements. Now, WoW thinks I want to get my jollies beating up on . . . um, German-accented goblins while stealing artifacts with “Harrison Jones” – a character who had a couple of cute quest moments in BC and Wrath, but apparently has taken over most of Cataclysm-Egypt, and if you want to be level 85, you have to spend serious amounts of time with him rescuing you while calling you kid.

My toons are not kids. They are a voodoo priestess, and an undead elf with a large battle axe, and a former bank officer turned evil mage. Plus there’s a new one now, a werewolf chick who summons demons. None of them are kids desiring mentorship with Mr. Jones. The death knight might date him, but she’d probably summon an army of ghouls to eat his face if he tried to avoid paying the check. The mage would definitely polymorph him into a rabbit, while laughing. The voodoo priestess would control his mind while making him walk off a cliff. Enough Indiana, game designers! Retire him!

Maybe gaming is growing up and getting respectable or something. Seems like only yesterday gamers were being blamed for being distant friends with violent lunatics. Oh wait, that WAS yesterday, in the NYTimes. They’ll probably catch on any day now. At least they don’t seem to be under any delusions that Indiana Jones is still popular.