The violence paradox is that while more than 25% of 11-16 years old identify a M-rated games as their favorite, such games represented only 16% of the market in 2004 (source: NPD). In addition, only 35% of gamers are below 18 (source: Hart Research).
This suggests that while games with violent content appeal to a younger audience, mature gamers are much less interested. Indeed, violence doesn’t sell to mature audiences!
Yet, it is critical to create content geared towards these gamers. In terms of population and purchasing power, they are definitely a force to be reckoned with. But there is an even better reason.
In the 90s, Nintendo, by keeping its focus on a pre-teen audience, convinced itself that its products were universal and that it could not endanger its market supremacy. Market realities quickly proved it wrong, as it was overthrown by Sony and by PC-based gaming, both addressed at young adults. Nintendo was unable to maintain their leadership because the rules and conventions they applied to their own productions prevented them from convincing the growing teen and young adult markets.
This demographic trend is not over. Today, the number of mature gamers is growing, while console manufacturers and publishers alike keep focusing on teens and young adults. Similarly to Nintendo back then, the production rules that publishers respect prevent them from interesting mature gamers. This also means that many older players will not find games that suit their needs - what a lost opportunity!
Addressing a mature audience
Adult contents: While mature gamers will not be turned on by wanton violence and gratuitous sex, it is fair to say that they will be equally turned off by games set up in realistic universe where these components have been carefully edited out. As David Wong put it somewhat bluntly in his Gamer’s manifesto, "Politicians bemoan the bloodthirsty horror of video games, but really the standards are almost Victorian when compared to R-rated Hollywood fare." There is no need to lace the video game worlds with "adult" content for the joy of shocking, but there is no need to edulcorate them either. Ultimately, games ought to be like movies or even books! violence or sex shouldn’t be artificially increased, or decreased, but it should occupy as much room in the hero’s preoccupations as necessary.
Gaming conventions: While this will be less and less true, adult gamers have been made aware of videogames in a time where gaming conventions were different from those we know today, in a time where internet walkthrough didn’t exist and where patience and tenacity were the successful gamer’s main skills. They are less turned out by ridiculously difficult games, and don’t mind so much playing for weeks or months in order to find the solution that will ge them to the next level, because that’s how it was done before. It’s a generation that was brought up with point and click (or even, gasp, text) adventure games, and it’s also these people that the designers of the arcade Ghosts’n’goblins had in mind when they decided that the difficulty of that game was about right. They will appreciate a difficult but simple game, as opposed to an easy but complex games, the latter being the standard today.
Aesthetics: Teen gamers are very sensitive to the fact that their games exploit the capacity of their machines to the fullest. Special FX, advanced lighting techniques, complex modeling, high framerate, detailed shadows, you name it. Mature gamers feel much less so. On the other hand, they are impressed by the pure artistic dimension of a game, like Myst (which is "not even real-time 3D", as younger gamers would object!) or Ico. Of course, a strong graphical identity and a technically advanced game are not incompatible, but the priorities are clearly defined.
Heroes: Heroes of videogames follow certain paradigms, which are based on the assumption that the player had the psychological profile of a young, somewhat insecure, male player (not that there is anything wrong with that). That’s the surest bet for a game publisher, who will come up with heroes which are themselves weak and humble, but that will grow and develop over the game, and eventually accomplish great things, with the help of people who truly love them. All players will relate, somehow, to that archetype, even if it will suit younger players more than the older ones. Mature players will have different phantasms and expectations. They will relate more to characters who start with something (power, wealth, status...), face a terrible trial in which they lose everything, and then try to struggle to regain what they have lost - another common storytelling paradigm. It is less important that they are surrounded by "sidekicks", but more significantly, it matters not if the game doesn’t end very well.
Stories: Like mature game heroes tend to be more realistic than others, mature game stories are less extravagant. Games where the player has to save the world (or a the princess, the universe, you name it) are excluded. Instead, mature stories are more personal, more intimate. They can also end not so well, which is very unusual is other games.