Steve Palley is GameSpot's Chief Editor of Mobile Games. No, he's not married, and he has no kids that he is aware of. Email him at [email protected].

　　Is the new Nintendo Revolution controller, which can apparently function like a laser pointer, the answer? Not having had a chance to try it myself, I don't know for sure, though I have to think that trying to hold the controller like a remote control and swinging it in front of yourself for a prolonged period of time would give you a serious case of tennis elbow. Either way, first-person shooters made their mark on the world of games on computers, and they've been shoehorned onto consoles with limited success for so long that the strain is really starting to show. And when this happens to an otherwise superlative game like Resident Evil 4, it really seems like a crime. Nintendo has already made bold moves in innovative hardware design with the unusual DS handheld--maybe this principle of function following form is something that others can learn from.

　　Does this thing look like a precision gaming instrument to you?

　　On the other hand, if the games business really wants to live up to its putative destiny--becoming this century's principal form of entertainment--function and form are each going to need some pretty dramatic tailoring. As long as your chief market consists of malleable, highly adaptive young people with incredible reflexes, virtually any input device can be made to serve as a game controller, no matter how counterintuitive it may be. Is the keyboard-mouse tandem really the ultimate solution for controlling a video game? Even for games in which you're simply trying to run around and murder people, as in first- and third-person shooters?

　　Keep in mind that the PC mouse was a device invented by Xerox in the 1970s to shuffle little icons representing text documents around. The keyboard isn't exactly a model of perceptive design either--it's a huge, cramped collection of keys that are identical from a tactile standpoint. We made this combination into the gold standard of gaming control through sheer, brute, painful adaptation. It all happened back in the 1990s, when we were young enough to rewire our brains as necessary, to dominate at those multiplayer Marathon LAN matches. In fact, I used to do pretty darn well using just the keyboard. The mouse seemed like an unnecessary complication.

　　Oldsters can be hip, too.

　　Now, we're going up against kids who have grown up with Xbox Live; moving Master Chief around with a console controller is second nature for these youngsters. I daresay that my repeated online humiliation at the hands of adolescents has been a potent object lesson. It's really very possible that the next generation of gamers will think nothing of playing first-person shooters on futuristic cell phones--rotten button placement, tiny screens, and all.

　　So, the video games industry doesn't need to worry much about its future customer base. Those guys are going to be just fine, whether they're playing with remote controls, analog joysticks, special guitars, dance pads, or speech-to-text.

　　Instead, the industry's concern has shifted to a much larger group of people, who could represent a huge source of untapped revenue--the middle-aged. In most respects, this demographic is the antithesis of the former group: Their reflexes have dulled; they're too worried about violence in the real world to enjoy it in their off time; and they have tons of disposable income. Are they at all interested in playing video games?

　　POLL Do you think there's a place for older players when it comes to playing games? Yes, and casual games should be just fine for them Yes, but they should enjoy Halo, Burnout, and all the games us youngsters play No, they should all take up knitting. Don't trust anyone over 30

　　Wisely, the industry has come to regard the answer to this question as its responsibility, rather than some kind of environmental constant (specifically, "NO! OLD PEOPLE HATE FUN!"). Why shouldn't adults enjoy video games? They've already proven themselves to be avid consumers of other forms of electronic entertainment and media. Plus, they have enough cash on hand to participate in the upcoming round of console launches, and they're much more likely to pay for software up front. In short, they're good customers and good consumers, and they're desperately looking for leisure activities that might attract the interest of their children and grandchildren. Movies, politics, and macramé aren't cutting the mustard.

　　Nintendo's oft-discussed shift towards simpler gameplay indicates that it is clearly thinking along these lines. I can actually picture my mom and/or dad playing some kind of strange fishing simulation by waving that controller around, or chatting aloud with the townsfolk in a Revolution-era Animal Crossing. Even more strangely, I can picture myself right alongside them, throwing a miniature tantrum as Wario loses a sack race, or something. If you combine Nintendo's new heading with its expertise in party games, it's not difficult to imagine the rise of an entirely new genre--the family game. Perhaps the company that invented the "Family Computer" (the Famicom, also known as the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System) will succeed in closing the circle.

　　Fun for the whole family.

　　You can bet that Microsoft and Sony, the lumbering twin titans of the games business, will be right behind it, though. Xbox Live Arcade will soon become a much more prominent part of Microsoft's gaming strategy, for instance. The games featured on this service include casual favorites like Bejeweled, Zuma, and Minesweeper--the same simple fare that's already riveted millions of housewives and other older players to MSN Games. Sony's plans are less clear. Judging from the design of the PSP, and from what little we've seen of the PS3, it seems to be taking more of a multimedia tack to attract entertainment consumers. This could be an equally effective strategy, especially if Sony's Blu-Ray format winds up as the next generation's medium of choice.

　　Video gaming's association with youth is primarily an effect of its relatively recent origin in toy stores and arcades. Although still dominant, this relationship has already started to erode, and it's hard to see how video gaming won't continue to travel in the same direction all industries ultimately flow--toward the money. Are we really going to just stop playing games a decade or two from now, when we all have families of our own?

　　C'mon.

　　Next Up: Full Circle Gaming by Dave Toister