EA news excites game enthusiasts

• By GARY PERILLOUX
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Aug 21, 2008 - Page: 4A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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News of Baton Rouge attracting a 220-job testing center for the world’s largest developer of video game software impressed people at a local Gameware store Wednesday.

“Having EA (Electronic Arts Inc.) in Baton Rouge is nothing but positive,” said Steve Martin, a seven-year store manager and LSU management student. “It’s the veritable 800-pound gorilla of the video game world. Nobody sells more games.”

Part of EA’s success is its ubiquity, he said. It’s available on 16 different game-playing platforms, from handheld devices to computer consoles, TV-based game stations and direct digital downloads.

Not only will EA be prestigious for Baton Rouge but it gives LSU a new computer cachet, Martin said.

“It’s going to attract students from the entire country to be part of this program,” he predicted.

Jordan McKneely, an 18-year-old Amite resident, doesn’t have designs on a digital gaming career. She favors public relations, communications and music as possible career choices as an incoming freshman at Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss.

After shopping for blue jeans Wednesday, she stopped by the Gameware store in the Mall of Louisiana and bought a Lego series Indiana Jones video game.

Her presence told the story of the evolving digital media industry. Once considered the province of preadolescents and teens, video games now sport much broader appeal. About 40 percent of video game players now are women, and the older-than-50 AARP crowd represents the fastest-growing segment of video game players, according to research from the state Department of Economic Development.

“It’s always been a bonding thing between me and my dad,” said McKneely, whose father, Jeff, is pastor of the House On The Rock church in Amite. “That’s just our common thing, we love video games.”

For Christmas, her family received a Nintendo Wii interactive game system and promptly staged a bowling tournament with aunts, uncles, cousins and her three sisters. “We play Wii together, and bowling is our favorite,” she said. “I’m not into the war, gory, killing games. It’s more just for fun.”

That’s another evolution for the video game industry —  its increasing emphasis on diversity and role-playing games like the ones 19-year-old Carly Cummins enjoys.

A devotee of “The Sims 2,” an EA role-playing game, Cummins described the appeal of creating a character, and watching it have a career and get promoted.

“Some Sims (characters) want to fall in love, so when they meet other people they get really excited. They get really mad at you if you haven’t fed them, and they shake their fists. It’s really cute,” said Cummins, who works part time at Gameware.