Average age of gamers

[rivet]

Hello,

This might be an off topic, but this question suddenly come off my head that I had to ask here.

I have played a bit of Couterstrike 1.1 probably at around a decade ago and have not played any real video game (other than some tv games like streetfighter and KOF, which I am quite addict to during my younger age) since then. Just recently, I bought a few games off steam by impulse during their Xmas holiday sale. I started to play a bit of counter strike source and I think I am kind of addict to it again. However, when listen to other people's talking, I realized many or most of the players are teenagers, a few of them in their early 20th already start to call every one else not playing well kids . I suddenly feel like I am not really belong to this group anymore, I am getting close to 30 now, should have spend most of the time for my career and taken care of my family.

All of my friends are non-gamers so I am really curious what is the age group of most gamers here, or in general. ( No, I don't mean for people playing poker games or occasionally play wii sports game)

Thanks.

[BigDogg]

Originally Posted by rivet

Hello,

This might be an off topic, but this question suddenly come off my head that I had to ask here.

I have played a bit of Couterstrike 1.1 probably at around a decade ago and have not played any real video game (other than some tv games like streetfighter and KOF) since then. Just recently, I bought a few games off steam by impulse during their Xmas holiday sale. I started to play a bit of counter strike source and I think I am kind of addict to it again. However, when listen to other people's talking, I realized many or most of the players are teenagers, a few of them in their early 20th already start to call every one else not playing well kids . I suddenly feel like I am not really belong to this group anymore, I am getting close to 30 now, should have spend most of the time for my career and taken care of my family.

All of my friends are non-gamers so I am really curious what is the age group of most gamers here, or in general. ( No, I don't mean for people playing poker games or occasionally play wii sports game)

Thanks.

I am in the same age range as you (I am 27).. I find most of my close friends around my age don't play many video games. If they do they are mainly sports games single player. However, I do find that people closes to my brothers age (24) are much more avid online gamers and play more than I do.

I have been playing lots of Heroes of Newerth lately half the time I love it the other half I hate it. Great strategy game but heavy on teamwork.

[misterd]

I'm 30 and I put in probably 25 hours a week playing Team Fortress 2, as much as the gf doesn't love it. Most of my friends play PC games of some sort, and then you have some people diagnosed with consolitis. They really love their consoles and won't touch a PC.

[IRQ Conflict]

I'm 41. I have recently slowed down on playing games. Too many games have left me cold over the past two years. They just don't seem to "do it" for me anymore. Because of my age? Maybe. I think consoleitis plays a role as well as kids cheating online.

[Thund3rball]

Late 30s here. My friends don't really play a lot of games either. I am usually the one trying to wrangle them in for some Rock Band or a co-op game more suited to their tastes/abilities as opposed to mine. Oh well *shrugs*. MP games for the most part don't really interest me too much. Sometimes I think I could really get into a little co-op Borderlands (or similar) with friends but it will never happen, so I just stick to SP.

[Signal2Noise]

44 as of today.

I've been gaming since before the computer became 'mainstream'. Although I lack the time as I did in my younger years to play games it is still a passionate pastime of mine. And I'm not even fat!

I have kids and they think it's awesome their "dad knows how to play, too!". PC, PS3, 360, Wii, PSP, you name it.

[Caldezar]

I'm 29 and have 2 friends I play online with on a regular basis still. We play a variety of games, and I even pay for a vent server for us. However, we usually play closed server multiplayer games like CIV4, borderlands or an RTS we can host our own game for. However, I do play a bit of multiplayer games/MMO's on open servers still, and I've found that the game determines the age.

For example, games that require more action and less thought (FPS's, high impact action games and simpler MMO's like Aion/WoW) typically draw a much younger crowd. Also, the more sex appeal a game has, the younger the audience. And games that are more complex and require more thought and strategy (complex MMO's like EQ2, more intense RTS's like World in Conflict, etc.) draw a more mature crowd.

Now, before everyone freaks out here, I'm not saying their aren't exceptions to the rule. Nor am I saying that anyone that plays FPS's or WoW is immature. That's why adult-only guilds exist in WoW. Similar exceptions occur in all games. And these observations are only for multiplayer gaming. Obviously, everyone likes the SP game play of whatever genre they prefer.

But at the end of the day, the average age of a game developer these days is around 25 - 35 or so. And it's not uncommon to have the leads on a project to be in their 40's. So it's adults that are making most of these games, and a lot of the studios that haven't been gobbled up by EA pride themselves on making games they would want to play. So we do get a reasonable amount of content made for an older audience.

[gingerbee]

I am 32 and i put in at least 20 hours a week gaming

[rivet]

Thanks for all the replies. Nice to see there is a large variety in terms of age among gamers. I feel a bit better now . Otherwise I am always wondering, if the majority of gamers are teenagers, how can so many of them afford cutting edge rigs like an i7 920 with 5870 xfire?

So probably for people start to play video games at a younger age like us will likely to continue to play when we get older. But I can understand now why my parents' generation has almost no interest in video games as they never have chance to access them at younger age, even computers are not mainstream at that time.

[Full Speed]

I'm 23 and I usually only game about 10 hours a week, if that. Unless a game I've really been looking forward to comes out and than that number probably triples.

And yeah I've been playing games since NES, which was release around about my birth.