Study: Average Game Player is 37 Years Old

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vanessacollins

December 30, 2011 at 12:52pm

I think gaming has ruined a generation of men. I had numerous boyfriends from high school through today that waste upwards of 20 hours a week playing games like World of Warcraft and shooter games. It’s pretty pathetic. These guys are essentially socially inept and have no sense of adventure outside of a video game. I've been so put off by this that I actually say on my dating profile on one of the popular dating websites to not contact me if you’re a gamer. Being a tech nerd is fine, but putting your waking life into a character made of pixels is kinda lame. You’re better suited spending that time doing push-ups instead of gaining levels for your RPG obsession.

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B1Gx5MurF

June 09, 2011 at 11:27am

I'm 27, and I game probably 2 hours a week.  Wished I could game more, but responsibilities come first.  Also, I try spending time outside more when the weather is warm.  I may play more during the hibernation months.  My sister tries to play an hour everyday, but really she's just using motion games in place of an aerobics video.  People never believe I play as little as I do, becuase of how much games and gaming equipment I have.  I'll admit, my collection of games + hardware does seem a little excessive.  But it's mostly because I like being able to try out anything interesting regardless of platform it gets released in, and can afford to do so while taking care of more important priorities.

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Raladar52

June 08, 2011 at 8:03pm

I'm a huge PC gamer, more RPG than anything else. Also married but holding off on kids, wife plays some games with me but not too many. On top of that I'm active duty military and deployed, which when I do have free time I play games all the time. When I am home I will generally play games a lot during the week. On weekends I'm out with friends (some who game, many who do not) drinking, camping, skiing or whatever the season calls for. I love my lifestyle and I wouldn't change anything about it.

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Marthian

June 08, 2011 at 10:51am

hm... I think this is universally game players, but if we talk about a specific console, that average age should drop like an anvil.

 

I'm 17, PC gamer, and I must have spent at least 6000 hours of my life (no doubt way more) gaming since age 5.

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Baer

June 08, 2011 at 10:15am

I am almost double the average age so I am perhaps one of the oldest gamers here. I have computer gamed since playing with some very early mainframe based text games in the 60's. My first home computer games were Apple ][ based and my first P C games were Ultima and then a little later Civ I Etc. I also played the early on line games such as VGA Planets (still do actually) and Rebel Space. Still I have been always able to keep it in perspective and run my company and support family Etc. Now that I am semi retired I still game but even now I run a consulting business and even though I still game (Can't wait for Skyrim) I still keep it in perspective. I will admit to building or at least updating my gaming rig every year however. The point is that I am well into my 60's and I still game.

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ShyLinuxGuy

June 08, 2011 at 10:09am

I'm 19 here and have nothing to do with gaming. I've probably had a total of 15 hours of gaming time *my whole life*. Strange, isn't it? To hardcore gamers, that's absolutely repulsive. That's 1/364 of a drop in the proverbial bucket of their gaming experience :P.

Ask me about HTML/CSS, Adobe CS5, some light coding in Java and messing around with Linux, VM's, and whatever. That's my kind of tech fun. Other than the way I use and synthesize with technology, I'm a normal dude.

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Exarkun1138

June 08, 2011 at 4:20pm

I think it's cool that you have such a passion for the "tech" side of the computer world. Nothing wrong with that at all. I have a tech background as well, with networking and so forth, but I still enjoy gaming as well. 

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Silver925

June 08, 2011 at 1:14pm

Any 'hardcore gamer' who finds it repulsive that you enjoy technology, but don't game needs to relax.

I would consider myself a modestly hardcore gamer (with very selective taste in titles) but one of the main reasons I like PC gaming so much is that I can take an entertainment PC and do so much more with it in between gaming sessions. CAD (And hopefully soon-to-be CAM), photo manipulation, desktop publishing, 3D modeling, etc..

That's a big reason why I find the 'PC gaming is dead' debate so funny. Sure, consoles have developed into 'media centers', so they can do much more than just gaming. But, can they really do even a fraction of what a modest PC can do and game? Nope.

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TommM

June 08, 2011 at 8:55am

Exarkun1138 took the words out of my mouth.  I've had pretty much the same experience in computer gaming over the years (although I didn't see a Commodore 64 listed).

Now I'm in my 50's and still actively game 20+ hours a week.  I'd say that except when football season is on, it's my primary form of entertainment.  I can also say I have never stolen a game.  Every game I've owned - and it's in the hundreds - came from my wallet of hard earned cash.

And that whole 42% are women gamers, is a crock.  That most definitely counts Farmville, Angry Birds, etc., which should have it's own category apart from true computer gaming.  I think those games have replaced women watching soap operas, so they should be called "soap games."  At any rate, in my experience of online gaming, being married, dating, etc., I'd say active women gamers - that is REAL games - would be closer to 10-15%.

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sean.h.freeman

June 08, 2011 at 9:38am

Way to stay in tune with the old times ol' timer.  You seem to be pretty proud of yourself for staying up with the times technology wise but at the same time seem to have forgoten about those little things, like real life.

I have the pleasure of knowing many women that would take you to task on any game of your choice, and I chuckle at the fact of seeing how many more women than men carry around portable gaming platforms where I live.  Granted though, I'm only comparing from what I've seen on my daily train rides to and from work, etc.  

I probably haven't been doing that as long as you, and I had shoes for my walks to school.  And it was downhill at least half of the way.  And it didn't snow during the summer time...

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TommM

June 08, 2011 at 11:15am

Well Sean, it's clear you know better than I do.  I've only been actively gaming since the mid 70's, been married once, several relationships - all of which I've turned those ladies onto gaming, many MMO and other online gaming adventures and from MY EXPERIENCE, I have only seen one or maybe two out of every 10 avid players I meet as female.

But talk to all my female co-workers?  Ever damn one of them are Farmville, YoVille, whateverville junkies. Now you want to call them gamers?  Whatever floats your boat.

Your post reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw a while back.  "Hire a teenager while they still know everything."

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Exarkun1138

June 08, 2011 at 9:25am

I tried to keep my post as short as possible. But here are the systems I have had in my 34+ years of gaming:

Computer systems: Tandy CoCo, Atari 800XL and 1200XL, Commodore 128(yeah, I know), Atari 520ST(my personal favorite computer), Amiga 500 and 2000, and a PC clone of some kind that I built since 1988 to today.

Consoles: Fairchild Channel F, Mattel Intellivision, Atari 5200 and 7800, NES, SNES, Sega Genesis and Master System, Nintendo 64(one of my all-time favorite consoles!), and the Nintendo Wii. The N64 was my favorite console, but the Wii is good for the family. I do most of my personal gaming on my bad boy PC rig! 

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ccardarelli

June 08, 2011 at 9:05am

That may still be true of folks later on in years, but that didn't stop my little sister from throttling us all at MarioKart to this very day, and the gamer girl archetype she isn't. All the kids starting college now, have grown up since Nintendo was ubiquitous in many households, and it's only expanded further and further. I'm really not that surprised, give it 10 years and you'll be wondering why you thought otherwise.

I will say that I've known maybe only two girls that play FPSes in my time, but frankly I don't do those either, so whatever.

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thor fighter

June 08, 2011 at 8:50am

averagr age is 37, time to move out of mom and dad's basement and get a job and girl friend....lol

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jdeaver

June 08, 2011 at 12:01pm

Stereotyping is a weak tactic to attack a pasttime people of all ages can enjoy.   I have a good career and own my own home, yet I've been gaming back to the Intellivision days.   Now and then, when I have spare time, I definitely enjoy playing on the Xbox 360 online.    I have a number of middle-aged friends in the same situation.    Gaming is particularly common for people in the IT field.  It doesn't make us sheltered, reclusive, or apathetic.    My friends and I still enjoy outdoor activities like fishing, camping, and hiking.   For an adult, it's a harmless, stimulating form of entertainment.   At least we're not boozers, pushers, rapists, or scam artists.   :-)

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bling581

June 08, 2011 at 9:45am

The whole mom's basement thing is far from the truth and probably applies to just a small percentage of adult gamers. Almost all the people I played WoW with had families or at least lived on their own, including myself. Quite a few gamed with their significant other or children.

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p47riot

June 08, 2011 at 9:25am

Not denying there's some of that going on, but I'd wager there are quite a few of us that don't fit that mold.  I happen to be 37, married for almost 10 years and have a great career. I also have 3 awesome boys, 2 of which are hooked on gaming themselves.

You have to realize that my generation witnessed the birth of video gaming.  I don't mean that to be all uppity, I just mean that our sense of wonder and awe at the Atari 2600 (and later the original NES) was something really special that we latched onto and demanded more of.  Owning a Nintendo was a special event unto itself and placed you squarely in "the cool kid club." For the majority of us, we are just the same wide-eyed kids with that same fascination.  The only differences are that we can now afford to feed our habit unrestricted and we have children with whom we can share the pasttime.

I have to think that it's different for someone who was born into the technology as it already existed and owning a console (or several) is not only the norm, but also expected.

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Silver925

June 08, 2011 at 9:18am

Another perfect example of the misconceptions of Gamers.

I am in my mid-30s, have a good job (that I can credit, at least in part, to my Gaming and PC building hobby), a wife, and a child. Oh, and I own the house (and by extension, the basement) where my gaming PCs are setup.

The article is showing that gaming has been an established past time for so long, that the player base is aging along with it. And, contrary to what many people think, gaming is enjoyed by more older individuals then people might think.

Good try though.

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Exarkun1138

June 08, 2011 at 9:18am

Funny, but inaccurate! I'm married with 3 boys, and still enjoy video games, and so does my family! We play games on our Wii and on the entertainment PC we use to play M.A.M.E. arcade classics and so forth on the big screen TV! Gaming is far more mainstream than it used to be, and is as common with families as going to the movies. 

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ccardarelli

June 08, 2011 at 8:09am

Now if only we can get gaming to the next phase, and start making more things like LA Noire and Mass Effect, where it's not just mature simply due to adolescent-notions of maturity.

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haboh

June 08, 2011 at 7:48am

What excatly do they consider "video games" in this research? Especially the "42% of gamers are women" part suggets to me they are counting farmville, solitare etc. While perhaps technically accurate, that's not what I (and probably most other gamers) think of as "real games". 

If on the other hand these are only games bought in a store; wow, that's surprising. 

 

edit: yeah that's another good point by RaptorJohnson; are these % of people playing games, or buying games??

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p47riot

June 08, 2011 at 8:53am

I think you would really be surprised.  It seems like a lot more women are playing mainstream games beyond Solitaire and Farmville these days.  Games like World of Warcraft and The Sims have really made gaming more accessible to women.  My theory is that women realized that they're not going to win the battle to make their man stop playing video games, and that the next best solution is to join in on the fun.  Then they just simply got hooked like the rest of us...

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RaptorJohnson

June 08, 2011 at 7:47am

I look at those numbers and see a lot of 41 year olds buying games for their kids.

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Brad Nimbus

June 08, 2011 at 8:10am

I look at these numbers and see a lot parents bullsh*tting about what games their chlidren are playing. :P

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Exarkun1138

June 08, 2011 at 7:33am

I've been a gamer since 1976 when my parents bought a Fairchild Channel F game console. Then we got one of the first Intellivisions that were released in 1979. I've had various computers and consoles, including a Tandy CoCo, an Atari 800XL and 520ST, an Amiga 500 and 2000, a Sega Genesis, a SuperNES and N64, and many different lines of PC Clones over the years.

I've been gaming on all those and still do on my current PC's. It's a great way to have fun with my family, and they enjoy some of the classic games I have using emulators such as M.A.M.E., DosBox, Stella, STeem, JNES, Project 64, and Nostalgia Intellivision version. What amazes me is, they enjoy the old classics more than some of the new games on the PC and our Wii. We play a LOT of M.A.M.E. arcade classics on the big screen TV! We have a blast! Classic games RULE!!!

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