age distribution of PoE players?

[demeisen]

I'm curious the age distribution of PoE players.  Since PoE evokes and modernizes an older gaming subgenre that isn't often seen any more, does the player base skew towards older folk who grew up with 80's and 90's classic CRPGs?  Or are there many younger players who've discovered the subgenre and like it?

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​This is wildly unscientific, but might be interesting.  If there is a high percentage of "new blood", that could bode well for future demand for this style of game.  If it's a largely older player base and the nostalgia market, that market might die off with us

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​Edited options for clarity around boundary ages.

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Edited September 1, 2016 by demeisen

[Loren Tyr]

Being wildly unscientific, how would you draw any kind of conclusions from it though? Of the various potential issues (and good polling is exceedingly difficult, so there are many), the most important sticking point here would be that the poll respondents is inherently restricted to people visiting this forum, and therefore (almost certainly) not representative of the general population of PoE players. Also, without data from a meaningful reference population (All PC gamers? All RPG players? ...?) there is nothing to compare it to even if it were a representative sample.

[Elric Galad]

I suppose there is a high correlation between having finished the game more than once and posting on this forum

[demeisen]

the most important sticking point here would be that the poll respondents is inherently restricted to people visiting this forum, and therefore (almost certainly) not representative of the general population of PoE players.

 

Absolutely - it can't be taken as any sort of rigorous statistical data.  It's a self-selected sample of people motivated enough to frequent the forums, etc etc.  Still, I think it'll be interesting to see how it falls out.  It's not utterly devoid of meaning even with the methodological flaws of an ad-hoc forum poll.  Not really going for peer reviewed PhD calibre research here .

 

Edit: Also, I'm curious to see what the upper end of the age spectrum will be.  I'm sure among the total PoE player base there are some in the 80+ bracket, but the forum crowd is a small slice of the total player base.

Edited September 1, 2016 by demeisen

[Ink Blot]

Meh, it's still interesting to see the results, even if you can't draw any meaningful conclusions. I might add another option in the completion part though: those that have completed with White March and those that have completed without it.

 

I'm in the 50 to 59 age group and have only completed the game once, but without the WM content. I intend to do another complete run with the WM content though.

[Tigranes]

Keep in mind this forum, from similarly anecdotal evidence we've drawn over the last ten years, does seem to be a fair bit older than many others. We've always had relatively few teens, and a fair number of folks over 35. Not sure how it changes with the POE contingent, though.

[rheingold]

My impression is that the forums here are frequented by older players, if for no other reason than there are less histrionics over here. Could be wrong of course, would be interesting to find out.

[DreamWayfarer]

My impression is that the forums here are frequented by older players, if for no other reason than there are less histrionics over here. Could be wrong of course, would be interesting to find out.

I am 18 years old and the two other forums I frequent which are pupulated mostly by young adults and teenagers, are both quite civil. The Codex on the other hand is as far as I know also frequented by older players, but it looks like a bottomless pit of drama from my short stroll through it.

 

I believe factors other than age have much more sway over the nature of a forum, like the ideology of its creators, how zelous supervisioned it is (for good or ill), and how "niche" is its focus. Something that attracts a select yet loyal on-line following can serve as a bridge between members, but if it is too small, it has the risk of lacking diversity of opinions and becoming clannish and aggressive towards outsiders.

 

I would say the PoE forums in general stand on a sweet spot, but that may also be because the more aggressive members got tired and left.

[SkySlam]

I'm in my early 30s, but I know at least two players 60+ who absolutely love Pillars and will never write here on the forum: one of them is my aunt!

I'd love to say she's a powergamer but in all honesty... I guess she is one of the reasons why Story Mode exists!

[Climhazzard]

You're going to get a fairly biased result for completion status.  Most of the people that would answer the first, second, third, and fifth options, probably don't bother to check these forums.

[Multihog]

I didn't really grow up with these old school cRPG (too busy with RTS games) style games but instead got into them when I was around 18 years old. That said, I hope younger people also get into the genre so it doesn't eventually just die off due to a lack of audience. As of now, I suppose it's in a healthier state than it has been in a long time. 

I have to say that I'm not at all surprised that most people here answered "I have finished multiple times" :D

Edited September 2, 2016 by Multihog

[rheingold]

 

My impression is that the forums here are frequented by older players, if for no other reason than there are less histrionics over here. Could be wrong of course, would be interesting to find out.

I am 18 years old and the two other forums I frequent which are pupulated mostly by young adults and teenagers, are both quite civil. The Codex on the other hand is as far as I know also frequented by older players, but it looks like a bottomless pit of drama from my short stroll through it.

 

I believe factors other than age have much more sway over the nature of a forum, like the ideology of its creators, how zelous supervisioned it is (for good or ill), and how "niche" is its focus. Something that attracts a select yet loyal on-line following can serve as a bridge between members, but if it is too small, it has the risk of lacking diversity of opinions and becoming clannish and aggressive towards outsiders.

 

I would say the PoE forums in general stand on a sweet spot, but that may also be because the more aggressive members got tired and left.

 

Fair enough - I'm just kinda tired of some of the really obnoxious forums. But whether or not it is an age thing is my impression which could very be wrong. In fact, now I think about it - people are allegedly supposed to get wiser with age - which is most definitely not the case in my experience, so yeah I guess obnoxious people are well just obnoxious....

[ManifestedISO]

I can do all of Elms' Reach in one go, once the Advil liqui-gels kick in. 

[demeisen]

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Looks like a curve heavy on the 20's and 30's range, which is younger than I'd have guessed.  I thought the 50's and 60's range would be larger than it is above, given various factors (PC game instead of console or mobile, gameplay inspired by older games, fixed ortho, etc).

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​I found a few web sources claiming that around 29% of all video game players are over 50.  (Who knows what "video games" actually means in that context).  I have quite a few over-50 friends who are still active PC gamers, so it doesn't seem like that group has simply stopped playing.

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[anameforobsidian]

I turned 30 after the game was released, and Baldur's Gate was one of the first games I ever played.  If you're around my age, you probably missed the SSI games and then saw a long and steady decline in the quality of computer games, especially rpgs.  Nostalgia supported by reality leads to a powerful yearning.

 

I would say the PoE forums in general stand on a sweet spot, but that may also be because the more aggressive members got tired and left.

A lot of people in general left. Sensuki and his fan club leaving is probably bad for the next game, because they did a ton of bug reports, but good for the forums, because they're insufferable louts who could never be pleased.

Edited September 4, 2016 by anameforobsidian

[Zack Fair]

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Looks like a curve heavy on the 20's and 30's range, which is younger than I'd have guessed.  I thought the 50's and 60's range would be larger than it is above, given various factors (PC game instead of console or mobile, gameplay inspired by older games, fixed ortho, etc).

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​I found a few web sources claiming that around 29% of all video game players are over 50.  (Who knows what "video games" actually means in that context).  I have quite a few over-50 friends who are still active PC gamers, so it doesn't seem like that group has simply stopped playing.

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It is understandable that 60's are a minority. They were born around 1955, it means that they were already 43 years old when games like this came out (like Baldur's Gate). And 1998 was a different time, gaming was much more of a kid's hobby. There were much less adults playing videogames.

[Tigranes]

You won't find over-50s as a strong minority in any online gaming forum. I'd find the 29% figure hard to believe, though if you were able to find it again I suppose I'd admit my ignorance - and in any case they are likely to be underrepresented in online forums, as juvenile as they still mostly are.

[demeisen]

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I'd find the 29% figure hard to believe, though if you were able to find it again I suppose I'd admit my ignorance

 

Heh, well, it seems like a stat that borders on meaningless anyway.  For what little it's worth, ​I didn't find the page I was looking at before, but a few others that allude to it are this one, which claims 29% of players are under 18, while "more gamers are over the age of 50 than under 18".  Or 26% of gamers are 50+, although that's data from 2008, and gamers have been skewing older over time, so that's plausibly consistent with ~29% in 2016.  It was only about 9% over 50 in 1999.

 

I tend to think it's too vague to mean very much, though.  E.g, it might be a pretty different result if you limit it to PoE-like games, as opposed to 2D phone Candy-Crush type.  And I bet you're right that they're underrepresented in online forums even relative to how much they play.

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​Anecdotally, most of my friends are between 30 and 65.  It seems like the older ones who didn't grow up with games don't play them now.  However the ones who did (including many who were teens or 20's in the 1970s when gaming was growing rapidly, e.g, on Atari 2600's, Apple II's, TRS-80's...) never stopped playing, and still do today.  The retired set with kids off to college have more time than they used to.  They don't tend to play twitch games though.  I see more puzzlers, TB or RTwP RPGs, and complex simulations in the over-50 crowd I know.  (Who are probably not representative of that age group in general...)

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[demeisen]

Also slightly surprised how sparse the 10-19 bracket is.

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[Ben No.3]

Also slightly surprised how sparse the 10-19 bracket is.

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I'm honestly not... This game demands both time and interest before unfolding it's full beauty upon the gamer, especially if you've never played Baldurs Gate, Icewind dale, planescape torment and the lot. I never did either (though I really should at some point), but other than 90% of my friends, the game caught me somehow. However, most of them find it ... Boring