Average age of Gamers

LOWDRAG · 05-14-2004, 10:50 AM

Thought this was kind of interesting... I'm one of these 34 yr old gamers I think they are talking about in this article. How much you wanna bet Apo's one of the guys who took the survey and told them he was 19 ;-)

Survey: Video gamers get older, get online
Thursday, May 13, 2004 Posted: 11:38 AM EDT (1538 GMT)
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Contrary to a popular stereotype, the average video game player is not a teenage skateboarder but a more mature fun-seeker old enough to be his dad, according to a survey released Wednesday.

A survey compiled by the Entertainment Software Association and released at E3, the video game industry's major trade show in Los Angeles, found that a slight majority of video game players are now over 18 years of age.

In fact, the average age of game players was 29 and the average age of buyers was 36, with men making up 59 percent of the playing audience.

The association's annual consumer survey, released to coincide with the formal opening of the E3 show, found that 52 percent of people who have increased their game-play time have done so at the expense of watching TV, while 47 percent go to the movies less in favor of playing games.

The ESA also found a steady increase in online gaming, with 43 percent of gamers playing online an hour or more each week, up from 31 percent two years ago. So-called "casual" games, usually puzzle, board, trivia or card games, were overwhelmingly the most popular online titles.

In a "state of the industry" address at the opening of the annual E3 video games trade show here, ESA President Doug Lowenstein said things had changed dramatically in gaming in the show's 10-year history.

"The games that were the buzz of 1995 look simple and charming by today's standards," Lowenstein told a packed audience at the convention center in Los Angeles.

Just over a third of those surveyed said they wanted the video game industry to rely less on licensing spinoffs from Hollywood movies and other material in favor of developing original content over the next 10 years.

More than 60,000 people have descended on Los Angeles for E3, a crucial week for the $25 billion global games business.

The game use survey was conducted by Ipsos-Insight and based on a poll of 1,400 U.S. households, the ESA said.

Emanon · 05-14-2004, 01:48 PM

TG had an age survey..............

LOWDRAG · 05-14-2004, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Psi_RedEye22

to the 89 year old geriatrics playing Cribbage online.

LMAO.. I've played Cribbage on MSN... lmao...

**Apophis** · 05-14-2004, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Psi_RedEye22

The overwhelming majority of games played is online board/card games. That is why the average age is so high. It balances out from the little kids crowding counter-strike servers, to the 89 year old geriatrics playing Cribbage online.

Do you have any information to back up this claim? IE: Any evidence that the survey performed at E3 was based on people playing cribbage? Or is it merely just your assumption based on who YOU know playing?

**Wyzcrak** · 05-14-2004, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apophis

Do you have any information to back up this claim? IE: Any evidence that the survey performed at E3 was based on people playing cribbage? Or is it merely just your assumption based on who YOU know playing?

Interesting. It never occured to me that Natural Selection wasn't the most popular game online. (tee hee)

Quote:

A survey compiled by the Entertainment Software Association and released at E3, the video game industry's major trade show in Los Angeles, found that a slight majority of video game players are now over 18 years of age.

...

So-called "casual" games, usually puzzle, board, trivia or card games, were overwhelmingly the most popular online titles.

http://www.forbes.com/home/newswire/...tr1369710.html

**Apophis** · 05-14-2004, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wyzcrak

Interesting. It never occured to me that Natural Selection wasn't the most popular game online. (tee hee)

http://www.forbes.com/home/newswire/...tr1369710.html

I'm still seeing this as fabricated information.. There are no numbers saying that x% of the gamers aged 25 and older represent y% of the casual games played. For all it's worth, it could be 14 year olds playing checkers and 50 year olds playing flight sims.

LegionPaulL · 05-14-2004, 03:11 PM

Dudes and dudets, why the hell would you want to do a servey over age anyways? We are free and it is our choice to play no matter what age you are. Damn, i'm 16, no body cares. The guy on top is 34, I dont care because he is he and and I am I.

LOWDRAG · 05-14-2004, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LegionPaulL

I dont care because he is he and and I am I.

Someone babysitting JR here.. I think he just cussed me out.

**Wyzcrak** · 05-14-2004, 03:52 PM

If a majority of the gamers are adults, wouldn't their preferred games types be the ones played most often overall? And if that's the case, isn't card/board games being the most popular type of game an indication that adults play those games more often than any other type overall?

**Cap** · 05-14-2004, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LegionPaulL

Dudes and dudets, why the hell would you want to do a servey over age anyways? We are free and it is our choice to play no matter what age you are. Damn, i'm 16, no body cares. The guy on top is 34, I dont care because he is he and and I am I.

demographics..... some people have more invested in gaming than jsut getting into some games and playing them

**Wyzcrak** · 05-14-2004, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LegionPaulL

i'm 16, no body cares. The guy on top is 34, I dont care because

Jim put it very well... demographics. There are people spending lots of money on you every day, mr 16yr old. They're spending lots of other monies, sometimes in different ways, on the mr 34yr old, too. How you appeal to people... how you sell a product... how you retain a customer... all of this depends on several factors that are often summed quite effectively by referring to one's age.

Yeah, I'm calling him Jim until something better is offered. I can't bring myself to have a conversation with someone named after a domain name. :/

**CingularDuality** · 05-14-2004, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wyzcrak

If a majority of the gamers are adults, wouldn't their preferred games types be the ones played most often overall? And if that's the case, isn't card/board games being the most popular type of game an indication that adults play those games more often than any other type overall?

This is faulty logic. Although it's likely to be true in this case, it's not indicated by the hard stats that we've been presented.

Oh, and I like the "Jim" idea. I think I'm going to go with that as well...

**Wyzcrak** · 05-14-2004, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CingularDuality

This is faulty logic. Although it's likely to be true in this case, it's not indicated by the hard stats that we've been presented.

I suspected there was a hole in it, which is why I presented it as a question. At work, my brain is immersed in logic and business logic and I sometimes can't seem to wrap my head all the way around issues we discuss here.

So the logic is bad, but do we think the conclusion is safe, in this case? If it's not safe based on the logic (which is bad), why is it safe?

**CingularDuality** · 05-14-2004, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wyzcrak

So the logic is bad, but do we think the conclusion is safe, in this case? If it's not safe based on the logic (which is bad), why is it safe?

I think it's safe based on cultural norms here in the US. Taking the age stats and combine them with the gender stats (41% of gamers are women?) and you've got a pretty good idea that there's quite a few 30+ women playing computer/video games. Based on my experience, 30+ women are much more likely to be playing hearts/spades/poker/blackjack/bridge/etc... than they are to play bloody, brutal games based on war and/or science fiction.

Not logic, just a gut feeling based on facts.

**Cap** · 05-14-2004, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wyzcrak

Jim put it very well... demographics. There are people spending lots of money on you every day, mr 16yr old. They're spending lots of other monies, sometimes in different ways, on the mr 34yr old, too. How you appeal to people... how you sell a product... how you retain a customer... all of this depends on several factors that are often summed quite effectively by referring to one's age.

Yeah, I'm calling him Jim until something better is offered. I can't bring myself to have a conversation with someone named after a domain name. :/

HAHAHAHAH I was reading it thinking, man I thought I posted that lol.... Austin is my name. Memory works well too.

Or Jim.....