Gamers: we're becoming a senior group of society aren't we?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Yes; we are. Were the older generation of video gamers; we can be called elders now IMAO.

[vindicatorx]

My first system was the original Atari to give you an idea of how old I am.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I remember when we had these controllers...

[Rukh]

If you are 25 you are not part of any sort of senior anything.

[Powerogue]

I wouldn't say so, any more than "people who watch movies" ever became some senior group of society. It has integrated into society so much the closest thing to a group is people who obsess more than other people. I'm not sure there's anyone who has access to electricity at this point who hasn't played some sort of video game.

[Davemetalhead]

31 years this year since I got a BBC micro

Christmas 1982 I got my first computer, a Commodore ViC20, then in 1984 a Commodore 64. Only rich kids and schools had a BBC Micro :-p - although I remember playing Elite on one back in 1984/1985 at my boarding house, as well as Chuckie Egg in the school computer room (and subsequently getting kicked out when the teacher came back in).

We had a games console of some kind back in the late 70's, two paddles and a light gun. You could play tennis (Pong), squash, single player squash, football and "shoot the small white square bouncing around the screen".

[Attackrabbit]

I remember when we had these controllers...

Yay ROB \o/
Was telling some of my friends about ROB not too long ago and they were sure I had lost the plot

[Deleted]

I'm active in the Elite: Dangerous forum. I'm 'only' 29 and never played the original, and I think someone did a poll there, and the AVERAGE age was about 40 if I recall correctly

Yet they still behave like babies when something isn't to their liking, priceless!

[KaziOfTheSkies]

Been playing for 21 years.... Im only 27 but guess I can call myself "senior" since Ive introduced my son to games now as well

[Koyoti]

Been playing for 21 years.... Im only 27 but guess I can call myself "senior" since Ive introduced my son to games now as well

Your son??

I think you can be considered senior when it's your grandchildren you've introduced to gaming (much to their parents dismay, I might add )

[hrugner]

Games haven't been predominantly for kids for awhile now...

The importance of "play" and games for all ages and social classes isn't really new, and I'm not really sure when adult hood became a symbol for the permanently somber. Video games have taken a while to sink in, but like most things it's riding a generation as it grows up, retirement homes should be pretty pimped out with consoles by the time my generation is in them.

[Shakadam]

Gaming is undoubtedly more spread out through the age-groups now than it was 15 years ago, because it's my experience that once you start playing games, you don't quit. The first generation gamers are now in their 40's or 50's, often playing the same games and together with their kids. Gaming is not just for the kids any longer.

It's interesting to note the average age of the people you play with, when I joined my first guild back in 2004, the average age was just about 20 years or so. People thought it was a bit wierd if married people or people with kids, even if they were just in their 30's, were gaming. Now, 10 years later, the average age of people in my current community is somewhere in the upper 20's, almost 30, with many many people in their 40's or 50's or even above, and atleast 1 out of 4 are married or have kids, often playing together with their SO/kids.
And no one thinks anything of it any longer, it's perfectly normal.


Give it another decade or so and gaming will be as common as watching TV.

[Azrile]

And gamer-ladies.

I was just thinking right now how I've been gaming for the past 17 years of my life and I'm only 25, yet some of you have probably been gaming for 27+ years.

I mean damn our pass-time has more history than the Harry Potter saga, smartphones, Internet porn (I think?), all of Blizzard's games, Dr. Dre and Star Wars.

At this point if civilization was wiped out tomorrow and a new society found our remains a million years from now they might think Master Chief was a great soldier who saved Earth from destruction.

Edit: lol I don't mean we're all old (although nothing wrong with that), I just mean that historically, gaming is no longer young, it has deep roots in the past decades.

I am not doing to date myself. But I have been playing computer games since you had to ´swap out´ floppy disks to save your game. 9 Princes of Amber anyone? Zork?