ttomm46: I think I posted her a few years ago
Hi
Only posting this here because I respect the peoples opinions on this forum
I'm now 72 going on 73 and still hooked on computer games..Is that weird or not?
Tom
Tom, NOT weird at all.
Gaming started in the 80's.
I started gaming in the 90's because was working so many hours and didn't happen to have any gaming friends until then (had not been exposed to games much). I was and still am a big reader of fiction and nonfiction. Friend turned me on to Journeyman 3 and Myst. From there on I was a goner. I love rpg's and adventures. I am 60 now. Games are interactive entertainment - story, art, thinking and coordination (depending on type of game). Right now I am playing Planescape Torment, Dragon's Dogma, and a puzzle game; my gog sale cart has to be whittled down and has the remastered Myst 3 & 4, Ultimate General: Civil War (super historically accurate strategy game), Arigami (stealth game), Frozen Synapse, Apotheon, Aer, Doom, Hollow Knight, Thronebreaker, The Way of the Samurai, Shovel Knight, Victor Vran, and Europa Universalis: Rome (OMG SO HARD TO CHOOSE!). I am a female by the way. Played Skyrim for 2 years straight until finally bored with it, and it wasn't mly first rpg, though I did come to rpg's late.
Grandma Shirley Curry on youtube is 82 and playing games since the 90's when her son got her into one of the Civilization games. She plays adventure and rpg's and strategy/sims, but loves Skyrim best; she could do great headshots with her bow within her first play-through. LOTS of older gamers exist, who play non-casual games - they are just not vocal online. The savvy ones are often reticent about data privacy; you won't find many youtube posters. However they are not reticient about using online written forums to discuss health, hobbies, social issues, etc. and to blog.
But you can look up statistics of buyers and players and get a fair idea of the demographic spread of gamers. It's a stupid cultural stereotype that only young folks play games. I laugh my ass off when youngsters think that they invented the internet. The internet was born in the 80's and games alongside, and games really took off like rockets in the 90's. I worked long hours and didn't game enough during my career, but still gamed regularly on weekends. Now my day isn't complete unless I play something, at least on my phone. I figure I am a typical example of a gaming older person.
The industry is stupid to not raise the awareness of the restr of the older consumers with marketing - bridge is boring. And brain/cognition studies show that gaming is very beneficial to cognitiive processing of various types. It helps people during healing, and it helps the aging brain too. (Look it up) I am NOT talking Wii "sports" and candy crush or crosswords here, like the retirement living places sometimes think in their more radical moments, but real gaming like those top-reviewed gems sold here at GOG. Gaming is more immersive (if the game is good) than a good movie is - so it's great stress relief.
Working adults of all ages make up the majority of players, per various organizations, both survey organizations and industry groups. And plenty of older people play, slowly but steadily expanding - slowly only because the industry is ignoring older players completely - because they always have ignored us. For example stats, "Age breakdown of video game players in the United States in 2018" at Statistica - they wrote "In 2014, there was an almost equal split, with 52 percent of men and 48 percent of women having played video games that year" and "67 percent of Americans aged between 18 and 29 years admitting to having done so, followed by 58 percent of Americans within the 30 to 49 age bracket." Pew Research in Sept. 2017 put up some statistics as well. Ages 65 and older, 11-13%; age 50-64, 15-17%; age 30-49, 28-25%. But remember that surveys are done in limited numbers, often locally, and data studies are constrained in design by assumptions. This is an old science principle that is very true in marketing/sales as well.
Don't feel weird. Ignore the nonfactual, oft-repeated myths. But anyway, who cares, JUST HAVE FUN.
