At what age did you start gaming?

[The Sigil]

I'm curious... with all of the "this is a hobby for mature/older gamers, not kids" responses in threads going around, I want to know...

When did you start gaming?

My hypothesis is that most gamers get started young - early to pre-teen - and that to now call the hobby a "mature hobby" is to try to "pull the ladder up" behind us so that none of those "immature kids" can join the hobby.

Were WE the "immature kids" when we were introduced to gaming? Who really is the "target audience?"

 

[Crothian]

While I started young, the hobby has changed considerible since I started over 20 years ago. I do think that many products are aimed at a more mature audience, but it would be interesting to ask the publishers what age groups they are aiming at.

 

[The Sigil]

While I started young, the hobby has changed considerible since I started over 20 years ago. I do think that many products are aimed at a more mature audience, but it would be interesting to ask the publishers what age groups they are aiming at.

Yeah... we've all gotten 20 years older.

I think the "distribution" of ages of D&D has gotten older on average because in my experience, when something new is introduced, those over the age of about 30 have a difficult time accepting it. Hence I think in the 70's there were few 30+ year olds playing D&D. In the 80's, those who were introduced to D&D in their 20's in the 70's entered their 30's... and we still had people coming into the hobby in their teens and 20's. In the 90's, we had folks in their 40's, 30's (those who were in their teens/20s in the 70's and 80's) and those in their teens and 20s. Now we have folks in their 50's, 40's, and 30's (in their teens/20s in the 70's and 80's) and some in their teens and 20s.

In other words, I think the age distribution of players has followed a pattern over time... a few under 9, a few more 9-12, more 12-15, more 15-18, more 19-21, and so forth until we reach a constant "high" level around age 25-30. I think that plateau has simply been extended over time as the gaming population has gotten older... IOW, I think we have always had a "tail" of younger folks hanging off a plateau of older folks in any given year. The only thing that is changing as time passes is the length of that plateau. That's just my opinion/guess.

So while the average age has increased, I don't think the influx has changed... we just haven't had people start to die off en masse yet. But if we cut off the "tail" influx by making the hobby focused on "more mature" stuff, we run the risk of stopping the influx - and eventually killing the hobby as time marches us all relentlessly off the stage.

I have in my head a vision of the graph - moving and everything - I'm trying to convey in words, I hope it's coming across.

--The Sigil

 

[Dragongirl]

Think I got the 1e MM when I was about 7, but didn't start getting into the game until I was 8.

 

[John Crichton]

I voted in the 13-15 range just to be conservative. May have been a bit sooner than that. Feels like I've been gaming my whole life, tho...

 

[Utrecht]

It really depends on how you define play....

At age 9, I bought the Monster Manual (1ed)

At age 10 I was actually playing - but the sort of playing that involved 1st level characters killing Tiamat - I simply did not understand the rules

I would say the first time I really "played" was 14 or 15 when I was intellectuall, mentally and socially ready to play a long term game where I understood the consquences of my characters actions.

As I have gotten older, the games have definately gotten more "mature" and by that I mean realistic - at 10, no one really got hurt in combat. But now, we come face to face with slavery, utilization of people for larders etc - things that I simply could not comprehend at younger ages....

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I put "Gaming Since 1990!" in my profile, and I was 11 at the time. My older brother introduced me and I've been gaming on and off ever since!

 

[The Sigil]

It really depends on how you define play....

When were you introduced to the hobby (to the point where you stuck with it)?

 

[Jenale]

I was in high school to start myself. My oldest son is now 9-1/2 and I'm trying very diligently to get him interested (so far, it's working except for the problem of rounding up some other kids in the 9-10 age group to get a decent party together). Fortunately, there's always on-line play (by post, in my case).
Unfortunately, my husband was turned off by a really lousy DM, and I haven't yet been able to convince him to give it another try, or I'd be close to able to run some adventures for the two of them (though I'd really rather have 4-5--guess I've got to wait for the other kids to get old enough).

 

[Ranes]

I voted 13-15. When I was ten years old, my parents bought me a book on the history of wargaming, because I was playing with lots of toy soldiers. In that book, I read that wargamers typically wrote their own rules. That's what I tried to do, for the next couple of years. Then I encountered WRG rules and SPI games. I bought SPI's Star Force: Alpha Centauri when I was 13 but couldn't get anyone to play it with me. Started playing AD&D when I was 14, which will make this my 25th year of roleplaying. As soon as I was introduced to AD&D and Traveller, I was hooked. I'm still interested in historical wargaming but fantasy and SF roleplaying have always been more to my taste. I didn't play any pen and paper games between 1994 - 2002 though. I was far too busy. Ironically, it was hopeful anticipation of NWN that made me go out and buy 3E.

I'm now a very happy DM.