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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Joshua Randall" data-source="post: 9535141" data-attributes="member: 7737">Hopped in to say: this is 100% true and backed up by science. I happen to know a bit about this from some prior real-world work on accessibility; i.e., how do we design things for broad use among people with different vision / hearing / motor skills / etc.I'm going to link to a presentation from Jeff Johnson, Ph.D., one of the foremost experts on accessibility as it relates to user interface design. This was given at a public presentation several years ago so yes, it's OK to share.<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eZCPOJHwJ9xfujB78ujZeWUC8ZtTdN2w/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Here's the presentation</a>, and I will quote a few super relevant bits.We begin with a super important point about Technology Generations (slides 13-15). Older people are not dumber than younger people when it comes to tech, but all people are most familiar with the tech from when they came of age -- as opposed to the tech that was developed after that. For those of us in our 50s as I type this, we came of age in the 1980s and so our familiar tech is personal computer + basic internet (slide 15). Everything past that feels increasingly unfamiliar, right up to today where we could add to that slide LLMs or VR or whatever buzzy tech you want to add.[ATTACH=full]389374[/ATTACH]As Dr. Johnson puts it (slide 18),This does not mean that older gamers are hopeless fuddy duddies who can never learn to use Roll20 or whatever futuristic neural interface / VR / Matrix-style ~~hellscape~~ wondrous reality we end up living in. But it does mean that we need to look later in the presentation at the part about Cognition.Let's stop at slide 20 to observe the following:The 1st and 2nd data points are directly relevant to what [USER=6796661]@MNblockhead[/USER] intuited: older people do have greater life experience to draw upon, particularly around language-based activities such as RPGs. (However, older people may take longer to learn things even with their superior knowledge and vocabulary -- see below.)The 7th bullet point, "It's better than the alternative!" is axiomatically true. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Moving on to slide 40 we get the most important points relevant to RPGs.Age-Related Changes:Cognition: Attention, Learning, Memory• Reduced short-term memory/attention• Difficulty keeping track of tasks• Harder to concentrate; more distractible• Longer learning times; more repetition required• Less generalization between situations• More difficulty retrieving words• Reduced ability to multi-task• More susceptible to change blindness• More easily overwhelmedThe bolded points directly relate to longer learning times (it does take you longer to grok RPGs now than when you were 20) and less generalization between situations (it is harder to pick up new RPGs because it's harder to generalize them back to things you already learned in your 20s).I will finally call attention to slide 49 which, IMO, has the most subtly important point for older gamers and RPGs.Age-Related Differences: Attitude• Less comfortable with digital technology• More risk averse<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Strongly prefer familiar paths over efficiency [*]Afraid of “breaking something”</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tend to read everything on screen before acting</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Afraid of embarrassment</li> </ul>• Often get frustrated, give up• Tendency to assign blame (to self or app)• Reluctance to give personal infoMany RPGs, particularly modern "storygames", subtly or not-so-subtly encourage players to take risks. But! Older people are inherently more risk averse so this type of gaming may feels weird and hard to push themselves to do. So, for example, if your cadre of older gamers don't immediately heed the Blades in the Dark advice to "play your character like you're driving a stolen car" (i.e., take lots of risks) -- part of this is quite literally because they are old(er) and not necessarily because they don't like the game! In addition "strongly prefer familiar paths over efficiency" speaks directly to the min/max element that is a part of many RPGs. Yes, even storygames. Once an older adult finds a familiar path that works for them, even if it is not efficient, they tend to use that same path because of familiarity, risk aversion, and fear of embarrassment.In conclusion: yes, older adults are different from younger adults, and several of those differences are directly relevant to RPG play.</blockquote>

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