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<blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 766525" data-attributes="member: 2013">Yeah... we've all gotten 20 years older. <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&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />I think the &quot;distribution&quot; of ages of D&amp;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.&nbsp; Hence I think in the 70's there were few 30+ year olds playing D&amp;D.&nbsp; In the 80's, those who were introduced to D&amp;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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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 &quot;high&quot; level around age 25-30.&nbsp; 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 &quot;tail&quot; of younger folks hanging off a plateau of older folks in any given year.&nbsp; The only thing that is changing as time passes is the length of that plateau.&nbsp; 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. <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&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />&nbsp; But if we cut off the &quot;tail&quot; influx by making the hobby focused on &quot;more mature&quot; 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</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Sigil, post: 766525, member: 2013"] 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 [/QUOTE]

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