New 'how old are we' poll

[Umbran]

I wonder what this says about the median age of gamers... or rather, what the median age of gamers says about the industry...

Note that this poll is not representative of gamers as a whole.

 

[SylverFlame]

As of this post there are 109 voters. As such, I do not feel that there is an adequete sample to start applying theories or considerations to what the numbers mean. Of course, half-baked and crack-pot ideas should be released now as the time is right.

Personally, I'm going with a Highlander idea where the oldest and youngest are the least numerous people. As such, I now make my bid to be the "only one". I'll be hiding behind the boxes while the rest of you duke it out.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

What was wrong with the 'old' how old are you poll?

Was it broken? Did it get the shaft?

Yea! Airwolf is back!

Welcome and happy new year my boy!

 

[Numion]

As of this post there are 109 voters. As such, I do not feel that there is an adequete sample to start applying theories or considerations to what the numbers mean.

There's never too few samples for a theory. The theory might not be too reliable though. Feelings got nothing to do with it; statistics do

 

[Wolffenjugend]

Wow, those numbers sure point to disaster. Less than 10% of those polled are under the age of 20. That's bad. Myself and almost everyone I know started playing in out early teens. At this rate, D&D will be a game for old-timers within a few decades. I'm not entirely surprised, what with the dominance of console games (PS2, X-Box, etc.).

WotC has got some serious recruiting to do...

 

[DanMcS]

Wow, those numbers sure point to disaster. Less than 10% of those polled are under the age of 20. That's bad. Myself and almost everyone I know started playing in out early teens. At this rate, D&D will be a game for old-timers within a few decades. I'm not entirely surprised, what with the dominance of console games (PS2, X-Box, etc.).

WotC has got some serious recruiting to do...

Well, less than 10% of the 130 people who have been able to respond (as of this writing) in the <12 hours since the poll has been up, on a weekday, in january, when all the schools have just started up after Christmas break.

So what it really says is that <10% of the people with enough free time to respond to a poll on a website during a work/school day, are under 20.

Judging from this last saturday, when a couple buddies and I played at a game store, the hobby is in no danger of lacking young players. We were playing Hunter (aged 24 to 30ish), the next table over was full of 12ish-year-old kids playing D&D, the next room was full of mixed 20-somethings and teens playing a miniatures wargame I won't pretend to understand, except it included rulers and lots of cool painted figs and I wish I had the free time to get involved in yet another hobby.

Plus, even if all us gamers are growing up/old, that just means that in 10 or 15 years we'll all be introducing all our kids to the games, and there will be another demographic spike

But 130 votes isn't enough to draw any real conclusions from anyway. If they conducted such a poll on the wizards site it might fare better.

 

[Buttercup]

my wife remembers what class she was in when JFK was shot.

So do I. It was a very scary day. All the grownups were crying. And I was sad, because we had been to Hyannis the summer before, and I got to shake his hand.

 

[EricNoah]

Yep this basically confirms what we pretty much have been able to gather from other polls over the past few years -- the EN World crowd skews a bit older than you might think. Hmm, I wonder if I might be able to dig up some of my old bravenet polls...

 

[Agback]

G'day

Go, go Gadget Heroic Analysis!

Before we all get too carried away, let's wait until this has been running over a weekend. Or perhaps until it has 450 responses.

And even then, let's remember that the sample is

i) self-selected

ii) from among people who have an InterNet connection

iii) and choose to frequent ENworld.

When we need information about a represenative sample of gamers, someone will come around to pummel it out of you.

Regards,


Agback

 

[Luddite]

Instead of doing this poll from time to time, would it be possilbe to put up some type of ENWorld User Survay. Just so we can collect some data about the users of ENWorld.

Granted we enwolders are a particular bunch of gamers, but lets at least get an idea where and who we are.

-The Luddite