This is a generalization from my own experiences in the past 6 years of mmorpg gaming. I started back with PSO on Dreamcast and still going some what strong today. Now feel free to disagree and give your own opinions as well on this matter. My personal experience on the age of mmorpg gamers is the following.

Free 2 play mmorpgs Age group from 5-16 --- Kids with no money who usually quit soon and from 26+ (Adults usually with jobs and busy lives who are looking for a game where they can "Buy" benefits to keep up with everyone else and are willing to spend the 30-40 bucks a month to be even with the guy who spends 300 hours a month.

Pay 2 play mmorpgs Ages 17-25 -- College students, have part time jobs, maybe a little bit of money some high school students as well.  Also age  40+ Older gamers who are retired or in the process of retirement have jobs maybe but don't work to hard. Have some free time.

This is from my own experiences in terms of Age to Free 2 play and pay 2 play mmorpgs, your experience might be different but 6 years of experience has shown me this I think its at least some what accurate.

What have you guys noticed about the Majority age groups in mmorpgs?

30, never played a F2P in my life, P2P all the way.

Majority of people in the games I tend to play (WoW, WAR, EvE, AoC) tend to be in a similar age bracket; 25-35.

There are a few younger ones and quite a few older ones (up to 65ish) but the average is about 30 ish.

We're the Atari/Amiga generation who grew up playing computer games in the late 80s and never stopped.

Originally posted by Calintz333

This is a generalization from my own experiences in the past 6 years of mmorpg gaming. I started back with PSO on Dreamcast and still going some what strong today. Now feel free to disagree and give your own opinions as well on this matter. My personal experience on the age of mmorpg gamers is the following.

 

Free 2 play mmorpgs Age group from 5-16 --- Kids with no money who usually quit soon and from 26+ (Adults usually with jobs and busy lives who are looking for a game where they can "Buy" benefits to keep up with everyone else and are willing to spend the 30-40 bucks a month to be even with the guy who spends 300 hours a month.

Pay 2 play mmorpgs Ages 17-25 -- College students, have part time jobs, maybe a little bit of money some high school students as well.  Also age  40+ Older gamers who are retired or in the process of retirement have jobs maybe but don't work to hard. Have some free time.

 

This is from my own experiences in terms of Age to Free 2 play and pay 2 play mmorpgs, your experience might be different but 6 years of experience has shown me this I think its at least some what accurate.

 

What have you guys noticed about the Majority age groups in mmorpgs?

 

 

gah! im supposed to be retired in 2 years?  :)

I currently subscribe to:  WoW, WAR, and Lord of the Rings Online.  I usually keep a random fourth sub active changing month to month.  This month its Dark Age of Camelot, last month it was EQ2

Im also currently involved with closed beta testing 2 MMO's due out either late this year or next year this time.  I own a 360 with a gold account as well.

29 yrs old, I play both P2P and F2P. It all depends on the game and if I like the theme, graphics and gameplay. If it is F2P, I dont buy from item shops, it is used to allieve boredom when taking breaks from my P2P games. I honestly never really paid much attention to gamer's ages based on what they like to play. I have a small group I game with and rarely venture out of that group.

I'm 29, currently playing LotRO. I've mainly played pay to play games, but I've tried a few free to play titles, though never spent that much time with them. The one I spent the most time with was Perfect World, before International was around. I didn't get very far though, spent most of my time buying costumes rather than levelling.

I'm quite young myself, still in the earlier years of high school, although I do play PTP games (Currently LOTRO, EVE Online, and Vanguard, although the third sub changes month-to-month). I played FTP games for quite a while, although it doesn't take long to get tired of being the only living thing among bots, player-ran shops (without a player being there :/) and other annoyances. I also find the PTP communities more mature (bit obvious) and more fun to play with. I don't have a job at all.

I also am currently in the second closed beta stage (also being in the first closed beta and the alpha) for a PTP MMORPG due out this year I believe.

 - Eric

PS: I also play CoH although there's no fees involved at the moment due to my subbing to Tabula Rasa when it shutdown, I have three months for CoH free. I plan on replacing the third random subscription with CoH once my three months run out.

37, at the moment not playing any "released"  MMORPG's, but from the released games I am playing are in the RTS and FPS genre. Never really got the F2P games. Most simply don't appeal to me, and those who might have a shot kinda ruine it with having item shops.

Age 61.  Currently subbed to WAR and VG.

I wish that I could have retired @ 40!

The only F2P games that I have played were Sword of the New World and Dungeon Runners.  I didn't last very long as I found them to be very repetitive, although I did enjoy the humor in DR.

Ion

i started with AC then came SEGA'S PSO and also played that on my dreamcast it was not realy a mmoprg 4 players max in a party, meeting hub was croweded with many to chat and meet up for party, but it was first console with realy good  games to play on internet with 56k modem on seganet or on segaeurope .

I still have my save games from PSO even my first character lol.

20 college student.   Right now I'm technically playing a F2P MMO(Mabinogi) for kicks and giggles,  omgzors I'm a baby 10 year old(more funny when you actually play the game).

Though last month I was playing EvE for a couple months.

______________________

Trust me when I say age means nothing on the Internet.   When I was 16ish I was put on babysitting duty of a 20 year old, The guy grew up very fast after we got on vent(even got a serious job after a month).  

edit: recounted time

OP...where do you get the idea that ppl who are 40 are retired/ready to retire? That is just rediculous and almost makes your entire post stupid. My father is 73 n he still is out workin every day. I am 37 n imagine I have at least another 30+ years of workin...only way I will stop is if I die before then.

As for gaming, I play both F2P n P2P. But am more dedicated to logging in more often on a P2P game. F2P just looses interest for me much faster.

im a college student and i only play p2p games. ive tried some f2p games but they usually suck. i work part time so i make a little money on the side

35 and I don't currently play any MMOs P2P or F2P. Played most of the P2P games for about a month after they released and got bored. Started out in AC, played that for a couple years, then went to DAoC for about a year. Played CoH on and off for about 2 years. Since then I haven't played anything more than 2 months. I think I may be burned out on the whole MMO genre. Waiting for CO, DCUO, maybe Earthrise and STO.

Right now I play PKR Texas Holdem, and Left 4 Dead.

I never noticed I never said my own

Well im 21 college student in psychology  currently playing P2P games, I tried out F2P games quite a bit trying to find a fair and balanced one, none that come close to P2P so I just stuck with those. Been playing FFXI since 2003, Used to play PSO and PSOBB, I also gave WoW about 6 months it just didnt grab me the way it grabs so many people. Guild wars was fun about 4 months and CoX was an ok game just not my style, so basically right now its FFXI, and waiting for that Madworld game to come out on Wii.

I've seen all ages commonly in all F2Ps. This doesn't mean everywhere I turn i see some 10-year-old asking if he could have some gold. We all see the good, or bad side of mmos. I was on the side were in WoW everybody was playing horde, and was in your "age groups" for f2p so there is no age groups and when there is a game avalable to children, they will play it.

Originally posted by Rayx0r

Originally posted by Calintz333

This is a generalization from my own experiences in the past 6 years of mmorpg gaming. I started back with PSO on Dreamcast and still going some what strong today. Now feel free to disagree and give your own opinions as well on this matter. My personal experience on the age of mmorpg gamers is the following.

 

Free 2 play mmorpgs Age group from 5-16 --- Kids with no money who usually quit soon and from 26+ (Adults usually with jobs and busy lives who are looking for a game where they can "Buy" benefits to keep up with everyone else and are willing to spend the 30-40 bucks a month to be even with the guy who spends 300 hours a month.

Pay 2 play mmorpgs Ages 17-25 -- College students, have part time jobs, maybe a little bit of money some high school students as well.  Also age  40+ Older gamers who are retired or in the process of retirement have jobs maybe but don't work to hard. Have some free time.

 

This is from my own experiences in terms of Age to Free 2 play and pay 2 play mmorpgs, your experience might be different but 6 years of experience has shown me this I think its at least some what accurate.

 

What have you guys noticed about the Majority age groups in mmorpgs?

 

 

gah! im supposed to be retired in 2 years?  :)

Hehe, I thought the same thing.

Contrary to popular beleif, it is not the norm to retire at age 50. In fact, most don't retire until 60-70... and on some occasions not at all.

It is a minority that are in such positions where they can retire at 40-50.

--- Back on Topic.

I have played WoW, AoC, WAR, EvE, Everquest and DAoC, as well as a handful of F2P games.

Without a doubt, F2P games are mainly filled with immature children.

But, there are immature players to be found in both F2P and P2P games, and it should not affect your game play, so long as you choose not to socialize with them or take part in their childish arguments, rants, etc...

43, first time I touched a computer it was a trash-80,(not mine) I learnt Basic on a vic-20, but my first owned was a Commodore -64 home computer, first game was," The Hobbit " on data-cassette,(20min load time!)

Now 'a'day's it's P2P and F2P mmorpg's, (depends on the budget) Sci-fi, fantasy, action, horror luv all type's
This month it's; Requiem Bloodmare, mabinogi, I will pretty much play anything, guess I just like visiting new worlds, my play style switches between group and soloist.

I think the age group's that populate different game realm's, depends a lot on the game itself, DDO has I think a high level of 30 to 40 year old's than say Vanguard, which I would think would have more a range of 20 to 30 year old's.
 

while studies have shown, while not completely reliable, that most p2p players, as well as the agerage gamer falls between the ages of 25-30. You find much younger audiences on f2p mmogs as they can still be played even after their allowence has been spent.

32 here. This is what i noticed in the years i've been playing MMORPGs:

* Jobs: About half the people i encountered in P2P MMO's have a fulltime job.

* Age: Most people i encountered in the various MMO's i've played are in their late twenties (exceptions where people are younger, sometimes a lot younger: WoW and F2P MMO's. Exceptions where people are older: mostly back in UO).

* I have never ever come across a 40+ who is in the process of retirement. If i did, i'd ask him how the f*ck he managed to do that so i could start my retirement process at 40ish as well

Er, over 40 and another person who started computer gaming on the Commodore 64 w/tape drive in the early 80's. My first MMORPG was (also) Asheron's Call 1.

I remember I saw some reliable data that the average AC1 player (in its early days) was mid thirty'esh. Perhaps that is why its community was so good? But I have no doubt things have changed dramatically in the 11 years since. Probably in large part due to WoW, and to cheaper PC's. I think I paid perhaps somewhere around $5k for my first 80386 PC in the late 80's? And with inflation I'm sure that would equate to over $10k now.