Guild Wars 2

Alright so I guess a little back story on my part. I am 18 at the moment. I have been playing MMORPG games for a very long time. (since maybe 13 years old) Through that time I have met the majority of the people on each game who are aged from 13-22 years of age.

From my history I have been completely oblivious to the fact older people (30-50) play. Which, don’t get me wrong I don’t care who plays and I’m glad everyone of any age plays..xD Its a very cool thing to see that actually.

It’s just..what about this game in particular makes teens the minority? P2P?

….what? You think a game full of Quaggan backpacks, rainbow unicorn longbows, mini-games, carnivals, and moa-races is geared for an older audience?

In all seriousness though, you don’t have any data to suggest that teens are the minority. Another argument could be that teens have a shorter attention span, and therefore they quit the game much earlier than older adults due to boredom. I’m also 18 at the moment, and I can tell you right now that I have been becoming bored with the game because of the constant “Preppy attitude” that the game emits. My friends quit the game because of the constant mini-games and the not-so-serious content, and most of them went back to WoW, some went to Aion, and some went back to Guild Wars 1. I would much rather play a game like Skyrim or CoD for 10 hours straight than play a single mini-game in GW2.

My guess is that older audiences are tired of the constant seriousness of MMORPG’s and want a break…. therefore they play the cutesy Guild Wars 2 and they genuinely enjoy it.

Teens are the minority? Since when? This game is way too Disney to be taken serious. Nothing wrong with it, but they aimed for the teen rating for a reason.

I’d really love for more of a serious atmosphere, alas, finding a well made (m rated) mmo is near impossible now and days.

There is no pay 2 play, there is buy 2 play.

Theres one very ‘dark’ bit in GW2. There was a heart task which asked you to rescue Seraph soldiers and kill Risen grubs. You’re like ‘what Risen grubs, I don’t see any.’

You find soldiers laying unconscious on the ground and go up to res them…… and, I’ll leave that for you to guess.

I highly doubt teens and young adults are the minority. I’m only 32 and I’m one of the top 5 oldest people on my server’s public teamspeak at prime time!

This game is more casual than your typical MMO, but it’s also more niche based than you typical MMO too. ANet has said that the number of PvE players to PvP players is like night and day, that they have next to no PvP players in comparison. I wonder what we would find if we compared PvE to WvW players. Would we find the vast majority of players do WvW 75% of the time? WvW I feel is the niche this game is tyring to fill and it attracts players who want to dive right in and not have to spend a year gearing out a character. Thus the more casual atmosphere… but just because this is a more casual game doesn’t mean the majority of the players are retired

Well you are right. I don’t have specific studies proving that teens are the minority, it just seems that way. It’s nice to see others opinions on this. I guess I’m also a little bit different I love this game at this age and I hardly ever get bored.

Looking at LA chat, and the sorts of guild tags I see around I do wonder if it’s not the other way around..

I would say MMOs are very community based and you can build bonds to people that outlast any game. So people stick around a while and you can find all sorts of 30+ players that have been playin online 10+ years.

Also the average gamer age is 30 now.

My guild: 7> 30years , 5<18 years, 180 between 18 and 30

I have a 62 year old friend who duo’s arah with me (36 myself). He puts 95% of the player base to shame.

Our guild has about 40% under 21 so I would say that more adults play GW2 but more “mature teens” play GW2 VS games like WOW

At 50, I would rather be in your top end zone than any other. I started pencil and paper gaming with D&D1, and have not stopped since. This game is a direct descendent of those ancient games. It retains the social aspect, and my guild is 5 close knit, yet independent players. We have some other casuals, but it is usually just us.
We enjoy talking as we do our own thing or getting together for something challenging.

Galtrix.7369:

My guess is that older audiences are tired of the constant seriousness of MMORPG’s and want a break…. therefore they play the cutesy Guild Wars 2 and they genuinely enjoy it.

I’m an older player with quite a few older player friends. There is no correlation between age and liking fluff. I’ve avoided almost all of the fluff, with the exception of Sanctum Sprint. I do not have a quaggan backpack, and much prefer serious content to the other kind. My friends, likewise.

Angelica Dream.7103:

Our guild has about 40% under 21 so I would say that more adults play GW2 but more “mature teens” play GW2 VS games like WOW

lol, I beg to differ. I’ve been kicked out of more dungeons than I can count by little teenagers in GW2. Let me give you a comparison. I’ve played WoW since the beginning of it’s existence. I’ll just say 8 years. I was only kicked by a teenager twice in WoW, and he was extremely immature. Fast forward to Guild Wars 2, and I’ve been kicked over 30 times. 20-22ish of those were teens.

Galtrix.7369:

Angelica Dream.7103:

Our guild has about 40% under 21 so I would say that more adults play GW2 but more “mature teens” play GW2 VS games like WOW

lol, I beg to differ. I’ve been kicked out of more dungeons than I can count by little teenagers in GW2. Let me give you a comparison. I’ve played WoW since the beginning of it’s existence. I’ll just say 8 years. I was only kicked by a teenager twice in WoW, and he was extremely immature. Fast forward to Guild Wars 2, and I’ve been kicked over 30 times. 20-22ish of those were teens.

Let me get this straight. You’re getting kicked, constantly, and then poll the griefers for their age? You really should stop making up stories, you’re not good at it.

Statler: You know, the older I get, the more I appreciate good music.
Waldorf: Yeah? What’s that got to do with what we just heard?
Statler: Nothing, just thought I’d mention it.

To the OP, how exactly did you learn that “old” people (per definition anyone over 30 apparently) – are playing this game?

laharl.8435:

Galtrix.7369:

Angelica Dream.7103:

Our guild has about 40% under 21 so I would say that more adults play GW2 but more “mature teens” play GW2 VS games like WOW

lol, I beg to differ. I’ve been kicked out of more dungeons than I can count by little teenagers in GW2. Let me give you a comparison. I’ve played WoW since the beginning of it’s existence. I’ll just say 8 years. I was only kicked by a teenager twice in WoW, and he was extremely immature. Fast forward to Guild Wars 2, and I’ve been kicked over 30 times. 20-22ish of those were teens.

Let me get this straight. You’re getting kicked, constantly, and then poll the griefers for their age? You really should stop making up stories, you’re not good at it.

Alternatively if you go around treating other people like children, how often do you think you’ll get kicked?

fuyuko.3705:

Alright so I guess a little back story on my part. I am 18 at the moment. I have been playing MMORPG games for a very long time. (since maybe 13 years old).

Not meaning to sound rude or contentious, but describing a 5 year history of online gaming as a very long time is a bit of a stretch …

That being said, I don’t know if the game itself is geared towards an older audience, or what elements are within it that would seem more geared towards an older audience. With the game rated “T”, it’s not as if any seriously mature themes could be brought into play, though I think it would certainly add some more “spice” to some of the characters/stories.

laharl.8435:

Galtrix.7369:

Angelica Dream.7103:

Our guild has about 40% under 21 so I would say that more adults play GW2 but more “mature teens” play GW2 VS games like WOW

lol, I beg to differ. I’ve been kicked out of more dungeons than I can count by little teenagers in GW2. Let me give you a comparison. I’ve played WoW since the beginning of it’s existence. I’ll just say 8 years. I was only kicked by a teenager twice in WoW, and he was extremely immature. Fast forward to Guild Wars 2, and I’ve been kicked over 30 times. 20-22ish of those were teens.

Let me get this straight. You’re getting kicked, constantly, and then poll the griefers for their age? You really should stop making up stories, you’re not good at it.

It’s not an exact number. I’ve counted the number of times I’ve been kicked, yes, but 20-22ish is just a guess. I always ask the age of people in my party because it’s a bad habit I picked up in WoW before raids, but I do not make a poll. Relax, take a deep breath, and please stop pointing out other’s when you do not know the entire story.

Khisanth.2948:

laharl.8435:

Galtrix.7369:

Angelica Dream.7103:

Our guild has about 40% under 21 so I would say that more adults play GW2 but more “mature teens” play GW2 VS games like WOW

lol, I beg to differ. I’ve been kicked out of more dungeons than I can count by little teenagers in GW2. Let me give you a comparison. I’ve played WoW since the beginning of it’s existence. I’ll just say 8 years. I was only kicked by a teenager twice in WoW, and he was extremely immature. Fast forward to Guild Wars 2, and I’ve been kicked over 30 times. 20-22ish of those were teens.

Let me get this straight. You’re getting kicked, constantly, and then poll the griefers for their age? You really should stop making up stories, you’re not good at it.

Alternatively if you go around treating other people like children, how often do you think you’ll get kicked?

If you will play with random people you will learn hard way that there is a lot of kids … (70% of them are normal people but other 30% kitten me off …)

this is definitly not a mature themed story..it could be so much more darker for the stories sake not for darks sake,like the witcher story or add real consequences and dark twists to it…not..festivals,dragon bashs,queens celebrations,countless invasion where one or two people die and we are back to the same as before…

Age doesn’t matter. A fella I routinely played with back in WoW was a arena junkie in 2’s, 3’s, and 5’s and carried a 2k rating regardless of season on his loc. Go figure. His age? 61…

mojowalker.3798:

fuyuko.3705:

Alright so I guess a little back story on my part. I am 18 at the moment. I have been playing MMORPG games for a very long time. (since maybe 13 years old).

Not meaning to sound rude or contentious, but describing a 5 year history of online gaming as a very long time is a bit of a stretch …

Oh Im sure you can remember the time in your life when 5 years really was a “very long time.”

My advice to those that think as much is to relish it as long as you can. That changes whether you like it or not, and soon enough, you will be seeing threads like this and thinking to yourself “five years is a very long time?” I think it just makes us older folks reminiscent of those years where you had no doubt you had it all figured out… Its a good time, though, its hard to appreciate in the moment.

I dont think its as much geared towards a mature audience (given the content), but it is definitely marketed towards people who are a bit jaded with the SSDD of most of the MMOs out there. Some of it is changes for the better, some for the worse… some really isnt even new.. but it does “feel” different than games that some of us have been playing for a very long time ( ).

In my gaming history I have always played games with people of all ages and walks of life. I do not see any difference in GW2 as compared to those games. edit: Then again, age rarely even comes up as a topic of discussion.

I’m in a large multi-gaming guild directed to older gamers (25+, but we have members that are way past 60), and I know of at least one other similarly large guild in the same server. Personally I’m 37 so I’ll talk about my experience.

Several years ago when I played WoW I had no troubles spending a whole evening glued to the computer, a 5 hours raid?… no problem… let’s do that again tomorrow… things like that. Fast forward to today, I have a (non gamer) wife, a beautiful 2 years old son (that will turn 3 in december), and apart from working full time I’m also going to college 3 or 4 nights a week to finish an engineering degree. And what I love about GW2 is that I can enjoy it in short chunks if want to.

I can log in one night for half an hour and do some dailies, maybe advance the current living story a little bit, or I can jump into WvW and not feel I’m useless even if I don’t spend so much time there, or maybe just wander around, if I want to do a dungeon I can do a quick one that can be done in a few minutes, or if I want, one that takes way over an hour if I have the time, maybe craft a little bit to eventually get an ascended (I see it as a long term project), and have fun while doing it.

Of course, I do think that being in a very fun and active guild helps a LOT with it.

fuyuko.3705:

..what about this game in particular makes teens the minority? P2P?

Maybe there aren’t so many young teens, but this small survey shows that 18-25 is almost half: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewanalytics?formkey=dHlvTXlFM2RCYVNpeW0xd3A3Mzk3X2c6MQ

I’m 58, but I’ve only been playing MMOs a couple of years. I started out on the SWTOR beta. Obviously, most players I meet are younger.

Yes i’ve played video games since 1989. Now i feel old.

The demographic has continued to move to older players. When I began in 1997, the average age was about 24 – 26 years old with a 80% male population. As games have expanded their bases and catered to a variety of niche markets, that demographic has changed. Now, we have an average age of around 34 years with a 60% male population.

There are many theories to why the populace has gotten older. The leading idea is the introduction of alternative entertainment sources like a stronger platform market and viable iOS markets drawing young players away from MMO’s.

There are a bunch of sites that correlate this data like The Daedalus Project (Nick Yee), mmorpg.com, mmo-champion and various mmo blogs.

Ive encountered a fairly broad mix of ages in game.

And, I did chuckle at the, “very long time,” reference to perhaps as much as five years line in the OP.

“When we were young we had to play on things that were called computers and sometimes we even had to go offline during maintenance!”

“What is offline grandpa?”

Blackmoon.6837:

Teens are the minority? Since when? This game is way too Disney to be taken serious. Nothing wrong with it, but they aimed for the teen rating for a reason.

It’s funny… in my mind, only a teenager(or young college student) would say something like “This game is way too Disney to be taken serious”. They’re the ones that feel a need to prove how “serious” they are by rejecting anything that is too “kiddy”.

Players over 30 couldn’t care less about whether something is “disney” or not, they just want to play a good game. Also, for many older gamers the more kid-friendly the rating is, the better the odds of being able to play it with your kids.

The populace is getting older because we did not stop playing video games when we expired like milk at age 30?

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Blackmoon.6837:

Teens are the minority? Since when? This game is way too Disney to be taken serious. Nothing wrong with it, but they aimed for the teen rating for a reason.

It’s funny… in my mind, only a teenager(or young college student) would say something like “This game is way too Disney to be taken serious”. They’re the ones that feel a need to prove how “serious” they are by rejecting anything that is too “kiddy”.

Players over 30 couldn’t care less about whether something is “disney” or not, they just want to play a good game. Also, for many older gamers the more kid-friendly the rating is, the better the odds of being able to play it with your kids.

I have to agree… actually reminds me of the first chronicles of narnia book dedication… something like “When I wrote this book, you were be too old to read fairy tales, so I hope you read it when you’re old enough to read fairy tales again”..

EDIT: found the exact quote:
“My Dear Lucy,
I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand, a word you say, but I shall still beyour affectionate Godfather,
C.S. Lewis”

Considering that GW1 is 8 years old, GW2 should be aimed at older players (25+).

But I would hardly call the GW2 content mature…

fuyuko.3705:

Alright so I guess a little back story on my part. I am 18 at the moment. I have been playing MMORPG games for a very long time. (since maybe 13 years old)

Ok, I admit it, I LOLed.

fuyuko.3705:

Through that time I have met the majority of the people on each game who are aged from 13-22 years of age.

From my history I have been completely oblivious to the fact older people (30-50) play. Which, don’t get me wrong I don’t care who plays and I’m glad everyone of any age plays..xD Its a very cool thing to see that actually.

It’s just..what about this game in particular makes teens the minority? P2P?

Are they the minority in this game? Do you have any sources to back that up? I don’t doubt it, but you can’t just assert it as true. Is it possible the gaming demographic has gotten older and maybe there are more of them than there are of you? According to wikipedia the majority of players are older than you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_culture

Sligh.2789:

At 50, I would rather be in your top end zone than any other. I started pencil and paper gaming with D&D1, and have not stopped since. This game is a direct descendent of those ancient games. It retains the social aspect, and my guild is 5 close knit, yet independent players. We have some other casuals, but it is usually just us.
We enjoy talking as we do our own thing or getting together for something challenging.

I’m 50 and started out with D&D1, the white box, Chainmail,… Can I join your guild?

Draknar.5748:

Galtrix.7369:

laharl.8435:

Galtrix.7369:

laharl.8435:

Galtrix.7369:

Angelica Dream.7103:

Our guild has about 40% under 21 so I would say that more adults play GW2 but more “mature teens” play GW2 VS games like WOW

lol, I beg to differ. I’ve been kicked out of more dungeons than I can count by little teenagers in GW2. Let me give you a comparison. I’ve played WoW since the beginning of it’s existence. I’ll just say 8 years. I was only kicked by a teenager twice in WoW, and he was extremely immature. Fast forward to Guild Wars 2, and I’ve been kicked over 30 times. 20-22ish of those were teens.

Let me get this straight. You’re getting kicked, constantly, and then poll the griefers for their age? You really should stop making up stories, you’re not good at it.

It’s not an exact number. I’ve counted the number of times I’ve been kicked, yes, but 20-22ish is just a guess. I always ask the age of people in my party because it’s a bad habit I picked up in WoW before raids, but I do not make a poll. Relax, take a deep breath, and please stop pointing out other’s when you do not know the entire story.

Actually I now know most of the story as I’ve gone through your post history. I found so many discrepancies between your posts that I’m dizzy. You exhibit one of the most common forms of immaturity, habitual lying. There’s really no point involving oneself in a discussion with someone who so easily refrains from truth.

Umm, alright. You show your immaturity by going through my post history and trying to put together a story. There are absolutely no discrepancies in my posts, just pieces of the story that you are missing and refuse to believe apparently. As hard as you may try, you cannot put together any of anyone’s posts and create a story for yourself. I don’t even know where you’re coming up with this, kid. I don’t like white knights. Goodbye.

Gotta say, you definitely sound a bit immature, but desperately trying not to. This is from a completely separate, objective bystander perspective. I think it’s mostly because of the asking people’s age before you start playing with them story. Just sounds…..convenient…

I’m sure it wasn’t intentional and I still think you’re a cool person.

In all fairness, I have encountered PUGs where someone will ask for everyone’s age. I’ve always thought it rather odd so I usually just don’t say anything. So these people are out there but not many I’d wager.

Paponzi.1637:

My guild: 7> 30years , 5<18 years, 180 between 18 and 30

Pretty much my experience. Majority of guys I happen to run into are between 22-27. Which is the age I fall into as well as most of the regulars I run dungeons with.(there is one teenager in the group, but he is definitely the minority from what I have ran into).

fuyuko.3705:

From my history I have been completely oblivious to the fact older people (30- […]

YMMD! 30 is old(er) … ROFL

fuyuko.3705:

It’s just..what about this game in particular makes teens the minority? P2P?

Actually: yes.
It’ our industrial “civilisaction”.

The U.S. population is growing more slowly and beginning to age rapidly. Between 2010 and 2011, the number of people under age 18 declined by 190,000, while the number of people ages 65 and older increased by 917,000. Women in the U.S. now average 1.9 children, down from 2.1 several years ago.

Source: 2012 World Population Data Sheet

Galtrix.7369:

I will not post on the forums with my opinion anymore.

5/5 BRETTY GUD :-DDD

GrandmaFunk.3052:

It’s funny… in my mind, only a teenager(or young college student) would say something like “This game is way too Disney to be taken serious”. They’re the ones that feel a need to prove how “serious” they are by rejecting anything that is too “kiddy”.

Players over 30 couldn’t care less about whether something is “disney” or not, they just want to play a good game. Also, for many older gamers the more kid-friendly the rating is, the better the odds of being able to play it with your kids.

Completely skipping over how I said there was nothing wrong with it. Judging by your seemingly stern approach at trying to draw out some black & white contrast, it’s no wonder that my belly aches at the thought that you just want adult game play to die off.

Oh grandma… how you just love putting soap in my mouth for only speaking the truth.

p.s.

I’m 27.

diamondgirl.6315:

I’m 38, and am laughing at the ‘oh how nice the ancient decrepit mummies over 30 can still coordinate their feeble hands and eyes to click a mouse!’ feeling in the air.

I like you.

Galtrix.7369:

….what? You think a game full of Quaggan backpacks, rainbow unicorn longbows, mini-games, carnivals, and moa-races is geared for an older audience?

That doesn’t really mean much. You have a group of adult “men” who worship My Little Pony. You have adult women who are into Hello Kitty.

Blackmoon.6837:

Completely skipping over how I said there was nothing wrong with it. Judging by your seemingly stern approach at trying to draw out some black & white contrast, it’s no wonder that my belly aches at the thought that you just want adult game play to die off.

Oh grandma… how you just love putting soap in my mouth for only speaking the truth.

p.s.

I’m 27.

No this is more a case of you putting words in my mouth.

also, there’s no such thing as “adult game play”, only adult content.

I personally believe Gw2 is geared towards those gamers who are looking for a nice, relaxing game to play and enjoy themselves. Those ancient! people with little time (or even a whole lot of it) who find it refreshing, as it doesn’t require any real commitment. To use an analogy, it kind of reminds me of my old box of toys.

The direction of the game has been slowly shifting, but that’s another matter.

@ the OP:

First, I thought I’d give you a reference.

I’ve been playing computer games since you had to program them yourself. (BASIC, anyone?) My MMO experience is a bit shorter, starting with EQ1. Before the computer, I played p&p D&D and before that I played chess by the US Mail. I’m “older”…. I have granchildren. I have a step grandchild older than you. Oh… and I am also female.

The reason I like GW2 has nothing to do with the “preferred demographic.” I like it simply because it is fun for me. I can come and go as I please, and still be competitive. I can run speed clears with friends, or I can join the champ train, or I can simply wander around the world solo and do hearts or something to pass a little time. If I feel the need to stop and go play Monopoly with the granddaughter I can, and come back to almost exactly the same spot as I left. I don’t have to worry about “losing my place” in the world.

The content itself could actually be a bit more “mature” for me, but if it means giving up my freedom to come and go as I choose, I’ll take it GW2 every time.

Ashabhi.1365:

I’ve been playing computer games since you had to program them yourself. (BASIC, anyone?) played p&p D&D….

Haha that brings back memories. I was the kid that would go to Radio Shack in the mall and program my name to go all over on the screen on the TRS-80 display. Later I had a Commodore Vic-20 with a cassette tape drive. I remember many hours with my nose stuck in Commodore magazine coding a game and many times having it fail. I had a few games for the cassette drive and would get home from school and start loading it, go watch cartoons and come back an hour later and maybe it actually loaded.

My RP also started with p&p D&D. Those were the days were most of the graphics were in your head aside from a few pictures to look at in books. Things certainly have come a long way since then.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Ashabhi.1365:

I’ve been playing computer games since you had to program them yourself. (BASIC, anyone?) played p&p D&D….

Haha that brings back memories. I was the kid that would go to Radio Shack in the mall and program my name to go all over on the screen on the TRS-80 display. Later I had a Commodore Vic-20 with a cassette tape drive. I remember many hours with my nose stuck in Commodore magazine coding a game and many times having it fail. I had a few games for the cassette drive and would get home from school and start loading it, go watch cartoons and come back an hour later and maybe it actually loaded.

My RP also started with p&p D&D. Those were the days were most of the graphics were in your head aside from a few pictures to look at in books. Things certainly have come a long way since then.

I had the Commodore 64. No tape drive on mine, but that external floppy drive that liked to overheat and catch fire if you didn’t have a fan running on it at all times.