Guild Wars 2

I’m 23. so I don’t qualify as “older”… But I did break my hip once, and it sure makes me feel old sometimes! :P

It is nice that us older players are able to play with younger players. Not much into PvP. But do enjoy dungeon runs, PvE and WvW. It is a friendly game. More so now with the mega servers. It is a great community.

Behellagh.1468:

Over 50 as well. First MMO was UO beta. Second was City of Heroes until NCSOFT killed it.

NCSoft didn’t kill it, Cryptic Studios did it themselves. NCSoft just put it out of it’s misery.

Soon to be 48. Everyone in my 300+ member guild is 30 or older, with quite a few in the “or older” category.

Dahkeus.8243:

I’m really surprised that we don’t have more older gamers since video games are such a great way to stay mentally active even when physical activity can be limited.

My grandmother-in-law is 80-something and plays Gamecube stuff pretty much every day. (She wouldn’t play GW2; she’s too paranoid of identity theft to get online, and considering she lives in the middle of nowhere, it’d likely be dialup or satellite internet with horrible latency anyway. But I bet if she did play it, she’d be as good or better than I am.)

Well I certainly don’t qualify as an older player but my guild has lots that are 40+ and last I checked the demographs we have a couple 85+ hanging out and still playing

Yep, 54 here. Good to see so many older players.

Am 65 this July and going strong.

Dusty Moon.4382:

Behellagh.1468:

Over 50 as well. First MMO was UO beta. Second was City of Heroes until NCSOFT killed it.

NCSoft didn’t kill it, Cryptic Studios did it themselves. NCSoft just put it out of it’s misery.

Cryptic made Champions Online .. not City of Heros

A young 67 and first MMO

I’m so happy OP made this thread, I don’t have to feel embarrass for enjoying a game. I’m 41 and only my wife knows I play…now I know I’m not alone.

Mid 50s here….so is my wife. We have been playing mmorpgs since around 2000……me a bit earlier than that. I have always been a video game nut since Pong hit the scene in the mid 70s. Was a big flight sim nut before I started getting into mmoprgs in the late 90s.

I’m only 32, but I think it’s awesome to see a more mature audience! They tend to be much more respectful of the community and not trolls :P I’m looking forward to the day I can play with my son, he’s only 2 right now so I got a few years :P

49.5 here, does GW2 give a discount on the store for AARP members? I cant wait till I get my card. Wow that makes me happy and sad at the same time.
That said, I like using adult sligh humor on the young ones. Even when they type a response, you know they are not sure what just happened.

I’m 35 and many in my guild are older than me – mostly 40s and 50s. There are older than that, I’m sure…and I love them all! Being a part of an “older” guild has really made this game even more enjoyable for me.

Disclaimer…older does not mean more mature!!!

I’m 70 and have played GW1 since 2005 and GW2 since Beta. I’m the oldest in my guild. Indeed, my son and daughter also play and they are probably 2nd and 3rd oldest in the guild.

Foosnark.1784:

Dahkeus.8243:

I’m really surprised that we don’t have more older gamers since video games are such a great way to stay mentally active even when physical activity can be limited.

My grandmother-in-law is 80-something and plays Gamecube stuff pretty much every day. (She wouldn’t play GW2; she’s too paranoid of identity theft to get online, and considering she lives in the middle of nowhere, it’d likely be dialup or satellite internet with horrible latency anyway. But I bet if she did play it, she’d be as good or better than I am.)

When the Wii came out, we were all playing Wii Bowling at my in-laws house. My husband’s 80-year-old grandmother smoked us all. And all of her grandsons are gamers.

Hubby and I are in our mid-40s, and my bestie is in her 50s… we all game together. Like several others mentioned, I’m a Pong veteran as well. Then I started playing DnD when I was around 7 with my older brother and his friends. I’m not sure there has ever been a time in my life, since I was about 4, that I wasn’t a gamer… tabletop, video or otherwise.

I’m not sure when I’ll get “too old for gaming”… maybe 6 months after I’m planted in the ground? Yeah, I’ll consider it at that point.

Four fifths of my small guild are over 50, myself included. Two of us have been in Tyria since the GW1 betas. My family had an “Odyssey 2000”, the first mass market console gaming system. (Lots of games, almost all of them glorified versions of Pong). Been computer gaming since way back with our first Apple ][. Back then, the closest we had to Role Playing were the many Infocom text-based games (Zork, Leisure Suit Larry, etc.) and the fanciest graphics and fantasy “action” belonged to “Wizardry”.

This is my first MMO and I’m 45. I’m not sure of the ages of my guildies, but it’s maybe the 2nd biggest guild on my server so I’m sure there’s a real range of ages. Alas, I think I like this game too much. My poor husband is a GW2 widower.

I’m 46. I also play with my 18 year old son. We play pve and wvw mostly, but he occasionally likes to do dungeons and I’m not really into those. And as someone above mentioned, he picks up on the game mechanics faster than I, but I make more money in the game and end up supplying him, haha.

I usually end up following him through jumping puzzles because I just can’t seem to remember the way, and he patiently waits on me to catch back up after I miss a jump or 2, lol.

Its all fun though!

Age 45 and a proud gamer. Been playing video games since pong as well. Then came Atari, followed by the Commodore VIC20 and the Commodore 64.

Perhaps I shouldn’t think about just how many hours I’ve spent playing.

34 here. Probably too young to “qualitfy”. ; ) I’ve been a gamer in one way or another since the 80s.

I’ve played several MMOs but not usually for more than a few months (and only if no sub). GW1 was the only one I put a crazy amount of time into (and now this). From about age 20-22 I burned out enough on Diablo 2 to learn how much I hate grinding to watch numbers go up, and how much I hate leveling / gear stats and the power difference it makes between players. That’s why GW1 appealed to me, with its low lvl cap and gear stats. The other more “traditional” games were all about that stuff and I couldn’t stand it for long. And that’s to say nothing of the mind-numbing questing format.

It still bothers me greatly that they made GW2 more like those other games (levels and gear) than GW1. But at least it has a bunch of other interesting systems. It didn’t turn out to be nearly as “genre changing” as they made it out to be, but it still stand head and shoulders above the rest of clones for at least trying.

I always felt the GW franchise catered to a more mature crowd than most of the other games, and I still feel that’s the case. Perceptions aside, I wonder how other games really do compare in terms of player age.

Guildmate and I are 57. Been playing MMO’s for 15 years, I was playing FPS before then and both of us played PONG, Adventure back on an HP3000 Mainframe (I know, what’s that?), as well as D&D Pen and Paper after it hit its height, mid-70’s. Even did some graphical MUD development as a hobby in late 90’s, early 2000.

Been incredibly fortunate to play with my kids for over a decade or so and they have learned a lot through MMOs (marketing, economics, social issues around community, teamwork and reputation and they have developed leadership skills among others.)

Like many players I have run into over the years, some in their 60s, 70s and 80s, I hope to be able to spend time playing with my grandkids as well.

Humans learn through play.

So here’s to more fun!

-Never too old to learn more.

Don’t know how to reply to individual posts (sry) but I can so relate to some of the issues here ie: jumping puzzles!! Yikes. I have a fear of heights anyway, real or virtual and some of them give me the heebie jeebies.

Dorian Ordenda.1398:

Don’t know how to reply to individual posts (sry) but I can so relate to some of the issues here ie: jumping puzzles!! Yikes. I have a fear of heights anyway, real or virtual and some of them give me the heebie jeebies.

On your fear of heights, I have the same, and I find that if I jump off a high cliff into some water with my character, I actually feel physically ill, just like I’m actually falling myself. Me and jumping puzzles = do not mix.

Well my friends, video gaming has no age. We play cause we love it, and we’re proud of it. It’s a way of life, a way to get together with your kids, a way to even fight the stress of the day. For me, it’s a ticket to relaxation, an escape from my daily routine. And of course, a ticket to RP with family, and friends.

And that’s what i mostly do in-game : PvE and Role Play.

As for my age? I can give a hint : I’m amongst those who saw the original Star Wars Episode IV (not the 90’s remake) on a movie theater.

Asacledhae.2650:

Well my friends, video gaming has no age. We play cause we love it, and we’re proud of it. It’s a way of life, a way to get together with your kids, a way to even fight the stress of the day. For me, it’s a ticket to relaxation, an escape from my daily routine. And of course, a ticket to RP with family, and friends.

And that’s what i mostly do in-game : PvE and Role Play.

As for my age? I can give a hint : I’m amongst those who saw the original Star Wars Episode IV (not the 90’s remake) on a movie theater.

Go ya one better…I took my kids (who were old enough to enjoy it) to the original Star Wars when it was released…good times.

Dorian Ordenda.1398:

Don’t know how to reply to individual posts (sry) but I can so relate to some of the issues here ie: jumping puzzles!! Yikes. I have a fear of heights anyway, real or virtual and some of them give me the heebie jeebies.

I absolutely empathize.

My original sig for this forum was: What does this game have against players with vertigo?

I’ve learned that repeated exposure (e.g. familiarity) to some of the jump puzzles negates the impact.

Also jumping into the water from one particularly high cliff in WvW (behind Garrison) has turned into one of my favorite pastimes because my character screams and waves her arms ALL the way down (particularly funny on an Asura). The humor overrides any impact.

New high places, and those that I have to tilt my camera up to see, still create an unpleasant reaction.

Hang in there! (hug)

/turns thread back to OBGs discussion.

You guys talking about the fear of heights made me laugh. My guildies laughed at me when I was having issues my first time through one of the fractals. I kept going super slow so I wouldn’t fall. When asked why I said I couldn’t look down without getting sick. Good times…

PS – I made my Dad take me to see the original Star Wars movie at the theater so many times I could recite the lines. I loved that movie so much and funny how I thought it was going to be a ‘dumb space war movie’ the first time I went (8yr old logic)

Older player here too who remembers Pong, Commodore 64s and the days when digital watches were ‘the’ must have fashion accessory.

My friend and I graduated from Sims 2 and 3, through a browser MMO then onto Guild Wars 2. We have just recently dipped our timid toes into WvW and are enjoying it much more than we could have imagined.

Nice to see so many mature people play this game. I have to say too, that the names I recognise in this thread are all people whose posts I enjoy as well.

I sure feel old when I open up map chat and see the phenomenal garbage heap that is the majority of what GW2 players feel compelled to share. And I’ve only just graduated college.

How much nicer the Internet would be if we could somehow filter out all the immaturity…

33 here. Been playing since the Atari 2600 days. #Gamers4Lyfe!

I turn 40 this year and have been gaming since Pong. I think older players have a lot to contribute to MMOs and other multiplayer games; namely maturity and perspective. We are the “crafty left-handers” of gaming. I agree that GW2 is a great game and while I have complaints, they are minor. Gaming is a pastime now, not an oddity, and there are some great communities to be a part of. Game on sir.

Huehuehuehuehe so many oldies. Not far from 40 myself is all I will say. :P

What year is it? ..hmm. 43. Favorite game was the original Portal on the c64, was a huge reader back then. Thank God for emulators, ROMS and the internet.. Not that Portal is good these days (dull to action, plus on story which I’m out of now) but to investigate its backstory wasn’t possible at the time.

not to say I’m old but I remember key punch operators working endlessly to build files for the 1401 or the later 360, if that don’t date me. I remember playing chess via modem on what was to become known as “the internet” back in 1975. Pong was the first video game I played and I won’t even venture to guess how many different games I have played or at least sampled since then, I stumbled upon Guild Wars in February 2005, open beta and bought the Collector’s Edition after the experience … I crunch numbers, build and test everything … between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, I collectively have 95 characters, 65 on the former and 30 on the later, I know lore and weapons, stats and various builds as well as any of the youngsters, but I think the main reason I love Guild Wars 2 is the fluidity of the game as it grows with you, and the friendly community of players that you meet along the path.

Jia, you’re old. Fidonet. 300 baud or 1200 baud for the rich. Local BBS’ in your area code.

Had to edit, saw your sarcasim and realized you’re older then me so discounted it, my apologies. I mean, have to bow to the elders and such.

jia li ng.8415:

not to say I’m old but I remember key punch operators working endlessly to build files for the 1401 or the later 360, if that don’t date me. I remember playing chess via modem on what was to become known as “the internet” back in 1975. Pong was the first video game I played and I won’t even venture to guess how many different games I have played or at least sampled since then, I stumbled upon Guild Wars in February 2005, open beta and bought the Collector’s Edition after the experience … I crunch numbers, build and test everything … between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, I collectively have 95 characters, 65 on the former and 30 on the later, I know lore and weapons, stats and various builds as well as any of the youngsters, but I think the main reason I love Guild Wars 2 is the fluidity of the game as it grows with you, and the friendly community of players that you meet along the path.

Wow…now that takes me back. Reading this I recall in a college programming class having to punch cards to submit to the computer center…so they could run my program for me.

Add me to the list of older gamers. My gaming adventures go back to the start of TombRaider and Myst. I didn’t discover GW until late 2007. I did have an Atari – it might be in the attic. Fortunately, I got to retire early so now everyday is Saturday!

42..physically that is…my mind’s still 18 hahaha

Elothar.4382:

jia li ng.8415:

not to say I’m old but I remember key punch operators working endlessly to build files for the 1401 or the later 360, if that don’t date me. I remember playing chess via modem on what was to become known as “the internet” back in 1975. Pong was the first video game I played and I won’t even venture to guess how many different games I have played or at least sampled since then, I stumbled upon Guild Wars in February 2005, open beta and bought the Collector’s Edition after the experience … I crunch numbers, build and test everything … between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, I collectively have 95 characters, 65 on the former and 30 on the later, I know lore and weapons, stats and various builds as well as any of the youngsters, but I think the main reason I love Guild Wars 2 is the fluidity of the game as it grows with you, and the friendly community of players that you meet along the path.

Wow…now that takes me back. Reading this I recall in a college programming class having to punch cards to submit to the computer center…so they could run my program for me.

Punchcards and papertape. Honeywell, IBM 360, DEC-20, HP3000…. I remember programming in hexadecimal using punchcards. <shudder>

Oh, and those folks working in the computer center so you run your program.. yeah.. I remember doing that in my spare time while my first official job was porting the software for the university’s entire Business Office and Registration across 3 different mainframes…all requiring programming in 3 different languages…. because 2 departments couldn’t agree to share computer time. Politics haven’t changed much, lol.

I do not miss that.

And jia, I absolutely agree about the wonderful community here.

PS: just read my post. Now I feel “old” because that was totally a “back in my day uphills in snow both ways”…. so this is how it starts, huh?

Elothar.4382:

jia li ng.8415:

not to say I’m old but I remember key punch operators working endlessly to build files for the 1401 or the later 360, if that don’t date me. I remember playing chess via modem on what was to become known as “the internet” back in 1975. Pong was the first video game I played and I won’t even venture to guess how many different games I have played or at least sampled since then, I stumbled upon Guild Wars in February 2005, open beta and bought the Collector’s Edition after the experience … I crunch numbers, build and test everything … between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, I collectively have 95 characters, 65 on the former and 30 on the later, I know lore and weapons, stats and various builds as well as any of the youngsters, but I think the main reason I love Guild Wars 2 is the fluidity of the game as it grows with you, and the friendly community of players that you meet along the path.

Wow…now that takes me back. Reading this I recall in a college programming class having to punch cards to submit to the computer center…so they could run my program for me.

Yup, me too …
At uni I used an IBM APL 360 for running computer mapping software in1970.
Punch cards and early Fortran …

Azure Prower.8701:

You all make me feel young.

I’ve got booze to make me feel young!

Sigh. I’m somewhere between 40 and 50, divorced and a part-time father…..I have plenty of time for gaming.

i am 30.
This is my first MMO.
I have played many single player RPG games (JRPGs, WRPGs, open world RPGs, Tactical RPGs, turn-based RPGs). What can i say, i am a RPG lover.

I find GW2 to be a very nice game.

This is an inspiring thread.
Nice to see some particular references like games running off of audio cassetes and Phantasy Star. Zork, anyone?

Morrigan.2809:

43, I have a 7 year old and I feel your pain- we are raising her as a gamer so in a couple of years we are golden

In the same boat here, but I’m 35.

I relented last Christmas and acquired a GW2 account for my 7 year old, although she’s only allowed to play under supervision (and often directly with me - our guild tag is OHAI because she loves Lolcats).

Being honest, her father and I realised a while back that raising a child gamer was the only option we had: we discovered her farming resource nodes in Age of Conan when her dad had taken a bathroom break. She had, IIRC, just turned 4. :/

Ceridwen.6703:

Morrigan.2809:

43, I have a 7 year old and I feel your pain- we are raising her as a gamer so in a couple of years we are golden

In the same boat here, but I’m 35.

I relented last Christmas and acquired a GW2 account for my 7 year old, although she’s only allowed to play under supervision (and often directly with me – our guild tag is OHAI because she loves Lolcats).

Being honest, her father and I realised a while back that raising a child gamer was the only option we had: we discovered her farming resource nodes in Age of Conan when her dad had taken a bathroom break. She had, IIRC, just turned 4. :/

hahaha
fortunately my husband is in IT
he was forced to build our daughter her own pc when she was 2 since she was no longer happy sitting on his lap.

She does have her own GW2 account but mostly uses it to make characters and run around the cities.
She loves the Sims, Viva Pinata and hidden object games mostly.

We took her for a run on original Dungeon Siege the other day

I’m in my early 40’s and I will be a gamer far beyond my retirement.

The Older Gamers have a precence on Yak’s Bend for NA and Desolation for EU.

I am 54. My wife, son and daughter also play GW2. I remember very vividly my first own computer which I bought around 29 years ago (an Amstrad CPC 464 – 64 kb memory, Z80 processor, cassette drive for mass storage). When I came home from work, I switched on the computer, threw in the “Elite” cassette and then could comfortably make myself coffee and go to the bathroom until impressive 40 kb of machine code were loaded and I was ready to enter which could be seen as a distant grandfather of today’s EVE Online…