Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Too many children.
CalmOceans
Member UncommonPosts: 2,437
I feel like I'm walking on eggs that are about to crack writing this, trying to not give the wrong impression and trying to be as PC as possible. I know someone is going to end up accusing me of something because it's a sensitive topic I think. But I wanted to make it anyway.
Here we go.
I feel sometimes that there are too many children in MMO, or rather too few MMO oriented towards adults. I love children, even though I have none of my own, but I would go bonkers if I had to deal with children all day long, I don't know how some people do it.
Now that MMO became mainstream and F2P, the average age in MMO seems to have steadily gone down over time. Trying to have a good conversation in the game or on forums of a particular game, is sometimes unnecessary complex because there is a communication barrier.
It becomes even more of an issue when you live in Europe like me. We rely on English to overcome the language barrier but the English of younger MMO players is sometimes so bad that I can hardly make out what they're trying to say.
Does anyone experience the same issues as I have, that the average age of the MMO player is so low that it takes away some of the enjoyment of socialising in the game?
Thanks.
Comments
I totally agree, I can't stand gaming with all these "young folks", you know, those people under the age of 35 or so, just not as much fun as speaking with people my own age.
While its true the barriers to entry have come down and far more young people are in MMO's these days, I'm finding the most obnoxious group of people to actually be in the 20-30 range, not sure what planet you folks were raised on, but I am totally beginning to understand the generation gap between us. (no offense)
But overall "children" if we are talking about folks under the age of 18 really haven't spoiled my enjoyment of MMO's that much, it's all of the rest of you I can't get along with.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I think you have the age thing wrong. The ages are increasing.
Average age of World of Warcraft in 2005 was 28.
Read this paragraph posted in 2011
The MMO Stats
The median age of an MMO player is 33, as compared to the median age of the general population, 35. People in their thirties make up the largest concentration of players, six times larger than the number of teens and three times the number of college students between 18 and 22. The average age for all online game players is 35 with 26% older than 50. 60% of the most active MMO players are female avatars who might or might not be women. (Data fromTotal Engagement)
This of course is just some quick google stuff I grabbed. Probably more in depth analysis is available.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
Nope. Your issue is based on perception, not reality. Finding a mature guild/clan to join may help you, though.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Maybe, my impression might be tainted because I have been playing F2P lately. Would there be a difference between P2P and F2P?
I honestly have no clue. It seems like it might be true because it's easier to play without a credit card, but it would really just be a guess on my part.
Thanks. I don't get why my experiencne has been so different then. Maybe I'm playing the wrong games.
Its NOT a sensitive topic and you should not be walking on egg shells or worry about accusatons.
BRATS are BRATS and yes too many children both under the age of 18 and above 18 play MMOs.
That is why I only join 21 and over guilds. End of story.
I think this is a reality based on what game and server you play on. For example, in EverQuest 2 I have only ran into (one)... yes (one) person who was young and insanely immature. My girlfriend and I rolled a tank/healer combination in WoW. Ended up joining a guild and joined their ventrilo server. All I heard was squeek squeek voices, hard bracer breathing, "omg totally cools" out of the whole guild only 3 people were above 30. Two of them were us, lol. Not to mention is was so F'in annoying whenever my girlfriend would speak on vent, " omg a girl! omg omg".
I would explain previous MMOs and how great they were and one of the above posters was very correct, you notice a HUGE generational gap. It wouldn't be so bad except trying to strike an actual intellectual in depth conversation with anyone like this isn't possible. They only care about instant gratification or talking about themselves which 99% of the time you call them out on how full of crap they are, lol.
This logic doesn't really make sense to me.
Age = / = maturity.
Despite the 'get off my lawn' types on this thread, the average age of a gamer increases every year and it is now 35 years old!
Factually, there are lesser proportion of 'children' in the gaming scene.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
I started playing MMOS at age of 16. All of us have been young at some point. So yes this topic is silly.
Age doesn't really factor in someones maturity. I've seen children act mature and adults immature. Scientists have concluded that the human brain is still developing well into someone's 20s and as such prone to imbalances which can cause acts of immaturity. Sure younger people act immature more often, but seeing these age restrictions based on laws just makes me shake my head. An 18 or 21 year old is not more mature by definition than a 13 year old. They do have more experience though, which can prevent them from acting out. On the other hand they have other ways of being immature like drinking and playing followed by spewing asinine comments.
A similar issue I have when seeing mature guild recruiting. As apposed to what? Immature guild recruiting?
Base peoples maturity on their action not their age.
The way I look at it is online chat rooms would never encourage adults and children to use the same virtual space . In fact they do everything they can to stop it happening . MMOs as well as games are virtual 3d chat rooms and they do nothing to stop children from playing along side adults . Most MMOs however seem to have older populations and very few have large populations of children . Warcraft obviously does have a huge amount of children playing . I know of two cases where women I know personally that played Warcraft in their 30s got into illicit cam acitivitys with boys in their teens on msn messenger that they met in game . I never asked too many questions as it shocked me but my impression in both cases they were younger than 18 . I also remember a thread in a forum about this subject where several links to new reports of sexual preditors have used WoW for grooming . I don't think this is widespread but it is a lawsuit waiting to happen and it is one of the best arguements for adult 18+ servers for games that have younger than an 18+ certificate .
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
There is or at least used to be.
Population playing on f2p or private / pirate servers were usually younger.
Don't get me wrong - there were quite a big amount of mature popualtion in those tittles as well.
Besides many adult people that act like 12 year old in games as well - throwing 'fuck you', 'noob', 'scrub' and everything about your mother sex life all the time.
You have that crowd on p2p games as well, and especially in last few years since mmorpg's and games generally are made in a way that your 'reputation' does not have any meaning.
Because of that people behave like idiots. Simply because THEY CAN.
F2P well it simply increase a problem. There is more players and GM support is even scarcier and more relaxed. Also no entry barier mean that some people create new account just so they can troll, curse and make other experience bad or miserable. (yeah I could not believe it either but that's a fact).
So while you can have plenty of assholes and kids (young or adult ones) in p2p game. ( see WoW chat on some servers)
In f2p one it just increase amount of bitching, non-mature behaviour, trolling - because there is lower entry barier.
Is this a rite of passage or something? You hit your 30s, and suddenly you change into a curmudgeon at some point?
Your grandparents invented the phrase "generation gap" for what you're experiencing.
Surly old internet farts use a different phrase.
This fossil rant must be particularly fun for 30-somethings; you can pick either team, if the thread starts to go against you.
Dude, do the same thread, from the opposite viewpoint--tomorrow. See if anyone notices.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
That may be true but the maturity level is dropping. I haven't read all the postings but I am sure that there is the "it is not the age of the player but their manners" posting. I am a veteran of Barrens chat so I know that everyone was not totally mature back in the (relatively) early age but at least then there was more intelligent posting (I consider even the Chuck Norris jokes as somewhat intelligent). Now there is more name calling, impatience and disrespect. Of course that is my personal opinion.
Asolutley
there is no money barrier for children in a F2P game
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
As a 43 year old male I would choose to play with adults if given the choice. In real life I do not have children, nor do I go around the neighborhood trying to organize play time or role play with children, so why would I seek out those experiences in a virtual setting?
Sometimes people say age doesn't matter regarding maturity. If that was truly the case, we wouldn't have laws to protect children from adult situations. But children always think they are mature, and immature adults are a poor yard stick by which to measure.
Well, to be fair, the vast majority of those laws originated in the 1950s or later.
Jerry Lee Lewis' teenage wife caused several batches of new Statutory legislation, for instance...despite not being all that terribly unusual at his time and place. A generation earlier, "right-thinking" folks would not have even blinked at his choice of spouse.
We're raising the "adult" bar for young people pretty constantly for the last 75 years or so. Track drinking and military enrollment ages, follow the "age of consent" first appearing as a concept, then being repeatedly raised.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
People in general act very immature while on the internet. The average age of an MMO gamer is in their 30's but the average age they act like is somewhere in the teens in my opinion.
As a few other posters have already indicated the gap in understanding between an older generation and a younger generation continues to widen.
I do not consider myself old by any means, but at 37 now I do not relate very well to what someone in their 20's considers to be important or their perception of fair and unfair as it relates to the world today.
The topic of how much our society has become a "throw away" society has surfaced a great deal at work lately. When I purchase something I want it to last and take care of my things with passion. My younger co-workers just buy everything new all the time. New cars, TVs, computers, phones, games, etc. The list goes on and on.
I firmly believe that the younger generation has had the fewest finacial barriers to face during their youth than the previous generations. The concept of going without, or going without something is lost on the younger groups. They have had the luxury of keeping up with the Jones' and ignored the consequences of consumer debt and spending.
In short. When I was a kid, I had very few things. The items I did have I had to take care of them because no one was going to replace them if they were broken or lost. These days everything is disposible and replaced far too easily.
Accountability and responsibility are being kicked to the curb and replaced with entitlement and indifference.
There are some steps you can take to limit your exposure to children in MMOs
1) Join a guild with a 18+ or 21+ limit. There are even guilds that cater mostly to old farts like The Oldtimers Guild if you want to go that route.
2) Make sure your guild has a vent-only policy so you get to know one another via voice chat
3) Stop playing WoW
The above is my personal opinion. Anyone displaying a view contrary to my opinion is obviously WRONG and should STHU. (neener neener)
-The MMO Forum Community
You'd better equip your thick skin armor +1 if you plan on playing GW2. Also be prepared to filter through a lot and I mean A LOT of young people in this game. The barrier of entry for GW2 is a blessing but also curse (scraping up 60 bucks for a one time purchase is not that hard.). I don't mind playing with young players at all personally (I too play serveral F2P mmos and play with my girls 14 & 19), but it will be a different story for gold sellers and power levelers.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
What like "I'm tired of all you grumpy old bastards spoiling my fun in games"? That would be classic.
To the OP, I feel age of player has little to do with the annoying behavior you're seeing. Interacting with other people on the internet has become this century's partying with a lamp shade on your head. It allows some people the freedom to let their hair down they don't have in their normal every day lives, and sadly some take it to the extreme, reguardless of age. All you can do is to find a group of likeminded players and play with them, and avoid those whose behavior you do not care for. Just as we do in real life.
Want people to think you're mature on the internet? Don't be THIS guy.
"LOLERSKATES!! LTP NOOBFACE!! CHUCK NORRIS, HATEFUL RACIAL SLUR, DIE IN A FIRE!!"
"Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "