Is ED played by mostly "Old Ducks" like me?

[CMDR Issam Mammago]

Ha, I'm loving this thread. I'm only 25 but I've recently felt like an old man while I've been playing with my sister's kid and thinking about what games were like when I was 8. But now, reading this thread, I feel young again
I'm pretty sure most of the ones around my age are on Reddit as someone mentioned before (and there are way more people on E's reddit). I've always preferred these classic style forums though.

Nice taste by the way Nemo. I love me some Hitman and Red Dead as well.

 

[Daniel Cloudsifter]

That's a very good question! I thought myself as old (40s) due to the majority of players I interact with on my platform, but then I came to this forum and slowly realized that I'm probably "young" by comparison. If I were a PC gamer still, I probably never would have used "Old Duck" as a name, since I kinda expect PC gamers to be old (sorry), whereas console gamers are often the younger millennials and Gen-Z, at least that's been my experience.

So I guess from my frame-of-reference, "old" is 50+ and young is 30s and below... Anyone in their 40s is "just right", unless they use C64 to say that EBL is acceptable

Hurray! At 48, I'm "not old!" Best news I've had all day!

Unfortunately, I missed out the C64 due to a variety of factors/influence at the time, and went the much worse route of TI-99 64A to Apple IIc. Oh, what a better game selection I would've had if I had gone the C64 route...

 

[Daniel Cloudsifter]

I am 'young' (31) so I never played the original games. What draws me to Elite Dangerous? Mostly that almost all other modern games suck, just like modern movies. They all try to do the same thing, while Elite often tries things differently (not always better, sometimes worse, but still more interesting).

Some of my most favourite games:
Jagged Alliance 2
Gothic 1+2
Medieval 2
Mount & Blade
The Witcher 1
Deus Ex 1
Max Payne 1
Need For Speed Porsche
TES Morrowind
Mass Effect 1
Star Wars Kotor 1+2
Neverwinter Nights 1

Some of these games have a sequel that I didn't mention, that's because they suck. Technically The Witcher 3 or Skyrim are better than their predecessors, but they aren't as revolutionary. It's just the same game with better graphics, sometimes it's even the same story just with changed names...

Just like the games in the list above, FDEV has a vision and ambition for Elite. I don't know if they will ever get there. But I prefer an unfulfilled vision over no vision or ambition at all (CoD, BF, AC, etc.).

Ah Deus Ex 1 and Max Payne 1. So much fun when they first came out. Actually, with Deus Ex 1, my partner and I have each played it all the way through 10+ times since it's release around...20... years... ago... oh god, the old... it's striking again!

Star Wars KOTOR 1 I played through as a joke. Yes, it was a good game. However, it was also a funny game, as it let you play the meta-game "How Stupid Can I make the Jedi look?" Me: "No, yoda-knockoff (in charge of the Jedi and checking before the final battle) everything is fine over here. Why do you ask?" Meanwhile, my skin is pale white with massive veins (Palpatine looked better than me), the assassin droid HK-47 likes me better NOW than I did before the Jedi mind wipe, and I use force lightning for everything. lol Oh, good times.

Neverwinter NIghts 1 (plus expansions) was fun, but was "meh" within a year or two, so I rarely think about it. Morrowind was ok at the time, but then got so boring I didn't come back to the series until Skyrim... and didn't even play that until had been out for five years. Witcher 3 is in my backlog, and where I will be entering that series...

Is anyone here old enough to remember and love Star Control II and played it and the (still available) freeware/updated version "The Ur-Quan Masters"? How about Archon II Adept?

 

[Daniel Cloudsifter]

Me and my dad both played the original on the BBC in 1984 and we both still play E : D now we're mid 40's / 70's, meeting up from time to time when we can in our private group.
The biggest issue for pensioners seems to be trying to squeeze some game time in amongst all of the holidays, gardening, grandchildren, visits to friends etc!

Wow, that's cool. My dad and I never got along well... well, not until about a year before he died. Once I'd moved out and he had zero power over me, he stopped being a jerk and we could actually have a cordial interaction.

In reference to this thread's subject, I also feel old because my parents have been dead longer than a lot of current gamers (other than this game) have been alive. Mom died in 2/1991 and dad in 4/1999.

 

[Tarman]

Ah Deus Ex 1 and Max Payne 1. So much fun when they first came out. Actually, with Deus Ex 1, my partner and I have each played it all the way through 10+ times since it's release around...20... years... ago... oh god, the old... it's striking again!

Star Wars KOTOR 1 I played through as a joke. Yes, it was a good game. However, it was also a funny game, as it let you play the meta-game "How Stupid Can I make the Jedi look?" Me: "No, yoda-knockoff (in charge of the Jedi and checking before the final battle) everything is fine over here. Why do you ask?" Meanwhile, my skin is pale white with massive veins (Palpatine looked better than me), the assassin droid HK-47 likes me better NOW than I did before the Jedi mind wipe, and I use force lightning for everything. lol Oh, good times.

Neverwinter NIghts 1 (plus expansions) was fun, but was "meh" within a year or two, so I rarely think about it. Morrowind was ok at the time, but then got so boring I didn't come back to the series until Skyrim... and didn't even play that until had been out for five years. Witcher 3 is in my backlog, and where I will be entering that series...

Is anyone here old enough to remember and love Star Control II and played it and the (still available) freeware/updated version "The Ur-Quan Masters"? How about Archon II Adept?

What do you mean, "Archon II"? OG Archon on a C64, thank you. Right after an intense run of Jumpman.

Also, I've played KOTOR 1 and 2 enough times to pick exactly when and where I want to push dark/light based on what story spin I wanted.

And yeah, I thought NWN was boring boring boring.

 

[Hank]

to answer the OP's question: for me, yes I'm old

 

[Captain Willard]

I'm 68. I've played PC games since they first became a thing. I never played the original Elite, though. Now I have over 3000 hours in ED. Being retired has certain time advantages. All I ever wanted was to retire and play video games, so now I do

You da man. Right behind ye.

 

[Lestat]

Lucky I am a vampire.

 

[Ian Skippy]

33 years old, played the original once or twice in 89 when I was four. Left little impression. Got a hotas for x:rebirth, which had a... rocky launch. Got stuck with a hotas and no games, heard about ED a month before release and that was that. Still remember moving the throttle in the first training mission, flight model immediately hooked me.

As for nostalgia, it is amusing to know I play a game that is the distant successor to a game my father used to play (though kids kinda ended that ), but there isnt any genuine nostalgic memories.

 

[Gibbon]

From my perspective, nostalgia. Finally a chance to play it on a decent PC with decent graphics, seeing what they could add to it and of course multiplayer. Then they bolluxed it all up with engineering, tilted everything to one side and went there you go. Completely killed the multiplayer side of it for me which is why i never fly in open now. That said, still like the game, hoping for more content at some point, bit overdue now tbh. Having played it on ZX Spectrum, Amstrad, Atari ST, early PC's and now, I expect a lot from the game, sadly i'm a bit underwhelmed, hopefully that will change.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

I wrote and played games, using paper tape feeds, back in the 70's.

The PDP-8 allowed the 8x8 Star Trek to be expanded to a 64x64 universe on an 8" floppy. I wrote my own.

I am an Eisenhower Administration build, rejected from the factory. Started flying, and firing automatic weapons before JFK went to Dallas. Avoid Dallas.

I am also a dog.

 

[Comandante]

Paper and pencil RPGer since '83, around the same time discovered computers. For me, if a computer game could capture freedom, I was in.

Hence my love of ---- Elite ----

Mid-forties now, backed the game without hesitation from the start. Didn't play any games and was a *nix user, so had to buy a dedicated Windows gaming machine!

I just play to play; explore, visit Guardian sites, get involved in some of the missions and CGs, never ever grind, this game has too much to do to even think about doing one thing obsessively. Been using VR for almost 10 months now, now THAT is a bonus! Will never go back to flat-screen. And of course I've been searching for Raxxla for over 20 years like many others...

Still the only computer game I own (not including RPi Emulation Station haha), really looking forward to the updates and the big 2020 reveal.

 

[Old Duck]

I wrote and played games, using paper tape feeds, back in the 70's.

The PDP-8 allowed the 8x8 Star Trek to be expanded to a 64x64 universe on an 8" floppy. I wrote my own.

That predates me. I typed my games in Commodore Basic from the back of a magazine, at first with no option to save! Eventually I could save them to tape, then disk, then better disk. I also learned to write my own games, including some of my own 6502 assembly subroutines for performance. Sure beat "dating" and going to dances and all that nonsense my classmates were doing at the time, LOL.

 

[VR CMDR Novindus]

I’m late 30s. I’d never heard of Elite before picking up ED, even though I’m probably old enough to have played the 1984 version a couple of years after its release, and wish that I’d known about it back then.

I can’t even recall how I first heard of ED to be honest. But I’d been waiting for a good new space game to come out, and was hoping for a new Rogue Squadron type Star Wars title.

 

[Mxpower76]

We had a Vic20 and C64 when I was a kid but never had Elite. Actually I'd never heard of Elite until now. I had a Hotas laying around not being used so I went searching for flight sims and found ED and DCS.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

I'm 38 now so that probably puts me a hairline below average.

I played Elite over 20 years ago, originally on an Amiga 600. Having picked it up again its been a nice change of pace and format to what I've enjoyed playing in recent years.

 

[starman]

I wrote and played games, using paper tape feeds, back in the 70's.

The PDP-8 allowed the 8x8 Star Trek to be expanded to a 64x64 universe on an 8" floppy. I wrote my own.

I am an Eisenhower Administration build, rejected from the factory. Started flying, and firing automatic weapons before JFK went to Dallas. Avoid Dallas.

I am also a dog.

Yes I also played games using paper tape feeds back in the 70s. My dad wasn't happy since that was apparently 'very important work'. We all learnt a important lesson that day.

 

[PiLhEaD]

I guess I'm an old duck, as to keep any thought in my head I have to act quackly.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

On the internet, everyone is a dog....mostly.

 

[Gully Foyle]

I wrote and played games, using paper tape feeds, back in the 70's.

The PDP-8 allowed the 8x8 Star Trek to be expanded to a 64x64 universe on an 8" floppy. I wrote my own.

I am an Eisenhower Administration build, rejected from the factory. Started flying, and firing automatic weapons before JFK went to Dallas. Avoid Dallas.

I am also a dog.

Pretty sure you were in Austin however.

Armadillo' World Headquarters watching Stevie Ray