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

[Bloodsign]

I'm 31. I first played Elite on MSDOS when I was a kid, played Privateer, Wing Commander, Freelancer, etc. too.

I get about 24 FPS on my laptop, which is fine with me (for now) but I do want to put together a real desktop PC again sometime, with a decent VR setup.

Elite is all about freedom.

I picked up Elite via Steam sale a few years ago, and honestly didn't associate it with the MSDOS version at all. I played some of the training scenarios, hated the controls, and shelved it. My brother got me back into it earlier this year, and after tinkering with the control customizations I really like it; haven't played much else besides ED this year.

 

[DeletedUser191218]

Just hit 49 today, so yeah, one of the oldish ducks. Never played '84, I grew up in the Chris Roberts Space Game franchise but switched to ED because it was closer to what I envisioned as a proper spaceship game.

I'll predicate by saying I have no hard evidence for this, only anecdotal. That said, the demographic of the player base does seem to be older. The game style is generally pretty old-school as well (too much for me). The mechanics are quite unsophisticated and repetitive for 2019. I'm not sure if it's designed that way because the players are older....or the players are older because the mechanics are unlikely to appeal to many younger gamers.

Anyway, I digress. The average player age must be over 40.

 

[Bloodsign]

I'll predicate by saying I have no hard evidence for this, only anecdotal. That said, the demographic of the player base does seem to be older. The game style is generally pretty old-school as well (too much for me). The mechanics are quite unsophisticated and repetitive for 2019. I'm not sure if it's designed that way because the players are older....or the players are older because the mechanics are unlikely to appeal to many younger gamers.

Anyway, I digress. The average player age must be over 40.

My brother (20-ish) doesn't actually play any longer despite having gotten me hooked... :/

He tells me he prefers games that make him feel godlike and indestructible, which I suppose explains the different appeal of ED. For me, I've found ED immensely satisfying to be able to work myself up from nothing against the odds, and I don't think I've ever felt completely safe playing it.

 

[DragonIV]

The mechanics are quite unsophisticated and repetitive for 2019. I'm not sure if it's designed that way because the players are older....or the players are older because the mechanics are unlikely to appeal to many younger gamers.

I sort of get where you're coming from. The controls for this game are very complex, and come right out of the late 80s to early 90s. Most space games from that time period were PC based and had overlays due to the number of keyboard commands needed to play. Elite is getting comically complex from this perspective, and while they've made some changes to entice new players, the controls are still quite complex and definitely are a barrier to entry for many, which is unfortunate.

 

[samuelb]

As a 41 year old man (yes, I played the original Elite), I would say - although I feel 85, I do not count myself an old duck, more a well-seasoned one ready for the pot.

o7 CMDRs

 

[samuelb]

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.

Aaah, a like minded soul - I still remember my Machine Code debugging sessions on my BBC Master, all while my "peers" were having fun outside, fools.

 

[CMDR Yates]

I'm in the middle. Mid-30s.

I was too young for Elite '84, and although I do distinctly remember seeing Frontier: Elite 2 previewed in the first issue of Games Master in 1992, and having my mind blown by the very idea of the game, I never owned a fancy enough computer to play it at the time, and probably wouldn't have been old enough to appreciate it. The third one completely passed me by.

I really discovered FE2 about nine or ten years ago as a homebrew port for the PSP and was hooked on that for a bit. That was my introduction to the Elite games. I played a bit of Elite 1 on a NES emulator after that.

That said, I think the older age range here is partly skewed by the bias of people who still use stuffy old web forums. The younger guys are all on the subreddit and Discord and whatnot. I like to think that's my value here: old enough to blend in among you duffers, young enough to explain what the kids are doing. (that's called an emoji)

 

[Konan]

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

Watch who you're calling old ya young whippersnapper (53 yoa and been gaming since Pong)

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

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.

That predates me. I was a late bloomer into computers... found myself teaching myself how to write batch files until being taught keyboard skills and basic at highschool. There were actually subjects for typing. People of my generation were all about cinema and watching friends. Couldn't stand either. Its non interactive!

Its been cute watching it all evolve into mainstream then post mainstream that it is now. Uninspiring stagnation (every upgrade used to blow your mind) and faceless manipulation suck, though the availability is much better than it was for sure.

 

[Oztig]

Hmm,

It would appear that I'm 52 tomorrow. The first Elite was popular when I was at college, studying computing - It was all their BBC micro got used for at lunch times.
I've been with ED since kickstarter / alpha, still loving every minute of it. I have a few weeks off every now and then, but still enjoy coming back to it and playing.

My favourite version was the incredibly buggy, but great fun FFE - even with the dodgy videos etc.

And 'Old Duck' - 52 is not old - at least not once you reach it, it suddenly becomes very young

 

[Ralph Vargr]

52 is not old - at least not once you reach it, it suddenly becomes very young

They told me fifty was just a number.

Within the next year, my mom died, my dog died, I was laid off from a "safe" job, and lost my house.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

And, we all know, there is no ageism in technology or engineering...

 

[CMDR Chalfonts1969]

I'm 50 this year and started playing Elite on the BBC microcomputer at school. The game was groundbreaking at the time. I've played across many platforms including Acorn Archemedes, Nintendo, commodore 64, speccy 48k, PC and now PS4.

The game is awesome although my wife and kids don't get it... I get dewy eyed still playing it.