Demographics: What's the average CMDR age?

[BinakAlgo]

I was watching several videos about Elite and others about how to get a proper gaming seat, etc. And I noticed that most (not all) of the people making videos were above 35 years of age, even 40. This is a little higher than the estimated average age of the gamer of about 31 yo.

Anyone knows if this is real or it is just a biased observation from me? Are there demographic data about Elite players?

 

[ThomasWJames]

I say sounds about right. I'm 39 years old. I think many players of Elite started back in the day in the original Elite. We've aged with the game. These type of games attract an older generation and to be honest a more serious gamer.

 

[Bryan K]

I think it depends on the country. The Brit crowd is going to be older since they played the old games on whatever machine they were available on.

Meanwhile here in the States, most of us either stumbled across this game by a mere fluke, or were told about it by someone else. Way to advertise, FDev.

I’m 29 here, and I discovered ED when I was 26.

 

[Morbad]

My CMDR is half AI-relic so could be ~900 year old, in game. I'm only in my late 30s though.

Anyway, I imagine the average age of ED players has fallen as the game has attracted players outside the original backer crowd as much of the early player base had played the original Elite (which was 30 years old when ED launched) when it was contemporary.

Still, even with an influx of somewhat younger players, Elite: Dangerous' demographics are older than many games.

 

[Captain Willard]

65 here.
I bought Elite in 1985 for my Atari st, I was 30.

 

[Stealthie]

...even 40

40?

I wonder if such people had to hunt dinosaurs for food?

Anybody who bought Elite with their own money in 1984 must be pushing the half-century, at least, by now... including me.

 

[Backelaer]

I remember way back in the days polls were still allowed, this came up once. Pretty big thread.
You might be able to retrieve that thread by typing the appropriate query on altavista or askjeeves.
Anyway, I'm young!

 

[Jenner]

40 here. I have the dinosaur hunting scars to prove it.

 

[Riverside]

I'm 47, I played the original Elite on the BBC when I was a teenager so I'm at the young end of the older generation the OP describes.

 

[Skellen]

49 here and an original 84'er.
I was lucky to be in computer club at school and our teacher at the time brought in Elite to show us the wonders of what the BBC computer could do!
Instantly we were hooked, and 3 of us was aloud to play it in our lunch hour, taking it in turns to earn a few credits,.... GRRRRRRRRRR them pesky pirates!
As soon as it come out on the ZX Spectrum my paper round money was soon spent on my very own version, and then on each format as my computers changed.
Frontier Elite II on the amiga was my best version, I loved the missions in that, waiting outside a station on assassination missions watching the time to see if they would actually be there.
Good memories...…. Thank you Frontier.

 

[[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos]

51 at Christmas. Played Elite on what we charmingly called ‘home computers’.

Not sure why they were called that, the place where I worked didn’t even have a computer. Imagine, a place of work with no computer.

 

[EDanaII]

I think it depends on the country. The Brit crowd is going to be older since they played the old games on whatever machine they were available on.

Meanwhile here in the States, most of us either stumbled across this game by a mere fluke, or were told about it by someone else. Way to advertise, FDev.

Eh... I think there are more here in the States than you realize that played the game back in the day. It was available on multiple platforms even here, and I suspect the user base was much larger than the UK.

 

[Broon]

I'm 52 and an '84'r. Played on the C64 here in the US of A back then .

I am also a KS backer for E-D.

 

[DragonIV]

49, and never played the original. Grew up playing EGA Trek and later the Wing Commander games. Absolutely fell in love with WC: Privateer and I had discovered Kickstarter only shortly before discovering this game on it, and backed it immediately.

The rest, they say, is history.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Nearly 600 moons old, still too young to be a Chief.

 

[Bigmaec]

42. 42 is always the correct answer.

 

[GraXXoR]

Soon to be pushing 50 here.

 

[BinakAlgo]

I was a teenager when this song was out

My hypothesis is that most of us are nostalgic and we miss the "golden age" of space sims of the '80s and '90s. We grew with them, then the genre virtually disappeared in during the 2000s and it is just trying to coming back now. People who were kids or teens during that decade didn't experiment that kind of games, just in the age when you have the most time available to play games. We, on the other hand, loved the genre that we played a lot when we were that age.

Personally, I'm 34 and I never played any of the other Elite games, but I played some of the Wing Commander in the early '90 and all the X-Wing and TIE-Fighter and I really wanted to see what was new after almost two decades since my long-time favorite, X-Wing Alliance, and thus, I found Elite Dangerous.

 

[Go'Gen]

Being 48 in a few days, I just might use this thread to send a few ingame friend requests.
To fellow oldies only, so we can complain how the galaxy was a much better place back then.

 

[space voyager]

I was a Kickstarter supporter but had no comp to run the game. I bought one two years later for my 40th BD, had no excuse for a gaming rig before that.