Average age of EQ players?Follow

Also 48, also druid main, playing since 2000.

Have played probably 1/3 of that time, usually play for 6 months or so, then take a break for a year or so.

Main is 86, and also have "mains" on two other accounts that are 80 and 75, which I have been boxing together this go-around. Just finished the Jonas Dagmire aug on all three last night :)

Tat

anecdotally, I would say EQ's playerbase is heaviest in the 30+ crowd. Cutting edge teen gamers that stayed or returned to EQ are that old now... adult gamers that loved the game same thing.

There's an echo population of people's kids that play eq with them too (having been guilded with some of those).

nonlinked (i.e., no friends or relatives already in game) new players under 25 would probably be the rarest demographic.

All this based on my impressions over the years, no scientific data.

23. Not playing presently because I have no gaming machine, but I've been playing off and on since early 2002. Always been one of the younger players in the guilds I've been in. Highest chars are both 65 -- halfling ranger and drakkin cleric.

Interestingly, I recently happened across this quote in a fashion magazine. I clipped the article but threw away the magazine so I can't say with certainty which one it is from, but this is the direct quote:



So, at least of the female gaming population, 71 percent are 40+ according to this survey. From personal experience, I find this true. I first became involved in online chat rooms via IRC (Internet Relay Chat) shortly after the IBM Personal Computer was introduced in 1981. Those that I chatted with on a daily basis were my age or older. As the PC clones began flooding the marketplace, driving down the initial price of an IBM PC - approximately $7500+ with 128k RAM when first introduced - making a PC more accessible to less affluent clientele plus software becoming more sophisticated, it would make sense that those of us who were adults when the PC was first introduced and enjoyed being online would continue participating in various ways, one of which is gaming.

I was invited to play EQ in 1999 by two friends from an IRC chat room. Because they were my age plus never having played an MMORPG before, I assumed everyone in the game were also adults. Thus I was quite taken aback when I was medding on the wizard spire in North Ro (not sure if it is still there) and was IM'd by a wizard asking if I would be his girlfriend and presenting me with a ring he had just fashioned. As I was formulating my answer, he continued, "How old r u? I'm 12." ACCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!

The guilds I have been in were primarily composed of my age group. In retrospect this could be partly due to my joining casual, family-style guilds who were not interested in raiding.

I have been primarily a part of SecondLife the past 3 1/2 years. As SL is a virtual community and not a game, the age range is wide due to the vast amount of diverse content; however, due to the "adult nature" of some of the SL community, one previously had to be 18+ to join, with a separate teen grid for 12-18. That was changed about a year ago. The teen grid was closed, 16+ is now the new age limit, and everything overtly "adult" was moved to a separate region where one has to be age-verified to enter. Again, it could be due to the places I frequent in SL, but most of the people I encounter are minimally 35+ with most being older.

Me? A lady never divulges her age. :) But let's just say that 40+ is accurate.

EDIT TO ADDD: The mid-40's are among the youngest of the Baby Boomers; the oldest entering retirement age. This generation was also known as trend-setters. It stands to reason that this age demographic (in general) would have the interest, the income, and the time to engage in their chosen past times.




Edited, Oct 15th 2011 12:57pm by Azalysa

"You are JUST my type of EQ player!! There are several posts on this forum regarding my play style being different than the "average" EQ player, so it is refreshing to meet another casual player. :) You're not on FV by any chance are you? "

No, sorry. I am on Bristlebane-The Tribunal. Originally started on another server that I can't remember the name of but through all the merges ended up on The Tribunal.

I tend to play a month at a time. I'll burn out during the month I come back then stop for 6-8 months then come back again. I usually play most in winter as there are less things to do outside.

Edited, Oct 16th 2011 7:47am by markrn

Interesting thread... I'm 47 - started playing on a friend's recommendation in 1999 (as a druid). I played heavily in those early years then let my subscription lapse when warcraft went into beta.

I also wound up soloing a lot in EQ, partly because my play schedule (weekday mornings) was and still is almost always diametrically opposed to everyone elses. I can remember like it was yesterday trying to get my SK soulbound in Oggok at 7am 10 years ago, so I could solo some spectres, and giving up hours later because it just wasn't possible. Warcraft was much more solo friendly and it sucked me in for years before it evolved from "solo friendly" to "log in, get free epics".

When I came back to EQ a year ago, I was shocked how much had changed and how many of the obstacles that made soloing a pain were gone. My highest characters, despite countless /days played are still only level 65 - my original SK and a druid I made to sell stuff in the EC tunnel.

I would guess the bulk of players would be 30+ for two reasons.

(A) EQ came out in 1999 and featured gameplay that was best exploited by college students, part-time workers, the unmarried and others with flexible schedules that could withstand camping a spawn for 21 straight hours or 4:00am raids for epic drops. Those players would be in their mid 30's and older by now.
-and-
(B) Although EQ no longer requires so punishing a schedule, too many new games have come out since to appeal to newer players. For the last 7 or so years, a new player would be more likely to pick up WoW or some shorter-lived MMORPG than the dated feeling EQ. What these changes did do was help the game remain playable to those who got into it in the early 2000's and now have full time jobs, families and the other stuff that keeps you from raiding until dawn. This pushes the age demographics upward.

Edited, Oct 16th 2011 10:44am by Jophiel

I find it interesting that several of us 30+ (in my case 40+) players who began in 1999 played Druids. No real "insight" drawn here, just interesting. :) In my case, my first toon was a High Elf Paladin and I got tired of having to ask Druids for SoW, binds, ability to breathe underwater, fly, etc. by the time I'd reached level 25 or so and decided to just BE a druid and have never looked back. :)

Another thing I find interesting is the sheer number of SKs now in EQ. Not sure if it is just on the FV server or within my guild (our leader is a SK), but back in the day (1999-2002 or so) I *rarely* ran across SKs. The classes I recall from the early days were a lot of Druids (a LOT) and Wizards. That could be due to the necessity of ports back then, resulting in an excellent method of earning plat for these classes. The next two most represented classes on the Tarew Marr server (now Drinal) were followed by a good number of Paladins (that was the bulk of my first guild), Shamans and Warriors. Clerics and Enchanters were considered pure gold and could log in and immediately receive tells to join groups. (I know this from creating a chanter alt and getting those flurry of tells upon login.) The lesser represented classes were necros and hmmmm, trying to think...the above were pretty much the main classes I saw. (This was prior to Berserkers.)

Another thing that goes along with the playing habits question I have and would appreciate input on is questing.

I have always played sporadically and for short periods of time that all I was really concerned with was hearing that addictive ding. All I would do is kill, loot and save for a better piece of gear.

I am wondering if I would enjoy the game more if I got into the questing more. What is the general opinion of questing, is it worth the time they usually take to complete?

I suppose it can vary from quest to quest as some are better than others I would assume but in general, are the quests worth doing? Thanks in advance for any input.

Druids and rangers ruled the day... but Lord of the Rings was fresh (Legolas factor). Lfg on Rodcet server would have 60 people in it for a given level range and over half would always be rangers. They were super popular but not super wanted.

Druids are reliving the glory on progression because they remain very strong for the original-Kunark era content and their porting utility is valued again. Post PoP on progression the druid pop will likely crash hard.

The necros were there, but they were invisible off hunting in out of the way solo spots... we had an evil only guild with 75+ necros in it, but seldom would more than 2 of those characters be grouped. Having more necros logged in than all other classes combined was funny though.

SKs... well all melee and hybrids were horribly group dependent in the hands of most players and as such were generally rare. Chanters hadn't totally been nerfed to death nor replaced by potions and other classes buffs (yes they have somewhat recovered that class in the last few years) but the decline leading into God-OoW had definately started.

Ironically to me, the rarest class when I started on Rodcet (PoP-LoY era) was mages. I was in a couple of guilds and there was 1-2 that raided, but more often then not there was no mages in the casual guilds at all, certainly not any that played a lot. The busy era of PuG grouping that was Ldon... never really saw mages. When I came back post TSS... suddenly mages are everywhere (I get why, it's just funny the shift).

I always play good races as well and the ease of Druid travel can't be beat, even given the PoK portals. The main evil race/class I saw the most of back in the day were DE enchanters, usually male.

My first character was a SK and it taught me what slow progression was. Making a druid to be able to travel easier, pick up supplies, sell at the tunnel, and always having SoW was an easy decision. Quad kiting just sealed the deal and I'm sure wizards felt the same way about their easily available utility (I never played one though).

Oddly enough though, it was the extreme difficulty of doing just about anything as an evil SK that hooked me into it. If I wanted armor molds from Highpass, I had to spend a week killing orcs and doing faction just to be able to enter and buy there. If I wanted to sell loot in Qeynos, I had to work on faction there to get through the doors. One week I was killing goblins in Butcherblock (for faction of course) and literally had a group of friends helping out by bringing food and supplies. Years of play later and I could walk around in Qeynos freely, but I never did get enough Kaladim or Kelethin factions to be safe over there.

While I agree with a lot of what Jophiel is saying regarding SKs: the exp penalty, gimped spells and stats, difficulty soloing, they did still have enormous ability if you were willing to take a slow path. I could fear kite, I could heal via lifetaps, I could snare runners with darkness, I could save people with snap aggro via disease cloud, I had every invisibility in the book and I could feign death when things went bad (and they did a lot).

Finally, with regard to questing - back then there were lots of good reasons to be working on one quest or another. Fun, faction, specific rewards, and important spells just to name a few reasons. Now, outside of the TLP servers, I don't see much reason to care either about quests or even named mobs and loot.

Defiant armor, OOC regen, AA bonuses, and the other changes SOE made to the game on the normal servers only facilitate easy "catch-up" to the bulk of the people at the level cap. Like Hexeez said, these were essential changes to allow people to roll alts and bring new friends into what is now a very old game. Doesn't mean I have to like them though ;P

In March I celebrated the 30th anniversary of my 21st birthday...been playing eq since late 2003.

Started with a Halas warrior, played him about 12 levels and switched to a human dru. I still play that druid on a regular basis.

Edited, Oct 25th 2012 12:07pm by alwayslost