If you own a gaming console what is your age?

[danger boy]

If you own a gaming console of ANY kind what is your age? Don't lie either. ;)

I love polls... not poles ;)

So I just am curious about people ages who enjoy gaming of any kind on any console. really am wanting to know some unscientific data if games mostly attract a younger customer or appeal to any age group.

We're all read stories of those crazy senior citizens getting together and having bowling competitions playing Wii and it's only fun till someone breaks a hip :p

[comfortablycurt]

I'm 22, but I go against the flow as far as video games go. I have an original Xbox, but it hasn't even been hooked up for about 6 months or so.

I also have a Super Nintendo, and a Sega Genesis, that both see way more use than the Xbox. When it comes to games, I'm old school all the way.

edit-I'm also a master of both DK and Mario...lol

[danger boy]

cool. thanks for taking part in the poll. I haven't owned a console in years.. and stopped playing a few years before that. I liked playing, but was never good at it and didn't have the patience to complete a game, ever.

So I don't know about current modern games, but the old ones had crude graphics, but were so much fun to play.

[BlueFox]

Why did you stop at 41? Age discrimination?

[comfortablycurt]

cool. thanks for taking part in the poll. I haven't owned a console in years.. and stopped playing a few years before that. I liked playing, but was never good at it and didn't have the patience to complete a game, ever.

So I don't know about current modern games, but the old ones had crude graphics, but were so much fun to play.

It seems like with a lot of the newer games, they put to much effort into making the graphics mind blowing, and not enough effort into the actual playability of the game. I'd rather enjoy playing the game, than enjoy looking at the game.

Older games for the SNES and Sega were simpler, but due to that they were a lot more fun to play. Anybody could just jump in and play those games, and within a couple of minutes they're kicking ass. One of my favorite Sega games is Streets of Rage...The A button punches, the B button kicks, the C button is special attack and you use the D-pad to move around. Simple as can be...and anyone can jump in and play it. Newer consoles? Not quite so easy.

Some of the new games out there take you days or weeks just to get used to, with having to memorize a million different button combination's. You definitely can't just jump in and play it right away. The newer games seem to all be one in the same anymore anyway...All the shooters are the same, all the fighting games are the same...there isn't as much creativity as there used to be.

That's just my opinion of course...I'm by no means a hardcore gamer. I probably play all of 3 hours of video games every week. It's not as important to me as it is to others.

[danger boy]

41 is a good age to stop at. and it does say over too. i could break it down to 41 to 50, 51 to 55, 56 to 60, etc. but why?

nothing against anyone over 41.. as I am past that myself... I just thought that a good portion of those over 41 are not gamers. plus I did include anyone over 41 in the poll. ;)

[wingnut4772]

40 and I love my PS3 and X Box.

[danger boy]

The newer games seem to all be one in the same anymore anyway...All the shooters are the same, all the fighting games are the same...there isn't as much creativity as there used to be.

agreed. On tv you usually only see commercials for shooting type games.. when was the last time you saw a commercial for a game aimed at a young kid? Personally I haven't in ages.

[leroyjr1]

28 and in love with my PS3. I'm a big COD and Madden fan.

[metal83]

I'm 25, but i picked 26 through 30 since my B-Day is coming real soon, St. Patricks Day. Great day for an Irish guy such as myself to be born...:p:D

I love video games, i've had many many different consoles, and i've been playing since i was just a wee little kid lol.
I own an Xbox 360 and a PS3.

[comfortablycurt]

agreed. On tv you usually only see commercials for shooting type games.. when was the last time you saw a commercial for a game aimed at a young kid? Personally I haven't in ages.

Aside from the newest Mario and Zelda offerings, there haven't been to many "kids" games coming out in a long time that I've seen. Even the Zelda and Mario games anymore are starting to get too complex for younger kids to really get into for that matter.

There are a decent amount of games geared towards kids for the Gamecube/Wii though, which is one reason I like that console. It's not all about shooting and complete destruction. I'm not one of the people that thinks video games should be made illegal or anything, but a lot of these shooting/slaughter games aren't exactly healthy for young kids to play. It can, and does have an influence on people.

Either way though, the few kids games that are out, aren't the ones that get advertised to death.

[dudeinaroom]

33 here and still kickin' the ps2 (rather play on the computer though)

[fatchowmein]

Xbox, Xbox 360, Ps3 (currently not working right). Xbox was purely for games. The 360 caught my attention mainly as a front end for media center although Transcoder360 was a bear to tweak. PS3 because it was the cheapest B-R player at the time.

I still have my Commodor64 and 5 1/4 drive in a box waiting for the day when motherboards become small enough and run cool enough for me to modd it into a PC. Pure geek factor. It's sad, I know but after 26 years of ownership I'm almost there.

[leroyjr1]

Does anyone have any of the older game units like atari or the original nintendo?

[comfortablycurt]

I almost forgot...A couple weeks ago I was digging through my parents attic trying to find some boxes of old albums they have up there. In amongst all the stuff up there I managed to unearth my old Colecovision...I haven't hooked it up yet, but I probably will sometime soon. That thing was a lot of fun, though I probably haven't played it in close to 15 years. The Colecovision was basically the same time period as the Atari...I think it might have even been before the Atari.

I also have an original Nintendo, but it's a POS and barely works anymore.

[leroyjr1]

What the hell is a Colecovision? Never heard of it.

[comfortablycurt]

What the hell is a Colecovision? Never heard of it.

It was release in 1982. It was fairly popular, having sold over 6 million units. It was fairly advanced for it's time. Better than the Atari IMO.

There are some pics and info here,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ColecoVision

Ladybug, Mousetrap and the Smurfs are the games I remember best from it. I'm thinking about hooking it up now just to check it out. I don't even know if it still works. I have a ton of games for it though.

[metal83]

shooting/slaughter games aren't exactly healthy for young kids to play. It can, and does have an influence on people.

Blood, guts, gore, destrucion, murder, mayhem, slaughter, chaos, VIOLENCE!!!
These are the things i want in my video games, if i can't kill something i'm probably not having fun (with the exception of sports, racing, and Guitar Hero types of games). lol

Oh i like Horror movies and Death Metal as well. None of this means i'm going to go out and start killing people, i'm a nice guy, a family guy, not some deranged psycho path. Maybe these things are an outlet and help me keep it contained though...haha..jk...lol :p

I don't think these things influence people unless they have a mind very susceptible to being influenced, or already have violent tendencies. If they are not already violent and are stable emotionally, i don't think these should have a negative effect. Of course when it comes to small children, then yeah, maybe keep these types of things away from them until they are old enough and emotionally stable enough to know right from wrong, and realize these are just forms of entertainment, and nothing more. That's in the hands of the parents though, not the people who make the entertainment.

Considering i have no kids at the moment, i welcome the fact that most games are made for adults now a days. I have no interest in playing kiddie games. :D

All my personal opinion though.
End of rant...:p

[comfortablycurt]

Of course when it comes to small children, then yeah, maybe keep these types of things away from them until they are old enough and emotionally stable enough to know right from wrong, and realize these are just forms of entertainment, and nothing more. That's in the hands of the parents though, not the people who make the entertainment.

That's exactly my point. I have nothing against those games at all, but they should be a bit stricter with who gets to play them. Games like Grand Theft Auto aren't exactly the best games for growing kids to be around. It desensitizes them, and makes them think that things like that are ok.

You, being 25, aren't affected quite so much. Your mind is basically done developing though. When you're an 11 year old kid though, and you're playing a game where you spend half the time running around city streets with rocket launchers, flamethrowers and chainsaws, while running from the cops and running over pedestrians...it's definitely having a negative influence on you...lol

Like you said though, that comes down to the parents. I have an 11 year old nephew, and his mom lets him play GTA:San Andreas. The kid talks like a damn gangbanger all the time, finds a lot of humor in the idea of killing people and has a complete disrespect for authority.

[Ender]

The kid talks like a damn gangbanger all the time, finds a lot of humor in the idea of killing people and has a complete disrespect for authority.

The last part isn't TOO bad... the first two are bad.

[comfortablycurt]

The last part isn't TOO bad... the first two are bad.

Well...The authority in this case being his parent's and teachers and whatnot. There are some authoritarian figures that I don't quite respect entirely myself...lol

[Keiko]

I fall into the 41 or older catagory, 'cept I get my arse kicked a lot by them damned young whipper snappers now. Arthritis is a bitch! :p

We're all read stories of those crazy senior citizens getting together and having bowling competitions playing Wii and it's only fun till someone breaks a hip :p

Don't use the "H" word AL. I already had one replaced and thought I was going to effin die.

[Knucklehead]

im 42 with 3 kids 20, 14, 11, the xbox360 gets used a lot. I really enjoy the Call of Duty series and NHL 09 (GO CAPS!) :D. Most of the other games my kids kick my butt in, my fingers arent quick enough for Rock Band etc....but I enjoy trying. Yep, still have an Activision console with several games..hmmmmmm come to think of it I was pretty good at pong!:p

[Retro152]

im 42 with 3 kids 20, 14, 11, the xbox360 gets used a lot. I really enjoy the Call of Duty series and NHL 09 (GO CAPS!) :D. Most of the other games my kids kick my butt in, my fingers arent quick enough for Rock Band etc....but I enjoy trying. Yep, still have an Activision console with several games..hmmmmmm come to think of it I was pretty good at pong!:p

Im 41 with a Ps3 and 2. I remember playing Pong on our old black and white Zenith, i think it was. LOL. Only game in town. Still amazed at how things have changed since then.

[george daniel]

I'm 60,, PS 2 and Wii.

[dfranks]

I'm 41 and haven't played a video game for 10 years. and that's fine with me.

Just too many other things on the go, just don't have the time I suppose.

[timlitton]

I found these tidbits from the Entertainment Software Association:

The average game player is 35 years old and has been playing games for 13 years.

The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 40 years old.

Forty percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (18 percent)

In 2008, 26 percent of Americans over the age of 50 played video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999.

I'm 34 and I have a PS3. My fiance bought me a XBOX 360 Elite too, but I returned it for an iPhone.

I've had quite a few systems over the years. I started out with a machine from Magnavox that only played pong and squash (pong with 2 white stripes instead of one) and was made right here in Ft Wayne. Then I went through the Atari, Colecovision, NES, SNES, N64, PS2, and PS3. I love the PS3 but I find that I use it more for a media server to stream movies and music across the wi-fi network more than a video game system. I have about 15 games now, and haven't finished a single one.

Of course, my fiance isn't one of the 40% of women gamers, so that may have something to do with it...

[metal83]

That's exactly my point. I have nothing against those games at all, but they should be a bit stricter with who gets to play them. Games like Grand Theft Auto aren't exactly the best games for growing kids to be around. It desensitizes them, and makes them think that things like that are ok.

You, being 25, aren't affected quite so much. Your mind is basically done developing though. When you're an 11 year old kid though, and you're playing a game where you spend half the time running around city streets with rocket launchers, flamethrowers and chainsaws, while running from the cops and running over pedestrians...it's definitely having a negative influence on you...lol

Like you said though, that comes down to the parents. I have an 11 year old nephew, and his mom lets him play GTA:San Andreas. The kid talks like a damn gangbanger all the time, finds a lot of humor in the idea of killing people and has a complete disrespect for authority.

I agree.
If i had a small child, i would not be letting him/her play these games right away, or at least not until i thought he/she was old enough to handle it. "These are daddy's games kid, go watch Sesame Street"....lol :p

[devani]

I don't remember what it was called but I did have one at the age of 13 i think....I am currently 34 and do not own any gaming console....My baby son is on the way and who knows he might enjoy the console.

[Conradicles]

Madden Football has been my game of choice since I was a a young fellow.
We have a PS3 and XBox 360, and the game play is a little smoother on the 360, but the PS3 is a smoother machine.