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Age of 40k Players

16K views 106 replies 98 participants last post by  Vaz  
#1 ·
How old is the average 40k player?

I'm asking because there has been alot of belly aching:puke: that GW is ticking off the older gamers and not attracting new players so . . .

Also, how long have you been playing? And is GW losing players to other minitures games?

Im 17, in the game for about 5 months and have never played an other miniture or tabletop game.
 
#6 ·
I'm 19 and have been playing for a few years
 
#7 ·
i'm 20, been playing on and off since 3e just came out. At my shop we have a real mixed population. We got a young crowd, a middle crown, and a older crowd.


NOTE: You are taking an inaccurate sample of the 40k population. People who 40k on forums are a different breed of gamer and do not represent the population as a whole.

~dan
 
#8 ·
Why is this not an accurate representation of 40k players? (Not angry or anything just confused) Are people on forums more hardcore about 40k on forums?

Since I am not a member of a gaming club, and I only really know one person other than my brother that plays 40k, my only link to the community at large is through the forums. So, I have no idea about the genereal population other than people on this forum, and on B&C.
 
#9 ·
Only a portion of the 40k players worldwide actually contribute to online forums, and this is only one of them. Add to that, of the massive "populaces" of many online forums (this one included)...only maybe 1-10% actually contribute to the conversations. You end up with a very small slice of 40k gamers.

That being said, an assumption can be made that the percentages and responses are proportionate. Really though, there's no way to know.

Since this isn't really a scientific study or anything, there's really no harm in asking any sort of question. Just realize that the responses only apply to a very small slice of the pie.

In answer to your query, I'm 37 and have been playing Warhammer 40k for 18 years (1990).

Keep up the questions! It's good stuff!
 
#13 ·
Hi... Im Bishop120, Im 29, and I've been a 40K addict for about 6 years. I started playing when a friend of mine (a World Eaters player at the time) convinced me to buy his Tau army. Since then I moved on to Grey Knights (which are still my best/favorite army) and last year I started an Ultramarines army.

As to why I think/feel that a lot of the long time and older gamers are against the changes GW have been makeing these last few years.. well.. for one the loss of a real fluff gameing style has been lost. In the past an army might be broken but it was made up for by other armies being equally broken. Now the army play styles feel very.. restrictive maybe is the word Im looking for? Unfluffy... There used to be a lot of wacky, crazy, zany, abilities that may have not been very reliable but were very powerfull and could single handedly turn the tide of a game. Now.. its just feels more oriented around very simple rules and just trying to throw numbers at each other. The days of almighty characters/creatures/vehicles that used to scare people are kinda gone. As to player age... well.. lets face it.. older folks like facing what they feel are equals. People as experienced as them and people they can look in the eye. If they win its just another of many games, if they loose they feel like they lost to a worthy oppenent. When some 11-15 year old comes along and hasnt been playing for 2 years but they have the latest and greatest army and they win by throwing every new fangeled rule at the older player with an army that they may or may not have had to work for to buy/paint.. well its demoralizing. And if they beat said teenager the dont feel fair about it.. what adult ever feels good about beating a kid in any way?

Im not saying this is the case for every one but I do think its just the general mind set and kinda what might be in the back of gamers minds. I could totally be off tho so dont take what I say as the word of the emporer or anything.
 
#15 ·
I fall into the older crowd. It is a difficult task for gw to keep all races on an even field. Ea army has good and bad. I feel they are taking steps to eliminate players from being able to create a legal cheesy army. They do need to keep ea race special and not all interchangeable.
This poll will give you an avg age of only the 10-20 regular posters here but not in the game system worldwide. I would guess the avg age of worldwide 40k players would be 20.
 
#17 ·
i'm 19, been playing for about 4 years...though playing might be an overstatement...lack of fellow gamers in my area results in the fact that i've never even played a 500 pt game before. ah well, i still manage to keep myself amused...
 
#18 ·
I'm 37 and I started playing 40k I was 18 back in 1988.

You probably will only get a sampling of what age gamers are. The place I play at regularly has people from 14 to 44 in our regular group. Thankfully everyone no matter the age treats each other with respect win or lose plus we just have fun getting together playing, modeling and eatting as each event is a pot luck.
 
#20 ·
I'm 37 and been playing for 26 years (I'm sure this is right) and that would include WHF, as 40K isnt that old.

I have to say I dont complain much about rules being changed unless there get really brocken, like the Eldar 'I cant die, hahaha' grav tanks in the latest codex. But I do look back at some things in previous editions and wish they had them again, like grav guns or grenades that could be thrown at people.
 
#24 ·
Its not so much about age its about how long you've been collecting. You get a better perspective on everything the longer you do it.

The real issue is that the hobby has changed significantly over the last 6-8 years and not always for the better by any stretch. You can see the release of the 3rd ed 40k rules as the turning point for the hobby.

The older collecters, on average will have played multiple rulesets, multiple systems etc, and have invested enough cash to be able to have a groan when gw do something offensive, like removing bitz orders from mail order, and making white dwarf into a multicoloured flatpacked toilet roll.

I'm willing to bet a lot of people on this site have never read a real white dwarf or played a so called 'specialist game', only collect 40k and have no idea who Paul Sawyer is.

Its not their fault. Its just the way things are now. Some things now are great, like the new plastics etc.

At the same time, the things at the core of the hobby, like white dwarf have been sacrificed.

So when you wonder about how the old guard complain a lot. Its because you dont know how good it could have been, if gw had achieved the same quality in all the facets of the hobby, rather than just the new models.

Signed, a 12 year collector.
 
#28 ·
making white dwarf into a multicoloured flatpacked toilet roll.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that. I keep my old box of White Dwarves from 2nd Edition around because they're the only thing that prevents me from mailing U-No-Poo pills to the editing staff.

I'm 20, and have been involved in the hobby since I was 10. I only really started playing when I was 12, so I usually just say that I've been playing for eight years. I've always had a soft spot for Space Marines of all flavors, and every time I try a new army, I find myself inexplicably drawn back to the Astartes. If I were to round up all the Space Marines I've had over the years, I could probably pony up the better part of a Chapter.

I'm proud to say I've played most of the specialist games, though I never had much taste for anything other than Blood Bowl and Battlefleet Gothic.
 
#26 ·
I helped in Bishop120's fall into 40K. He witnessed a tourney game of mine where I turned an Ambush to an obliteration of the Orks with my Space Wolves Army. He hasn't been right in the head since.

To answer the question, I am 35 and have been playing for over 10 years.