The average video gamer is now 36 years old — but Gen Alpha and Gen Z are most likely to play games.

  • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    Yeah the NES came out when I was five, and all my friends kids and my family’s kids are out of high school now. You can casually tell people you play video games and no one bats an eye anymore. More often they’ll ask you what you’re playing. It’s nice.

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I remember when I was a teen, adults would say “aren’t you too old for video games?” They didn’t understand that even then, many games were catering to older gamers. And all the games were being created by gamers who were old enough to be out of university. That’s why they would get mad at games like Doom, for being hyper violent. Cause according to so many people, games were only for children.

      I feel like that has gotten better. I game while my daughter games next to me all the time.

    • BruceTwarzen@kbin.social
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      6 months ago

      I find it odd when i go to a random barber who is 19-25 or so asks me what i like. I tell them video games, but it never results into anything, because to them videogames are usually fifa or call of duty. They have never even heard of the games i play. Compared to when i was like 10, everyone seemed to play the same games.

      • Paranomaly@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        It was more niche when you were 10 so if people were playing games they were probably playing similar games. Plus, the people you were meeting probably had a higher probability of the same interests at that age

    • M500@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      Yeah, it’s nice that such a big cultural shift happened around this.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    My gen-x ass plays games with my millennial wife and gen-z kid. Sometimes, my mom plays too, so add a technical baby boomer to the mix. Technical because she came in at the tail end of it; they’re sometimes called generation Jones or some other weird shit.

    Hell, My grandmother tried playing some games with the kids of the family back in the original Nintendo days. Didn’t quite have the patience for Mario and such, but she put in some effort just to understand. My grandfather wrecked us at duck hunt though. Only game he would play, but the guy was a competitive shooter, and his skill translated to the game well.

    Having fun with people you love is just goodness. Board games, video games, card games, ttrpgames, whatever it is, try and be open to things, and you’ll have fun together.

  • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I work in tech so at least 80% of people play video games. Either hardcore or casually, on their phones, PCs or Steam deck. The other 20% don’t play video games because they’re busy with life, like they just had kids.

    I feel like if a boomer-minded take like, “Vidja games are for kids yuk yuk”, literally everyone would rip into them.

    • Altima NEO@lemmy.zip
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      6 months ago

      The boomer minded take was, “video games are for lazy kids. Go outside and play.”