That checks out. I mean, have you met the average 55+ year old?

I mean Gen Z is mostly parasocial anyway so...

Poor little devils, can't connect in RL, so they fake it online.

It would be interesting to see this broken down by platform and using a larger sample size.

As a PC gamer I mostly play multiplayer. I'm always surprised at how many of us are 50 or older. All my friends are on consoles and even those with kids tend to favor multiplayer. They can squeeze a few games between stuff or after the kids go to bed.

Multiplayer can require communication, that could also be a factor. Good thing that you can turn off or block voice. I would be creeped out hearing a kid. (A good argument to bring back the old dedicated server clients..yes I'm old and biased). Give me well moderated ruthless clan servers to sharpen my skills lol

Simon Says wrote on Oct 7, 2024, 21:13:

I mean Gen Z is mostly parasocial anyway so...

Poor little devils, can't connect in RL, so they fake it online.

I think the difference is that they have a lot more time to dedicate to gaming, so they have greater flexibility arranging online play with friends or whatever. Olds have a lot more commitments. Also, online play just requires more energy, be it competitive or coop. Single player can be done at the individual's pace so that's going to appeal more to older folks.

I started light gaming in the 70s as a child, and didn't start hardcore gaming (8 hours a day) until the late 90s (CS 0.8 the first online game for me) while living abroad with no friends around: multplayer has been my lifeline for over two decades now living abroad in different countries. Nowadays, in my 50s, I play a max one hour a day, R6Siege or MW3 (I can still be #1 from time to time ;)), as well as single player. My reflexes are fine; however, not on PC anymore, only console for online shooters. Those days of TF2, Tribes, CS, etc. with m/k are long gone for me! The main issues I see at my age are terrible behaviour in Siege, so all voice chat and messages are disabled, or simply far too many rehashed games. I really do miss the years 2000-2010, when gaming was fresh, exciting, original etc. for us.

That graph they show in the article has strange categories: PVE, couch-coop, Online PVP, and Single Player. PVE isnt designated as online, so wouldn't that be the same as single player? Where is online co-op? How would you have PVP without being online?

Isn't this more of an age difference rather than a generational difference? 20+ years ago I used to play a lot more multiplayer games than I do now. Nowadays I hardly, if ever, play anything that isn't a single player or a cooperative multiplayer game. I just don't care to play competitive multiplayer games anymore.

for a long time i was a hardcore MP player - i was highly ranked on several CS and COD4 servers. but the toxicity and cheating were too much. it's like younger gamers are nothing but a generation of low level sociopaths who think nothing of cheating and i can't deal with it. i would love to play tryhard MP again but it's pointless when you're getting head shotted from across the map by someone who not only you can't see, but who probably cant even see you. he just clicks and the aimbot kills you for him.

We… some of us, grew up in a pre internet era. We spent our formative years playing alone or with actual friends. Todays kids are basically born with internet being a requirement to live and as such it’s just a part of life now to be/game online.

1badmf wrote on Oct 8, 2024, 01:06:
for a long time i was a hardcore MP player - i was highly ranked on several CS and COD4 servers. but the toxicity and cheating were too much. it's like younger gamers are nothing but a generation of low level sociopaths who think nothing of cheating and i can't deal with it. i would love to play tryhard MP again but it's pointless when you're getting head shotted from across the map by someone who not only you can't see, but who probably cant even see you. he just clicks and the aimbot kills you for him.

While we did have hackers or whatnot two decades ago, they were few and far between as much as I remember. Nowadays, yes, cheating is staple, a norm.

I'm up there in age, and I primarily play co-op, but do play single-player when my friends aren't around. I used to play a lot of pvp but there have been way too many instances of cheating (and the tools to do it are so easy to download and setup) for me to stick with it. It's just tough to think that I'm losing to a cheater in these games. When I first started playing Overwatch, you could clearly see hit assist and walking/shooting through wall hacks all the time. I stopped playing for a while until Blizzard's ban hammer came down, and then after a year or so, there were way less cheaters. But not all devs can handle the cheaters like that, so it's just not worth it