Wargaming and age

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**Ratius**

Who is the oldest wargamer that you know and how old are they?
I was thinking is there an age where you just naturally drop out of a wargaming hobby or is it something that can go on for as long as you have an active body and mind.
Not necessarily thinking of the person in their mid 50s, kids have flown the coup and they take it up or reignite their passion for it, more along the Grandad-esque age
70+ etc.
I'd speculate games like FoW would be more along these lines, being based on WW2 and many of our older relations being born/living through that time?
Whilst I think wargaming and a good game system can transcend age the thoughts of your grandad roleplaying as a busty female elf is kinda freaky to me

Any experiences or tales to tell?

**notprop**

I would suggest that they only age that you might naturally drop out of wargaming is about 15/16/17 whenever you get heavily interested in the opposite sex and self image becomes the be all and end all of life and serious stuff like exams/work/bills starts to crop up.

I have quite often seen people (myself included) post about how they are returning to warganming after a hiatus. They are quite often in their late 20's/early 30's and if I am anything to go by have new families and the old life style of pubs and clubs has been put aside (in the interest of keeping the Mrs happy!

) and a sudden increase of free time allows you to get more involves in hobbies.

Other than that I have meet Dakkanauts of all ages although they have tended to err on the 20-40 age range.

I guess there is a point where you can not use a paint brush or whippy stick in anger due to being infirm.

**Leigen_Zero**

I agree with notprop on this analysis.

When you are in your late teens (15-18) you tend to lose interest as you are more interested in your appeasing the great slavering beast that is known as 'puberty hormones'.

Then interest seems to peak again when you are in university, due to the disposable income, lack of responsibility etc lets you game and spend time painting more often.

Then once you are out of university, well the gak hits the fan with regards to this evil mechanism called 'the real world' and you lose all your gaming time to working, being oppressed by your government of choice, family life etc etc.

Then once your kids get old enough to hate you, free time starts to accumulate again so you get back into the hobby. And once you are all old and retired, well people stop giving a crap about you so there is plenty of time to paint miniatures in between the obligatory biannual visit from the repugnant grandchildren

I guess it's peaks and troughs really...

**Brother SRM**

My dad's about 60, and he and his friends range from 40 to older than he is. The only time I was really out of the hobby was around 7th and 8th grade before I got back into gaming (and eventually 40k) in highschool.

**Saldiven**

I know several people in their mid- to late-50's who play, though few of them play any GW games. They mostly play historic games; the most "mainstream" game they play is Flames of War. They play a lot of more niche games set in the Napoleonic or Civil War era, and a few play a pretty detailed WWII air to air combat game.

**Talarn Blackshard**

In my local area we have people in the 40s range

**Osyr**

At my flgs there are players age 7 to 507 years old, and the average age is 27 to 37.

**Lt. Coldfire**

I think Osyr wins the thread with the 507 year old.

**The Epic Chaosdude!!!**

I know few wargamers who are about 40-50 years old and are married. At my FLGS one of the recruitment managers actually makes extra money by attending to tournaments and painting/converting miniatures, then selling them for profit. Mostly though gamers att my FLGS are 10-18 years old.

**Ssgt Carl**

In the historical community there are quite a few older gamers. Gamers 70+ are not necessarily common but no one at the historical conventions I've been are surprised when a few show up. Gamers under 30 however are about as common as gamers over 60 it seems. The younger guys at historical conventions are usually there for non histyorical games or FOW.

**Boss GreenNutz**

I'm 47 and know a couple of regular 40K players a few years older than I am.

What I normally see are young teens then an age gap 17-19 ish where they realize that girls are no longer icky and actually fun to kiss. Then the early 20s group that haven't settled down yet followed by another gap of late 20 somethings then the age group picks back up again.

**LunaHound**

Lets see.... when i first started frequenting local game store i was 9 ish, then there were around 4 that was 16ish, then the owner and his friends were....40 ish.

There there were 2 that were really old, like ww2 soldier old. one was black mail delivery man, another was his friend. Im guessing 60+

**Hückleberry**

My Dad plays Historical board games(ASL, World In Flames, etc) and he is in his mid 40s. He introduced me to these types of games when I was around 7-8 and we still play these types of games including GW stuff to this day.(I'm 25 now).

**hemlighest**

At my lgs the age ranges from 13ish to 30+ - or there abouts.

**Ascalam**

i'm in the 'older than thirty' bracket, but not quite in the 'older than dirt' bracket.

I've been wargaming longer than i can clearly remember, which is awesome to me

My FLGS has everyone from about 9 to about 90

**Thor665**

We've got a guy named Skip at our store - 70+ easy, war vet. Mostly into historicals but also loves playing Orcs and Orks.

Hates playing my Dark Eldar, but will allow me to battle him with Marines or fellow Orks for a propah tussle.

**warpcrafter**

I'm 45, but I didn't get interested in miniature gaming until I was in my mid 20's, and by then I was over and done with any and all entanglements with the opposite sex, due to a few incidents that I won't burden you with. I did mostly drop out of wargaming for a short time, that terrible, terrible time known as 3rd edition. Then 4th edition drew me back, slowly and gradually, and now I'm eagerly awaiting 6th edition. Or a return of Warhammer Quest, that would be awesome too.

**chromedog**

Ascalam wrote:i'm in the 'older than thirty' bracket, but not quite in the 'older than dirt' bracket.

I've been wargaming longer than i can clearly remember, which is awesome to me

My FLGS has everyone from about 9 to about 90

Like him, I'm older than 30 but not older than dirt.

I'm not the oldest in my club, but I did attend the 21st party of one of the other clubmembers a week before doubling his age.

You drop out for a while, but if it's a hobby that you want to be in, you come back to it.
My club loses the 17-23 year olds due to other factors, but they come back when they can afterwards.
(I gave it up for a few years between 21 and 27 but I started clubbing and chasing skirt late).

In my area, it's mostly the older players playing the historicals, only the younger ones play the GW games only. There are exceptions.
The 51 year old who plays orks, for example, as well as napoleonic stuff.

**Adam LongWalker**

You know what I hate when people are Older than Dirt? Acting like you are Older than Dirt. Hair growing out of your ears, bushy eyebrows, watching you go bald and seeing hair appear in other places they would be inconceivable. Having that Old man smell, and so on.

I'm Older than Dirt but I'll be damned to be not groomed and be cleaned. And my Walker will be polished too

**bombboy1252**

Osyr wrote:At my flgs there are players age 7 to 507 years old, and the average age is 27 to 37.

....Was their a break through in modern medicine recently? Lol