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It would be interesting to see the current age distribution of 40K players on Dakka.

I'd say it's a current age distribution of dakka players, many of who aren't actively playing 40k anymore.

Interesting nonetheless - I expect the average to be much higher than in other 40k communities.

 Jidmah wrote:
I'd say it's a current age distribution of dakka players, many of who aren't actively playing 40k anymore.

Interesting nonetheless - I expect the average to be much higher than in other 40k communities.

The poll is for active players only.

How active is active though? I maintain an army and a working knowledge of 40k, and will play it as a last resort. But haven't have a game in 2-3 months.

 dreadblade wrote:

 Jidmah wrote:
I'd say it's a current age distribution of dakka players, many of who aren't actively playing 40k anymore.

Interesting nonetheless - I expect the average to be much higher than in other 40k communities.

The poll is for active players only.

What do you mean by "active players"? Active in the hobby as in collecting and painting? Or specifically the core 40k game? Does Kill Team or 40k Apocalypse count? Does it matter which edition a player plays? How many house rules they use? Open play, Narrative/Crusade/Matched play? Or do you mean Organised play as in tournaments? How long since the last time I played counts as active? Or do I need to play a minimum number of times per week/month/year?

Interesting. I would have expected a lot of "Little Timmys" but GW apparently priced them out of the game.

Aash wrote:
What do you mean by "active players"? Active in the hobby as in collecting and painting? Or specifically the core 40k game? Does Kill Team or 40k Apocalypse count? Does it matter which edition a player plays? How many house rules they use? Open play, Narrative/Crusade/Matched play? Or do you mean Organised play as in tournaments? How long since the last time I played counts as active? Or do I need to play a minimum number of times per week/month/year?

You're making this far too complicated. Regularly playing Warhammer 40,000. Any edition.


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 kirotheavenger wrote:
How active is active though? I maintain an army and a working knowledge of 40k, and will play it as a last resort. But haven't have a game in 2-3 months.

If I asked you "do you play 40K" and you reply "yes", then you're an active player. If you reply "I used to, but not any more" then you're not.

What constitutes regular gaming varies between people. Weekly, monthly, yearly - it doesn't matter.

 Strg Alt wrote:
Interesting. I would have expected a lot of "Little Timmys" but GW apparently priced them out of the game.

Very few of those are on Dakka. This is more a Dakka poll than a 40k poll.

 kirotheavenger wrote:

This is more a Dakka poll than a 40k poll.

Like all polls on Dakka, it's a poll that only samples Dakka members. I think everyone's aware of that.

Little Timmy is probably posting on facebook, instagram, or whatever the cool kids are using these days. I wouldn’t know, I’m old and un-cool. Message boards are for old folks like myself who used to connect to the internet with 300 baud acoustic modems. And enlightened younger folks who see the advantages.

This poll is cutting the playerbase into segments.

“Active” rules out older players who have moved on, but still post here for whatever reasons
Dakka itself is a subset of the 40k playerbase.

While I think the number that come out of this will be interesting, it is in no way indicative of the whole 40k community.

 Strg Alt wrote:
Interesting. I would have expected a lot of "Little Timmys" but GW apparently priced them out of the game.

how many kids have the patience to learn a table top game when they could just go play video games? the average age of gamers has been inching up since the 90s IIRC.

that and forums are kinda old fashioned so I suspect DakkDakka (and all forums) get on average an older user base then say.. discord would. not saying the high cost of entry isn't a big contributor as well but let's not pretend it's the ONLY factor

 dreadblade wrote:
You're making this far too complicated. Regularly playing Warhammer 40,000. Any edition.

I've been in lockdown since June. I want to play, but it's out of my hands.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I've been in lockdown since June. I want to play, but it's out of my hands.

You enjoy playing 40K and you intend to continue playing so you're active.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 dreadblade wrote:
You're making this far too complicated. Regularly playing Warhammer 40,000. Any edition.

I've been in lockdown since June. I want to play, but it's out of my hands.

Pretty sure what the original poster is trying to say more politely and with less words is "If you've not played a game of warhammer 40k since 2006, haven't bought a model since the Khorne Bezerkers where new, and your entire 'involvement' with the hobby consists of saying how much you hate GW, please for feth's sake don't answer this poll"

Some of you really make it more complicated than it needs to be.

 Strg Alt wrote:
Interesting. I would have expected a lot of "Little Timmys" but GW apparently priced them out of the game.

Not a fan of mocking our younger players by calling them names, but the usual progress of Warhammer players is that they get introduced to the universe in their teenage years, but disappear due to price and other commitments. Then around the age of 30 they come back as they get jobs and stability. That's at least the experience I have where I live with a few exceptions.

 Strg Alt wrote:
Interesting. I would have expected a lot of "Little Timmys" but GW apparently priced them out of the game.

Do you really expect little Timmys on a board that is older than them? Those kind of players are using modern social media.

It's also worth noting that I was priced out of the game back when I was a "Little Timmy" as well, I could only afford to start 40k after I had a student job.

 Jidmah wrote:

 Strg Alt wrote:
Interesting. I would have expected a lot of "Little Timmys" but GW apparently priced them out of the game.

Do you really expect little Timmys on a board that is older than them? Those kind of players are using modern social media.

.

yeah internet forums are considered kinda old fashioned. there's a reason a lot of MMOs don't even post their announcements on their own forums before they put it out on facebook/twitter/whathaveyou

 Eldarsif wrote:
Not a fan of mocking our younger players by calling them names, but the usual progress of Warhammer players is that they get introduced to the universe in their teenage years, but disappear due to price and other commitments. Then around the age of 30 they come back as they get jobs and stability. That's at least the experience I have where I live with a few exceptions.

That's certainly my experience too.

Well, the player base seems to become older as young people mostly prefer digital games.
One day, this could become a problem for GW / table top gaming industry.

BrianDavion wrote:

Pretty sure what the original poster is trying to say more politely and with less words is "If you've not played a game of warhammer 40k since 2006, haven't bought a model since the Khorne Bezerkers where new, and your entire 'involvement' with the hobby consists of saying how much you hate GW, please for feth's sake don't answer this poll"

That too!

Can't say I'm surprised by the results, granted it's a limited sample but I wouldn't be shocked if it held true for most of the community.

They've priced out younger people.

BrianDavion wrote:

 Jidmah wrote:

 Strg Alt wrote:
Interesting. I would have expected a lot of "Little Timmys" but GW apparently priced them out of the game.

Do you really expect little Timmys on a board that is older than them? Those kind of players are using modern social media.

.

yeah internet forums are considered kinda old fashioned. there's a reason a lot of MMOs don't even post their announcements on their own forums before they put it out on facebook/twitter/whathaveyou

Agreed, some of this is just going to be a huge bias toward the age bracket that basically grew up with forums being the dominant form of social exchange on the net.
It's not helped that social media does a MUCH better job of marketing itself which quickly captures a lot of new people to the internet. Even though forums actually offer a superior form of interaction than most social media sites for hobby chatter; the sm sites are heavily marketed; front and centre in your phone not just being compatible but having their own dedicated app - and they are used for everything else. So its an all-in-one account. It's part why Reddit (which is basically a forum structure) works because its one account spread over many social groups. Even just that simple "you have to sign up" phase turns some away.

So yeah all the younger gamers are likely on Instagram/Discord/Facebook/Reddit/whatever the other big social media thing is kids today use


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hobojebus wrote:
Can't say I'm surprised by the results, granted it's a limited sample but I wouldn't be shocked if it held true for most of the community.

They've priced out younger people.

I've never known a time when young people weren't priced out and relied on their parents to help support their hobby activities.

Even back 20 years ago GW was the "expensive" hobby for teens/kids.

Video games are cheaper, better balanced, and no effort is required to start playing.

Goose LeChance wrote:
Video games are cheaper, better balanced, and no effort is required to start playing.

You do need to invest in the hardware to run them.

Which, admittedly, you are more likely to already have in the house.

But also might have to replace, upgrade, etc if you want to play the newest version of the game.

Twenty years ago you could buy stuff for pocket money five monopose marines were £5.

Metal heroes were £7.

A land raider was £30.

We have plastic kits from 20 years ago they sell for nearly double.

They don't make Rolex watches or sell super cars, they'd make more money selling by volume instead of by item.

An Xbox/Playstation/Nintendo/Computer is still gonna cost less than a 2k army and it's going to last a long, long time compared to GWs 3 year edition cycle and numerous supplements. Plus there are no hobby supplies to buy, no painting or modelling, no books to read.

I don't know why people who are only interested in the gaming part of miniature wargames even bother to be honest.

Because they enjoy direct social interaction?

Because they enjoy the gaming part most of all but also enjoy other aspects such as collecting, building, painting, converting

Because their parents encourage them into a more "real" hobby than just video games

Because their friends play and they want to play with their friends



There's a whole rafter of reasons why someone chooses to play a wargame on tabletop as opposed on on PC; or play nerf; or play football or engage in any other passtime. I'd have sort of hoped that most of the users of Dakka would be wargamers enough to sort of know the reasons why we come here to play and enjoy the game

I'm talking about the ones that clearly don't like the hobby side and are in it purely for the "game".

Video games just seem like a far better choice.

I used to skim the top off my lunch money to buy minis.
Nowadays that wouldn't get me nearly so far.

Recently I compared the value of Black Reach and Dark Vengeance vs the current equivalent starter set (Elite Edition irrc); the older sets gave you about double the content on minis alone, plus a full rulebook so you didn't need to also buy one yourself.