The funny thing about this article, is that if you played EQ2 (or any mmo really) for any amount of time you'd know this kind of information instantly.
The researchers found that many players underestimate the amount of time they spend playing the games
Botting tradeskills is rampant in EQ2... the data could be significantly skewed.
And players aren’t just teenagers -- in fact, the average age of a player is substantially higher.
That's because most teenagers are playing WOW or some other similar game. It's no reflection on those players, but a significant portion of EQ2 players came from the original Everquest 10+ years ago...
But what most surprised Contractor was that even though players could play the game with anyone, anywhere, most people played with people in their general geographic area.
Try raiding with someone halfway around the world on a consistent basis. I did it for awhile during my first year of University (waking up 5am for raids) and it's not something I'd recommend for any length of time.
Its more or less about convenience to be able to find people to play/raid with.
Well, you'd suspect that information, but you wouldn't know for sure. That's the difference between anecdotal evidence and a scientifically rigorous study.
The explanations you give are valuable for understanding why these trends exist, but they're not proof of their existence.
That's because most teenagers are playing WOW or some other similar game."
Are they? I don't mean to nitpick but do any MMORG's have high percentages of teenagers? I would suspect they mostly skew older, whereas platforms like the 360 might skew younger.
Actually my point was that your average teenager is more or less attracted to the "latest and greatest" type games (enforcing your point about consoles), which in the MMO arena would be WOW.
Its not meant as a negative sentiment aimed at WOW or its playerbase, it's more along the lines that EQ2 has a different kind of following that stems from it's roots as being one of the original MMO franchises. As a result, many players migrated from EQ1 to EQ2 when Sony released it, which would suggest that it's playerbase is traditionally a much older crowd.
In my experience with WoW (played for 2.5 years, some of that time pretty seriously, just quit a few weeks ago) there are certainly teenagers playing but most people are at in their twenties. Probably more teens than 30-39s though.
The researchers found that many players underestimate the amount of time they spend playing the games
Botting tradeskills is rampant in EQ2... the data could be significantly skewed.
And players aren’t just teenagers -- in fact, the average age of a player is substantially higher.
That's because most teenagers are playing WOW or some other similar game. It's no reflection on those players, but a significant portion of EQ2 players came from the original Everquest 10+ years ago...
But what most surprised Contractor was that even though players could play the game with anyone, anywhere, most people played with people in their general geographic area.
Try raiding with someone halfway around the world on a consistent basis. I did it for awhile during my first year of University (waking up 5am for raids) and it's not something I'd recommend for any length of time.
Its more or less about convenience to be able to find people to play/raid with.
All up - nothing new learnt here.