How old are you?

[sysrkm]

Hi folks,

I'm 47. First computer was a TRS-80. First quasi war game for it was a Star Trek game originally designed for an IBM mainframe, I think.

Then moved on to a C-64 where I get my first REAL wargame called Starfleet Orion. Also bought the sequal, Invasion Orion. Both were neat games back then.

First board game ever purchased was either Ogre (SJ Games) or Foxbat and Phantom, a Cold War / Vietnam era air combat game and I was hooked.

Latest game I've purchased is the ASL starter kit. Bought one for me and two for friends.

Recently gave my sons (Ian who's 8 and John who's 10) their first taste of a boardwargame, Deluxe Ogre (also SJ games). I thought the large counters and counter stands would help. They enjoyed frying the GEV's and Heavy Tanks one after another, until I'd chased down one of their Ogre Mk III's and reduced it to only having 4 treads left. They loved the game and we'll be playing again this week.

Regards all,

Rob

[TAIL GUNNER]

Hey,

I'm 33. First wargame was Desert Commander on the old 8-bit Nintendo!
I knew computers had the REAL wargames, and I had a C-64.....but I couldn't afford the $400 disk drive!

First computer wargame was Carriers at War II...bought it to play on my parent's Tandy 486/25Mhz....oh what joy that game was![:D]

When I got out on my own and finally got my own computer, the first games I bought were Panzer General and X-Com....much to the chagrin of my young wife....

She left me eventually....and now I had all this new free time to buy and play more wargames!

[IronDuke_slith]

Almost 37. Married with one recent arrival (so far) named Jessica Kate. (Not relevant to the thread, but what the hell..I'm telling everyone).

I found boardgames at university but no one to play them against so ended up concentrating on the sixth fleet series playing solo. First computer game was Red Storm rising on the C64. Then Harpoon on the Amiga (and later the PC). then in the early nineties I found Borodino and Armada by a guy called Turcan that were pretty basic but right up my street.

Mid nineties saw the arrival of the Talonsoft (hiss) Battleground series and East front. I played Battleground to death and it got a new lease of life when I moved back home to my Parents (in order to save for a house with my new Girlfriend - eventually to be wife) and the soon to be Father in law installed me a modem and phone line and I started PBEMing at Leadeaters and the ACW/Napoleonic Clubs. There was the odd RTS thrown in but after the first Command and Conquer I got a bit bored with the concept and haven't really played one since TA.

Then TOAW arrived and I moved to Rugged defence playing occasionally with other stuff like CM and Airborne Assault, the Total War series etc (I've spent thousands of hours lining up missile infantry behind spear infantry at the tops of hills).

Then I saw an Ad somewhere for Uncommon Valour and that was it. I found Matrix, and haven't really wanted for titles since, particularly enjoying HTTR. About the only non matrix game in the last couple of years to get serious attention was Call of Duty and Take Command, a small ACW title I'd recommend to anyone. I've also played HOI2 a bit.

I currently play WITP (not much time for anything else) and design, test and play Combined Arms scenarios. If I get time, I plan to try a couple of Tiller's games I recently picked up.

Regards,
IronDuke

[IronDuke_slith]

ORIGINAL: Hertston

40, although I don't look a day over 39 [;)]


I'm very surprised at the poll results (I think Matrix may be too.) Even though you would expect wargames to pull in a more mature crowd than other genres, the average age is significantly higher than I expected.

It's a little older than I expected (but so are you, if I was honest [;)]) but those in their twneties often have other things on their minds (I know I sometimes did, at least until I met the Wife and she put a stop to it). You find a significant number of Vets as well, who maybe do their 20 and take it up properly when they retire to Civilian life and that means a steady supply of forty somethings taking it up, who didn't always have the time before.

I also think since the arrival and widespread distribution of PCs, that the younger arrivals have had a lot more to look at than when I got started. Rome TW, a thousand sports titles, glossy shoot em ups etc. Straight to PC or console at 8 or 10, they maybe have no boardgame experience to teach them a love for the hex, the counter or the map, which is really just what modern PC wargames are and always have been (in the main).

Regards,
IronDuke

[Big B]

49 next month

Started on Avalon Hill's Jutland in 1967, played the rest of them over the years. Had to spend time in de-tox after 15 years of Squad Leader (still have a nervous twitch when I see it), and many SPI titles.

Wow wait a second, I read Dave Briggs post and that reminded me - Before AH, I owned all four American Heritage games since about 1964.

WitP is great, but there is still something abut a board game....

B

[dpstafford]

Old enough to know better....!

[TheHellPatrol]

43 years old, started boardgaming when i was 10 or so with Panzerblitz & PanzerLeader. My first PC wargame was Panzer General, then Steel Panthers & beyond.
@dpstafford: "Old enough to know better....!" [:'(]That leaves it wide open![;)]

[KG Erwin]

I'm 48 years young. My gaming biography is posted on the SPWaW forum.

[Reiryc]

34 here...

First wargame on a computer was with the Ti99 4A and it was one of those word games. You would buy a magazine that had code in it. Then you'd pray that the code was right while you typed in the game over a day or something -- didn't know how to type then -- and play the game after saving it to the cassette drive. It was a civil war game where you'd pick the type of maneuvers you'd want to do, your opponent would do the same and then it would calculate the results of the battle and in the war.

After the ti994a, I moved up to the commodore 128 and my first game was silent service. I played the hell out of that game. The next game and still one of my all time favorites, was decision in the desert. This was by microprose and played like crusade in yurupe.

After the commodore 128 I upgraded to the amiga and then finally to the pc. I sure do miss all the tlc that went into some of the computer games back then. Great manuals, maps, and I even used to enjoy the catalogues that they would put in the boxes. One particular PC game that I wish had gone further was called darklands by microprose. It had quite a few bugs, but was really enjoyable. Tried getting it going on an emulator but never could get the thing working right so I've given up and leave it to my memory where I can pretend it was better than it probably was in reality.

[scott64]

ORIGINAL: dpstafford

Old enough to know better....!

And too young to care [:'(][:D][8D]

[Tomus]

ORIGINAL: Battlebyte

I'm 28. When I was 10 or 11 one of my friends had some WWI fighter dueling game where you each moved and then cross-referenced your positions and headings and looked up a page in a book to see a picture of the other fighter as seen from yours, along with your chances to hit. Don't remember the name. I haven't seen anything like it since.

I remeber those books! They were along the fighting fantasy gamebook lines weren't they. I had them I am sure. Wow that brings it back.

Anyway I am 32 started playing wargames seriously back on the Amiga, then I graduated to Panzer General on the PS1[:D] Which kept me going for months. Civilisation followed and TBH so did Command and Conqueror and Age of Empires etc. I was firmly an RTS man for ages. The snazzier the graphics the better. My newest serious wargame was when I picked up "Airborne Assault" a couple of years back and I was hooked, from there I bought Korsun Pocket and Uncommon Valor and I am now a confirmed serious wargamer.

Must admit UV leaves me a touch baffled though[;)]

[wodin]

34 on the 3rd!

[watchtower]

41 years and still can't come to terms with the fact that I turned 30!

On the digital platform first was

Dragon 32
1. Quest


Sinclair Spectrum
1. Rebelstar
2. VCS? Arnhem, Afrika Corp

Atari 800

1. Can't remember the name, it came with counters and a board. The Atari worked out the combat after you entered moves - captivated for at least two years in the early -mid 80's.

2. tons of others - mind you can't remember any of them by name (my 80's were earlier peoples 60's!![8D]'

Then c64's etc.........

Then ton's of tabletop stuff, Roleplay etc.....

Now in tabletop only play Flintloque type stuff...

[warhead2]

I started with Tactics II in '72
my next game was third reich for my 12th birthday
whoa what a leap

[spmlawyer]

58 and still kicking. First wargame of sorts was a Tank Console game HBO installed at work. All the executives spent half their day playing against each other. Talk about corporate bonding.First real wargame was Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising on a floppy. It proved one thing to me that graphics are nice but a superior game engine is the best. Time Warner came out with a game called Aegis which wasa pretty good but my all time favorites were naval encounters: Jutland; Harpoon series; Great Naval Battles series; Carriers at War, Midway and the best of all, an early diamond called Task Force 1942. Does anyone remember that? I've never seen a better simulation of the Tokyo Express. Played al the PG and SP series and am now slogging my way through SPWaW.

[Deride]

Some industry facts (from Entertainment Software Association):

Under 18 years old – 34% (Compared with 0% from Matrix poll so far)
18-50 years old – 46% (Compared with 92% from Matrix poll so far)
50+ years – 17% (Compared with 8% from Matrix poll so far)

So, from this, you can see that the average Matrix game player is squarely in the middle of the curve, it is certainly not "older" than would be expected.

Of course, I think the concern is that "kids" don't seem to play war games. So we gotta do something about that...
Deride

[Hertston]

ORIGINAL: Deride

So, from this, you can see that the average Matrix game player is squarely in the middle of the curve, it is certainly not "older" than would be expected.

Hardly. Without further analysis of the 18-50's those statistics are meaningless in that context, and even without that there's far more variation in the 0-18s than in the 50+s.

I'll grant the over-50s figure is a lot higher than I expected though.

[DuckofTindalos]

Lies, damn lies and statistics...

[Hertston]

Indeed. [:D]

[Zap]

So far this poll is incomplete. There needs to be a larger number of responses from members to get an accurate idea. I believe there are 16,000 registered members. I think a 1,000 responses would give a more accurate picture.