Polls

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical (More info?)

Hi,

I like polls - they almost invariably make me grit my teeth as I find
out the "obvious" question isn't posed, or I discover there's no
"other" checkbox which would be the appropriate answer in half the
questions - nevertheless I like polls, especially the ones that pose
the age old question of "how old are you ?"

A recent one at the Matrixgames World at War forum came up with the
obvious results : virtually no-one under 25, and half the gamers
between 36 and 45. I'm saying obvious results because for as long as I
can remember that has been the result of polling wargamers about their
age.

Now what sociology (don't laugh) tells us about this age bracket
(36-45) is that this is the busiest part of a man's life with raising a
family and climbing the corporate ladder all gobbling up huge amounts
of leasure time. That these guys (and I'm one of them) spend their
precious few hours of free time on a particular hobby that demands a
fairly large amount of time-investment is a very good sign.

I can hear you thinking "why ?" - especially when another poll in 10
years time will show the same result, essentially saying that this
large 'core' has come and gone. Here's the twist : I don't think it
will. I'm more inclined to think that the 46+ age bracket will become
as strong as the 36-45 age bracket because computer literacy and
availability will by then have crept into this age bracket essentially
because we've become that age bracket.

I already know a couple of retired wargamers who now have the time and
the means to spend it all on their favourite hobby. This group will
become more numerous in the next decade resulting in wargame companies
having a solid base to sell their games to. And that is good news for
everyone.

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical (More info?)

One answer is to extend the bracket from 36 to 55. That way you'd get
to include me for a little while longer anyway.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical (More info?)

While taking a short break from the daily grind of enslavement and
world domination, eddysterckx@hotmail.com mentioned

>I already know a couple of retired wargamers who now have the time and
>the means to spend it all on their favourite hobby. This group will
>become more numerous in the next decade resulting in wargame companies
>having a solid base to sell their games to. And that is good news for
>everyone.

I'm one of them, Eddy. (Subscription to SPI up to Issue 43, most of
SSG's early stuff, lots of SSI and suchlike) but the new reality is
that on a limited fixed income (pension) I'm going to shop around very
carefully for each new purchase and then play it to death until all
the pixels squeal in agony before I buy a new one.

Certainly the new high-end releases are just not interesting because I
no longer have the finances to buy or build a new computer every
couple of years.

For all of those reasons, I don't see myself as being a desirable
market for anybody.
..
..
We are Microsoft of Borg.....Your technological distinctiveness will be
added to our own.....Resistance is fu...
......$$@#
..
General Protection Fault in MSBORG32.DLL
...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical (More info?)

Miowarra Tomokatu (aka Tomo) schreef:
> Certainly the new high-end releases are just not interesting because I
> no longer have the finances to buy or build a new computer every
> couple of years.
>
> For all of those reasons, I don't see myself as being a desirable
> market for anybody.

Well, your mileage *does* vary in this case, but generally speaking
people retiring now have a higher disposable income than the previous
generation when retiring. The mortgage is paid for, the kids are out of
the house, no more extra work-related expenses (like needing 2 cars),
.... It also depends on the country you live in and the social security
system it has, but you can observe the fact that pensioners are
becoming a lucrative target/market by watching the increase in
commercials specifically targeted at them.

At least that's the European outlook ...

Make sure you save some money for when COTA is released

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical (More info?)

Arjuna schreef:
> One answer is to extend the bracket from 36 to 55. That way you'd get
> to include me for a little while longer anyway.

Ok folks, let me clue you in on something :

Dave's mission in life is to make a game, sell a million units and then
retire on the proceeds.

Our (the beta-bunnies as we are now called) mission is to keep him just
above the poverty line so he keeps working dilligently on bettering the
AA engine so whe can all enjoy a new release with plenty of new toys to
play with every now and then. We achieve this by loudly complaining
about bugs so obscure they're the digital equivalent of someone poking
with his finger in his own eye - repeatedly - and then complaining
about a slight loss of vision. Another method is making insanely
complicated feature requests, preferably forcing a complete re-write of
major parts of the engine followed by a "nah, on second thought, I
liked the previous setup better".

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx