A common poll type or complaint you will see often spouted out at random are the terms "kiddies" "kids" or "under age." It's a rather interesting concept that these people have, because they spout on about the age of an individual as if it were a gateway to describe what they are really on about; maturity.
What fascinates me about this is how many people, themselves, are being immature and juvenile about the subject when they sit there and profile a person based on their age as if that was the only bracket that was prone to such things. Of course, this trend has been around for as long as the MMO market has, and it's rather hilarious that people believe that people under the age of 18 are the ones largely responsible for the juvenile and immature behaviors that happen in an MMO these days.
In the time I have spent in MMO gaming, the average age of most MMO gamers typically falls in the mid 20s to mid 30s bracket, regardless of what people say. And most of the time, it's this bracket, I find at least, that is also the most immature. But immaturity really knows no age bracket, and you will find it everywhere, but in an ironic twist it's typically the under aged people I run into that are typically the more mature.
What really fascinates me about posts like this are how juvenile and immature they are about it to begin with. You will see all manner of slander and hypocrisy being spouted at every which turn from the post about people under a specific age being the problem with games, but not once will they even acknowledge that immaturity knows no age limit. Hell, I've seen people even go so far as to try and recommend adult servers to "keep out the kiddies" as if that is going to stop immaturity when it's generally the people of those age brackets conducting the problems.
Just one of those things that all you can really do is shake your head at.
I am one of those people that like to be around a certain amount of maturity when it comes to the Internet. In MMOs especially, I have gotten so sick of "little kids" that I have stopped playing several games as a result. These "little kids" however were almost always actually people in their 20s or 30s. I certainly agree that having an age does not necessarily guarantee any amount of maturity.
ReplyDeleteI myself was very mature for my age when I was a teenager. When I started getting into online communities, many people thought I was much older than I was and I never told my age for fear of that ageism creeping in and ruining that. When I am online, I try to keep it at a case by case basis. I'll be respectful and helpful to anyone, until they show themselves to be immature or rude. Even so, I maintain my poise, but I certainly don't go out of my way to interact with them. Unless of course (as in WoW's case) I'm in the random dungeon finder. I have up and left group if people start acting in such a manner. As a tank or healer especially, it's not fun to put up with. After all, that's why people pay to play MMOs - fun.