Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Half of MMO Players are the Oldest Child

I was flipping through Nick Yee's web site and ran across a rather surprising statistic from one of his surveys: half of people playing MMOs are the oldest child.

Insert the usual caveats here: this was a self-selecting survey in an unknown game (probably World of Warcraft) with about 3,000 respondents.

Also on the linked survey page are the observations that players are liberal and not religious. As a conservative Catholic, no wonder I have such a difficult time clicking with the people I play with. On top of that, I'm a middle child. Woe is me.

I invite folks to poke around on Nick's site. It's full of fascinating bits of information about MMO player demographics. Sadly, Nick recently decided to stop work on the Daedalus Project, which was the name of his long-running survey program.

Comments

  • slythsslyths Member UncommonPosts: 208

     Intresting surveys. Expecially for the political aspect.

  • MidniteHowlMidniteHowl Member UncommonPosts: 149

    Interesting how it pretty much described me, oldest child, and not religious hmmm, well got to go log in my mmo...

  • avalon1000avalon1000 Member UncommonPosts: 791

     

    I am the oldest child in my family.

  • SmikisSmikis Member UncommonPosts: 1,045

    oldest too.. but others in familly play mmos to some extend ..

    there is no such thing as god or religion either..

  • eight675309eight675309 Member Posts: 246

    I just crunched some stats after looking at average household stats, and either something very profound is happening here with the eldest child, or this guy is full of it and/or his methodology is highly flawed. Occam suggests the the latter, and I'm inclined to agree.

  • Isamright33Isamright33 Member Posts: 60

    A) All players in china are the olderst, one child rule, and they make up most mmorpgs.

    B) Oldest children are more likely to answer surveys.

  • IlvaldyrIlvaldyr Member CommonPosts: 2,142
    Originally posted by JB47394

    Also on the linked survey page are the observations that players are liberal and not religious. As a conservative Catholic, no wonder I have such a difficult time clicking with the people I play with. On top of that, I'm a middle child. Woe is me.
    I feel your pain. Youngest and semi-religious.


    The information on gender and age distribution was very interesting too.

     

    image
    Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
  • eight675309eight675309 Member Posts: 246
    Originally posted by Isamright33


    A) All players in china are the olderst, one child rule, and they make up most mmorpgs.
    B) Oldest children are more likely to answer surveys.



     

    A. This is actually an argument that the data is flawed, as there is a choice for "only child". It could be that kids are so stupid these days they don't know what "only child is". It could be that in this ridiculous self-esteem fluffing world that kids purposely lie and consider themselves "eldest children" because "only" seems to  be "lacking".

     

    B.  Why? Uusually the oldest child ends up with the most responsibilities and are less likely to have time for games.

     

    That dude just does garbage studies, like his "liberal" verus "conservative" survey is so flawed I can only guess the moron is a sociology major.

  • skeaserskeaser Member RarePosts: 4,190

    Half are the oldest child, the other half aren't. Doesn't sound ground breaking to me.

    Sig so that badges don't eat my posts.


  • DarkPonyDarkPony Member Posts: 5,566
    Originally posted by skeaser


    Half are the oldest child, the other half aren't. Doesn't sound ground breaking to me.

     

    Half is actually a pretty big amount. 'Only childs' had their own category and even though there are many families with two kids, there are quite a few with more as well. So half is a disproportionally large amount I suppose.

    I have a theory, though; Oldest kids are the ones who had to face that big nasty world alone, without 'example bro's and sis's' and with parent's still being overly worried and protective; they are more likely to develop a strong imagination by being forced to be independent thinkers. And they are more likely to develop an interest in cognitive past times, rather than outside, social activities because of that outside world being a little more intimidating to them.

    But that is just my hunch as a firm believer of the huge impact things have on a person's character at an early age.

  • Rayx0rRayx0r Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 2,902

    sweet im a minority, im the youngest of three

    image

    “"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a robot foot stomping on a human face -- forever."
  • SyriSyri Member UncommonPosts: 230

    Well, I'm the oldest, and not religious. Don't really give a damn about politics. My younger brother does play a LOT more on MMO's than me... he's on WoW almost every hour of the day, where I typically spend around 2-3 hours on Lotro, if i do go on that day, which I don't always do.

    ------------------------------
    Currently playing: Rift

    former player of: DAoC, Everquest 2, Guild Wars, SWG (pre-NGE), WoW, Warhammer online, LotR:O

  • fungistratusfungistratus Member Posts: 437

    Wow, oldest, non-religious.  I AM A STATISTIC.

  • LvciferLvcifer Member Posts: 127

    im the youngest child actually.. hmm, what went wrong with me?

    MyBrute = addicting mini online game!

  • Capn23Capn23 Member Posts: 1,529

    I'm the oldest child, but I tend to be very conservative and religious, however I can see how there would be a lot of liberals...it explains all the no life whiners

    OOOOooooooOOOOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOO

    I'm just kidding though. I don't want to turn this into a political/religious bash thread. It doesn't matter who you are in real life in MMOs. You are someone totally different and that's ok. That's the point of MMORPGs.

     

    You can be whoever you want to be.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!

  • CactusmanXCactusmanX Member Posts: 2,218

    I am an only child, atheist, student, libertarian, so I meet 2 of the 4, not sure if you consider libertarians liberal or conservative.

    The other ones are interesting too, I liked the one about how people build their characters.

    Don't you worry little buddy. You're dealing with a man of honor. However, honor requires a higher percentage of profit

Sign In or Register to comment.