Age-based preferences and player experience: a crowdsourced cross-sectional study

We tend to treat the 18-55 demographic of gamers as a monolithic and homogenous group, even though the older ones witnessed the entire rise of the videogame and the younger ones were born into a world with MMORPGs. We present a cross-sectional study of 2747 crowdsourced players aged 18-55 and conduct linear regressions of age on several measures of play habits, preferences, and play experiences. Our results show a consistent pattern that with increasing age, preferences, play motive, play style, identification as a gamer, and player experience shift away from a focus on performance and towards a focus on completion, choice, and enjoyment. We situate our results in developmental psychology, which suggests that as we age, we exhibit an increased focus on goals that prioritize emotional regulation and relationships and less on the acquisitions of new skills. Our work provides new insights into the large and core demographic of gamers.