Screw off Codemasters!

[Mark Asher]

These guys at Codemasters have a lot of nerve. They put me into a category they call "grey gamers" because I'm over 35. 35! What, they think our hair turns snow white when we hit 35?


Codemasters found out there was a huge audience of "grey gamers" when they profiled the age ranges of users on their website.

"Over 50,000 ticked the over-35 box, so we contacted a few websites and local papers to say we would love to hear from more mature gamers."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3287891.stm

How dare they refer to me as "mature"! Codemasters, if I ever see any of you, I'm going to hit you upsdie the head with my cane!

[tronnc]

Your Old, buy a lincoln town car and get over it.

[Jack]

Eh? What?

You'll have to write bigger, Mark. Things ain't the same since I got them there cat-racks in my eyes.

Damn, where are my teeth?

[Mark Asher]

I actually had to get a pair of reading glasses this year. I can't read the small print on the prescription bottles....

[Creole Ned]

The title of the thread really should be be "Get offa my lawn, Codemasters!"

I, too, am one of the allegedly grey gamers. Having reached the decrepit late 30's, I observe two things:

1. People can start going grey when they are, in fact, still quite young.

2. My desire to play games has in no way diminished as I've gotten older. If anything, my other responsibilities make the escape into a fun game all the more satisfying.

I've had several phone surveys abruptly end when I answered honestly about the demographic I currently fall into. They all but said, "You're too old to be cool, hip and influential as a consumer. You can go back to knitting or whatever it is you old people do. Sorry if we interrupted your nap."

[-Lord Ebonstone-]

Shucks... if 35+ is old, I should be well into my mid-life crisis by now! :(

[Silverlight]

Shucks... if 35+ is old, I should be well into my mid-life crisis by now! :(
I'm not even vaguely old and I've already HAD my mid-life crisis. Graduate students always get to have them early. :)

[steve]

I'd like to point out that Jeff Green does, in fact, have grey in his hair. And he's very old. He's out of touch.

When I actually have hair, none of it's grey, therefore, this doesn't apply to me; I'm still youthful and hip and trendy and worth marketing to.

[Nellie]

Developers today, pah! When I were a nipper, we had proper developers and they made proper games.

I'm cold and there are wolves after me.

[Bub, Andrew]

Arthur: Old woman!
Peasent: Man!
Arthur: Man then, sorry.
Peasent: I'm 37.
Arthur: What?
Peasent: I'm 37, I'm not old.

[DennyA]

What I don't get about this whole youth thing is that, now that I'm 38, I actually buy stuff. I have MONEY now. Market to me, people.

When I was 20, even 25, it was "which bill do I not pay this month?"

My mom and stepdad are now in the CBS-watching demographic, yet they bought an HDTV, Tivo, wireless network, top-end Sony Clie, etc. this year...

Honda developed the Element targeting "unemployed 20-somethings" as their market. Well, they're selling them all to active people in their 30s and 40s who see the great utility of the ugly little thing. Where did they think the original target market was going to get the money?

I really don't understand this stuff about people in their 20s being a prime market. Sure, teens who are spending their parents money, that I can see. But I'd think that the prime markets would be teens and people from 30 to 50, given cash availability...

[Troy S Goodfellow]

I really don't understand this stuff about people in their 20s being a prime market. Sure, teens who are spending their parents money, that I can see. But I'd think that the prime markets would be teens and people from 30 to 50, given cash availability...

Doesn't the argument have less to do with ready money than it does lack of brand loyalty? 20 year olds aren't set in their ways are can be more easily persuaded by advertisting to switch to a product for brand reasons. We older types tend to look at the whole price per serving thing and wait for sales while paying down the mortgage.

Troy

[Jack]

What I don't get about this whole youth thing is that, now that I'm 38, I actually buy stuff. I have MONEY now. Market to me, people.

When I was 20, even 25, it was "which bill do I not pay this month?"

I really don't understand this stuff about people in their 20s being a prime market. Sure, teens who are spending their parents money, that I can see. But I'd think that the prime markets would be teens and people from 30 to 50, given cash availability...

I agree, Denny -- but let me offer a supposition: A twenty-something is more likely to forgo paying the water bill to buy that shiny new doo-dad with the buttons, lights, and LCD screen. They generally don't give two shits about debt because they're all going to be millionaires by the time they reach our ripe old age.

Also, credit cards are freely distributed among the college-aged whippersnappers because of the aforementioned debt-be-damned attitude.

We, as older folks, have more disposible cash, but have more obligations. We also are the major demographic for squirreling our money away for our looming retirement -- which we can now realistically see since we didn't quite make the goal of being millionaires after leaving college.

[Mark Asher]

I really don't understand this stuff about people in their 20s being a prime market. Sure, teens who are spending their parents money, that I can see. But I'd think that the prime markets would be teens and people from 30 to 50, given cash availability...

Doesn't the argument have less to do with ready money than it does lack of brand loyalty? 20 year olds aren't set in their ways are can be more easily persuaded by advertisting to switch to a product for brand reasons. We older types tend to look at the whole price per serving thing and wait for sales while paying down the mortgage.

Troy

Yeah, I think the marketing is designed to create brand loyalty in the young and impressionable.

I certainly know that I'm more resistent to advertising than when I was younger. I'm more reluctant to buy products, period.

[Bub, Andrew]

My mom and stepdad are now in the CBS-watching demographic, yet they bought an HDTV, Tivo, wireless network, top-end Sony Clie, etc. this year...
...

You've seen the commercials though, Sony is aggressively targetting retiring boomers right now.

[DangerMouse]

I am 33 and am greying at the temples - Am I part of the 'greying gamer' market?

Surely this is discriminatory? What about the "Baldy market"? "The Saggy Boobs market" and the " Wheres me Dentures?" Market?

[scharmers]

LOL. Grey gamers. I found my first grey hair when I was 15. Thanks for that particular genetic donation, dad. Let's see...15. Hmmm. That's when I was in to playing Elite. When it was new.

--scharmers

[Saxman_72]

Well, I'm 31, and still no signs of grey.

*crosses fingers*

*yells at cloud*

[Bull]

As a grey gamer myself, I suggest more and bigger breasts in the ads that are designed to cater to me.

[Sean Tudor]

I am 37 and started getting grey hairs 5 years ago. Like Steve I cut my hair really short so that A. people won't notice my grey hairs, and B. I look really cool.

I am the only male member of my family that has not lost his hair by the age of 35. Most males in my family tree lost most of their hair by that age.

As for marketing (games or otherwise) like most over 30 year olds I got over that years ago. It must really frustrate the marketing wizzkids when they have to market to the over 30 yo's. :wink:

[Lee Johnson]

I am 41 in three weeks; I found my first grey hair 20 years ago this month. :p And while it has since been joined by many, many others, I'd rather be grey than bald. ;)

I actually wonder whether I was ever in the target market group. When I was twenty-something, the marketeers were chasing the boomers. Now that I'm 40 and making a good buck, they're after the teens and twenty-somethings. :roll:

[Gary Whitta]

What I've never understood is a key demo that ranges from 18 to 34, as though there's any similarity at all between the people at the opposite ends of that range.

[Anaxagoras]

Speaking of grey hairs, does anyone get hairs that are literally grey? I've always assumed that grey hair was actually a mixture of black and white that looked like grey, but I just realized I never looked that closely. Man... I guess there *are* disadvantages to not seeing your parents for a long, long time. Vital questions such as this can't be investigated.

[AIM]

Hehe... you guys are old.

Me? We'll I'm a straping, handsome young buck that can pump the night away like a rabbit on speed.

:D

[Qenan]

What I don't get about this whole youth thing is that, now that I'm 38, I actually buy stuff. I have MONEY now. Market to me, people.


Exactly. I'm over forty and have more available cash than ever. But I have less time, and that may be a key distinction. I don't have endless hours that require gaming to fill them...

[Chris Johnson]

I'm 41 and grey hair has been my friend since my late 20s. And judging based on some recent game offerings, I would call myself a "mature" gamer. Bra and panty wrestling is something I don't need to see in my gaming world. Real life is, of course, a different story.

[Supertanker]

Me? We'll I'm a straping, handsome young buck that can pump the night away like a rabbit on speed.

Self abuse is nothing to brag about.

[Brian Minsker]

As a grey gamer myself, I suggest more and bigger breasts in the ads that are designed to cater to me.

http://www.photo.net/photo/pcd4554/cow-udder-38.3.jpg

[Mike Hussey]

This was discussed on BBC radio's Today program with a 'social' journalist and a 50-something representative of SAGA, a company that specialises in holidays for the over-50's. Brief summary:

Presenter: Eh? Aren't these things just for kids?

'Social' Journo: This is terrible! Millions of kids have had their lives ruined by evil computer games now they're getting poor innocent old people as well blah blah blah....

SAGA Rep: Actually, I quite like my GBA.

(OK - I paraphrased a little)

[Calistas]

When I were lad, we ad it tough! We 'ad to tape load games.. if we were LUCKEH!

We 'ad to 'and code the games, in RUSSIAN from 'back of cerial packet!

Tell that to the kids of todeh and they won't believe yer!

Cal :)

[mystery]

Calistas said: ....

Hey, it's a Codemasters employee! Get him!!!

[Anders Hallin]

Rabble rabble!

[Mike Hussey]

Calistas said: ....

Hey, it's a Codemasters employee! Get him!!!


Right! Just hang on while I get my walking frame.

[steve]

"Mature" gamers also don't compulsively obsessively post to message boards, so they don't appear on anyone's radar.

Present company excluded, of course.