Odd things that are very common/popular in IF's

Like maybe a lot of yall rub the back of your neck when you are nervous? I bite my nails or lips…or act overly confident when i am. Its cool.to.see our differences

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Every premise for every story somehow always eventually circles around to a small group of diverse attractive 20-somethings working side by side and refusing to admit their attractions to one another.

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Yeah. I am “over 20” and am def sad by the constant late teen/early 20 route per most If’s…have you read @MeltingPenguins CURIOUS CUISINE???

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I have always hated cooking shows with a passion, and I burn cereal, so my eyes probably skipped over anything with Cuisine in it.

Is it about hunting and eating cryptozoologists? Cause that would be fun.

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The main cast in IF games particularly seem to almost always be:

  • In their twenties
  • Extremely fit (whether buff or toned and athletic) or very thin (sometimes lithe, sometimes waifish)

I get that the target audience is in their early twenties/late teens, and that most the authors are too, at least for HG, but it would be nice to see some main cast in their thirties (or older!) and greater variations in builds and athletic abilities among a cast.

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Are they though?!??! Maybe here? But i have read ( several times now) that for the past several years the highest amount of age rankings were women in their 30s for video games

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Which makes me feel that women in their 30s+ is the optimum range for cogs??? Not limiting to that range OBVIOUSLY (since most games speak to a much younger mc) but if you leave it more open…who does it hurt!!!

Hey! What’s wrong with the cuties? :muscle: :man:
As for age, It often isn’t that rigidly defined, yeah most characters tend to be on the younger side, but that is likely as much due to the physical demands of adventuring.
Also older protagonists tend to require more elaborate backstories, unless you always go for the amnesia gimmick, thus limiting character creation possibilites and I like being able to define my own mc’s to be unashamedly and unabashedly gay and not be locked into stereotypes.

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This statistic includes, rather unfortunately, candy crush style mobile games which are largely middle-aged women. The sheer ubiquity of mobile phones and the lack of even the most basic human restraint has skewed this statistic in the direction of this one particular demographic.

I think if you just take consoles and PC it still skews male unfortunately.

I think assuming the Candy Crush/Sims demo is absurd. I played many a FFXI AND FFXIV With women in the 30s+

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I think folks crying CANDY CRUSH is what demeans a very gaming age group actually

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(those might not be the best examples because those games and others in their genre also skew way, way, way in the direction of female players)

I wonder if COG has published any demographic information on their player base?

It would definitely be interesting to hear this (also, i was trying to stand up for an unspoken for group…my apologies if i caused offense?)

eh, when you hit 30 you don’t suddenly become infirm, and most games aren’t portraying the hard ships of adventuring on the road realistically anyways.

There’s nothing wrong with those sorts of builds at all, but when the entire cast in multiple games is just that, sometimes someone whose “average” would be a nice change of pace!

@jender unfortunately big game companies (not CoG!) are still under the impression that late teens/early twenties males are their prime customer, even if the statistics say otherwise!

As for people writing HG, I’d say that they are a lot more balanced on who the targeted gender is (while still slightly skewing male if the gender locked male games are any indication) but it still feels (to me at least) that the games are targeted more for someone in their late teens to early twenties, and that’s probably because that’s the age of a lot authors themselves. Which isn’t a bad thing! I’d just like to see some stories about older people too. (Good chance I’m talking out of my rear on some of this though, that’s just the general impression i get)

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Ditto, didn’t want to wield statistics like a club even though it’s hard not to considering the myriad ways you can analyze and interpret this stuff to reflect whatever you want. You know what they say about lies and damned lies, don’t you? :wink:

It’s not. But go play for yourself =D

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I scratch my head, specifically the most top-right corner of my scalp. Which is also the thing I do when I eat something super spicy and there’s no water around.

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Too much anime. It’s a common gesture for awkwardness in Japan, and I know I am guilty of having internalized it as well.

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I bite my nails and lips when nervous

See, THAT makes sense…thank you!