I think its no surprise that SWG appeal to the older players than the other two. Younger players weren't around for the initial star wars hype of the late 70's early 80's and don't realize just how amazing star wars was for its time and therefore contribute less to the fan base.

I am however surprised that SB's age is so low. I would have expected its heavy Tolkien influence to attract more older gamers. My theory is that older gamers are perhaps more conservative and purist towards Tolkien fantasy than younger players.

When I read the first chart ("Will you switch to a new game" grouped by what game was played) I was not surprised to see that the highest percentage was for AC because most (many anyway) of the AC players were anxiously anticipating AC2 and were expecting to switch. What I don't understand is why that fact doesn't show up in the "what game are you looking forward to switching to" chart. Did that information somehow get lost because of the way the questions were worded? AC2 is not an add-on but is different game, and a new generation game. Maybe people said they were looking forward to it, but then didn't considered it different when asked what they would switch to.

I came to this graph after having visited the age/gender distribution graph. As there seems to be such a heavy discrepancy between the average age of the male respondents versus the female respondents, I think I'd be quite interested to see the above data along an age distribution, rather than gender. It strikes me as possible that younger gamers simply have the extra time/money/"need for something new" required to switch to new games, and the majority of male respondents have been young.

Shadowbane rates higher for younger players because its all about violence against other players. As a Darktide Asheron's Call veteran, I can attest that the "Care Bear" Worlds sure had a lot lower level of "teen angst". That's not every younger player, but no one is telling 70 year olds in RL to: "get off my lawn you punks".

Most players from AC are not looking to switch to AC2. I know I wasn't. AC2 has the same races as AC1 and I've already had all the Tumerok, Lugian, and Humans that i can stand. Im awaiting ShadowBane

Since males are averaging lower ages, perhaps the willingness to change to a new game is influenced by having less responsibility than an older player, and thus more time to play.

I am not surprised to why SWG came in first but i do not agree with teucer. While being an Everquest player i have no intention in to trying EQ2. It's pure crap. Its the same as EQ1 but with all these nice graphics. In my opinion, all these sequels of MMORPG games are to lure people in to trying it. It's all about the money. If i have the chance, i would personally try AC2. This is why i came up that theory. When you play an MMORPG, you would stick to it for quite some time, and wouldn't move to another game. After you had time to understand the game, how it works and all, it doens't seem as appealing to you as when you first played it. It is our human nature to like to try new things. You wouldn't really move on to a game that is as old as the one you are playing. After a game has been released some time it would surely have a sequel to it(or expansion). That is when your mind kicks it, should i stay or switch? The sequel/expansion of the game seems appealing since it is new to you. Even if you don't move at first, you would finally move on when you see your friends in the game leaving.
About the SWG MMORPG, it's no surprise. People in here must be MMORPG players, or they would be a dumbass to talk about something they haven't tried or experienced. Star Wars itself takes place in the future, and the only other game i know that takes place in future is anarchy online, which i think it's crap. All these other games(SB, EQ, AC) all take place in the medieval times, where it is similar to tolkien's novels. I find that teenagers like swords and shields and magic a lot. It is not something you can experienced in life. But when that theme get's over-used, it doesn't seem as appealing to old OR new players. It's all about the money for the company while it's for appealingness for the player.

I have been playing daoc for a good while now, I have achieved basically all that is achieveable in the game except for beating the hardcore addicts that play 24/7 to get the "highest score". What I don't understand is how people could play with there being so much repitition, for example once you hit 50 the only thing to do really is go out into a land called emain and wander around killing other rl players. There is just too much repitition in my opinion and am searching for another game at the moment. I used to play EQ and I think I may transfer back over to that after my time expires on Daoc.

I'm surprised that it took you so long to see the repetition. I built 3 characters to 10+ and quit from repetition induced boredom.

Bob J.

It's interesting to see how willing to try other games DAoC players are. I think this tallies extremely well with the larger percentage of young males playing than other MMORPGs, for the suggested reasons that younger males are more likely to have the time to start afresh, and the willingness to dump their current online "social circle". Even though the disparity between people who want to stay and those who want to go in AC is greater, the DAoC players still have a higher precentage wanting to try new games.

It's interesting to see these comments on repetition, and as someone who has played EQ, DAoC, E&B, and AC2, amongst others, I have to say, I have yet to find a single MMORPG which is not, to a large degree, repetative. EQ in particular seemed repetative, but this is probably at least partially because the rewards for repetition are lower than other games (due to the slower levelling). AC2 managed to seem even more repetative, however, thanks to the limited way one could interact with the world, despite offering the greatest short-term rewards for repetition.

Don't waste your time on AC2, I have been playing since beta and the past 3 months. Server issues have not been addressed even last night they restarted the servers so everything was offline for over 30 minutes. Chat servers daily fail miserably so the only people you can talk to are in the immediate vicinity. I had such high hopes for AC2 but I will be cancelling my account. It seems that they are more concerned with rolling out new content and dungeons than they are in fixing existing problems.

Planetside is a game that i had high hopes for...but after playing the game for a month i reached level 20 and was maxed out on gaining new skills...what are u spose to do after u reach the peek?? i cancled my account because there is nothing new, even the new Core Combat expansion doesnt expand past level 20.

I am currently playing EQ have been for 5 years over the years I have seen so much more cotent come into this I think its the oldest besides UO that still holds its own. But I am guilty of tyring new MMoRPG I am a teenager and as you said we like to try new things but when I do try I get to the top and let it get boring I give each of them a real shot my favorite I'd have to say is DAoC I think they really had something go there for awhile but I think that it was cut short by the developers so I got at least 2 chars lvl50 on all 3 Realms and thought it was enjoyable. I also have played UO for a short while didnt give it enough of a chance I thought the lack of graphics and point made it pretty terrible but again I didnt really give it a chance. I did play SWG for a long while finally became a Jedi and found that the game got really boring I dont like the skill tree system I think it lacks difficulty but SWG had a big up because of .... well its Star Wars and presented itself well I just didnt feel like playing it anymore but am thinking of going back looking at the website with all the news things . Which sucks because EQ2 is based on that. But hey it might be alright. I played Planetside and it was fun for the first few weeks if you get the lucky chance of getting in a good platoon it is really fun to try new things but got boring. If anyone has heard of Mythica I'm very upset that it was cancelled I for one thought it looked very stunning and was looking forward to it. Like I said I'm an EQ player and I mean look at it's so old and I think with the new engine coming out it wont be stopped.

I find that most people who are talking about switching games aren't always talking about quitting their current one. Generally, they are reading the hype and the write ups on new games and are curious to see what improvements/twists are being added to the new MMORPGs.

I know that many of my AO friends ran out to try SWG but hated it, went to CoH and found it a grind, then tried WoW. Each time, some will stick with the new game, cross over and play both games or just come back and tell us the new game was awful.

What I am trying to say is that wanting to try a new game does not equal not liking the current game, it just means that we are curious and we are novelty seekers.

Are you people addicted to Abbreviations? What are AO,UO, and SWG. can someone write a legend for abbreviations? After all if your writing a intelegent item assuming readers know what your talking about is silly why not assume they know already so why write at all, do it right not half way.

Alan - You're absolutely right. And that's exactly why there is an extensive lexicon on this site. The lexicon is linked twice on every page - on the top nav bar and on the side nav bar.

In the future, please try to less accusatory when making suggestions that have already been implemented.

Being one who played DAoC regularly for three years, I can say that no other game produced the kind of hatred between players that this game did through PvP game mechanics and over/under population. It was a percieved lack of "balance" between realms that really put a lot of players off - and also kept a few playing, due to seemingly insurmountable odds.