The same pattern is also true for desire for high status within the game. As we've seen elsewhere, younger players are likely to be achievement-oriented. In a recent survey, I focused on issues related to the "hard-core player" mindset. For example, these included questions like:

• How important is it for you to belong to a top-tier guild?
• How important is it for you be the first character (or guild) to access a high-end instance, defeat a boss, get an epic mount, or achieve other similar goals in the game?
• How often do you try to become one of the most powerful players in your class / profession?
• How important is it for you to have a high rank (PvP or other rankings)?
• Would you describe your game-play as serious or casual?

Across all these questions, younger players were more likely to desire high status. For example, with the questions related to being a powerful player in a class or early access to high-end content, the following graphs show the percentage of players by age group for whom these goals were very important.

By aggregating the questions to create a composite score, the following graph shows the striking age difference in desire to be a hard-core player for both male and female players. The graph also shows that gender differences diminish with age.