LULZ

theris is no age, its a state of mind, you can be 5 or 95 it dosent matter.

it could also have to do with the same generation seeing marriages disintegrate left and right, and seeing the aftermath.

at this point in time, from what i have seen it is more likely that i will commit suicide then entering into a marriage that lasts... thats pretty fucked up. or to list other things, robbed at gun point, get a phd, own a two story house... these are all things that are more likely to happen then a marriage working. though this is just anecdotal 

This

Getting a php and owning a two story house aren't that impossible... You make it sound like an anomaly. However, I otherwise agree with you. Marriage has become culturally worthless/disposable and it is not related to hardcore gamers...obviously.

Sounds about right, seems like the older gamers care less and less about TEH FACE MELTING GFX!!!!111ONE than the newer people. Give me a game I can't give a shit about how it looks.

There comes a point where you're spending time with friends, maintaining relations with family, keeping up a home, dating a serious s.o., and taking your job seriously enough to go to bed at a reasonable hour.

This does not take into account trying to eat right (breakfast, home meals not takeout, etc.), exercise, other hobbies or special events.

At this point, there's just not a whole lot of time left for gaming, sadly. I've seen it happen to all of my friends -- we have a "backlog" now of games we own and would still like to get to, but it's usually only the truly great ones that are good enough to get real attention.

At 15, 16, I looked forward to being free of school & parents, and being able to set my own priorities -- like gaming as much as I want to. Turns out, as you age some of your priorities change, and I gamed much more then than I do now!

See, this is why the definition of hardcore gamer has been skewed more than shrimp.

First, hardcore gamer meant someone who could master any game, discover its secrets and become a legend doing it. For example, the guys from the movie "The King of Kong" are hardcore gamers because they spent time AND MONEY trying to master various arcade games, developing strategies and trying to become legends doing it.

Second, hardcore gamer meant someone who loved gaming a lot. IE, bought all the consoles, bought more than 10 games for each console, dedicated his time and money to gaming and his main topic of discussion is gaming.

Now, a hardcore gamer means someone that plays a lot of mature titles, usually ones involving a lot of shooting and death, plays online heavily and thinks any other console is worthless unless it has "mature" titles.

So how can we determine the average age of the hardcore gamer when the very definition can't be applied as well as it should?

very good question... i always felt it was second one myself... 

On the upside, a casual gamer meant someone who enjoyed gaming but didn't dedicate his whole time around the hobby.

Now, casual gamer means soccer moms, families and old people playing games. A gamer can buy a 360 and play Halo or Gears of War and still be casual since the concept is that you enjoy them but don't play them all the time.