Average Age on OGS

It could also be a consequence of the older people using forums more than the younger. I’ve seen a lot of young people chatting INT he English channel, so it just makes me wonder, ya know?

6 Likes

20-30 is younger, at least from my perspective :smiley:

8 Likes

That is actually a very good point to be honest. I dont know why i didn’t think of that myself.

While the use of the forums seems to be more attractive to older people than teenagers, I dont think its that much of a discprepency though right? Many older people dont know how to use computers all that well, especially with typing… (Im speaking of my father personally. He is a technophobe.) And by older people i mean anyone over fifty.

But perhaps it may well be enough of a discrepency to warrent some real consideration… especially if its a matter of trying to get a younger audience to play Go and become more involved with the community, even if it is in forums.

@Eugene Appologies from us young people then XD.

1 Like

I started playing when I was 18 years old in 1988. I fell in love when I saw a photograph of a go board with a game in progress. So when I spotted an advertisement for a beginners course in my home town I registered and I became a go player. I was totally hooked and I progressed quickly in the beginning, playing and studying day and night. After about 6 months I was about 6k and after about 1 year I was 2k. After 4 years (1992) I was 3d.

But then my life changed a lot, I got into a serious relationship (which is still going on today), I had to finish my education, get a job, raise a family etc. So I spent less time on go and my level plateau-ed. Still I peaked at 4d after playing for 17 years (2005). But I had to go down again a few years later, so now I’m back to 3d.

Nowadays I’m more involved in go education, running a kids club in my village since 2012 and as a board member of the Dutch go association since 2018.

12 Likes

The tails appear to be on opposite sides in the two data sets if I’m looking at them correctly. Maybe it’s not significant, though?

1 Like

Apparently I didn’t have the option to collect that data enabled on GA for the forums site, now it is so I’ll report back in a couple of days :slight_smile:

7 Likes

I’m 62, first encountered Go with my parents when I was ~7, but sadly they didn’t really understand the game, and so the game was soon forgotten in our family. Later I made several attempts to get into it by trying to convince friends to try it with me … always interrupted by decade-long pauses, in my 30s I played regularly for ~2 years with a friend but we still didn’t really understand the game (e.g. we multiplied Komi with the number of HC stones :joy:) … then again a long pause … then first attempt at Internet Go but was blown away and thus demoralized, now constantly playing since about 2001 or 2002, I think.

Still don’t understand the game :wink:

16 Likes

I got a game as a gift when I was at school and tried to play with a friend.
A bit later I was at a university and found a group there with players.
Since then I never stopped playing. That was in 1983.

5 Likes

Updated stats for the forums site specifically

18-24: 23.5%
25-34: 46.6%
35-44: 10.1%
45-54: 12.5%
55-64: 6.3%

Not nearly as many unique users to go off of, so there’s going to be a bit more variation there, but it does seem to be that the numbers line up fairly well with the main site

9 Likes

Hey, I’m 65. How did I get left off the list? :grinning:

11 Likes

blame google :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like

I guess Google thinks you’re younger than that :slight_smile:

4 Likes

Didn’t we all?

I’m surprised, I expected our population to be a lot older. I’m probably biased by our RL go group where 50% of us are beyond 50.

3 Likes

I didn’t know you could connect stone tablets to the internet :wink: :laughing:

8 Likes

Careful, lad, careful! It was our generation that BUILT this internet that you kids just take for granted. :stuck_out_tongue:

11 Likes

That may be true, but you’re also the ones destroying it… so I think that makes us even :wink:

4 Likes

Mathematically speaking, you’re only in one bucket though, since your age is not really an integer.

3 Likes

Or, there are an equivalent number of buckets to the number of open intervals you could place in [0, m] where m is the maximum age a human can live for. So infinite.

2 Likes

I received a go board as a present when I was younger (don’t remember how old). Only had my brother to play with and didn’t really understand the rules too much. Turned out with very little direction we essentially played the game as intended which is one reason I love this game.

Lost a bunch of the stones and general interest as I got older and rediscovered the game through a phone app in college. Played a lot of 9x9 vs the AI. Discovered OGS, started off playing against the AI because I was intimidated by other people as well as the larger board. 9x9 and even 13x13 feels so small and cramped now.

8 Likes

Oh oh, it found you (and 13 others)

18-24: 24.5%
25-34: 43.8%
35-44: 12.0%
45-54: 10.0%
55-64: 5.3%
65+: 4.2%

13 Likes