Average Age of DCS Players?

35 this year. First simflight was Playstation3 and ILS2 Sturmovik? Didn't like the old planes. Went over to X-Plane and learned 777 and F16.

For 3ish years I've played DCS and we are a few guys now playing several hours every week

Been recruiting people to DCS in the forum of my other hobby, flying Rcheli for 10 years maybe

Skickat från min SM-J730F via Tapatalk

I am 49.

I listed every entry from this post in a spreadsheet just to see what the unweighted average actually was:

41.03158

While that doesn't surprise me, the data points that got us there did. There was a significant number of younger pilots (19 people under 30 years old, youngest 12), but they were offset by a significant number of flight sim veterans (22 people over 50 years old, oldest 75).

Special mention for those who posted in this thread but didn't contribute an age data point: Blind, Flagrum, Guitrz, Ironhand, and PicksKing.

I enjoyed reading everyone's history. Several were similar to mine. I didn't have a ZX Spectrum. I started around 1983 with a TimexSinclair 1000 (ZX 81) with 16k RAM which had an extremely primitive black/white civil flight sim which basically drew a white sky with a black ground for the external view, but you could see a very primitive runway. My next PC was the TimexSinclair 2048 (ZX Spectrum), which had both Fighter Pilot (F-15 sim) and Tomahawk (AH-64 sim). It has been an amazing experience watching home computer flight sim technology essentially catch up to and perhaps even surpass professional flight sims in some regards. I went to a military sims convention a couple of years ago. Most of the products being demonstrated/sold were inferior to what we have at home. Most of the ones that weren't inferior ARE the ones we have at home in a slightly different package to support training needs: OFP/ArmA, Steel Beasts Pro, etc. Of course DCS World is one of those cross-over platforms with commercial and consumer packages.

Here is a chart with column 1 representing the number of people 10-19, column 2 is 20-29, etc.

Here is a chart with column 1 representing the number of people 10-19, column 2 is 20-29, etc.

Thanks, I was wondering what the breakdown was. So, was that 92 responses represented, with 51 of them 30 - 49?

Here are the numbers in tabular form:

Age Frequency

10-19 10

20-29 9

30-39 28

40-49 23

50-59 12

60-69 10

70-79 3

95 Total, 51 @ 30-49

If there wasn't a heavy weight at 65 and above, the average could have been a little lower.

Of the 10 people 60-69, 7 of them are 65+. So the 10 year wide columns hide some of the quirks in the data.

Here is a chart with 5 year intervals. It clearly shows a huge spike in 65-69 (not to ignore the one 75). Without the spike the average would have fallen near the middle of the 35-39 column. Of course there is a similar spike in the 15-19 column, but that kind of makes up for the low values in the 20-24 and 25-29.

I think I can explain the numbers a bit:

A young kid/teenager gets to use their dad's hardware/software, or their equipment is gifted to them.

20-29 you are either in school or starting a job and working your butt off to make money, you may also be getting married and having kids.

30+ you have the means to buy everything you need to fly and also have the time to play.

But as people get older, a combination of health, financial situation, or just a realization that there are better things to spend your life on than staring at a PC (like grand kids) reduces the number of people flying.

The peak in the center may also be related to the generation that grew up with the heyday of flight sims in the 1990s. Modern kids have more (and possibly better) options and people too old to have grown up with flight sims simply don't have the patience or interest to play flight sims (or any other computer games for that matter).

37. It all started with Chuck Yeagers air combat.:pilotfly:

27 here, started with MSFS 2004 was massively let down by FSX, discovered LOMAC, Black Shark came out soon after, never touched MSFS again

and I would like to increase the low values in the 25-30 range :smilewink:

EDIT: I just realized that I joined this forums 10 years ago at the age of 17, time flies...

Flightsimming since 1984 and combat flightsimming since 1988: enjoying most the F/A 18 interceptor and F16 combat pilot.

Feeling young but aging 72 now; however not at all a problem for combat flight simming :)

We, my neighbour and I, do multiplayer flights (now with the SU 25 / 33) and we esspecially like stategic AG flights, carrier flights, AAR flights etc.

Interesting for me is that my neighbour once was a F104 flyer (and even a testpilot for the F104) and it is always nice to listen to his stories of the past (once he nearly crashed and only recaptured his aircraft only a few metres above the ground!).

You can count my neighbour too with an age of 71 (he is not so much a "forum man", so probably, he won't mention it himself :)).

We, my neighbour and I, do multiplayer flights (now with the SU 25 / 33) and we esspecially like stategic AG flights, carrier flights, AAR flights etc.

Interesting for me is that my neighbour once was a F104 flyer (and even a testpilot for the F104) and it is always nice to listen to his stories of the past (once he nearly crashed and only recaptured his aircraft only a few metres above the ground!).

 

You can count my neighbour too with an age of 71 (he is not so much a "forum man", so probably, he won't mention it himself :)).

It must be nice to have a neighbor that flies DCS, having been a real F-104 pilot is a huge bonus. I have a neighbor that flies FSX, he has no interest in combat sims. I don't know anyone else face-to-face that flies any type of flight sims at all, much less DCS.

Old guy

I'm 66 +, I am old and can't remember but my first PC was around 1990. I flew MSFS for about ten minutes, got bored and then I picked up Falcon and loved blowing things up. I flew Tomcats, and Eurofighters before they were actually built and several others, but Falcon 4 was my favorite. Then life got in the way and I dropped off for a while, I picked up DCS a few years ago and made a comeback but stopped again for a while and now I'm back enjoying something I really like.

I had a friend I called "Combat Clardy" ( his name was Bill Clardy) He was a P-51 pilot in WW2 and he would tell me stories about his exploits till he was shot down in france and spent the rest of the war working with the French resistance and calling as Forward Air controller.

I’m 45 years young.

Been simming since the 80s - sublogic “Jet” on an IBM XT. from there it was Falcon (1st LAN in 1988 over serial cable connection) through Falcon AT, 3.0 and Falcon 4.0

I’ve tried all the combat sims through the ages, every Janes’, SSI Flanker through LOMAC to DCS.

“Interceptor” for Amiga blew my mind when I saw the demo at a local department store - Glowing Amraam’s teaser made me feel the same way.

Day job is flying heavy metal for airlines - so I avoid civilian fixed wing sims.

I’m a big helicopter fan though. LOVE helo sims (and RL helo flying)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'll be 58 by the time DCS 2.5 has been out a week or so, gods be willing.

I started with Micro-Prose's Gunship 2000 back in the early '90's but couldn't keep up with simming really; life etc.

A few years ago I started a search for what ever happened to GS-2000's successor, Jane's AH-64 Longbow and discovered that serious helicopter sim's has more or less died after that. I then read in several simming forums that the best helicopter sim out there was DCS KA-50 Blackshark. So I looked into that and DCS in general and came across the TF-51D. The Mustang was one of the iconic WWII airplanes of my youth and here I had the opportunity to fly one for free!! :clap_2: Not long after that I was the proud owner of the DCS P-51D and haven't looked back since.

It must be nice to have a neighbor that flies DCS, having been a real F-104 pilot is a huge bonus. I have a neighbor that flies FSX, he has no interest in combat sims. I don't know anyone else face-to-face that flies any type of flight sims at all, much less DCS.

Yes, how could that be possible: when I was about 15 years old there were these advertisements in the papers about becoming an F104 pilot (pretty dangerous in that time!!) and I thought, that should be great: but not everyone is accepted :)

Now I fly online with one of them and he even is my neighbour :)

He is the type who wants to learn all the specifications of the aircraft and I'am able to be a bit lazy about that because I can simply ask about "which button does that" :smartass:

He also makes the missions so that there I also can sit back and wait.

Well, we are about the oldest on this forum, I think, but still enjoying DCS a lot :)

I am turning 11 in 2 days but I dont think that is the majority of players.

6 hours ago, MonkeyPrefires said:

I am turning 11 in 2 days but I dont think that is the majority of players.

DCS is the game I wished for as an 11 year old! I have a 9 and 7 year old.  The 9yo likes to fly aeros in the Yak, and the 7yo just likes crashing from what I can tell.  For all it's complexities, it is still possible to to just enjoy flying around without having to spend hundreds of hours in the books. 

This was what 11 year old me was playing:

On a serial link between two PCs in my parents attics, AirQuake before there was even regular Quake!

Edit - I'm 42 to answer the OP.

69

Started with Fighters Anthology

met some  pilots online there during the dial-up days. 

we formed the Shadow Demons Squad  and had 10 members from around the world. 
 

4 of us still fly today after meeting in the FA Lobby 24 years ago. 

4.0 version as of just today.

I believe I started with ATAC loooong time ago, in what seems a galaxy far, far away...

I'm pushing 58 and I fly with guys from 17 to 74.