aging gamers tend to gravitate toward more casual and less competitive games. “Picking up a competitive shooter takes time to practice and a strong desire to compete, both of which older gamers have less of,” Yee says. Of the 12 motivations in Quantic Foundry’s model used to identify a gamer’s preferences throughout the years,
the appeal of competition declines the most with age. It dips faster even than the desire for destruction, excitement, and challenge, characteristics which are usually seen as a young gamer’s motivation.
“The most dramatic shift in gaming motivations (for both men and women) is in competition—the appeal of duels, matches, and leaderboard rankings,” Yee tells Ars. “Gamers are much less driven by competition as they get older, and this motivation drops the most between ages 15 and 25 and levels off around age 32-plus.”