Do you get irritated when kids and teenagers appear in your online games? Apparently, a load of older gamers feel the same way, and have started forming their own groups and safe havens to get away from these kids who – according to the Wall Street Journal's report – “spout mom jokes and infantile nonsense”.
Thomas Abel, a 43-year-old airplane mechanic who helped found a website called Geezergamers.com, says:
“You get these 12-year-old kids swearing and being obnoxious online. You wonder where their parents are.”
The GeezerGamers FAQ states that the site, which began in 2003, is for “crusty folks who play games between diaper changes”, those “in their thirties and above that don’t take themselves too seriously”. It's not a clan, because they're “too disorganized for that”, but some members of the site do inevitably form groups to play online. Overall, it's a community for adults who want to support each other away from trolls.
Then there's 2old2play.com, a site with a name that clearly plays on the view certain members of society seem to have about the value of playing video games. This site is strictly for those who are 25 or older, and those who join the site and are found to be younger than that will be “removed and IP banned”. Looks like I'd better not try anything, though I feel like an old-aged pensioner when it comes to games sometimes.
Strict laws aside, these kinds of website actually seem like quite a good idea. A lot of people seem to think that games are only played by young people, young men in particular, and that's just not true. We should be doing our best to make sure marginalised groups have a way to feel like they have a place in the gaming community.
