Where are fighters at, age-wise?

[Saitsuofleaves]

I had it for the Dreamcast but it was my brother's DC and he traded it in, hence my quest.

Ah, I remember the days, played Arcade mode to death just to see and unlock all those characters.

[marchefelix]

Never did post my age:

21. I believe I started at 9 with pressing random buttons. Luckily for me, I had picked Chang and he had an attack that did something when I repeatedly pressed the punch buttons, so I thought I was good because I OCV'd teams in Arcade Mode =P

[Aenthin]

23 here. I started playing fighting games when I was like...what. 7? Though my first fighting game was more of a hacked emulation of Street Fighter II where Vega(Claws) was replaced by Andy Bogard (and renamed "Terry"). Whenever I think about it, the more it made me laugh. Didn't help the fact that I loved the Fatal Fury anime back then. In fact, it was Fatal Fury that pulled me into the KoF scene in 2001. Before I officially entered the KoF scene though, I was a big fan of X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel vs. Street Fighter, both of which I played after school, whenever mom had to do groceries. I also played Mortal Kombat Trilogy at my friend's house whenever possible.

Most fighting gamers I know are at their early-mid 20's now. There are some younger players who pick fighting games every now and then but I guess mid-20's are where most fighters at.

[Snakz92]

Im 19 and i started playing fighting games when i was 10. i didnt get into following who's who in the FGC until last year. i wanted to know who's the best at and how they became so good at it. 

[cactusmomma]

28 here.. first fighting game was Street Fighter II, at the ripe young age of 9... first started with Duck Hunt at age 4..

Most of the competitive gamers in my area are in their mid to late 20's/early 30's, so it isn't too bad.

[m1x4h]

I'm 26, 27 in 4 weeks. Been playing fighters since Art of Fighting and World Heroes... Thought Street Fighter 2 was boring and slow... PFFT, was I dumb.

I have about 18 years of fighting games under my belt.

[BZ Choy]

21 years old here. First started playing fighting games with Killer Instinct on the SNES at the age of 6 I think. I was almost always grinding training mode in that game though I was never good at it.

[darkTown2]

i'm 21

my first game was street fighter 2 world warrior that i used to play at a gas station. It was the only cabinet they ever had and never got any of the newer versions. i was introduced to Kof a few years later.

[robisntdrunk]

I turned 17 about a week ago, been playing fighting games since i was 6 starting with Tekken Tag, VF, and Bloody Roar (still wondering wheres that ps3 remake they need at. ) I somehow got into 2D fighters like last year ish (MvC2)

So far i only converted 1 person over to the magic addiction of fighting games around my age

[solidshark]

I turned 17 about a week ago, been playing fighting games since i was 6 starting with Tekken Tag, VF, and Bloody Roar (still wondering wheres that ps3 remake they need at. ) I somehow got into 2D fighters like last year ish (MvC2)

So far i only converted 1 person over to the magic addiction of fighting games around my age

Happy belated birthday, and keep up the recruiting; tis important to the community that the young and old play, not just those in the middle. And if you can, let them sample both 2D and 3D.

[robisntdrunk]

I turned 17 about a week ago, been playing fighting games since i was 6 starting with Tekken Tag, VF, and Bloody Roar (still wondering wheres that ps3 remake they need at. ) I somehow got into 2D fighters like last year ish (MvC2)

So far i only converted 1 person over to the magic addiction of fighting games around my age

Happy belated birthday, and keep up the recruiting; tis important to the community that the young and old play, not just those in the middle. And if you can, let them sample both 2D and 3D.

Thanks, and it'd be easy to recruit people if they weren't so afraid of spam...or at least were until they played me.

[Poko4Sho]

21 here.  Super Street Fighter 2 TNC for SNES was my jam.  Pick Ryu, spam Hadoken, make cousin throw controller.  I was 5 then and really had no clue what do besides the obvious kick punch and a hadoken, since then I've been here and there with fighters until about a year ago.  It's a pleasure to see the genre making such a tremendous comeback.

[venusandeve]

28. Played a whole lot of fighters, mostly roms back then. Can't be bothered to go beyond button mashing for any gamer other than KoF/Garou though. (well, except tekken, which is slow as sjit.)

[Stone Drum]

I definitely think that true fighting game "community" (rather than just bandwagon fighters) are 20+ age wise.  This is because most gamers 12-late teens are more concerned with bandwagoning and might not even have conceptualized that fighting games ARE a discipline and that there exists a community that is even necessary given the nature of these games.  And if they do have a proper conception of these games, most just don't have the patience, time, confidence, or even the muscle control to discipline themselves over a fighting game.  I recently begged my little brothers to let me try to teach them kof13.  I succeeded in getting them to understand all of the mechanics, but then it came to execution.  They both tried dozens of times to simply do 1 dragon punch or fireball and simply just couldn't do it.  You could understand how impossible it would be for them ever to get into fighting games now that they have already written off the franchise from that one experience alone.  They are 10 and 12.  But yet, one gleaming game breaks that mold and both of them are even solid at a little game called Super Smash Bros Brawl.  Plus Brawl is a game that gets the whole playing crowd into a laughing screaming riot.  I guess fighting games today are more for passionate and brain centric gamers instead of people who game to socialize and collaborate online and turn their thinking minds off.  Plus given the chronology of the fighting genre, it just makes sense that most fighting fans were there from the beginning, and already possess an innate grasp of everything about fighting games, including but not limited to tried and tested game mechanics that have carried over for decades.  Today, Super Smash is basically the only game bridging the gap between young and erudite fighters.  But there is no stepping stone to land on for the young players to cross the bridge on to more serious fighters.  Only time will tell if that game will come, but as for now, fighters are typically adults.

[Maker]

Im 29 and was a regular arcade rat as a child and young adult. Lots of Soul Calibur back in the day... But as my arcade scene died and lack of a good paying job more or less forced me to stop going. Like the rest i tried online. Again in my area my online connection isn't good and there isn't anything i can do for it. I'll travel as much as i can for my hobby though.

I certainly feel like the last of a kind because all my younger friends look at what i do in KoF (which isn't even impressive) and then think "WTF how do you even manage that?" I also played a decent amount of Blazblue etc recently.