Opinion Why is everyone so young?

[Little Lozy]

Excuse me if you might be a you g person and if this offends you, its not intended to.

Here's how it goes though. I need like a mental break from life and like maybe a creative kick drive. I hop on RPNation and scroll through these interest checks. Now, the ages of some of these people might not actually be young, but they only have interest in play young characters. The oldest most of the character limits get is maybe MAYBE 25. I'd just liked to play a gal in her late 20s trying to get by with other people that would understand the cynical sarcastic humor I'm putting down because they too are over adulting in their for real adult life.

Thank you. Good night.

 

[kevintheradioguy]

No one really plays anyone in their 30s for some reason, while I think my favourite age to play would be 40ish, as it looks just about eight to let anything into your life. You're calm a d balanced, know things about life, experienced yet adventurous, full of energy but wise enough not to do the stupid.

For some, I guess, it's a sort of sex appeal. They want to be young and pretty (which is odd to me, as young people are not pretty at all). For others it gas to do with their real age, the feeling of 30s being old prevailing. That being said, it saddens me somewhat. I am uncomfortable seeing a kid character as my partner.

 

[Idea]

I'll be taking into assumption, as it wasn't 100% clear to me whether you were complaining about the user age or the character age, that you mean the character age.

To answer the literal question, the reason why is mostly due to a combination of media, matching ages and fantasy. Media is often centered around characters who are relatively young, most mediums tending to have a heavy focus towards young adults and teenagers in their demographic, as younger children look up to that age, those in that age are experiencing it, and adults tend to be able to relate to some degree to the time they experienced that. Because roleplays are often inspired by or even immitating media people consume to some extent, this leads to a lot of people just take that as a the default. Then there are the ages matching, the fact that a lot of RPN is actually considerably young and save for a few exceptions such as myself who tend to play characters completely out of their demographic, most feel more comfortable playing characters "closer to home" so to speak. Lastly, there is the fantasy aspect where for the reasons I don't even have a good speculation about, there is a general tendency to just be drawned there for a lot of people when imagining some ideal fantasy.

There are alternative reasons of course, more purposeful ones, but those would be the exception not the rule (exceptions like of course a school roleplay is going to feature younger characters, or a player just genuinely enjoying playing characters in a given age group due to traits of that age group irrespective to their own personal experience). However, I would call this good news. The reality is that roleplayers are a lot more mature than I think you are giving them credit for Little Lozy and it probably wouldn't take much to get not only characters in the age group you want (though you will probably have to take the innitative on that by making that roleplay yourself) but especially in adressing the themes and ideas you want, as even a player playing a younger character might be able to understand those feelings and explore them with you.

 

[Darkmaster006]

Mmm I'd say it's because most of the people here are young. I'm around 20 so I play characters that are around that age, I guess? But it's something that's so intrinsic that I actually took it as default without giving it an afterthought.

 

[Jannah]

I play characters of any age. Whatever is needed for the RP really. That being said my real age is late 20's(I'm 28 in a few days) so will naturally have a preference for characters in my own age group or occasionally younger simply because I have personal experience with it. It's easiest for most people to write what they know and are familiar with.

 

[Jannah]

I gotta say if this is your issue then you are on the wrong RP community. RPN is a baby site, it's a teenagers hangout and that is fine. If you want to RP with older users and play older characters go to an older RP forum . . . 100% promise you'll find exactly what you're looking for on my old stomping ground and it's still a very active site.

But that said, hi I play characters generally in their 30s to their 50s and I RP!

Which site is that? I'm actually curious now.

 

[Darkmaster006]

I gotta say if this is your issue then you are on the wrong RP community. RPN is a baby site, it's a teenagers hangout and that is fine. If you want to RP with older users and play older characters go to an older RP forum . . . 100% promise you'll find exactly what you're looking for on my old stomping ground and it's still a very active site.

But that said, hi I play characters generally in their 30s to their 50s and I RP!

Mmm I have seen many old roleplayers here, though. Guess it's just a matter of looking and specifying it on the title so that it attracts those you want, as always.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Oh me too, but the majority of users are teenagers and early 20s. You don't have a large 30s+ user base like some older sites where their teenage user base grew up with the site and stayed with it.

See I've actually mostly seen like 18 - 25 in 1x1 searches, is it younger in the group section then? That would actually be an interesting experiment to see how age relates to types of roleplays people do.

 

[Onmyoji]

See I've actually mostly seen like 18 - 25 in 1x1 searches, is it younger in the group section then? That would actually be an interesting experiment to see how age relates to types of roleplays people do.

that actually interesting. I was always under the impression that group rps have generally slightly younger players than 1x1. Group rps require more time commitment and only younger people have this much free time on their hands.
Then again, in group rps age requirement is rarely stated explicitly, unlike 1x1s because it's more important to feel comfortable talking to one partner and age is a factor even for OOC, since it's hard to communicate when you have zero interests in common or completely opposite schedules due to age difference.


Also, I think that 18-25 is majority for most rp sites currently, except maybe ones specifically dedicated to younger/older audience (like some fandoms for example that target certain age group so rp communities of that age group grow in them). Even on those sites that exist for a long time many older roleplayers move on and leave and are replaced by younger ones. So I'm not sure the 'age' of the roleplaying site matters at all.

 

[rae2nerdy]

that actually interesting. I was always under the impression that group rps have generally slightly younger players than 1x1. Group rps require more time commitment and only younger people have this much free time on their hands.
Then again, in group rps age requirement is rarely stated explicitly, unlike 1x1s because it's more important to feel comfortable talking to one partner and age is a factor even for OOC, since it's hard to communicate when you have zero interests in common or completely opposite schedules due to age difference.


Also, I think that 18-25 is majority for most rp sites currently, except maybe ones specifically dedicated to younger/older audience (like some fandoms for example that target certain age group so rp communities of that age group grow in them). Even on those sites that exist for a long time many older roleplayers move on and leave and are replaced by younger ones. So I'm not sure the 'age' of the roleplaying site matters at all.

Oh certainly I don't think it matters much in the long run but as yanastyboi was stating that they thought the site was more teenagers and early twenties I was just curious if that was because they were frequenting the group section versus the 1x1 section. Incidentally I think you might be on to something with youngsters having more time for groups and 1x1s more clearly stating ages to help folks get within a specific age range.

 

[Idea]

I was just curious if that was because they were frequenting the group section versus the 1x1 section

While you may not be wrong, I generally find that when people complain about age they are exclusively talking about the 1x1 area, as age isn't really brought up in group roleplays.

 

[rae2nerdy]

While you may not be wrong, I generally find that when people complain about age they are exclusively talking about the 1x1 area, as age isn't really brought up in group roleplays.

But as I mentioned most of the searches I've seen average out with players being 18 - 25 with a few outliers in either direction. I wouldn't consider that necessarily all that young. Nor again do I much care one way or another I'm just curious on where people are getting the idea that there all these young teens on the site.

 

[Idea]

But as I mentioned most of the searches I've seen average out with players being 18 - 25 with a few outliers in either direction. I wouldn't consider that necessarily all that young. Nor again do I much care one way or another I'm just curious on where people are getting the idea that there all these young teens on the site.

True you did say that. Though the original poster seems to still consider 25 to be pretty young and is complaining about the age not being more towards the late 20s (oversimplifying of course, but you get where I'm going), which is the typical pattern with such complaints which often are about a lack of "representation" for lack of a better word of age groups in their 30s-40s.

Besides if I may speculate a little, what it seems to be is that as people advance in age so does the age group they have an issue with. If you're 16-18 you'll be complaining about all the 13 year olds, if you're like 20 it's 16 or 17, early 20s the issue is with people under 20, late 20s and suddenly early twenties is too young.... Without discussing legitimacy or lack thereof of these beliefs, it does seem to be the pattern, by my experience at least, and though I may be wrong (and this certainly isn't universally true) the original poster does seem to have the sentiment that early twenties to 25 is too young for their tastes.

 

[Onmyoji]

well the original question was about lack of representation of the older characters, but I strongly believe this is tied with the age of players because many people just find it more comfortable playing characters close to their own age or younger, because they have experienced that age. And not many want to venture into the unknown and rp an older character when they never lived through that stage (centuries-old characters that behave like teenagers don't count).

Besides if I may speculate a little, what it seems to be is that as people advance in age so does the age group they have an issue with. If you're 16-18 you'll be complaining about all the 13 year olds, if you're like 20 it's 16 or 17, early 20s the issue is with people under 20, late 20s and suddenly early twenties is too young....

I also believe it is the case. Not for everyone, sure, but I also see this pattern. I can even say for myself that the older I get, the harder I find it to rp with people with a certain age gap. Mostly due to the incompatible schedules and having little common interests.

 

[rae2nerdy]

well the original question was about lack of representation of the older characters, but I strongly believe this is tied with the age of players because many people just find it more comfortable playing characters close to their own age or younger, because they have experienced that age. And not many want to venture into the unknown and rp an older character when they never lived through that stage (centuries-old characters that behave like teenagers don't count)..

I think that is something that comes up once you hit a certain milestone IRL. A lot of younger teens tend to play characters a little older because you get that sense that being older means you're more exciting. Once you hit about 18+ than you start narrowing your ages to being within a handful of years of your actual age (with exceptions based on the plot obviously).

Idea I think your point also ties into the idea of escapism as well. When your very young you always imagine those older than you are more interesting and their stories must be more exciting. Once you hit around your mid twenties you have a little more realistic idea of what people older than you actually are like and it tends to be less fun to imagine. So you start roleplaying about people in your own age bracket because that's sort of what you know and are interested in.

Obviously there are exceptions to every rule but I think that's sort of the case. God knows I wouldn't have a great deal of interest in writing 40 year old characters. At this point they wouldn't be that much different than my 30 year old character so there wouldn't really be a point unless the plot required it.

(to be clear using the general you not you specifically)

 

[Onmyoji]

I think that is something that comes up once you hit a certain milestone IRL. A lot of younger teens tend to play characters a little older because you get that sense that being older means you're more exciting. Once you hit about 18+ than you start narrowing your ages to being within a handful of years of your actual age (with exceptions based on the plot obviously).

hmm I agree on this one. Milestones is a good way to put it.

God knows I wouldn't have a great deal of interest in writing 40 year old characters. At this point they wouldn't be that much different than my 30 year old character so there wouldn't really be a point unless the plot required it.

and I also agree on that. Characters of 30 and 40 would belong more or less to the same 'milestone', if we keep using that term.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Also something I just thought of that might explain character ages that are in the 16 - 25 range (especially in 1x1s) is what I call the "Romantic Milestone".

That seems to be the age range where fictional characters are falling in love. Much younger than that and it gets a little awkward unless you are younger IRL (so like two twenty year olds aren't going to write about two fourteen year olds falling in love).

Much older and the societal assumption is that you have moved onto the next milestone. Usually the characters will be assumed to either be in established relationships (married/divorced/etc.) OR they're written without romance being their main objective.

So for a lot of 1x1 roleplayers they like characters to fall in love at some point in the roleplay and so will probably keep their characters within that Romantic Milestone age range.


This is like totally my own theory and is not in any way meant to be like gospel for why characters in romantic roleplays are specific ages.

 

[WildHairedOne]

I tend to see that too. I like starting my main characters at 24. For a rp I'm thinking of I'm going to start my main at 27. I'm 25 so I don't really like doing younger characters unless they're side characters most of the time.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I tend to see that too. I like starting my main characters at 24. For a rp Ixm thinking of Ixm going to start my main at 27. I'm 25 so I don't really like doing younger characters unless they're side characters most of the time.

What does lxm stand for? (never seen it before and can't work it out through context)

 

[WildHairedOne]

Oh I just had a misspelling. I'm. Sorry lol! Have to be on my phone because my computer died basically a I have to save up and get a new one!

What does lxm stand for? (never seen it before and can't work it out through context)

 

[rae2nerdy]

Oh I just had a misspelling. I'm. Sorry lol! Have to be on my phone because my computer died basically a I have to save up and get a new one!

Ah I see it now lol. I was sitting there like, is it supposed to be lame? That doesn't even make sense.

 

[WildHairedOne]

Yea being on mobile isn't too bad though. I just have to be careful and double check everything!

Ah I see it now lol. I was sitting there like, is it supposed to be lame? That doesn't even make sense.

 

[Randomfella]

The younger they are the less experienced they are, and thus, the more they can learn and grow. This isn't always the case, but it is generally why I would create my characters as such.

 

[Lord Aphrodite]

My excuse is that I'm 18 and I haven't been old yet. Simple as that. I'm not opposed to playing older characters, but I would end up falling on stereotypes.

 

[Jannah]

Lately I've been writing a lot of teenagers because I've been doing Hunger Games RP. That kind of requires a specific age group(unless you're just doing a general RP set in Panem I suppose). I find that teenagers in that universe are a lot of the time more mature for their age than most, though.