Angband player's age

[DavidMedley]

Yeah, that's weird. I jump brackets in November as well.

[Squeak]

I switched brackets a few months ago.

It seems like most people currently playing angband and its varients are in their late 30s to early 50s. I remember there was a similar age survey a few years ago. Were the age ranges the same or is the angband population just getting overall older?

[EpicMan]

I started playing in the <12 bracket (not much less though) and this past year jumped into 35-44 bracket.
So playing for around 24 years, off and on again. Started with Moria, then some old version of Angband, then Oangband (which ran on an old secondary computer for about 11 years), then I moved on to TOME2 & Hengband. Now I mostly play poslikes.

[Driftwood]

32 here. Been playing for about 10 years or so though ever since I found Angband on a PC Gamer demo disc I swiped from one of the magazines at the store I worked nights at. I'm still playing 3.2.0 because I only just learned there were newer versions. Once I'm done my so far so good game I may go for the update.

[DavidMedley]

Welcome back! I also returned after a decade-plus away in October.

[Driftwood]

It's not so much that I was away, I meant I've been playing the game for about 10 years. Mostly as an eternal boob as I didn't know there was a message board or anything to ask questions on, of which I have so so many. 10 years and have yet to even get halfway down to Morgoth.

[DavidMedley]

Welcome to the 21st century, then!

[Gauss]

Just to be curious: did you show your mates the game with tiles, or with ASCII graphics? Is it just the graphics that they hate, or something else as well (for instance the complex controls or the permadeath)?

I showed them both. Permadeath also seems to be a no go for younger people since they aren't used to hard punishing games like Angband. Games nowadays don't punish the player with exceptions such as Dark souls and others. Controls are not the problem once you figure out how to cast spells, perform basic actions etc...

[sffp]

I think this poll reflects well how graphics influence young people on videogame opinion. I'm on the 18-24 bracket and all my mates who i showed the game hoping to recruit more players, had the same reaction. They can't understand how a game with such crappy graphics(in my opinion they are beautiful) can have such an interesting and deep gameplay.

Just to turn that question around. Is there a game with good graphics/video that has a similarly in-depth gameplay. IMO, anything using a controller usually has fewer options right out of the gate (and if it does, it's usually way more cumbersome to access than a keyboard)

[Mondkalb]

Imho, the Heroes of Might and Magic series qualifies, as well as the King's Bounty series (naturally, because the first KB game is considered the ancestor of HoMM).
I like the chess-like quality of the battles and the tactical and strategic elements. KB is a bit more linear because of its pasted-over storylines, like the campaigns in HoMM.
Also, HoMM has lots of user generated maps and even random map generators, while in KB you have always the same maps. Still, the variety of monsters, spells, treasures, equipment, and artifacts ensures for new experiences each time you start a new game.

[Bill Peterson]

Just to turn that question around. Is there a game with good graphics/video that has a similarly in-depth gameplay. IMO, anything using a controller usually has fewer options right out of the gate (and if it does, it's usually way more cumbersome to access than a keyboard)

As a long time Angband player, I'm pretty happy with the Diablo series. But yes, there are fewer options during gameplay, you have to decide in advance what commands your character has available.

Recently discovered Grim Dawn which, while closed source, is pretty moddable, with plenty of character classes and abilities available.

[Gauss]

Imho, the Heroes of Might and Magic series qualifies, as well as the King's Bounty series (naturally, because the first KB game is considered the ancestor of HoMM).
I like the chess-like quality of the battles and the tactical and strategic elements. KB is a bit more linear because of its pasted-over storylines, like the campaigns in HoMM.
Also, HoMM has lots of user generated maps and even random map generators, while in KB you have always the same maps. Still, the variety of monsters, spells, treasures, equipment, and artifacts ensures for new experiences each time you start a new game.

I agree with HoMM. The second and third game are amazing. I tried also kings bounty but it doesn't have the charm of the first HoMM games. I haven't tried them but people genrally agree that from HoMM 6 onwards are crap games. HoMM 5 was the last decent game on the series IMO. 4 is crap too.

[Hounded]

Well I already completed the poll for myself but finally introduced one of the little Hounds to it a few days ago an' she's hooked so we can add another < 12 .

(I have to wonder, did I really have that kind of mortality whenI started? Probably...)

Also, +1 for Heroes of Might & Magic 3. I miss that one.

[Sky]

I showed them both. Permadeath also seems to be a no go for younger people since they aren't used to hard punishing games like Angband. Games nowadays don't punish the player with exceptions such as Dark souls and others. Controls are not the problem once you figure out how to cast spells, perform basic actions etc...

Permadeath exists in more games than just Angband, and it's not necessarily a turnoff for young players. The term Roguelike nowadays is used to mean not actually games that play like rogue, but games that are one-shot, one life, and with multiple playthroughs intended.

I've explained what in *my* view are the biggest problems that Angband has: the tiles do not work well (they do for me, but often can be a pain to set up properly and instead they stretch horribly), the UI needs a cleanup (for example, unite wands, rods and staves under the same command), the keybinding process is vastly unintuitive, a whoooole big bunch of Quality Of Life improvements need to be made. Some are small, some are big. It's definitely not the need for a new Blackguard class what's keeping the game down.

Hey, i like the blackguard. Or, i did, but haven't played since someone decided that the tiles needed to punch me in the eyes to work properly.

That .. and you need some social media exposure. Go post on some reddit forums, show it to your friends, etc ... people won't come looking for it if they don't know it exists, and won't stick around if they cannot figure out how to play (without dying from hunger, or cant figure how to recover HP, or what Free Action means, and so on ..)

[DavidMedley]

for example, unite wands, rods and staves under the same command

Maybe we could assign "i" to this purpose...?