One of the major differences I see between older and newer gamers is that older gamers are readers. The early D&D and Traveller players could handle rulebooks hundreds of pages long because they'd enjoyed the works of Tolkien, Lewis, Moorcock, Asimov, Anderson, Wells, Verne, etc. Most early games were based on favorite literary genres: fantasy, sci fi, westerns, espionage. Younger gamers prefer TV and iPods to books and tend to gravitate toward card, miniatures, and electronic games that require much less reading, preparation and (dare I say it?) imagination. When they do play pen and paper RPGs, they tend to prefer games based on movies, comics and other pop cultural influences rather than on lengthy traditional novels. And they tend to be drawn towards rules-light systems rather than old-school systems that require either 1,001 charts or a Cray computer to calculate stats (can't say that I blame 'em).
So to make an admittedly unforgivable series of generalizations ... older gamers play Runequest (bulky manuals, 50 kinds of dice); younger gamers play Runescape (Internet connection and credit card). Younger gamers play Resident Evil (DVD or Xbox required); older gamers play Call of Cthulhu (vocabulary required). Older gamers play Boot Hill; younger gamers blink and say, "Sam Houston who? Was he named after that city in Texas?" Older gamers play Champions; younger gamers play Hero Clix.
I agree with previous posters who insist we must attract younger players for the hobby to survive. And we must attract younger people to reading in general. Hmmm, maybe those rolling electric blackouts aren't completely a bad thing.
