Any young STO players out there?

ricosakara

I have a question, just out of curiosity. I know that there are players as old as 50 or even 60 playing STO. But are there any teen players on STO, like between the ages of 12 and 18? I know this seems weird, but I'm just curious if there any current generation of kids out there that know Star Trek, other than the JJ films, and have found and are playing STO. I'm simply curious. It would at least let me know that today's current generation knows Star Trek, and not just Star Wars as the face of Sci-Fi.

voporak

No one's ever come close to correctly guessing my age, probably thanks to my... vibrant outspokeness, but usually, as I hear from people I've told, it's due to being more mature than expected. Smirk once offered me a position as forum moderator, but I couldn't accept due to being under 18.

guljarol

An anonymous poll would probably help

As for the question itself, I remember some player(s) mentioning they played with their kids.​​

lindaleff

I am a member of the T Radio network of fleets. As a result of that large network, I actually know of at least a few teenagers in STO. And one of them is as young as 14.

guljarol wrote: »

As for the question itself, I remember some player(s) mentioning they played with their kids.​​

As a matter of fact, the original Leader of my fleet used to do exactly that.

grandnaguszek1

16 here.

gilion

I was 18 when I started playing :P

artan42

I think I was 18 when I started playing the game, just after it went FTP.

Edit: Nope, I was 20, I can't do maths, even now .​​

jasonyeefong

18 here.

gilion

artan42 wrote: »

I think I was 18 when I started playing the game, just after it went FTP.

Edit: Nope, I was 20, I can't do maths, even now .​​

wait, you were 20 when the game went F2P? when was that, 2012? If so I think we're the same age :P

artan42

gilion wrote: »

artan42 wrote: »

I think I was 18 when I started playing the game, just after it went FTP.

Edit: Nope, I was 20, I can't do maths, even now .

wait, you were 20 when the game went F2P? when was that, 2012? If so I think we're the same age :P

I'm adding up now, I could be wrong (knowing my track record with numbers), but I'm coming up with 23 right?​​

ryan218

ricosakara wrote: »

I have a question, just out of curiosity. I know that there are players as old as 50 or even 60 playing STO. But are there any teen players on STO, like between the ages of 12 and 18? I know this seems weird, but I'm just curious if there any current generation of kids out there that know Star Trek, other than the JJ films, and have found and are playing STO. I'm simply curious. It would at least let me know that today's current generation knows Star Trek, and not just Star Wars as the face of Sci-Fi.

Just turned 18 last month, and I've been playing since Open Beta.

comrademoco

Did being 19 count?

gilion

artan42 wrote: »

gilion wrote: »

artan42 wrote: »

I think I was 18 when I started playing the game, just after it went FTP.

Edit: Nope, I was 20, I can't do maths, even now .

wait, you were 20 when the game went F2P? when was that, 2012? If so I think we're the same age :P

I'm adding up now, I could be wrong (knowing my track record with numbers), but I'm coming up with 23 right?​​

Ya that sounds about right. Hehe, talk about coincidence, I just turned 23 a few months ago.

lindaleff

In all honesty, vibrant outspokeness is an understatement.

voporak

Heh.

themic609

I've been into star trek since I was around 12. Started STO when I was 16 and am still playing at 21 now. Always been a major SCFI Fan since I was little. Just love spaceships me :P

ricosakara

I'm glad to see that I gotten some replies. I've been curious about asking this question because for the last 10 years the current generation of kids in America only know Star Wars as the "face" of Science Fiction, which in my personal opinion had sadden me, and it's usually because of what happened 7 years earlier:

Back when my Dad was dating his ex-girlfriend, she gained custody of her Grand kids who came to live with us for a year while their parents went through rehab. Anyways, the oldest two, who were twin brothers, only knew Star Wars. They didn't know about Star Trek. No big deal, right? But what was the heart-stopper wasn't that they didn't know Star Trek - it was that they couldn't tell the difference between the original Star Wars Trilogy and the Prequels - they thought Luke and Anakin Skywalker were the SAME PERSON! They also didn't know the names of the ships in Star Wars - they just call them all "Star Wars Ships."

Now these two boys were only 8 at the time, but the thing was this: When I was six years old, I knew Star Trek & Star Wars, don't get me wrong, but I also knew the names of the ships and what not. How little kids at that age couldn't know yet about those simple things remains unclear to me. But over time, I began to realize that nowadays, kids just don't pay attention too well to what their watching and zap in the words and knowledge of the characters as they watch the show, even a show as swashbuckling and action packed as Star Wars.

Now while all of this may not have anything to do with them not knowing what Star Trek was, it did sorta made me think about what kids think when the word sci-fi comes to mind. You see, for me as a little kid in grade school, when I think the word "Sci-Fi," I think not just Star Wars or Star Trek, but Battlestar Galactica (the original) StarGate, The Thing (1982), The Fly (1986), The Terminator, ALIENS, The Abyss, The Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, Flash Gordon, even NASA and rockets to the moon. And this in my kindergarten and grade school years (back then, I was spoiled by my parents - they let me watch R-rated films as along as I did good in school, and I was use to watching violence and gore anyways). Now I look at kids today, and I imagine that when they think "Sci-Fi," they'll only think Star Wars, and mostly the Prequels and not the original Trilogy.

To me, since Star Trek Enterprise went off the air, kids have lost all knowledge that Star Trek existed. And even if they knew Star Trek, they only knew through the JJ Abram films. Also, since Disney bought Star Wars, it has literally saturated the "face of Sci-Fi" with it's name, leaving all other great sci-ifs of the past to wither away like dusk in the wind. For a time (for me as a kid anyways), Star Trek & Star Wars tied as the face of Sci-Fi since I was a baby in the cradle all the way to my college years. Now, it's only Star Wars this and Star Wars that.

That's why I wanted to ask this question of whether or not kids today at least know of the original five Star Trek Series and 10 feature films (and even the short lived 70's animated series). I wanted know that there are at least a handful of kids today who even if they got into Trek though the JJ films have manage to do their homework and check out the originals and know what they really mean to us as a culture and how they impacted our society today, and even how they inspired some of today's technology, like how smart phones were inspired by the original communicators.

I wanted to know that there are a least some kids out there today that at least know what Star Trek really is and how much it means to their parents and older friends today.

lindaleff

If younglings do know about Star Wars or Star Trek, it is because of good parents who took the time to educate their younglings.

I can tell you first of all, that me being a father is never going to happen. But if, for some reason, the Mirror Universe equivalent of me (Mirror Lindale?) did end up being a father, I guarantee you, Mirror Lindale would teach his children everything there is to know about Star Wars, and everything there is to know about Star Trek. Mirror Lindale's children will be every bit as much of a nerd as he is.




Actually......The Mirror me would probably be some clean-shaven pogonophobic....So he could never be taken seriously anyway....Forget I said anything....

ricosakara

lindaleff wrote: »

If younglings do know about Star Wars or Star Trek, it is because of good parents who took the time to educate their younglings.

I can tell you first of all, that me being a father is never going to happen. But if, for some reason, the Mirror Universe equivalent of me (Mirror Lindale?) did end up being a father, I guarantee you, Mirror Lindale would teach his children everything there is to know about Star Wars, and everything there is to know about Star Trek. Mirror Lindale's children will be every bit as much of a nerd as he is.

Now that I believe. =3

grandnaguszek1

I first got into star trek when I was 4 or so. My dad and I would watch and rewatch all 7 seasons of next gen and later TOS and then even later DS9. I then got into star wars when I was 6 or so (and knew many of the ship names, but confused a trandoshan for a Wookiee once). I've been a fan of both ever since (still saving toy star wars ships for when they become collectibles, as well as a cabinet full of Next Gen figures ).

thunderfoot

I suppose if someone is twenty five or under, with all the other things competing every day for his/her attention and limited free time, Star Trek, in any flavor, may be lost in the background noise. Which is a shame because when Star Trek, in any flavor, is spot on, it gives people insight into the Human Condition in ways other tales find diffucult to match.

themic609

Personally I find it depressing that people my age are more obsessed with Facebook/twitter/selfies/etc than anything that could provide sufficient mental stimuli. My generation has become overly narcissistic and detached from reality. Also OP nice Sig I thought I was one of the only sonic fans on these forums. :P

artan42

thunderfoot006 wrote: »

I suppose if someone is twenty five or under, with all the other things competing every day for his/her attention and limited free time, Star Trek, in any flavor, may be lost in the background noise. Which is a shame because when Star Trek, in any flavor, is spot on, it gives people insight into the Human Condition in ways other tales find diffucult to match.

Hardly.​​

starswordc

I'm almost 27, and I honestly got my first serious introduction to Star Trek with the TOS/TNG crossover novel Federation by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.

lindaleff

I still remember watching TNG when it was new.

ricosakara

lindaleff wrote: »

I still remember watching TNG when it was new.

Same here. I was 5 when TNG first came out in 87.

psycoticvulcan

My first Star Trek experience was watching "The Doomsday Machine" with my Dad when I was 9 (he's not a Trekkie, he was just watching it because it was on). A few years later I saw "The Undiscovered Country" and got hooked. From there I watched all the movies, then Voyager, DS9, the JJ Abrams movie (because it happened to release at that time) Enterprise, and finally TNG. (I started watching TOS, and really enjoyed it, but I couldn't find the episodes online. ) As for STO, I joined a bit before it went free-to-play when I was 17.

spacegoatcx

OP's post "question", along with his signature, is screaming of windowless white vans and amber alerts.

What age groups play the game is pretty irrelevant and specifically seeking minors playing is nothing short of distressing/predatory.

risian4

I think I started playing the game when I was 19. I don't exactly remember when I started watching Star Trek, but I think I was 11 as I do remember that I was still in elementary school. I may have been younger as I remember seeing Voyager and Enterprise when it first aired, unfortunately I can't find the airing dates for my country... but it is likely that I was around the age of 10.

markhawkman

lindaleff wrote: »

I still remember watching TNG when it was new.

Agreed. I even remember reading about the upcoming series DS9 in TV Guide.... heh, I also remember liking TV guide... (not young) My first was a viewmaster version of a TAS episode actually.

I had fun with those as a kid.

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