I am 47 and of course independant,with family that depends on me,i have children near 30 that are not independant,and i have children in thier early 20's that are very independant,it depends on the person...i personally find it takes a certain "mindset" or personality for a person to stick to this game...we have a person in our tribe that is 16 that is in the top ten in his ODD and keeps playing VERY ACTIVELY.and we have had LOTS of older guys like myself let real life issues take them away from the game...This game becomes a LIFESTYLE CHOICE,and you have to be willing to tailer your lifestyle around this game...i am lucky in the fact that i can play while i am at work...i cant give it 100% of my attention,but i can watch it,and the forums,and mail,become a social outlet,I have made some really good RL friends from this game,even if they live in other countries. So i think its whether a person chooses to live his life around TW and is willing to devote what it takes in time and resources to play that makes a good player...not age....sure we all have RL things we have to tend to,but everyone of us that are hardcore players,are allways wandering if we are being attacked,or if our attacks are doing any good ect,even when we are at the beach sunning ourselves...or at the grocery store...its part of the nature of this addictive game for some of us.