Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (usually abbreviated to CSGO) is a highly popular, first-person shooter (FPS) game. Released 14 years ago, it is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series, which has been a cornerstone of the FPS genre.
According to Steam, CSGO regularly sees over a million concurrent online players. It is one of the most prominent games in the eSports world, with major tournaments unsurprisingly, drawing millions of viewers on platforms like Twitch.
Arguably more surprising, is that one of those people streaming their gameplay is 81-year-old CSGO champion Abbe ‘DieHardBirdie’ Drakborg, who played with the Silver Snipers.
This year, on Ageism Awareness Day, what could be more challenging to the traditional ageing stereotypes than a septuagenarian professional gamer?
‘You can never be too old to play video games,’ he told PC Gamer. ‘Age is just a number.’
Formed in Sweden, with the help of Lenovo, the Silver Snipers made headlines for challenging stereotypes about both ageing and gaming by showing that older people can participate in the highly competitive world of eSports.
Aged between 62 and 81 years, the Silver Snipers have become a symbol of age inclusivity in both gaming and eSports. By showing that people of all ages can excel at gaming, they are breaking down age related stereotypes and encouraging adults to stay active and engaged with modern technology.
According to Media War and Peace, globally there are now twice as many gamers as TV subscribers. Whilst this is as much a comment on the demise of linear TV, it is an extraordinary rise in the number of gamers, driven in large part, by the number of people gaming on apps on their mobile device.
Midlife people are playing their part in this growth story. Gamers aged over 50 seemingly don’t consider the time they spend gaming as lost time – far from it. They consider their gaming as beneficial to their overall health and wellbeing as it helps them to relax but in a way which keeps them both mentally sharp and continually challenged.
Gaming can foster many of the skills and attitudes that contribute to a lifelong learning mindset, such as problem-solving, adaptability, collaboration, and creativity. Moreover, the engaging nature of games can motivate individuals to pursue continuous learning opportunities throughout their lives.
According to AARP research, over 50s gamers are playing for 12 hours a week on average, with 45% confirming that they play every day, a number confirmed in AgeInc’s Voice of Experience survey amongst 1,150 Australians aged 50+, in which 38.8% confirmed they’re gamers.
Understandably, there aren’t as many professional gamers aged over 50, but even in the world of professional gaming ageism can still be an issue. Duncan MacLeod who runs the channel ‘Boomer Gaming’ and is ranked in the top 10% of Apex Legends players globally says, he still ‘… gets little jokes and jibes…’ soft discrimination shared by many in the workplace.
Soft age discrimination refers to more subtle, often indirect, forms of age discrimination. Unlike overt or explicit age discrimination, where someone is blatantly excluded or mistreated because of their age, soft age discrimination is more nuanced.
In the AgeInc Voice of Experience survey, 21.3% of respondents felt that they had been discriminated against solely based on their age, by their current employer. In most cases that discrimination manifested through soft factors like comments from colleagues or co-workers and a lack of voice in the workplace.
Now 81 and having become the world’s oldest eSports champion, Abbe ‘DieHardBirdie’ Drakborg has retired from eSports to focus on streaming. His Twitch channel features clips of him playing CSGO and using his signature bird whistle, which he plays when he is confident he is set to score a kill.
“I stream my games on Twitch because I want to leave something behind after my life, for the next generation,” DieHardBirdie said. Intergenerational sharing at its finest.