#because that doesn't change when you pass some magic age gateway

[redwinterroses]

You hit the nail on the head with the ageism in the mcyt community. It's so frustrating to feel like I'm being pushed out of fandom spaces for being over the age of 18 because I'm not shocked that this CC had kids or this CC is 40. I'm not even old! I'm 26!

I get that there are a lot of younger viewers now (which is great! new fans are amazing!) but it seems that many don't realise that for most CC's that this is just a job and a job most have been doing for years now.

Like the absolute boom that happened with the dsmp doesn't happen very often, especially with CC's that young. It was an explosion in a bottle which makes people forget that all the other CC's that have been building up their audience for years are also going to be older.

Anyways that's my rant. I don't know, I'm probably just a grumpy old fart now and feel like shaking my fist a kids to get of my lawn lol

*gestures at all the above* Thank you for continuing to smack that nail head-on.

I'm not comfortable explicitly stating my age on the internet -- but I'm old enough to not be comfortable explicitly stating my age on the internet. I don't even have it on my Facebook. (I'm old enough to have a Facebook. XD)

But I only got into Minecraft in the last two years, only started watching mcyt in the last year or so, and only joined the fandom proper in JUNE. I didn't grow up with this stuff -- I fell in love with it as an adult. It's not a kids-only thing.

(Heck, I'd make the argument that video games in general are equally-if-not-more aimed at adults than children but that's a rant for another day.)

So you have people like me, who came to this thing as adults, and you have adults who have been in this realm for decades, and you have people who are fans who have been playing video games their whole lives and Minecraft for at least ten years... And yet somehow it's shocking to the point of viral posts that not everyone in this fandom is under 18? I just don't get it.

And I do understand WHY the fanbase tends to be young -- if only purely because kids have more time than adults to indulge these hobbies. My (much) younger brother is still young enough that he can get done with school and play games for hours before dinner or bed. I've got to fit it in between two jobs and all the other things that come with being an adult. I get that. I get that the Hermitcraft fanbase has a pretty young baseline because they're family friendly and parents are cool with their kids watching the hermits.

But the exclusionist nature of "this isn't normal" every time someone realizes their fave isn't their peer is wild to me and some days I just get my old lady temper up over it. XD