Age range of Hearts of Iron 4 Players

[Covey999]

Hi,
My Son has become obsessed with Hearts of Iron 4, he sometimes gets frustrated that he not as good as he would like to be. I've had a look and its far too multifaceted for me and its beyond my mere mortal gaming experience. I just wanted to get and idea of the player age range to explain to him that hes still very young at 10 to be playing a game as hard. He also plays EU 4 too which he has just started.
Thanks

 

[Matoro_TBS]

Nice to see them start young

The game has age rating of 7 years, like the other Paradox games, but that's mostly just because they don't have graphic content or anything like that - it doesn't really tell about complexity of the game. Paradox games tend to be famous for their complexity. I think I started when I was around 14 years.
HoI4 is complex in some things, but if your son is okay with EUIV I don't think HoI4 is too hard by any means. It's more of a problem if he's bad at dealing with failure - and you're sure to fail many games of HoI4 when you start.

If he's as obsessed as you say, you probably can't talk him out of playing the game. And that's okay, as long as playing doesn't come on the way of other aspects of life. I'd recommend playing with easier difficulty level, and after he's more experienced with the game up the difficulty level. There's nothing in HoI4 10 year old couldn't comprehend if he wants to. Sure, there's some math, but mostly it's just problem-solving and utilizing right tools in right situations.

 

[Federkiel]

Well the age average in general video gaming is somewhere around 30 (please anyone jump in who knows it more exactly). Games like HoI contribute to the surprisingly high average as an assumingly high prtion of it's players are above the stated age.

The reason is the level of complexity and the steep learning curve. There also are no sensorical thrills in the game which often attract a younger audience to play specific games. The benefit of the playing experience lies in long term planning, preparing and then successfully executing an operation. The joy is buried in the deep satisfaction of having understood a situation, analysing options, choosing strategies and tactics and in the end - having overcome the obstacles in the way. Generalising a bit, patience and deriving fun from meeting mental challenges may be characteristics of a typical HoI player. In short - this is not for everyone. HoI 4 meeting the sale number of more than a million sold copies is a feat.

That's nothing in comparison to first person shooters or even the life sim games where the player gets an immediate feedback to the actions he just has done.

Your son being a pretty young teen, his attraction to this game feels a little surprising. but i must say that i very much respect your attention to his use of digital media and your pedagogic awareness.
If you feel worried because of the game's topic (ww2 as the the greatest disaster in human's history) you can atleast be assured that the most embarrasing and defying themes of the era are neither featured in the game and also not allowed to be discussed in the community. Such threads and (toxic community members) get banned as soon as a moderator sees it.

After all, things change quickly these days. This might be especially true in regards of the interests of the younger players in this community. Maybe in a month your son might have lost interest. If not, it may be a sign that this game is fascinating - and that your son likes solving riddles and long term planning.

Regarding the multiplayer community - please be aware that there are cheaters and toxic people out there as it is with every other game as well.

 

[Nicolas-]

Most of the players I met are at least 16.

14 is quite rare and is unusual, let alone 10.

It's good that he likes this type of games at a young age though. I find them to have much better value than FPS games and such. At the very least he'll be better at geography and some aspects of history.

 

[pheonicia]

Well, from your description I would guess this is actually a common underlying problem with modern gaming rearing its head. To share a few personal anecdotes, I've gotten so mad at games before that let it spill out into physical acts of violence against the things I own. To provide some (certainly not comprehensive) examples, I've dented a laptop screen with a 360 controller, punched a number of doors, desks, and tables, thrown pillows and other objects within arms reach, and started an uncountable number of screaming (and occasionally physical) fights with my family. It actually took seeing someone else lose their minds over a game (a television screen and fifa were involved) for me to actually start to internalize why this behavior was bad. Games are meant to be fun, enjoyable experiences for spending your free time. If you're getting so angry or frustrated or upset about a game that you can no longer enjoy that experience, or worse yet let it bleed into other parts of your life, it's time to put the game down and stop playing. No game is worth so much that it could not be replaced with a different one. There are literally millions of games out there, spend your time with one you enjoy more. And it's not like you have to abandon that game forever, it's almost always possible to revisit it years later when you're older and more experienced. Worst comes to worst, there are in fact other hobbies out there in the world; if your son enjoys the setting, there are plenty of board games (memoir 44 for example), books (both real and alternative history), movies (Casablanca), miniatures games (can't remember the specific names) and other media that cover ww1. If it's something else about hoi4, I'm certain there are other similar experiences that he would enjoy more.

Now, there is a simpler way of dealing with the issue which still teaches a life lesson, just a less generally applicable one, and that's to lower the difficulty. If a game is too hard, there's nothing wrong with lowering the difficulty as that is quite literally the entire reason the difficulty slider is even there. The difficulty slider is your friend and it is there to be used. Not everyone has the ability to excel at every game, and with something that you choose to do or not do like a game, you can simply lower the difficulty so that it's actually possible to enjoy. You can always raise the difficulty later when you're more familiar with the game if it hurts your pride to that extent.

Anyways, I've rambled on for quite a bit (and typing this all out on mobile is time consuming) so I'll end it there for now.

 

[Tecrinarep]

I was a bit older when I started playing Sid Meier's Civilization, my first "complicated" strategy game, and I was already a student when I started to play EUIV. Before that I mainly played more casual games as Age of Empires, Dawn of War, Company of Heroes, Empire Earth, Warcraft III, Advance Wars, Total War, that are more noob friendly, have better tutorials and look far less complicated for the beginner (this is before you feel at ease and start to dive into numbers and optimization).

I have no idea of the player range but I think it's quite large, old wargame grognards or youngsters doing memegames can be met.

You can tell your son that Paradox Games usually have a big learning curve. There's hundreds of guides out there, on reddit, steam, this very forum, youtube... Some are bad, some are good, some are outdated, but they can be very helpful.

Does he has friends of his age that also play the game ? Experience sharing is a tremendous skill for learning (applies to anything, video games, thermodynamics, woodworking or whatever).

EDIT: he shouldn't be afraid to use console commands (cheats) in his solo games, either for simply lowering difficulty, but mainly for deepening his knowledge of game mechanics and how they interact with each other, experimenting strategies without spending hours just to get the right tech/industry/doctrine.., see what focuses/decisions do when tooltips are unclear, or repairing awful mistakes ruining a campaign.

 

[Jellico]

The average HOI4 player is probably fairly young. Younger than most people realize. The most popular HOI players on youtube and twitch are isorrow, tommykay, bokoen. These guys get hundreds of thousands of views doing nothing but meme content. I think that speaks volumes about the community. They aren't the kind of people I can see older gamers enjoying. Most people i've personally known who play HOI4 are in their early 20s. I could see a game like EU4 having an older audience but not HOI4.

 

[Covey999]

Thanks for all the replies, nice to see the toxic culture that exist in other games has reached all corners. He's a great Kid and loves geography and i supposed thats where it started for him (After minecraft). He generally doesn't lose his cool, it just more brings him down when it doesn't go his way. I've seen people get assaulted over a game (years ago playing CS in college back in the day...crazy some guy ran in throwing hands at a guy who was camping). Any ways thank again for the replies. He has one mate that plays it but i know he would love to chat to other players as most of the topics go straight over my head. I used to play Command and Conquer which i thought was a strategy game until i seen this and EUIV. Its a whole different level.

 

[him_15]

I am 33.

 

[Snoodaard]

Thanks for all the replies, nice to see the toxic culture that exist in other games has reached all corners. He's a great Kid and loves geography and i supposed thats where it started for him (After minecraft). He generally doesn't lose his cool, it just more brings him down when it doesn't go his way. I've seen people get assaulted over a game (years ago playing CS in college back in the day...crazy some guy ran in throwing hands at a guy who was camping). Any ways thank again for the replies. He has one mate that plays it but i know he would love to chat to other players as most of the topics go straight over my head. I used to play Command and Conquer which i thought was a strategy game until i seen this and EUIV. Its a whole different level.

You should check out the videos of quill18 on youtube, and join your son in his games It would be great fun for the both of you.

 

[Mister Analyst]

You might feed your youngster's desire to learn the game by introducing him to the HOI4 wiki. It is chock full of information even though it isn't always up to date. Here is the link: https://hoi4.paradoxwikis.com/Hearts_of_Iron_4_Wiki .

 

[Selzro]

I think I was 12 when I first played Sid Meyer's Civilization, and I was similarly confused at first, although it was a far simpler game than HoI4. But I stuck with it and it became a very educational experience on the evolution of nations (simplistic as it was). I must have been 28 or so when I first played HoI2 and I'm 39 now.

 

[Barbu]

The average HOI4 player is probably fairly young. Younger than most people realize. The most popular HOI players on youtube and twitch are isorrow, tommykay, bokoen. These guys get hundreds of thousands of views doing nothing but meme content. I think that speaks volumes about the community. They aren't the kind of people I can see older gamers enjoying. Most people i've personally known who play HOI4 are in their early 20s. I could see a game like EU4 having an older audience but not HOI4.

I don't think older players have much interest in watching streamers though. I guess their audience is bound to be pretty young.

 

[stavern]

44 years on me. Played Paradox games for ages Ck2 is a favorite when it come to roleplayimg your rulers. Hoi for strategy. My daughter at 8 love Stellaris playing with her space elfs. I lost interest in that game when they removed warp. MMO never had any interest for. Tried a month free play when Star Wars galaxies and Wow but never had any interest in playing with others.

 

[Secret Master]

I don't think older players have much interest in watching streamers though. I guess their audience is bound to be pretty young.

Yeah, because the streamers aren't that good at playing the game, unlike us older folks.

On a more serious note, the game is pretty complicated for anyone, regardless of age. But I'd encourage anyone who is having difficulty to read the wiki to learn about basic concepts and maybe watch some tutorials.

But this is a GSG from Paradox. You should also expect to learn by losing.

 

[Big Dead One]

HOI4 was my first grand strategy game from Paradox. I first learnt about it when I was 17. Being interested in history, I pirated the game to try it and immediately fell in love with it. I loved the game so much that I saved money to buy it. I think it's great that your son is playing HOI4 (and EU4), as the game could improve his knowledge of history and geography. As long as he is not obsessed with it to the point of neglecting schoolwork, I think it should be fine.

 

[Forster]

Well, I am 72, so I don;t know about older players not wanting to play. I started with board games in the late 60's and migrated to computer games when they came out. Paradox games are very complicated for most people. I wouldn't pay much attention to those players who rant how easy it is or the ones that rage quit because they didn't like something they didn't like. I would recommend searching for utube videos on how to play. There are a lot and you can learn a lot from watching them.

 

[Gatkramp]

Started playing Paradox games at 18, more than a decade ago. I still suck at them.

 

[UlulvarCape]

15 years of age for me, but damn, this is the first time I've ever heard a 10 year old play HOI4

 

[dasaard200]

As a Viet-Nam veteran (1st Cavalry {Airmobile}) , I'm 68 .
This is the Game that lets me a-historically correct the mistakes in WWII;
I've seen in this game where things have happened, that were less likely than a hand-delivered IRS cash refund on an Easter Sunday .
Win, lose, or draw; it's a fun ride !