How old are you and what you do in real life? How you afford your gaming?

34 and I'm a teacher.

Good money for having weekends and three months of the year off. Wanted to be a teacher so I'd never miss watching a football game again.

Have 4 kids and another due in 4 weeks, so no time to play games I really want to play.

I am 41.

I work for my local Florida cable company in Business Class (SMB) support.

I have 2 kids, 19(son) and 17(daughter). I have groomed them well for a lifetime of gaming.

I'll be making more than I earn now

I never got rich with dirty money. People I worked with were always too greedy and never seemed to know where much of the cash went. Like there'd be 1K$ missing and nobody knew where it was. It was annoying. Wasn't drugs money either lol.

I'm 23 and a student(masters in Web technologies). I still live with my parents so I barely have any expenses. I buy only a select few games and mostly on steam sales, with some rare full price purchases here and there. All my funds come from periodic money gifts I get from my grandparents as they're pretty generous lol. Though I'll be having a part-time job as a software developer starting September so I'll make some money off that.

I'll be 25 in less than a month. But I'm a Web Programmer at a Locomotive company with pretty good pay.

I used to be an impulse buyer, but I've been good lately with not buying games just because.

@clyde46: that was a pretty cool video to watch.

29. I am a Product Engineer for D+I. It's a design consultancy so the work is varied in the projects we work on and the workload changes in intensity quite often. Pay is good, but Sydney is expensive. Housing market here is ridiculous, so I'm renting out, which has left me with alot of disposable income. But I'm quite conditioned to renting out and enjoy living in the convenience and lifestyle of living in abit of hipster part of the city with other people my age. Starting to think this is just better than living it tougher with a mortgage just for the financial security and my SO feels about the same way.

I have more than enough to spend on games. I dont go out and get every system and I dont actually try to 'save'. It's just that I have always been patient and never really bought day 1 until shit like GMG came about, or that more of my friends have gotten into games, or that I've networked enough to meet other people that play games that dragged me into playing something early.

Other than building a PC--which I also need for work. Games is easily one of my cheaper hobbies. The import market works in favor for our inflation where I can just buy stuff from the UK, US or Asia. Sales are plentiful, too. it's just costly when it comes to time.

34 and I'm the after hours IT tech for a hospital. I'm single with no children, so all my money is mine. I mostly game with co-workers since gaming is huge in the office.

Haha, awesome.

32 I do sound for live bands and real estate photography on the side. Honestly, I don't make much money at all, but I enjoy what I do. Also, starting next month I'm gonna help a couple flip a home and if it turns out to be a successful en devour for them there will be more homes for me to help flip in the future.

Also, no wife or kids, so I got all the time in the world on my days off to play video games and chat with all you rascals.

I used to worry about getting old, but like that we have a lot of users here starting and stopping careers and following their dreams up until their 40s and 50s. Humans behind the screens, and rats in the race. Work hard, know yourself, don't ask for what you deserve, take what is yours!

I am 34. I work like nost people do. I buy my games at a discount only. So i do steam sales, gog sales, or i buy steam code from promos on ebay. Whatever i gotta do. Most i have spent on a new game in ages has been about $35 new.

35 and retail management. i do better than what most would think but have the wife, two kids, 4 dogs, and 3 cats to feed and care for. i split what little money i have for myself between gaming, shooting, and beer which is to say i only buy a handful of titles a year, usually used. the closer it gets to november i'm really wanting to put my money into firearms instead of gaming however, you know, while i still can.

You dawg :P

ha, I have four dogs too, but they're small. And instead of three cats, I have three rabbits.

26. Accounting student (covered by student loans) while working around 20 hours a week in retail. I can afford to grab a game I'm interested in. I'm not sure that I will be able to spend money on the NX/Neo/Scorpio but I can still buy games comfortably.

35, married and 2 girls. I do Medical Device sales and am extremely lucky to have done very well. So I can buy what I want for gaming. In fact I have 0 impulse control buy everything and have plenty of games I havent played yet DAMN YOU STEAM.

where are all the 12 year olds of this forum?

36, father of 2 girls, brazilian welfare system,

make good money for brazilian standarts but very low to buy imported hardware and full priced games,

play on low budget PC, steam sales, free games, origin multiplayer $60 games and lots of pirated games and emulators, but if the game is good enough i will pay for it even after i finished it

@Chutebox: good deal, always happy to be in the company of other animal lovers. i always say my dogs are better people than most folks i've met lol.

5 kids!! I dunno how you do it. I had my balls cut off after the 2nd one! Though most people tell me after the second the change isnt too bad, but 5! congrats.

-Byshop

I turn 40 this year. Married, two children. I'm a corporate IT Systems Engineer for a worldwide consulting firm designing enterprise solutions for Fortune 500 companies in various industries. In recent years my role has shifted into an enterprise cloud architect. Comp and perks are pretty good, among them being a 2k USD budget to spend on my own computer equipment so depending on how much I spend each year I basically don't have to use any of my own money.

-Byshop

@Byshop:You calling me a traitor!?

35, I sell auto parts and write for a gaming website on the side. I pay for my gaming habit? I forgot.

No, but if you later slip up and accidentally say four I'll be on to you.

-Byshop

41 i have part time job this period dont have time for games

What are you planning to do when you pass? General? Flats? Fridge work? You going all the way to Class 1?

Going all the well to class one, want to drive the artics.

Then its a matter of taking any work I can get, its going to hard to get that first job when most want a year or two of experience.

Its still early days, Once I've passed my theory and hazard perception (by end of this month) its then about finding a training school to do my practical, doing both back to back.

I have one back up if its hard to get work, the company my dad has been a driver at for over 30 years will give me Saturday Work, that will be using tippers. Could do that for a while still in current job so when I look full time I have some experience.

Any advice for me ?

Also I think I might be the only person who watched your "Trucking Vlog" from dartford to gravesend, because I'm really interested in being a HGV driver the video was interesting.

23, biologist, currently work at a phylogenomic sequencing center. I just wait for humble bundles and the holidays for cheap games.

Go with this place for training. They offer a residential course so you stay in a good local B&B.

http://www.truckdrivertraining.co.uk/

I used them for both my C and C+E, while they aren't the cheapest, the trainers there are the best in the country. You'll do you reverse for the test on the same ground you'll be doing the practise on. He offers both auto and manual for C and auto for artic and auto or manual for wagon and drag for C+E.

You'll want to get all your cards done before you sit the test that way you'll be ready for work as soon as you pass. You'll need your drivers card for the tacho and the blue CPC card, always carry that card. If you get a tug from VOSA you'll first get a £50 fine if you don't have it on you, the fine increases hugely after that.

I personally went and did the C first then did some work before going for C+E but I'm still waiting on my firm to put me into an artic, I'm told that it might be before the end of the month. Some argue that getting some experience on C will help you when you apply for C+E work.

I've also got my ADR so I can carry dangerous goods, its worth 27 hours of CPC training so I've only got 7 hours left to get before 2019.

You'll want to be very careful about doing driving work as second job, the regs will not allow you much freedom leaving you only legally able to work 1 or 2 days if that a week. If you work all week then you're only allowed to drive on a Saturday which leaves you with a reduced rest every two weeks. Plus you've got to record your other work on either a tacho disc or via manual entries on the digital tacho unit. Its more trouble than its worth in my opinion.

Age 25, reporter for my university's paper eight months out of the year, which is basically a full-time job guised under part-time pay, so I also work at a convenience store for a bit of extra dough. It's tiring, but it's proving to be a stepping stone and a good way to establish my portfolio. I'm just grateful for having a job in the field at any rate.

I never bother with full-priced purchases unless the game is one I've been highly anticipating. In Canada, we gotta pay $80, which is just too much. Fortunately there's a local rental store so I'm able to play the latest and greatest for a fraction of the price.

Aside from that? I just gun for deals.

46, Project Manager in Fire and Flood restoration. We deal with everything from Mrs Smith's burst pipe above her kitchen right up mass flooding events in factories. The job used to take me all over the world, we specialise in electro-mechanical restoration, but since taking the managers position I'm pretty much stuck in the UK.

With a wife, 8 year old twin girls, a mortgage and two dogs there's not a lot left for me but Keys sites help a lot and hardware upgrades come when I can save enough money up for them.

@clyde46: thanks for the advice, I'd have the flexibility to drop hours in my current job if need be, hopefully I get a job somewhere full time once I've passed. I was thinking of getting my full both rigid and artic one after the other, once I start applying for work I can still take on 7.5t jobs with the Class C+E licence to gain experience.

On the site you posted a link to, it looks good and its actually at the cheaper end of prices I've been quoted, one company quoted me over £3000 just for class 2, others between £1000 - £2500, some companies are just looking to rip you off.

You won't be getting ripped off with PSTT, trust me. It cost me more than average to get all my licences, failed the C once and the C+E twice. I will always recommend PSTT because of the support they offer people. Its one to one training in new, easy to drive vehicles with trainers who never shout at you, who give both praise and constructive criticism when needed. If you go to Trucknet and sign up, you'll get 10% off your training which is pretty cool.

When I passed I started with agencies which is very much hit and miss. Avoid work like Brakes and Bidvist like the plague. On those jobs you'll be doing more picking and lugging food crap around then driving. The pay is good for those jobs but the driver turn over is high. Palletline work sucks too, 20 to 30 drops a day, really awkward locations and pallets requiring the tail lift.

I'm really lucky where I am because we only deal with our own stuff, being a large shipping company. I very rarely get more than 6 drops in a day. You do get the odd tail lift job but its rare. My best job I had since I passed was on agency working for a small furniture company delivering their stuff. It was great! The office didn't have a clue so they left me to get on with it. Driving a little 7.5 puddle jumper with a sleeper box all over the country, talking to the customers about when they wanted their stuff. Doing deliverers at 9pm at night because it suited them. Only stopped working there because they found it cheaper to just put everything on the Pallex network.

@GoldenElementXL: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.. Yea, the aviation field is awesome but you do need to live in certain areas to get the best out of.. I live near one of the largest intersecting hubs for cargo transport plus an international airport so there's plenty of opportunities here

I'm 63 and i work at my local Walmart.

Funny you mention Bidvest, I know there job is shitty they deliver to my work 3 times per week. I work at Gala Bingo and we have a bigger Food offer than you might think, we order a lot of food all the time and I've spoken to many bidvest drivers who are pissed off with there work.

What happend on your failed tests ? is are very hard ? or did you have poor training before going to PSTT ?

I really hope I can pass first time, or at least pass my class 2 first time, so I can make more serious steps to getting out my current job.

My first time round, I went through a broker who sold me on this great course they had when in reality it turned out to be some second rate trainer in Leicester using old clapped out wagons. The trainer was horrible, stopping every 10 minutes for a wizz. I ended up knocking a cone over on the reverse so thats a instanta fail. On the way back I got a lecture from the trainer about how I didn't listen. I did pay for a retest with the broker but never went back. I forked out another £800 to do some more training and the test with PSTT and past first time with them. I failed my C+E first time around for driving over a curb because I was paying too much attention to not destroying the railing with my trailer. I never made it for my second test because of an accident I was held up in. Passed third time around with only 2 minors!

The test itself isn't hard per say but you can have a brilliant drive then fail on the turn before returning to the test centre. The whole thing is balanced on a knife edge. What you do on test and how you drive in the real world are poles apart. For example on medium roundabout, the examiner would expect you to sit in the right hand lane to take the third exit but in reality I'd take up both lanes to shut down the traffic behind you, driving defensively to protect those around you even if they don't know it. You have to learn to dominate the road, something that will only come to you the more you drive. You'll learn when you can use your size to your advantage and in most cases you'll need to do it to make progress because no one else will let you out. The other big thing that you'll become very aware off when you start driving for real is weight. When you are training you are using what they call "training weight" which is something like 3 tons worth for C depending on the size of the vehicle and its always bolted to the bed of the truck. When you get into the real world you'll be loading more than that and it won't be bolted down. You have to think about how much weight you have on and plan accordingly. You can't set off or slow down quickly when running with max weight so don't leave braking till the last minute other wise you might be picking up whatever has gone over in the back.

There are other things you'll have to learn but they are dependant on what area you go into. You won't be using spansets on tippers for example. You will have to learn the rules and regs though as these govern your day and if you fall foul of them it can land you in hot water. When you've passed, hit me up again and I'll walk you through the digial tacho if you want.

thanks man your advice has been helpful, I'll keep you updated.

37, teacher, musician. I have a photography side business and teach privately outside my career. I have a gaming slush fund to afford games.

I also don't buy many retail games anymore and instead spend my money on better, cheaper games. Pretty glorious turn of events actually. The great games are cheap and the bland ones are usually expensive. Go figure?

@Boddicker: thoughts and prayers to you brother... I hate that fucking disease.

Thanks, bro. I'm really impressed that there are so many educated professionals on this forum.

@Boddicker: we all assume that were 13 year old kids with no knowledge of the world. Lol.

Yep, lulz.

35, Hang drywall, mud and tape. average pay $60h canada hard work good pay.

Although I wouldn't say that such a small sample of results from an internet gaming forum is necessarily representative of gamers at large, it does go to show how different perception of a demographic can be from the reality of it. The results of this thread do seem to be pretty consistent with a lot of professional conducted surveys regarding the average age of gamers, though.

-Byshop

24. Lead Warehouse Technician in the cable industry. Pays decent, enough to cover my gaming needs.

28, Sony paid forum agent.

I'm actually 24 and work as a professional ghostbuster.