Are MMO gamers aging out of the genre?

In a recent report, Resident Evil developer Capcom claimed that its playerbase's average age is inching upward and its core users are in their late 30s and 40s, making for the "increasing possibility that some percentage of the existing users will outgrow games altogether."

The Resident Evil games aren't MMOs, of course, but journalists and commenters have been suggesting the same pattern for the MMORPG genre for years as a way to explain everything from the rise of "accessible" MMOs to the reduction of grindy time-consuming gameplay to themes seemingly catering to those darn kids on our lawn.

Perhaps armchair demographers are wrong and the future holds the promise of retirement homes filled with gaming rigs and World of Warcraft IV. What do you think -- are classic MMO gamers slowly aging out of the genre? Is MMO gaming something we "outgrow," or is it something we're ultimately pushed away from?

TH