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Classic Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Discussing Changes For Older Videogame Players? 46

Posted by simoniker from the please-note-sarcasm dept.
Thanks to GameCritics for their feature discussing how a person's videogame experiences change as they get older. Talking with gamers as old as 30 (!), they ask if reflexes are dulled ("The only time I notice slowed reflexes is when I stop playing twitch games for while, which is pretty rare"), consider shifts in preferred genres ("Now that I'm older, I really don't have the time to play long, drawn-out games anymore"), and discuss how gaming affects their relationships ("I'm pretty single right now so I can't answer, but my email address is listed on the bio page. I just wanted people to know that.")
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Discussing Changes For Older Videogame Players? More

Discussing Changes For Older Videogame Players?

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  • Old, I Dunno ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Mad_Fred ( 530564 ) <[fredrik] [at] [bjoreman.com]> on Sunday November 23, 2003 @06:23AM (#7541333) Homepage
    Am I the only one who feels a bit weird when reading something like this and see 30-something being considered old? It can't be that hard to find some older gamers, and that would seem much more interesting to me. After all, people who already had children of their own before they even heard of computer games should have quite different insights into the topic.

    I keep thinking of a friend's mom here. She's a retired mother of four, owns three generations of Nintendo consoles and has played through most adventure games (the Zelda and Myst kinds) she can get her hands on. There's an interesting interview subject, and a slightly more unique one too I'd think.

    • Re:Old, I Dunno ... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 )
      i wonder how much of it's just a social issue, they don't do it because they're not excepted to do it(or don't want to do it because it's a "young people thing"). however all this might change when the new generations reach those ages(of retirement), though maybe the old people now nowadays could learn to enjoy them for the sake of good stories as well.. i mean if they can watch bold & beautiful everyday they could pretty well play(and watch somebody play) some (even more) simplified sims type of game.
    • Am I the only one who feels a bit weird when reading something like this and see 30-something being considered old?

      Yes, and the problem lies in the conventional belief that video games are for children. 30-something is only "old" if you think games are for 12-year-olds.

    • Re:Old, I Dunno ... (Score:2, Informative)

      by Worminater ( 600129 )
      30 old? haha, yea.

      My CS clan has a number of old farts in it... and let me stress the "farts" part;)

      Let me just look through whos in the irc chat right now... ok, first name is im assuming around 28 years old, has a nice kegerator in his house. Second nam eon the list... ulp, i think this ones 27 or so. Lez see... next is 20... then me(20..) then a 16 year old, and then a 15 year odl, both whos father plays and is in the clan, considering that, i would put him at least 40 i'm assuming. We also have 3-
    • It should be clarified that the article is a discussion with the site's official critics, of which the oldest are barely 30. It's not an issue of finding 40+ year old gamers, of which there are many; it's just an editorial with the game critic's opinions.

  • Pretty single? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ianoo ( 711633 ) on Sunday November 23, 2003 @06:25AM (#7541337) Journal
    He's "pretty single"? If he's single at age 30 and has pasty skin and overdeveloped wrists (from all that staying in and playing games) I'd suggest he's ugly single!

  • To be older than 30(!) is not that bad (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hbackert ( 45117 ) on Sunday November 23, 2003 @06:46AM (#7541379) Homepage

    The article makes it sound like no one older than 30(!) can enjoy playing computer games...I'm even older...

    Anyway, my experience is, as it's also written in the article, once you work, you have more money but less time. Once you have family and children, there's less money again, and even less time. But friends of mine used to do small LAN parties (50% of the time playing games, the rest was spent by BBQing, eating, drinking, talking) and they were older than 30(!). Some even had children. You don't do this every week, but once in 2 months is fine. And it was much fun.

    Also once you get older, you don't play games to win or tell your friends you finished a game faster than they did. Playing for play's sake.

    And yes, I play my GameboyAdvance in the subway when I have nothing else to do. And I am rarely the only one doing that. It's nice to live in Japan :-)

    • Re:To be older than 30(!) is not that bad (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Angry Toad ( 314562 ) on Sunday November 23, 2003 @10:24AM (#7541907)

      I'm 39 and still play games whenever I have time - which is a lot less frequently now with parenting, work, and all. I don't anticipate ever stopping completely, simply because they're fun. Why should I stop just because I've hit a particular year?

      I do notice that my reactions aren't quite as good as many clearly younger players - I'm pretty consistently in the middle of the pack in an Unreal Tournament game, for instance. There seems to be a level about which I'm unlikely to move now. On the other hand that means I'm consistenly whipping the ass of at least half the people younger than me as well :)

      One type of game I've dropped entirely is long RPG-type games. I just plain don't have the time for them, and the work/reward ratio of spending five hours hack&slashing just to get my little blob of pixels to go up a level does not seem worth it to me. I'd rather play with my kids.

      • I'm 33, still singleish, and between working and dating I've found my time for gaming has gone way down. I think that's a given at this age, but I find, unlike you, I opt for the longer rpg type games.

        I get a great deal of time out of one game, spreading it out into a couple hour at a time chunks over several weeks, and it winds up saving me a ton of cash compared to back when I went through a couple of games a week. Then again, these are always the sorts of games I've enjoyed. /shrug.

        -H
    • > once you work, you have more money but less time
      You know:
      • When you are young, you have time and energy, but no money
      • When adult, you have energy and money, but no time
      • When old, you have money, time, but no energy.
      Such is life.. :-(

  • Priorities (Score:2, Insightful)

    by vigilology ( 664683 )
    As you get older your priorities change. You start to see the world in a different light. At the moment I'm "between jobs". You'd think I'd have plenty of time to play the games that I want to. I have, but I don't. I don't because I feel it's more important to spend that precious time on gaining the skills needed to get another job. Only then will I have real time to play games. Oh, the ignorance of youth.
    • I just had surgery on Friday.

      I've got 10 days of recovery where I am forced to sit on my ass. Good thing I went out and bought 4 new games before surgery!

      The point is - yes, you are right. If you are 'older' and unemployed, you need to be out there looking for a job, not playing games. But occasionally, you are in a position where playing games fits right into your schedule.

      I wonder if this will be my last big hurrah of video game play...

  • Great quote. (Score:5, Funny)

    by moonboy ( 2512 ) on Sunday November 23, 2003 @08:15AM (#7541554)
    "I'm pretty single right now so I can't answer, but my email address is listed on the bio page. I just wanted people to know that."

    I love it. That's sure to get him a few dates at least ;-)
  • This [megatokyo.com] is what happens when you put l33t gamers in front of a dating sim.

  • it's more casual after 30. Less gaming, more doing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Selecter ( 677480 ) on Sunday November 23, 2003 @09:06AM (#7541650)
    I'm 40, and still enjoy Battlefield 1942/Desert Combat. I really dont care to play anything else. When I was younger I played every single quality FPS I could get my hands on. Doom, Quake I, Some of the quality DOS based games like Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, too. ( which was awesome for it's time )

    As time goes by, gaming is less and less important to me, the same way that building my own machine and futzing around with op systems is. Been there, done that, over and over. Now I just want a machine that gets out of my way and makes it easy to do things. Had a Mac but sold it becuase it was DOG ASS slow compared to my Windows box. Now that the G5 is out I'm thinking about the Mac again. It was really easy to do quality digital photography on the Mac.

    I'd rather have a computer that helps me in other area of life instead of just being a hobby into and of itself these days.

  • I know that as I've gotten older I've moved more into certain genres and such.

    I started playing games at 5, I'm now 20.

    A lot of my tastes have changed in the last 3 years.

    I never used to play 1st person shooters, now I play a few, mostly unreal series.
    I had a thing for 'craft (Starcraft, Warcraft) games and other RTS but I've seemed to have lost interest in that genre.

    However, my affinity for platformers and RPGs (pretty much all Squaresoft ones) hasn't really gone anywhere.

    Oh, and in the last year my
    • I'm pretty much in the same timeframe, but my tastes have been going the other way. I used to play a lot of zelda and the occasional RPG, plenty of platformers... lots of games that took forever to complete. Now I don't have nearly as much time and I've been enjoying 5-minute action games a lot. I play Ikaruga, Border Down, and Sega Arcade Gallery a lot these days.

      It seems as I should be slowing down, I'm picking up faster and faster games. Then again, maybe it's just the company I keep. Nevertheless

  • LSS (Score:1, Insightful)

    by 6pak ( 687010 )
    with people as old as 30 (!) still playing games, developers should probably start thinking about games that can run on a life-support-system platform... yeeez
  • I play computer games instead of watching TV. There are a few good shows and programs, but most is crap. So why watch? Sometimes I buy, borrow or rent a DVD and I watch the news, but that's basically it.
    Often, when I come home from work, I feel mentally exhausted. A good way to empty my mind is to play a computer game. But i do not want to use the grey fluff between my ears, so it's mostly FPS for me then.
    When I was still at high school and later at University, I used to prefer games which had long stor

  • I agree on the "old" thing... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jermyjerm ( 705338 ) on Sunday November 23, 2003 @12:59PM (#7542674) Homepage
    They ask a 23 year old about physical changes that might keep him from playing games... that's just absurd. I'm 22, and judging by the fact that I've witnessed people as old as 40 or 50 (so ancient!!) still able to use their hands like a regular young person, I don't see any major changes altering the way I play games in the near future. But seriously, judging by the title I was hoping they found gamers aged 60+ who might have to worry about joint problems and waning eye sight in their future. I've played games my whole life, and I don't see that stopping any time soon. I often wonder if I'll be held back by such issues, and I wonder if game companies will accomodate older gamers in the future with larger controllers (xbox 2,3,etc will already have this covered) and other devices to help them play comfortably.

    • But seriously, judging by the title I was hoping they found gamers aged 60+ who might have to worry about joint problems and waning eye sight in their future.

      My mom still played red alert and rayman when she was 61, no joint-problems there. Her reflexes weren't as fast as those of younger players, but if you adjust the gamespeed accordingly, that's not a problem. My dad played Duke Nukem a lot in his 60s, but never managed the endboss. He'd call my mother to finish that one of for him.

  • It's called developing taste (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Kris_J ( 10111 ) * on Sunday November 23, 2003 @05:35PM (#7543965) Homepage Journal
    As a kid you'll play every crappy game just like you'll watch every crappy sitcom. As your experience grows and you're exposed to more and more good stuff you start to reject the bottom of the barrel.

    Also, you learn what the warning signs of crap are and you don't even give it a chance.

    • You always have to be careful with those warning signs of crap though. I have at least a couple of good friend who think they know what those are and are horribly mistaken. Even if you are near positive you know those signs, at least get a second opinion.

    • Not to mention that you start -buying- games when you are older and have regular employment. Once you start paying for games instead of pirating them, you have to make choices about whether it's worth laying down actual funds to get the game.

      That's speculation of course, I've never pirated anything *ahem*
    • Also, you learn what the warning signs of crap are and you don't even give it a chance.

      As a 32 year-old, I wish I had known that I had developed this "crap-detection" skill, because I somehow managed to buy Lionheart.

  • I'm 31.5 years old, and until recently I have still played competitive 1v1 1st person shooters. (Quake 3, Half-Life, Wolfenstein, Tron 2.0)

    I've now stopped playing in competitions due to time constraints, as I've mastered accuracy, timing and control. (Can do rocket to rail jump on q3dm6) I also still play RTS games as well. (Warcraft III). But also love Morrowind, NWN type games.

    I find however that my reflexes do not improve so much anymore, and I do not master new tricks as easily. I'm still a reasonabl

    • I find however that my reflexes do not improve so much anymore, and I do not master new tricks as easily.

      I've noticed this as well. I'm nearly 30 and I've found that some of my favorite old games are a lot harder now. I sometimes feel like I'm cheating my way through games now. Getting past a part, saving, getting past another part, saving.

      I still have my NES hooked up, but I'm not able to just zip through SMB1,2 and 3 like I used to.
      • Just a little background:

        In Quake there is what originated as an anomaly in the physics/client-server control subsystems. It allows one to be able to move around at up to 3 times the speed of a normal player. It involves fluid continuous precice movement of the mouse and strafe-control and jumping at the same time. (I'm only able to achieve 90% of the top) This is important for controling the resources of a map in a 1v1 match. Needless to say it's non-trivial to master, and intentionally left in in all the
  • I'm 30+ and I Own all in The Half-Life mod 'Day of Defeat'. I stopped playing regularly because I can't find good competition any more.

    Dolemite
    _____________________
  • Please, 30 is not "old" by any means.

    These guys should interview one of the guys at my workplace. He is over 50, married with a full-grown son, and is one of the most hardcore gamers I have ever seen. He has a house full of consoles, many of which I've never even heard of, and has "war stories" dating back to before I, as a considerably younger gamer, even HAD video games. And needless to say his reflexes, interest, etc. have not waned one bit. He's awesome, and could likely kick my ass at just about any g
  • I had a big problem going from SNES to N64, dreamcast or playstation. The multiple buttons and 3d perspective really made games more difficult and confusing. The perspectives and graphics weren't good enough to trick my brain into thinking that way yet. Also being out of school and employeed leaves me with less time to actually play these days so my skill level and reflexes aren't anywhere near what they were when I was in school.

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