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As an 'older gamer' (a stately 31 years of age) I sometimes feel that I am in a bit of a minority amongst all you young things. Does age make a difference when you are a gamer?
How old are you, and how does growing older make a difference when you're playing computer games?
How old are you, and how does growing older make a difference when you're playing computer games?
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You're the sex fiend here.
You seduced a "35 year old mother of two" after she showed you her piccies, and you cybered her for over an hour.
Disgusting little man
You seduced a "35 year old mother of two" after she showed you her piccies, and you cybered her for over an hour.
Disgusting little man
Cyber-whatnow?
You want to talk sex to me?
You want to talk sex to me?
If you want to name yourself after a character I created in order to pursue cyber sex with people in yahoo pickup lounges, then by all means take that nick.
Personally, I'm beyond all that.
Personally, I'm beyond all that.
blah blah blah
Flanders wrote:
> Ok then IB - I dont think I will agree with that one though !
so you're saying that just because we play games, we don't open our minds at the expense of our senses?
good.
> Ok then IB - I dont think I will agree with that one though !
so you're saying that just because we play games, we don't open our minds at the expense of our senses?
good.
The Playman wrote:
> How old are you
35
> how does growing older make a difference when
> you're playing computer games?
Ooh, essay type question...
When I started out with a ZX81, paying £4.99 for the privilege of having your new game arrive on a cassette-tape in a brown jiffy bag was a lot of money. So I tended to play my games very throughly, hour after hour, until they were beaten. Everything was new, games were getting better and better on a weekly basis, I was innocent to the writing styles of the magazines (I didn't realise back then that review scores were based a lot on how much the games publisher spent on entertaining the reviewer) and platforms were few and far between, so there weren't console wars as such until the BBC, Commodore, Sinclair and Amiga all went head to head. The arcades were a treasure trove of graphical amazement, and regularly visited with a fistful of 10p pieces.
Now I'm 35 and have a larger disposable income, my games collection consists of 26 PS2 games and 56 Dreamcast games. I tend to have a quick blast on one game, get bored, and turn to another. There's very few games that now grab my attention enough to play full time. Nowadays you can literally play games full-time, because they never end (e.g. Planetarion, Tactical Ops, Quake, Phantasy Star, Gran Turismo etc.). I'm more cynical now about game reviews and tend to buy using previous experience of a particular publisher or developer (Square rock, so do Take2 Interactive and Rockstar, but they all still make the odd mistakes). We're down to 3 main consoles (XBox, PS2 and Gamecube) vs PC Online/Offline gaming, and the disposable income and lifestyle which I lead lends me to play more PC Online games nowadays (e.g. Legend of Mir), due to the community spirit that these games offer.
So the main difference that being older makes is that I have the opportunity to play more games. This reduces my gaming skill in that there's probably quite a few kids out there who could beat me at Metal Gear Solid 2 rankings because that's one of the few games they have, whereas I tend to dabble in a lot of games and don't hone my skills as much as I used to.
Strangely enough, my favourite genre has never changed, I've always gone for RPGs, so the Adventurer/Explorer part of me never really grew up. The other difference is girls. When I was a kid playing The Hobbit on the Spectrum 48k the chances were I wouldn't get too distracted by girls. Nowadays I don't think twice about levelling up my characters on Final Fantasy X when I get a more alluring offer from the girlfriend.
Other things that class you as an older gamer:
The word 'retrogaming' has appeal
There is drool on your joypad
Your nurse has to load the games for you
You long for a dancemat compatible with a zimmerframe
You keep your Gameboy by the Stannah stairlift
There's a glass of water next to your PS2 for your teeth
You get annoyed when Meals on Wheels interrupt a gaming session
You've written a letter to the Daily Mail regarding State of Emergency
You can't concentrate for as long as you used to and drift off
What was the question again?
> How old are you
35
> how does growing older make a difference when
> you're playing computer games?
Ooh, essay type question...
When I started out with a ZX81, paying £4.99 for the privilege of having your new game arrive on a cassette-tape in a brown jiffy bag was a lot of money. So I tended to play my games very throughly, hour after hour, until they were beaten. Everything was new, games were getting better and better on a weekly basis, I was innocent to the writing styles of the magazines (I didn't realise back then that review scores were based a lot on how much the games publisher spent on entertaining the reviewer) and platforms were few and far between, so there weren't console wars as such until the BBC, Commodore, Sinclair and Amiga all went head to head. The arcades were a treasure trove of graphical amazement, and regularly visited with a fistful of 10p pieces.
Now I'm 35 and have a larger disposable income, my games collection consists of 26 PS2 games and 56 Dreamcast games. I tend to have a quick blast on one game, get bored, and turn to another. There's very few games that now grab my attention enough to play full time. Nowadays you can literally play games full-time, because they never end (e.g. Planetarion, Tactical Ops, Quake, Phantasy Star, Gran Turismo etc.). I'm more cynical now about game reviews and tend to buy using previous experience of a particular publisher or developer (Square rock, so do Take2 Interactive and Rockstar, but they all still make the odd mistakes). We're down to 3 main consoles (XBox, PS2 and Gamecube) vs PC Online/Offline gaming, and the disposable income and lifestyle which I lead lends me to play more PC Online games nowadays (e.g. Legend of Mir), due to the community spirit that these games offer.
So the main difference that being older makes is that I have the opportunity to play more games. This reduces my gaming skill in that there's probably quite a few kids out there who could beat me at Metal Gear Solid 2 rankings because that's one of the few games they have, whereas I tend to dabble in a lot of games and don't hone my skills as much as I used to.
Strangely enough, my favourite genre has never changed, I've always gone for RPGs, so the Adventurer/Explorer part of me never really grew up. The other difference is girls. When I was a kid playing The Hobbit on the Spectrum 48k the chances were I wouldn't get too distracted by girls. Nowadays I don't think twice about levelling up my characters on Final Fantasy X when I get a more alluring offer from the girlfriend.
Other things that class you as an older gamer:
The word 'retrogaming' has appeal
There is drool on your joypad
Your nurse has to load the games for you
You long for a dancemat compatible with a zimmerframe
You keep your Gameboy by the Stannah stairlift
There's a glass of water next to your PS2 for your teeth
You get annoyed when Meals on Wheels interrupt a gaming session
You've written a letter to the Daily Mail regarding State of Emergency
You can't concentrate for as long as you used to and drift off
What was the question again?
Ok then IB - I dont think I will agree with that one though !
Osama Bin Laden is not only a living legend, he is the saviour of mankind. And terrorism is the only real modern mechanism for effective change in the way society thinks.
As gamers I expect you all to accept my somewhat controversial view.
As gamers I expect you all to accept my somewhat controversial view.
My dad used to play Pac Man and Quake, and we used to have contests. But that was years ago. Now he only uses computers for programming, also in his spare time. Boring...
It doesn't matter how old you are when you want to start gaming. Gamers are much more interesting and can accept controversial views easier than those who aren't.
It doesn't matter how old you are when you want to start gaming. Gamers are much more interesting and can accept controversial views easier than those who aren't.
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