5 Ways to Tell You're Getting to Old to Play Video Games

wolfgrimdark

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Here is the article on cracked:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-to-tell-youre-getting-too-old-video-games/

For the record I am 46 and have been playing games since I had an old Apple 2E, as well as pen and paper. However I have always focused on RPG, RTS and the rare puzzle/adventure game (like Kings' Quest as an old exmaple).

Below is the list and my own views on them.

Its pretty good for amusement and some points I agreed with. A 5 point list is given. Its also fairly tongue-in-cheek.

#5. You Think Multiplayer is Bullshit
—> This doesn't apply to me as I happen to really enjoy multi-player, however only in an MMORPG versus something like Diablo or NWN. Course I play casual due to time restraints and lack of reflexes - I just can compete on that level.

#4. You Think Games Are Suddenly Too Long
—> Also doesn't apply but then I live alone with my two dogs and while very busy I am not as busy as someone married with kids. Plus I limit my games to just those I really want. So I tend to value a time sink where I can really get into a game. Still I agree that I am not big on empty fillers (like many MMO's are - the difference here is I also get to chat and group with others) so need to like the time sinks to buy into the longer game. I do know I no longer have the time I use to though - takes me months to finish a game that in the past I could do in a week.

#3. You Miss Game Storylines That Were Actually Compelling
—> For some reason I think many of the stories now are more compelling. Course I also don't really remember a lot of the older ones. Still most of my complaints with modern games is not the story but the game play and mechanics.

#2. You Think Originality is Dead
—> Originality has never once been an issue for me - in games, books, movies or anything. There is only one single factor in determining a good game in my mind, "Do I have fun playing", which for me is all that matters.

#1. You Miss When Games Used to be "All About Fun"
—> Hard one. But maybe I am simply not old enough yet as I still ahve fun playing games otherwise I wouldn't do it.

EDIT: wanted to add this quote as it was my favorite, in regards to compelling stories:

The older you get, the less elastic your imagination becomes, and the less able you are to fill in whatever gaps the game leaves in the narrative. It's why a toddler can open a birthday present and then immediately disregard the toy in favor of spending the next three hours playing with the box. If you see an adult doing that, suddenly it's time for an intervention.
 
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Compared to you I'm just a kid, I've only been playing RPGs for about 25 years ;).

The older you get, the less elastic your imagination becomes, and the less able you are to fill in whatever gaps the game leaves in the narrative. It's why a toddler can open a birthday present and then immediately disregard the toy in favor of spending the next three hours playing with the box. If you see an adult doing that, suddenly it's time for an intervention.

I love this quote, and I think it perfectly encapsulates the issue. Adults tend to lose their ability to find 'wonder' in their lives, and turn to alcohol or drugs to recapture the 'elasticity' spoken of in this quote. Aging happens, to all of us, and you can always take a break from gaming…when I was in college I hardly played at all, and then returned to it after graduation.

I think it's as simple as, if something is no longer fun, leave it on the shelf until/if you decide you'd like to revisit that hobby. Gaming is no exception. It's very hard to recapture that 'first time' childhood magic though.
 
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The older you get, the less elastic your imagination becomes, and the less able you are to fill in whatever gaps the game leaves in the narrative. It's why a toddler can open a birthday present and then immediately disregard the toy in favor of spending the next three hours playing with the box. If you see an adult doing that, suddenly it's time for an intervention.

This is spot on. I remember playing RPGs back in the 90s, when my imagination was quite a bit better than it is today. Playing a game was more than playing a game - I was *inside* the game and its world. I kept fantasising about how I'd live in that particular game world, what I'd do, where I'd go and so on and so forth. It all came to life in my head, far more than on the screen.

In a way, I miss those days.
 
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#5. You Think Multiplayer is Bullshit

False. Our selection of multiplayer or singleplayer have a lot more to do with whether or not you have an extrovert or introvert personality or whether or not you look into a written story or a social encounter. Also there's a distinct difference between multiplayer or singleplayer. One who shun multiplayer today most likely shunned multiplayer when they were a teenager. It's a fairly consistent trait that will not go away until the death of mankind despite what the market department say.

#4. You Think Games Are Suddenly Too Long

This most likely correlates with the increased responsibilities as an adult and is thus no surprise.

#3. You Miss Game Storylines That Were Actually Compelling

Perhaps true due to a third factor. The correlation is nostalgia. We remember what we said yes to and liked but not what we skipped or disliked. Stories in games such as Mass Effect or Uncharted are very strong where as storylines in games such as Zelda, Castlevania or Super Mario were almost non-existant. Only count the hits for the past 20-30 years though and you are most likely going to have more stories you liked than what was released the past 2-3 years.

#2. You Think Originality is Dead

I believe this is true, but it have somewhat been diminished with the birth of online downloads. Indie titles stand for all the originality today where as the corporative AAA titles look for reliable profit. 20 years ago people did clone eachother to cash in, there were plenty of DOOM-clones around and plenty of Diablo-clones as well. What you had then was cheaper production, a few guys could make a game, you didn't need a strong investment in state-of-the-art engines or voice actors to please reviewers. This lead to a wider production of genres and titles and there were profit in finding the next big (and original) hit.

#1. You Miss When Games Used to be "All About Fun"

Complete nostalgia. Fun is subjective. Boiled down to it you can try to apply psychology and see what get peoples emotions running when playing a game and then try to exploit that formula, which is something alot of business models do today. Some people just love repetitive gameplay, so give them that and they have fun. Some people strive for depth and something to think about, so give them that and they have fun. It's difficult to argue why Halo 3 is more fun than Quake, why Lotus Turbo Challenge is more fun than DIRT, why Fallout: New Vegas is more fun than Castlevania.
 
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Let's take some wrong assumptions about young players:

1. You strive for action and speed.
False. Whether or not you want blood-pumping, quick-paced action or invest time and thought into planning and strategy have more to do with your personality than your age. The same debate was held back when games such as Ultima faced games such as Commando, or when games such as Monkey Island competed with games such as DOOM. Some people prefer one over the other or mix between the two. Even today there are new players who would rather play something that encourages them to think before a game that doesn't, players who are going to be tomorrows tacticians and strategists.

2. You shun story and depth
False. People buttoned through cutscenes even back in the NES era and found attempts to go beyond buttonmashing to be boring and timewasting. Some titles such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and Mass Effect 2 still have a greater impact due to their storylines than their gameplay.

3. You shun a challenge
False. Walkthroughs and cheats were popular even back then in order to skip the challenge and far from every game required good reflexes, a fast mind and a patience of steel. Most games could be beaten in half an hour tops and were about learning the often repetitive levels that were made that way due to the limits of the hardware, not as a preferred choice.
 
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While I'm "only" 35, I've been playing games pretty much from the beginning. The first game I played was Pong in Atari game console in 1980. Then it was Vic-20, C-64, Amiga 500 and PC. I've never been a console player, as the dominating genres on PC have always interested me more, and I don't fancy the controls on consoles that much. I'm largely ignorant on console JRPG's, despite having tested them a few times.

The first RPG I played was the lightweight Times Of Lore on C-64, in 1988, but then it was Ultima V, Pool Of Radiance and Dungeon Master. I loved all those games, but frankly, I would never play them these days. Occasionally I have tested old games for fun, since many of them are freeware these days, and I find most of them to be unplayable. I'm used to so much better now. And I'm not talking about the graphics, but about the overall gameplay, emotional investment and the sense of immersion (And graphics do play a part in that).

Of the really old games, only Nethack still works for me. Due to it's letter-based graphics and simple gameplay, it never seems to get old. Much like you can still play an 80's version of Tetris, and it still works the same.

I think games are now better than they have ever been. Games like Mass Effect, Witcher and the (modded) Oblivion would have blown my brains out when I was a kid.

But as I get older, it's harder and harder to get excited about games.

The reason for this is that my REAL life is just much more exciting than it was as a teenager. As a teenager, many people have so much free time that it easily leads to boredom, and the wish-fulfillment fantasies of RPG's are an escape from that boredom. Moreover, RPG's provide an escape to a world where you can do whatever you want, where as your real life is restricted by your parents, by school, by friends you are stuck with, etc. I also read a lot more books then, and I watched a lot more movies and TV.

I'm almost never bored these days, as there is so much happening all the time. I have a greater control over my life than I did as teen, and I can do a lot of stuff that was out of my reach back then. Real life feels more like an adventure now, so I have lesser need for the virtual reality adventures.

…So yeah, I play much less. Only 3-4 titles a year. This year I have played Witcher 2, Two Worlds 2, Nehrim, and I will definitely buy Skyrim. I did test Deus Ex 3, but it didn't grab me after a couple of hours.
 
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By the way, can someone who played WoW tell me who this is? I like the artstyle.

90689.jpg
 
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Great article ! Absolutely great ! :lol:

Especially if you shut out the cynicism in it ! :lol:

The best, however, is imho under the sub-headline of "But the truth is ..."
 
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By the way, can someone who played WoW tell me who this is? I like the artstyle.

I expect the drawer to be Samwise (I don't know whether this is his real or his artistic name). This art style can be found in several Blizzard wallpapers as well.

He even has his own Wikipedia entry : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samwise_Didier
 
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Adults tend to lose their ability to find 'wonder' in their lives,

I agree, and I see in this partly the reason why some games are preferred to others.

Me, I managed somehow to retain my naivity within me, which mean I can still be immersed in things - and see wonders. But I'm not sure why I'm able to do this. Maybe it's because I'm a bit more sensitive than the norm ?

On the oher hand I do chose my "wonders", smehow. Some day, just sitting on a bench ans looking into a sunset is perfectly fine for me. I could just sit here for hours and wonder about The Earth, so to say.


I think that part of the problem is a kind of erosion of the own senses. It's like ... becoming so much used to something that it begins to lose its taste.

It's like ... eating Belgian Pralinés EVERY DAY.

The whole "wonder of taste" gets lost at one point. The pralinés become ... something like bread and butter. Everything special about them is gone.

And this is imho a problem of "relative luxury" as such. People who live ascetic have fewer items there, but they are also concentrating on these few things much more. It's ... as if a bar of chocolate becomes a fitting Birthday Present after WWII, especially here in Europe, where hunger reigned.

The ability to have LESS also - imho - gives you the chance to FOCUS on the fewer items much more - relish them much more. It's like as if ... You were out in the cold and were relishing the first few rays of the warming sun. This experience is *completely* different to the experience of the sun in the summer ! Or even in a desert ! - In a desert, on the other hand, something cold becomes much, much more valuable ...

I think the more poor people are - and the less they are influenced by the concepts of the modern "consume industry", the more happy they are. Because they have less which they can relish more.

And with "poor people" I don't mean people who are starving because of lack of food or having almost no money to survive ("too few to live, too much to die"), but I mean people who have nothing but less luxury.
Enough to live a normal live, but few or no luxury at all.
 
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I expect the drawer to be Samwise (I don't know whether this is his real or his artistic name). This art style can be found in several Blizzard wallpapers as well.

He even has his own Wikipedia entry : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samwise_Didier

Worked on it, but this info didn't really help. I know it's the same artwork as on the worldmap for Arathi Basin. I have never played WoW though.
 
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You know what the real problem with games today is? It's all about graphics and technology and flash, rather than fun. Whatever happened to simple, joyful games that you could just pick up and play? I remember playing Donkey Kong Country until I could hit those jumps with my eyes closed, circling back through the old levels to collect red 1-Up balloons. Over and over again, never getting tired of it.

Funny that he complains about games today being all about graphics and technology then references Donkey Kong Country as an example of a game focused on gameplay. DKC was marketed entirely on the fact that it was the first pre-rendered 3d game on a console. Really, if it didn't look as good as it was it would be just another 16bit platformer.

The rest of the article was entertaining however and I'm only 21.
 
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Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it's a specific character. I believe it simply represents a female mage in general.
 
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This is spot on. I remember playing RPGs back in the 90s, when my imagination was quite a bit better than it is today. Playing a game was more than playing a game - I was *inside* the game and its world. I kept fantasising about how I'd live in that particular game world, what I'd do, where I'd go and so on and so forth. It all came to life in my head, far more than on the screen.

In a way, I miss those days.

Yup. I remember my brother and I assigning personalities to all the charters in our Ultima IV - VI party. We built out entire personas based on monochrome sprites with less than 20 lines of dialogue, yet damn if they didn't seem as compelling to us as anything in BG2.
 
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In your first pic she has a pile of money in her right hand….
By the way I also liked her b... --- I mean artstyle.
 
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In your first pic she has a pile of money in her right hand….
By the way I also liked her b… —- I mean artstyle.

First pic was a mockery made for the article in first post.
Her bust looks a bit odd to me but the artstyle, face in particular, is actually very close to my own, except I often draw chibi style.
 
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