Gaming when you are old..

[kyrax12]

Feels bad man..

Heard that once you get over the age of 21, you will never be able to be really able to compete with adolescences in gaming just by physiology alone.

Seems that adolescences have better reaction time and coordination than us old folks.

This really bring me down.

Anyone here sad?

 

[Zenoth]

Just don't "compete" then, and simply enjoy games at your own pace. That or just tell yourself that you're still younger than people 10 years older than you, that's another way to see it. Personally it does not "bring me down", but then again I stopped being "competitive" in gaming since many years, unless grinding in MMORPGs for end-game gear is considered competing (I don't consider it as such). The last game I really tried to be competitive in was UT2004 way back in... well, around 2004 and 2005 or so.

 

[kyrax12]

Just don't "compete" then, and simply enjoy games at your own pace. That or just tell yourself that you're still younger than people 10 years older than you, that's another way to see it. Personally it does not "bring me down", but then again I stopped being "competitive" in gaming since many years, unless grinding in MMORPGs for end-game gear is considered competing (I don't consider it as such). The last game I really tried to be competitive in was UT2004 way back in... well, around 2004 and 2005 or so.

Well I tend to play a lot of competitive games like Starcraft 2 and LoL so you really have to compete with them.

In ladder and such.

 

[Midwayman]

I'm ranked 20th in Illinois for accuracy in bf4. I'm 38.

 

[purbeast0]

i'm a huge fighting game fan and this isn't true in the fighting gaming community. the guys who are in their late 20's/early 30's are actually the top dogs in the majority of the major games. they were the top dogs back when they were younger too and still are. and those games require very fast reflexes as well as impeccable execution. that said, there are still some newcomers who are good, but the older ones aren't really falling off either.

 

[tential]

My father in his 50s was top 100 in the XBL leaderboard of Fifa.

I'm 24 and I have no issue "competing" in ladder. I'm playing with a horrible 150 ms handicap in Dota 2 and still regularly stomp people. If I was playing on a low response time monitor it wouldn't even be fair. I'm just patiently waiting til I get a new 70 inch + LED HDTV with low response time or a projector though.

I find the next gen gamers to be actually worse. I'm finding a lot of these new gen kids aren't used to losing at all. They grew up with the "Everyone is a winner" mentality so losing drives them insane. I've had a lot of recent experiences with children from babysitting and such and the amount of kids that instantly quit when they lose at something is very high. Had my younger cousin here and he just cried when he picked up a new ipad game and it was too hard and refused to ever play it again and demanded it be removed from his ipad! I remember being a kid and sitting there and dying repeatedly in games and still playing nonstop until I figured out the secret(or just got better at the game lol) til I won.

I wouldn't worry about competing with kids on League of Legends/SC2. The League of Legends playerbase is horrible at the game. With 0 knowledge of what 90% of champions do in League of Legends I still got to Gold 1/Plat 5 easily/quickly. The playerbase of that game though is so pathetic though that playing it isn't really worth it to me. So many kids that will instantly quit after first blood or quit because "my hero didn't get fed!!!!!"

I'm not sure if it's because LoL is a free to play or what, but the playerbase is horrible compared to WC3 Dota. The "When you get older you get worse at gaming" I think is mostly a myth. Sometimes the only reason the younger gamers are good is because they can put 1000s of hours more into it than you can since they only are going to school. They also are able to 5 man stack teams better because they put more time into the game and have a larger group of friends to play with.

 

[Artorias]

As your reaction time goes down, you need to start using your brains and be more strategic. That's where you can gain an advantage.

 

[xantub]

there's already a big thread about it http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2371405 (guess lots of people are getting old recently )

 

[gothamhunter]

Top player of TF2, and over 21.

 

[codyray10]

Top player of TF2, and over 21.

Are you saying you are the top player in TF2?!

 

[Lil Frier]

I agree that intelligence balances out reaction time after a while. I'm about to be 24, but I can play games just fine (well on console) against kids, simply because kids are less-willing to play intelligently. They like to run around and such, while I'm a lot more deliberate in my style of play.

 

[nurturedhate]

Only 31 but I still destroy people, especially in BF4 and the like.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Seems that adolescences have better reaction time and coordination than us old folks.

I don't think it is their reaction time so much as their free time that matters. While my reaction times might have decreased by a few tenths of a second that is more then made up for by my more then 3 decades of video game experience. What I can't compete with is a teenagers 18 hours of gaming a day. Even if I had the free time to spend that much time gaming, after 4-5 hours in front of a monitor I’m tired of video games and want to go do something else.

 

[cronos]

What I'm noticing as going way down as I'm getting older (40 now) is not really the skills but mostly my 'care level'. I find that I just DGAF anymore about being competitive/skillful or any of that stuff. I just don't care.

Of course the result is I don't bother to try as hard in the games I play (which consequently means I'm not 'good'), or even sometimes I go as far as avoiding the hard stuff and play in easy mode or find easy games to play. I still enjoy the games I play a lot, it's just a different kind of enjoyment.

 

[Remobz]

Only 31 but I still destroy people, especially in BF4 and the like.

I think this thread should be for people over 35 years old. Being 31 is still pretty young.

Now as for me (40 years old) I am in one of those weird categories in that I started playing computers games at 25 and stopped at 36 more or less. I keep saying I want to get back into it but real life has me soooo occupied that I have no clue when I will get a gaming computer again. If I do get one, then I doubt that I would be competitive again.

Or should I ask why should someone my age be concerned about being competitive in a computer game?

 

[futurefields]

Feels bad man..

Heard that once you get over the age of 21, you will never be able to be really able to compete with adolescences in gaming just by physiology alone.

Seems that adolescences have better reaction time and coordination than us old folks.

This really bring me down.

Anyone here sad?

Nope.

 

[pontifex]

I was playing Takedown a few weeks ago with my friend and some young kid joined the game. I was still alive and everyone else was dead so he was spectating me. The kid said "this kid has insane reflexes" and I wanted to say "this kid is 33 years old" but I didn't.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

I'm ranked 20th in Illinois for accuracy in bf4. I'm 38.

I Will have to see where I'm at when I get home.

 

[you2]

There was an article that said that a lot of 'little OLD ladies' play FPS and love to a-whack em youngsters with glee... When I read it - it sounded geninue enough though naturally I can't prove it to be the case (the actual focus was on how computer games was helping the retired elders keep mentally active).

 

[BSim500]

"Heard that once you get over the age of 21, you will never be able to be really able to compete with adolescences in gaming just by physiology alone."

LOL. 21 isn't old. Most athletes peak in their 20's - many in their 30's. It's down to practise, not age. When you hit 20-30, you have other hobbies, have a full-time job, start a family, etc, and have less time to spend practising. Having said that, I'm 35 and can hold my own in twitch gaming still.

"I find the next gen gamers to be actually worse. I'm finding a lot of these new gen kids aren't used to losing at all. They grew up with the "Everyone is a winner" mentality so losing drives them insane. I've had a lot of recent experiences with children from babysitting and such and the amount of kids that instantly quit when they lose at something is very high. Had my younger cousin here and he just cried when he picked up a new ipad game and it was too hard and refused to ever play it again and demanded it be removed from his ipad! I remember being a kid and sitting there and dying repeatedly in games and still playing nonstop until I figured out the secret(or just got better at the game lol) til I won. "

^ This +1000! Yeah I've seen that too. Reminds me of one hugely egotistical "Battlefield Commander" who was screaming orders at people twice his age, who's voice hadn't even broken yet. LOL. Seriously, when you're +21, you're better off playing against those your own age. Not all teens are like that, but there is often a "maturity gap" there (putting it politely). :biggrin:

Bottom line is kyrax - gaming is about having fun. If you're not having fun, you need to change something (single vs multi-player, a change in genre, more mature opponent, different paced game, etc). And you're only as young as you feel...

 

[nurturedhate]

I'm with a lot of you here, it is completely a time issue. In my young 20s I did not have any real responsibilities outside of showing up for work. If I wanted to play for twenty straight hours I could. For most of us we take on more responsibility as we get older and that leaves less time for games.

I have noticed though when playing bf4 I now need a round or so to warm up and there are a lot of times where I only have time for a round or two.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

I still compete but now I get bored after about an hour or so.

 

[JamesV]

I'm 43 and I destroy kids in shooters. A poster above got it right when they mentioned 'experience'. I can't count the times I've been accused of cheating by some shrill voiced kid; I know I'm playing well when they stop playing the game and simply try to hunt me down (and I'm waiting ).

Only thing is, I've played deathmatch to death... it is not fun to me anymore, regardless of the game, and nearly every shooter that has a team gameplay mode, is really deathmatch in disguise. I wish for a BF 1942 style game without unlocks, or an ET to pop up again.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I've always been on the poor side on gaming cs humans. Just play and enjoy, there is no need to be the best its a game it should be fun.
Anyone up for a TF2 fight night young vs old. Old will be blue team, less fire in our bellies.

 

[DigDog]

I'm 43 and I destroy kids in shooters. A poster above got it right when they mentioned 'experience'. I can't count the times I've been accused of cheating by some shrill voiced kid; I know I'm playing well when they stop playing the game and simply try to hunt me down (and I'm waiting ).

Only thing is, I've played deathmatch to death... it is not fun to me anymore, regardless of the game, and nearly every shooter that has a team gameplay mode, is really deathmatch in disguise. I wish for a BF 1942 style game without unlocks, or an ET to pop up again.

same same