Yeah I get that too. :laugh:

What I hate is when my mates talk about my gaming habits as if I'm committing a crime against humanity.

I'd say the games I play have changed, fewer adventure games, shooters and platformers, more world creation, RPGs and strategy.

I just spent 2 hours conquering Morocco and finally taking Provence back from Naples. What exactly am I expected to do with my free time? Watch asinine crap on TV, get drunk or something? That sounds more like stuff for younger people. Hell, my gaming has more in common with old people who play Chess and stuff. Plus it's much more fun.

Gaming isn't something like playing tag. It's a universal entertainment activity like soccer or reading or football. Just as both children and advlts play soccer, both children and advlts play video games if they enjoy it. It isn't a matter of "you're too old", it's a matter of "Do I enjoy it?" As you grow older, some things, you don't enjoy anymore. But gaming, I haven't met anybody who liked gaming as a child but hated it as an advlt.

Me, I have an older cousin that's about 29 years old, working in a hospital laboratory and loves playing games and a cousin who isn't even out of elementary school yet and loves games. Because games have such a diverse genre(Mario to Team Fortress 2, Sonic the Hedgehog to Call of Duty), gamers are of all different ages. Me, I don't really consider myself a hardcoe gamer. I play games but only as a recreational activity...

Because killing Legionaries in Fallout New Vegas is a very relaxing activity.

I do everything in that article, and I'm 14. Must be aging fast. > _ >...........

Or maybe I just have good taste.

I read the article earlier today and I disagree.

#5. You Think Multiplayer is [censored]
- I guess I'm not too old, but I will always like to play with friends. Multiplayer has been there since the beginning of video games (Pong anyone?). Sure, since it went primarily online, it opened the realm to play with virtually anyone in the world so you're more prone to play with people you would otherwise never want to converse with, but if done properly, multiplayer is a great experience. Hell, back when I played a lot of Counter Strike: Source, we had a guy in our clan who was in his 60s. I highly doubt he thought multiplayer was [censored].

#4. You Think Games Are Suddenly Too Long
- Games are almost never too long. Sure, if they add in nonsense that makes the game longer than it actually is, then I call shenanigans, but if they make the game longer to flesh out the story or add in a level that incorporates a fun element of gameplay, go for it.

#3. You Miss Game Storylines That Were Actually Compelling
- There are still storylines that are compelling. Nostalgia definitely tweaks what we thought of games and their elements. Sure, FFVII's story was good but it wasn't groundbreaking. Hell, FEAR's story line is halfway decent compared to other FPSs.

#2. You Think Originality is Dead
- I do kinda think that, but everything has always been some sort of remake of something else. Every year or two, a game will come out that will improve or innovate a small idea in a genre, but the core of it will be the same.

#1. You Miss When Games Used to be "All About Fun"
- Games have always been "all about fun". Games will always be "all about fun". For me, at least.

I agree with you, and find that there's probably lots of ways I could have phrased the things I said in the OP. xD

In any case, I personally am finding that lately games have been "dumbed down" in the past few years. I don't know about here, but in the Skyrim thread, the term "dumbed down" is used to describe almost anything that has been axed between Morrowind to Skyrim. But I'm very sincere when I say that I feel that games with linear story lines don't hold as much substance as they once did. Take the Spyro games for example. They started out as a game with a linear story line but you had the freedom to roam around and do as you pleased and the battling was more along the lines of good natured comic mischief. Then, after Year of the Dragon, they turned it into a battle-and-go game, made Spyro less intelligent and made his partner, Sparx the dragonfly, a smart-ass instead of a cute and witty sidekick.

And the Banjo-Kazooie they made for the Xbox was just a complete and utter shame. A disgrace.

Perhaps I'm not getting too old for the video games, but rather, they're just taking turns that don't suit my taste. Maybe I feel like I'm getting old because it genuinely makes me sad.

Not my grandparents.


I don't think the article is really about hardcoe nostalgia. I think it's making fun of hardcoe nostalgia. It's about the way your perspective changes as you get older. That's what the whole "the reality" sections at the end of each entry are alluding to in the article.

When I was younger stories seemed more compelling because I wasn't as jaded. The "I've seen this story before over and over again" phenomenon becomes more common as I get older because...well...I've seen more stories and I'm more sensitive to repetition and predictability. Same goes for movies. My nephew will tell me about some "awesome movie" and I'll say, "that story's been done to death, and better." Then I'll rattle off a bunch of nearly-identical movies that he's never heard of.

My perception of time has changed a lot as well. I'm not interested in playing what is essentially the same game over and over again because I'm busy. There's no such thing as "killing time" or "being bored." I have a backlog of things to get done, other time obligations, and I try to have some semblance of a social life as well. I have to find time to play games, so when I manage to sneak in some gaming time I want an interesting and new experience, not a re-hash of another game I've already played a hundred times or endless DLC that's just more of the same stuff tacked on. I'm not content to spend hundreds of hours ranging a huge game world killing the same zombie so I can loot another glass dagger and a silver dinner plate. My "compelling thing happening per hour" requirement has increased. There's nothing wrong with any of these things, but as I get older and busier I have less and less interest in them.

Multiplayer games have similar issues for me. My friends are busy too, so it's hard enough to schedule time to meet up for a drink to catch up much less to schedule 4+ of them for a 4-hour gaming session. In fact, it's darn near impossible. That means I have to deal with the *gasp* general public. Again, I have 2 hours to play, so let's get this raid started. I'm not going to stand here for a half-hour in this town waiting for you to finish chatting with your guild-mates about your girl troubles and making your character dance around. It also gets tiresome to get 2 hours into something and suddenly have your primary healer say, "mom's calling me for dinner. kbai!" Thanks. Guess I'll try again next week.

Anyway, things change with regard to how you can and want to spend your free time as you get older. This just really started for me a few years ago, though, and I'm significantly older than the OP (but not nearly as old as "certain mods.")

I am still enjoying gaming. Obviously I am looking forward to Skyrim. However, I feel kind of like I can see the end of the road after a long journey. I don't know if I'll get another system. RDR and ME2 were as good as any game I can think of from past years, but I can't lose myself in them like I used to it seems.

I'm a country guy and many people i know are no fan of video games

There’s no getting to old, there’s only people around you to convince you to stop.

I play and told them never!

I've been feeling it a lot recently.

I feel like I've been accomplishing things at work, and have been working a lot from home too recently, and when I go to play most games I just can't seem to get into it so much anymore. I've purged almost all of the games from my computer. At first I thought I was just tired of the online communities (having played a lot of League of Legends with some of my friends over the past year, among a few other things) but it goes deeper than that.

Morrowind, of course, is special. I still tweak and tune and polish my Morrowind install now and again, and I still play now and again. Modding is something I've only really been into for less than two years so there is still plenty of potential there.

Nice article!
I freaked out when I turned 19. I thought, this is it, I'm not a teenager anymore, advlthood is right there. I feel younger now than at the time. You'll noticed that your sense of time changes, because it changes... When your a teen, a year is like 10 years for an advlt, because you mature so quickly. So when you look back as an advlt, you say "What?!? That was ten years ago? Feels like yesterday!"

You never get too old for gaming, or anything, it's just that, yes, at some point you've seen it all. I remember watching a movie with a teenage cousin of mine. I was saying things like : "This is what's going to happen next" and I was right. She looked at me and asked how did I know? In time, young one, you'll figure it out.

I remember having so much fun playing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhXMYw1lXY0 or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKAJSp9bZxE when I was young (Atari console, in the 80's), and in those days you couldn't save a game, you had to become better. I replayed those games with an emulator, and oh boy, was it boring and repetitive. Memories age like wine, they improve over time. Not necessarily true to themselves, though.

I'm not entirely sure if I'm getting too old or if games aren't good enough any more to attract my attention.

One thing I do notice when playing competitive games with people who out age me by about 20 years (40ish) is that they play games for different reasons. Friends my age play games solely for winning and beating the snot out of other people whereas the older (family) people play them to just have fun. Hence I can't mix playing with my friends and family because the former always complains about the latter.

What does TL;DR mean? :huh:

Too long, didn't read.

Nope, not at all. Currently Im enrolled in a GD&D program at RIT, the 1st day of classes our 50 yr old professor made the anology that the start of college was like being dropped off the boat and given a huge map covered by the fog of war. He also said that teachers and peers were the NPC's also trying to achieve their own goals in this game and that they all had information and tasks for you to complete, that put fear into my heart because if they are anything like Oblivion NPC's Ill find them all piled up dead in the Cafe because an argument over the nastiness of mudcrabs broke out.

Edit: On a side note, one of my teachers even stressed the importance of inter generational play and collaboration in games like WoW and on forums like these.