Gaming

Yep, I am 53 and shit at gaming now!

I play pvp/competitive mmos as healer, I'm not very good any more. I attribute it to just not giving a fuck after life stuff happened. I'm giving them up though. It's a skill issue for me but I'm tired of younger people being competitive and failing the vibe check.

There’s a reason professional gamers skew on the younger side. Hand eye coordinations gets worse. Brain slows down. Happens to the best of us.

I'm 43. I play games for the stories more so than anything now. If ot has a story mode, I play it on that setting. Otherwise it's easy or normal. I have no interest in spending hours trying to beat a game on a harder difficulty.

Depends what sort of game, I've got better and better at things like Stellaris as I get closer to 40 and I usually have to play RPGs that are less reaction based on higher and higher difficulties to feel challenged.

In contrast I found myself struggling with Elden Ring when I used to have a comparatively easy time with Dark/Demon Souls and Bloodborne.

I don't think I'd have a hope in hell of playing fighting games or racing games like I used to in my teens.

I don't feel like I've gotten worse, I feel more like I don't have the time to play the games and get good.

Like, I used to play a ton of Battlefield 2142, I did pretty good most of the time, the team I was on usually won, with me in the top few.

I recently jumped into Battlefield 2042 and, it's a struggle. I don't know the maps, the classes are set up a bit different, I don't have the feel or situational awareness right now like I did for the game back then. I also don't have 3 - 5 hours to play most nights anymore either.

Your a decade ahead of me, i'll be 31 next month..

i was a life long serious gamer,, i had a new computer every 2 years that i built myself for maximum cost vs quality, i was in the gaming sphere whenever i wasn't working or sleeping.. then at around 36 i got the opportunity to move to another city and live/work on a friends farm they managed, i needed a change of scene so i went...i packed up all my stuff i wasn't taking and put it in storage at my folks home, which included my gaming pc, i bought a $300 laptop from a pawn shop that i used to sail the seven seas, in my very little time off from working the farm/being the repair man/being the kids servant, i finished my stint with them and moved back to my original city but when i did i moved back to a smaller room in a house with housemates so i only had my room and 4 years of stuff i had accrued living on the farm...all of which were stored in 40 liter tote crates as well as tools, various projects i worked on, all this i had no where to put but in the corner of my room ..where i would have re-set up my pc station...but i never did.. that was a few years ago, I'm 42 now, and i only play 1 game, a game i started on my phone that progressed to have pc client support so now i play on laptop.. i could go out tomorrow and drop a few k on a new rig but i don't have the space.. as it stands my room is 75% my queen sized bed, 20% the tallboy drawers i made, the stack of totes and my leather recliner... the only floor space is enough for my door to open 90degrees,and enough room for me to step in, close the door and lie down in bed.

i miss gaming, exploring new worlds and killin baddies was awesome fun... i didn't miss it when i was rushed off my feet for the 4 years i was on the farm, but i kinda miss it now

Definitely. Time for turn based, my friend. 48, I can still handle the default single player difficulty without trouble but Multiplayer? Doom on Nightmare? Those days are over.

47 here

You need to look at gaming differently.

Reflex gaming is for the young; strategic gaming is for the older folks.

Now I'm not talking about genres; I'm talking about how you should approach games.

If you find you don't have the reflexes use your brain to strategize different ways.

Pretty much how I've beaten all the souls like games I've played.

How I kept competitive in LoL.

And if all else fails then play on easy.

Games are about the fun you have not about what Reddit says a gamer is.

tbh from what i can tell of all my older friends who keep saying they're worse at gaming,

it's honestly because you guys were never actually good at gaming, and you were never good at actually LEARNING how to be good at things like aiming/shooting/preaiming/positioning, etc

go play something like Valorant, CS2, and Apex and see what I mean. there's a lot you would have to learn. Like, actually attempt to go play ranked and get to Diamond. Get to Plat at least to see what I mean.

Just play PUBG, when you get hammered your next match is 80% bots.

If I could impart one thing (only two years older lol) it's this : At my age/free time now, I have as much enjoyment doing a 6 man Raid as I do the most monotonous bullshit. Rupee Bunny hunting in BOTW, scanning planets in Mass Effect or Starfield, Patrols in Destiny if I really don't want to accomplish anything important and just enjoy the excellent "pew-pews". In many ways, I find myself enjoying gaming now more than ever. All the younger people in various clans are jonesing to get their *insert triumphs/achievements here fix. They know they can call on me as a warm body with all the weapons even though they KNOW, I've ALWAYS been shite at video games.

Just another elder-millennial perspective Enjoy your time

You should play Urban Terror on PC plenty of older people who play that game

Bro, I think You would like Starfield

It is totally normal to "fall off". If you don't care about being that super competitive gamer who is in it to win it at difficulty mode 1 million, you fall into the casual, chill gamer stage. Which is nothing to be ashamed of.

I used to be super competitive a decade ago, I'm turning 33 soon but in recent 2 or so years my competitive nature has been slacking off. Either time is a concern - it distracts me from fully committing to my comp nature - or something else is keeping me busy. On top of that, in some scenarios I feel slower to react which is also normal when aging.

So I simply tone it down and enjoy my games more by lowering the difficulty.

I turned 41 last month, I play a lot of gran Turismo. I'm not getting any better but I'm having fun. I'm loving Spiderman 2 as well.

I'm 42 and I've noticed two things. One, I do not have the same reflexes I used to but they are not significantly worse than they used to be - going from 175-200 ms to 200-250 or so. I can still snap off a shot at high speed if I need to. But, Two, I'm more experienced than I used to be. Ambushes, expected routes of attack, strategy, planning, being able to determine what's the best item or route to take, all the things I've been having to look up or do for years are now second nature. In many situations I can leverage the extra time people take to respond to the non standard situations I set up to extract victory.

Absolutely.

I'm 42, and I've noticed a very marked degradation in my reflexes and precision. In first person shooters, for example, it takes me noticeably longer to acquire a target, and I've gotten a lot worse at predicting movements and leading targets. It's like my hand simply refuses to do exactly what I tell it to do.

It's frustrating, but unfortunately it's just part of life.

Bro I’m 22 and I’ve been going downhill in skill since I was like 16 lol

I just turned 50. I still usually get top 5 in 64 man matches in games like chivalry 2 and various battlefield games. I can't be as fast as I was but experience and focus helps. I can still hit what I aim at though lol.

We may be older, slower, and prone to frequent bathroom breaks but we make up for it in meanness and craftiness!

I lost my touch a decade ago and have almost no time (4-8 hours a week if I'm lucky) to even attempt to tighten up my shooter reflexes.

That being said my game sense (I think that's what it's called) is so much better. I get absolutely shit rocked in shooters like tarkov and squad when going toe to toe with people but I'm a lot better at setting up engagements and in squad (when time allows, which is almost never) I can squad lead and completely change the flow of the map/game for all 100 players on the server.

I'm 41 and I'm the best I've ever been on Warzone. Chuffed.

In various ways, yes. But the most impactful effects of aging as it comes to video games is not caring quite as much and not spending as much time as we used to "gitting gud".

As we age, we gain more responsibilities and start to appreciate our time out in the world a lot more and that leads to less time which means less practice.

It gets a lot harder trying to stay focused.

45 and I still select the hardest or 2nd hardest difficulty.

Doesnt matter, when i start gaming i felt like 18 all over again. 40 y.o but i still can play a 6hour gaming session if free time permits.

How many pro gamers do you see in their early 40s?

I'll beat Halo 2 on Legendary when I'm 50, stay tuned for that, PS I'm 20 rn

Same m8. It's no coincidence that all those professional e-sports athletes are so young

I am almost 40 and I don't really feel like I have fallen off much. My reflexes aren't QUITE as good, but my strategies and calmness help me more than the reflexes.

No, you're probably just more focused on looking skilled than simply playing the game.

Older folk trying not to tell the internet their age * challenge impossible*

I didn't really get into gaming until 38. I wasn't much of a gamer before and hadn't played a game in 11 years when I got back into it a few years ago. I have zero interest in online play and am in it for single player story modes. I just take it nice and easy.

I do think reaction times fall off a bit, like when playing older fighting games. Still I feel gaming has never been "easier". I do feel we now don't have the time we once had back in the 80s, 90s to play as much as we used to, so that probably plays into the "not as good at gaming" as before.

Also, now there are just too many games to play compared to back in the day. I mean, we'd be lucky if we got one game on your birthday and another cartridge on Christmas. One would play the saaaame game over and over and over again. You HAD to get good. No save state, limited continues, etcetera, meant you HAD to memorize layouts and enemy positions. You just had to play more focused than now a days.

Finally and I say this as a fighting game player, but the amount of "under the hood" assitance that developers have included in games, has contributed to one playing worse than what we once did. Remember when you HAD to memorize all those phone numbers from friends and relatives. Now we don't have to, we store all that on the cellphone or whatever. So that skill we once developed, has slowly deteriorated. It comes with age and with the changing of the times.

But our capacity to adapt is incredible. Pretty sure if you dedicated the same amount of time to gaming as you did when you were younger, you'd be back to your prime shape. Just like I am certain that gamers of this generation, can easily plow through all those 8 and 16-bit games of old, if they sit down to play seriously like we once all did. So don't despair and keep on gaming.

I'm 27 and definitely worse than I used to be. Ain't got the time to get good at games no more. Ain't got the time to struggle with single player games either so I always do normal or easy. I've also noticed I've been playing less and less multiplayer games because of time. I would rather play through one of the 1300 games I have instead of grind a multiplayer game.

Eh I stopped caring. Like I can still play everything fine, I finish souls likes still, but I'm not going to play online shooters anymore, nor do I want to. I just realized I'd rather enjoy my time and chill than be mad that I suck and everyone else needs a job lol.

Normal, as you age you get worse at the majority of things.

37 here. Working full time, kids and a wife, other hobbies, etc. I have moved away from the "sweatlord" games and typically avoid pvp shooters and raiding for this reason. I'm getting older, it's harder to play and I cannot commit the time to these games anymore. The last thing I want to do is get online and work more. It's a game, it's meant to be fun. Not a job.

I play the games that bring me the most amount of enjoyment the quickest. You won't see me playing a single player. I like to play multiplayer and don't even like to wait for a match....just get me in a game quick :)

You are not falling off kids are just better. When the first call of duty came out with the Xbox 360. I was always ranked high with K/D. Over the years my numbers dwindled but my skill level hasn’t changed. The addition of PC and cheats have made it so I don’t enjoy pvp at all anymore. Kids are either really good or they cheat like crazy so it’s just not fun

Some of the best Quake players in the world are in their late 30s/early 40s

My brother who is 5 years younger than me has surpassed me in almost every game we play. Even games that are mostly my thing, when he joins me (I'm level 120, he's level 30), he keeps up or outpaces me.

It's just something I guess we have to get used to :)

I’m 41 too and my skill in FPS games is like an old wine. You just can’t be bad. Yeah reaction may be slower little bit, but it’s totally normal as life takes your time on the family and social things

Yup! The reduced reflexes and busy mind weights a lot. And thats fine!