When are you too old to play games?

[wevegot5]

42, and am the shittiest player ever on Fifa 10 on my ps3.

Do i care? Not one jot.

[Unrighteous]

Being too old for video games is like being too old for pizza. It's ridiculous.

[RedinSweden]

I'm 36 and I'm having trouble finding time for games, music and films, let alone finding time for reading and jigsaws. I'm going to have to give up wanking, it's the only way.

 

It is time that is the issue for me, but having kids makes time available as spending time getting my arse handed to me by my son on Fifa counts as quality time.

[Thants]

Ha I read that 3 times before I realised you changed it. I knew something was up.

*shakes fist*

*not in a wanky way*

[Steve Holt]

You're only too old to play games when your arthritic fingers can't keep up with the pace of it. I hope that day never comes.

[Karl_b]

 

Canabalt (Mac, PC, iPhone)

 

adamatomic.com/canabalt

 

Games don't come much simpler than this. There's only one button, and you can play it online for free, right now. You're a bloke escaping from an unnamed catastrophe. He runs automatically; you just have to hit the spacebar each time you want him to jump. Also available for the iPhone.

 

That is ace.

 

4376m for me.

[RoboRiise]

People of my age (35ish) were the first group to have games at home on C64, Spectrum etc. We invented this shit.

 

 

Is the right answer - I'm 38, got my first computer when I was 11 and have always had one since. If I'm honest, I haven't played many new games for the last two years or so but that's mainly down to two things. The first is that I had to let my PC slip back from the cutting edge because the cash I had on one side for upgrades went on other things. The other is that the PC market is hugely dominated by first person shooters and 3D realtime strategy and a game in either of those genres needs to be pretty fucking exceptional to perk my interest. I'm also not mad on on-line gaming, mainly because I don't want part of my gaming experience to be dictated by some pimply little herbert from Scunthorpe and his pimply little mates. If the games market continues to develop in that way and in those genres, I can see me spending less time playing simply because the games out there won't be inspiring me to play them.

 

I'll be taking care of the upgrade issue in the new year though and then I'm looking forward to catching up on some great titles that I've had to pass over because my hardware wasn't up to the task.

 

All that said, I can't see myself buying a console in the forseeable future. I could have addressed the game-playing failings of my PC by buying an X-Box or PS3 for relatively little outlay during the last year or so but I'd still rather wait and put the cash towards upgrading my PC. Consoles just don't excite me, never have really - they've always seemed like a cut-down option. I definitely won't be prancing around the front room with a Wii controller any time soon; to me that removes one of the most attractive things about games, namely you can play them with your arse in a chair after a long day at work.

 

Generally, I'd say you're never too old - it's like anything else in life, if you enjoy it then keep doing it.

[tenner]

Never too old. Get a few lessons from my son. Ace gamer

[Guest The Big Green Bastard]

34 and im getting a Wii, first console for 8 years. my ol' man (69) gets the cronies at his retirement home playing wii fit! funny as fuck.

[Narsil]

40 and still gaming (since the age of 13 and the Speccy). I think the problem is that if you tell a non-gamer that you play video games they immediately have an image of you sitting on the edge of the couch twitching away trying to blow stuff up and kill people, which is like assuming that everyone who watches TV a lot is addicted to soaps. Some people don't get that there are many flavours of gaming. I'd say a good 90% of my gaming time is on the more laid-back games. Monkey Island/Broken Sword-type adventures, Football Manager, the Civilization and Total War series etc. Stuff you can sit back and relax while playing, I basically hate anything where you have to replay the same bit over and over again until you get your timing right. Maybe that's because I grew up with those other types of games in the pre-Doom 3D days, or maybe its because I work all day repetetively building cars on a moving factory line and I don't want more of the same endless repetition when I get home. In fact, it's probably the opposite for many people who work in 'dynamic' and management jobs, they just want to go home and blow shit up.

[William_Ulsterman]

I've just hit 35 (if you weren't aware . . . ) and bought a PS3 for my birthday. Am I too old? Should I be directing my priorities elsewhere? Is gaming now respectable?

 

Discuss, my Nerds of England (and elsewhere)

 

when your arse caves in and your balls drop off. we used to have a couple of pensioners in our clan.

[a stoner]

Never ever ever!!

It's good for keeping your mind active and with the Wii good for the body too. My mother is 65 and her partner 68 and both are still gaming on the Wii fit and online gaming too.

Too old when your in a box.

[Thants]

Possibly 37. I've not touched a game for 4 months and not since my birthday.

[Irishlad]

Simples, it's when you die

[Section_31]

Never, you're never too old to do anything. It's your life, do what you want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else - this maxim applies to all things.

[James]

Never too old.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

46 next month and i can't wait for the young lad to go to bed so i can get on his new Xbox 360. Takes me a lot longer to finish games than him like. He had Halo 3 done in two days and i've been at it for ages now.

[Juniper]

I always thought I'd grown out of Gaming after owning every console from each generation, from a Mega Drive, up to a PS2. Hadn't really played any games in about 4 years, before getting my xbox 360 at the start of the year from my brother.

 

Thought I had Grown out of it, but playing my first game of Fifa 10 on Xbox Live at the start of this year it ignighted my love of gaming again. Now I'm hooked. I can't stop firing up the console on every opportunity. Although, without online playing I think I'd probably have swerved getting another console.

 

One of the things I like about modern day gaming, is that when you're living away from your hometown you can still play and chat to mates back home, catching up over a game of footie, having a laugh. It's good for the soul for us living away.

 

(and I'm only 26)

 

You're never too old.

Edited July 18, 2010 by Juniper

[Original202]

The Nintendo Wii and DS have opened up gaming to a whole new generation, too.

 

My old man has a DS and my Mum has Wii fit - and I know several friends whose parents love Wii sports etc

 

Plus, I've seen loads of older women playing with their DS on the bus or train.

 

Add to that the massive popularity of Facebook games like Farmville among older women and there's now a brand new market for game developers.

 

I don't think you can ever be too old. It's just a technological advancement. You don't grow out of reading books or watching films, your tastes may change, but you don't stop. I think gaming will be the same.

[Thants]

12 months now.

[ReDeus]

Anyone over 40 playing video games regularly needs to put down the joypads and do something constructive. Such as getting laid.

[loadsoftrophies]

My Missus got me Kinnect for my 34th birthday.....well i asked her to get it for me. I'm still jumping around like a proper twat.

[RED.DUB]

Anyone over 40 playing video games regularly needs to put down the joypads and do something constructive. Such as getting laid.

im guessing you spend whole lot of free time on the internet,kind of amounts to the same thing imo.

[Sut]

I can't see myself ever being too old for games. I've just played through Uncharted again, cleaning up on some trophies and have made a start on the 2nd. I can quite happily play a game of heir calibre over and over due to the story and production value. Not so into online play as I just feel like being generally antisocial more often than not.

 

Twelve months Nick? Get Red Dead Redemption and Batman: Arkham Asylum. They'll relight your fire.

[Torvald Utne]

the time? where? how?