Too old for gaming?

[Godless Zealot]

How do BoLS chums just putting down some thoughts that have been churning around in my head for the past few days. Can one be too old for gaming? When I say 'gaming' I am referring to any kind of gaming activity be it video games, tabletop or board games etc. Recently my life has hit a little hiccup, I'll spare you most of the sob story but I'm currently unemployed and looking for a job and to save money I've moved back in with the folks (lame I know). So with all this free time (Can one have too much free time??) it gives me plenty of time to think. A recent conversation with an old work associate and a few of her friends got me thinking on the topic of gaming. Many of them were of the opinion that anyone who seriously games after the age of 25 has issues. I am 27 soon to be 28 and have been a gamer since I was 4 when I got my first system and while it's true I don't get the same childish glee I used to I still enjoy gaming.

I started 40k late last year with my best mate to branch into another avenue of gaming that I'd never tried before. Now my mate has packed it in already, his new career is taking off and he said he didn't want things to hold him back. Essentially he's embarrassed by it and works in an environment where anything 'geeky' is sneered at and looked down upon. As I struggle to make a career for myself I have been wondering if stopping would help me progress in life. I certainly missed out on better grades through gaming rather than studying etc and wonder if I'm just hiding from life behind a monitor screen when I should be more productive with my life. Guess I'm just having an early mid life crisis or something. Sorry for the long ramble but just felt the need to post this. I'm sure there are gamers out there my age and a lot older so what do you guys think? Can you ever be too old for gaming? Anyone think it has held them back? Anyone embarrassed by their gaming hobby?

[Mr Mystery]

HELL NO!

We don't stop playing because we grow old.

We grow old because we stop playing.

If you're not enjoying yourself, you're not enjoying life. Do whatever it is that makes you happy. As long as it doesn't negatively affect others.

[ElectricPaladin]

Can one be too old for gaming?

DEATH FIRST!

Ursula K. LeGuine wrote a great article called Imaginary Friends (my Google-Fu is failing me, so maybe someone else can provide a link). In it, she names a concept "maturismo," which she defines (more or less) as the immature terror of being found out as immature that leads to shunning and deriding immaturity. In other words, maturismo is to homophobia as that jerk who makes fun of you for playing wargames (because he secretly wishes he could paint tiny plastic spacement) is to the guy who beats up homosexuals (and is a closet case himself). Someone who is truly comfortable with his maturity - just like someone who is truly comfortable with his sexuality, gender, and so on - is comfortable doing whatever he feels like, however it's viewed by others, and has no need to deride others for their choices.

More to the point, a lot of people seem to believe that the need to play goes away when childhood ends. This is absolutely not true. Playing - letting off steam, messing around with new ideas, just plain releasing endorphins and having fun - is absolutely necessary to mental health at all ages.

And the same people who say that you can get too old for gaming have their own ways of playing - unless they're totally nuts, uptight losers - they just like to pretend that their ways are "better." Watching TV, obsessing over old movies, memorizing the stats and startup noises of cars, building computers... all of it's play. And play is always wonderful.

Personally, I will play - in one way or another - until the day I die. And then I'll divide my armies up among my grandkids. And they can have a tournament at my funeral.

That would be awesome.

[scadugenga]

HELL NO!

We don't stop playing because we grow old.

We grow old because we stop playing.

If you're not enjoying yourself, you're not enjoying life. Do whatever it is that makes you happy. As long as it doesn't negatively affect others.

This. A hundred times.

Gaming is still relatively new, when taking the sum of human history into account.

People who state otherwise are stuck in a paradigmatic rut.

[Kirsten]

I will stop gaming the day after they pry the dice/models/controller from my cold dead fingers.

[stampdog316]

You aren't too old to game--I am 44 and just retired from the US Army and I paint and play Warmachine. I finally have the time to play games, paint models, and read comic books which I never had before due to my job. I don't go around telling eveyone what my hobbies are, but my friends and family all know what I do.

You are just going through a temporary rough spot. It happens to all of us. I had to move in with my grandfather while I was around your age and got divorced at the same time. Be true to yourself and do the best you can. Don't stop doing what you enjoy for the sake of total strangers. It will only make you more unhappy.

[Houghten]

When I became a man, I put away childish things.

The first thing I put away was the fear of being thought childish.

After that, there didn't seem much point putting anything else away, so I bought some more childish things and got to building.

[ElectricPaladin]

When I became a man, I put away childish things.

The first thing I put away was the fear of being thought childish.

After that, there didn't seem much point putting anything else away, so I bought some more childish things and got to building.

Where's the "like" button?

[Mr Mystery]

There's also the why of gaming.

For me, console games are for staving off boredom. Tabletop gaming is there to be at once engaging, relaxing and stimulating. Keeps the grey matter pondering. Whilst my job isn't repetitive, it's not quite stressful either (I can't remember the last time I hadn't made target by Wednesday, so I don't feel performance pressure). But it can on occasion be frustrating. War gaming isn't. Being a former staffer, I'm both well known and well thought of in my local scene, and I'm determined not to disappoint those who look up to me. So it's friendly gaming and big brother type coaching all the time. It gives me a happy feeling.

Why would I ever give that up? Also goes a long way to explaining my complete insensitivity to price (I know, Godwins of GW just hit).

[Denzark]

I'm 33 and have been doing 40K 23 years. I would only quit if, in my 50's I look like a serious paedo bear surrounded by younglings. As to computer gaming, I still do too much (to the detriment if my painting) but the only factor that has died back has me and mates meeting up to LAN a weekend away - if we get a pass from our respective ladies we use it being bibbers of strong liquor.

[Shotgun Justice]

Where's the "like" button?

Word

[Wolfshade]

If she can game anyone can.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21116544

[Psychosplodge]

I find the people that say these things don't realise that gaming is as big as it is.
How is it really any less mature than watching TV? or spending your weeknights numbing yourself to daily existence with alcohol?
it's simply another entertainment medium.

[ElectricPaladin]

How is it really any less mature than watching TV? or spending your weeknights numbing yourself to daily existence with alcohol?

Bingo.

Being human has always been problematic. Think about it - all these thoughts and feelings, a mind that can comprehend truth and beauty and love... all trapped in a sack of rotting meat and gross drippy bits. Not to mention mortality. Sweet lizard... whose idea was all this? Humanity has always had to find ways to dull the painful parts of life. Some people use drugs, alcohol, TV... I use tiny plastic spacemen. Ok, and sometimes a glass of wine with dinner. And a little TV. And a lot of story-based roleplaying games.

But I get by.

[lobster-overlord]

Yes, you can be too old...but only if the game is Pokemon or YuGiOh. Otherwise, you're good to go. (the older people who play those two are just way too creepy for me.

Wargaming is an offshoot of the hobby of collecting toy soldiers, combined with actual tactical war scenario play out.

Now prioritizing gaming over other things (such as job hunting--no dig intended to you sir, as I don't know your unemployment situation, but I know people in my area who do this -- socalization/hanging out with real people (namely solitary video gamers), that can be cause for concern, but that's not age specific. I'd be just as worried about someone at 18 doing this, as I would someone at 44, but the 44 year old one would think should know better.

I am 37. I have put my hobby on the back burner now for the majority of the last 7 years since I've gotten married and we have kids. I hate it, but it's a must. If I focused on my army, and was building and painting and neglecting my family, then I would be too IMMATURE, too IRRESPONSIBLE for gaming, not too old.

Just and old man's thoughts.

John M>

[eldargal]

My mother just started gaming and she is old enough to be my mother.:rolleyes:

Nothing to say that hasn't already been said, in my opinion the only people who think video gaming is childish are people who don't video game themselves and thus have no idea what it is like. Video games are a medium for entertainment just like novels, television, films etc. Thinking that an entire medium can only be enjoyed by a certain age group is absurd, it would be like judging all television based on childrens programming.

[Wolfshade]

My mother just started gaming and she is old enough to be my mother.:rolleyes:

THe worrying part is that she is old enough to be a grandmother :o

(Or in some dodgy locations possibly even a great grandmother...)

The trouble is that the older you get the bigger the numbers need to be, D20 the size of footballs...

[Kirsten]

yeah I never understood people thinking gaming was sad, I had friends at school who thought it was a waste of time, 'so what did you do last night whilst I was gaming?' 'watching tv' '...'

[DrLove42]

You're only as old as the person you're feeling.

So as long as they're over 16 its OK!

[Psychosplodge]

But shes the same age....

[Wolfshade]

You're only as old as the person you're feeling.

So as long as they're over 16 its OK!

If you are feeling yourself you end up in a fatal recussive loop....

[Psychosplodge]

If you are feeling yourself you end up in a fatal recussive loop....

O_o

sounds painful...

[Godless Zealot]

Thanks for the responses guys guess I was just looking for reassurance. Was just feeling a bit bummed when I wrote the original post but now I just feel a bit silly :o. I am not an obsessive gamer it has never been all consuming just an interest that I dedicate a moderate amount of free time too. On a lighter note I actually received a job offer today, certainly nothing special but should serve as a suitable stopgap to save me from the dreaded dole queue.

[Wolfshade]

Huzzah!

[Mr Mystery]

Thanks for the responses guys guess I was just looking for reassurance. Was just feeling a bit bummed when I wrote the original post but now I just feel a bit silly :o. I am not an obsessive gamer it has never been all consuming just an interest that I dedicate a moderate amount of free time too. On a lighter note I actually received a job offer today, certainly nothing special but should serve as a suitable stopgap to save me from the dreaded dole queue.

Double win, providing you swanned off with a redundancy pay out! Woop!

[Deadlift]

I'm 38 this year and I have no plans on quitting any of my hobbies, which include video games and 40k. I think we're of a generation now that grew up gaming so its more acceptable for us in our thirties and fourties to still be doing so. My family have always owned amusement arcades so I grew up with games like Dig dug , moon patrol, splatter house, gauntlet, tron, track and field, PAC land and of course Street Fighter.

[Denzark]

Wot no Operation Wolf?

[Deadlift]

Wot no Operation Wolf?

Lol yes that too. We had one of those going for about 15 years, until we realised that a video game that involved shooting people in turbans wasn't quite as pc as it once was ;)

[Wolfshade]

Wot no Operation Wolf?

I have Operation, though it may have been modified to give you a shock as well as buzzing...

[Denzark]

I didn't mean the one which was a training aid for serial killers...

[Psychosplodge]

DL Did you have the aerosmith shooting game?

[Deadlift]

DL Did you have the aerosmith shooting game?

No we didn't, sorry :(

My favourite old school shooter was the Terminator 2 one.

[Denzark]

No we didn't, sorry :(

My favourite old school shooter was the Terminator 2 one.



I liked it and Aliens the Gun game.

[Psychosplodge]

No we didn't, sorry :(

My favourite old school shooter was the Terminator 2 one.

The one they ported to the megadrive?