Older gamers: are you jealous of the 20-something gamers?

This thread is inspired by the "too old for Call of Duty" thread. As a gaming dad seeing all the awesome stuff out now, I'm kind of jealous I grew up in the 80s where most of my gaming was limited to a weekend arcade run. I'm also jealous that gaming is accepted vs something that got you stuffed in lockers over.

For example, son likes to watch gaming shows on Disney XD where all these cool commentators hang out on set. That got me thinking - I'm a pretty funny guy and good conversationalist. If only I was in my 20s I could have been an awesome YouTube personality getting invited to exclusive events. I'm happy that I still get to do the occasional magazine article on gaming and tech, but at cons like PAX it's obvious there's this whole other special media world for the young glamorous set.

Never got stuffed to any lockers over it in the 80's myself, so I dunno. We had an Atari, NES, SNES at different times. Granted video games weren't the cultural thing they have become more recently. You MIGHT have gotten some grief if you went around broadcasting your Star Trek / Star Wars Fandom all over the place....

45 here and I am not.

I loved how I got into gaming. I loved going over to someone's house and being blown away by how cool Doom was. I remember taking over a ton of floppy disks so I could copy it for myself. I thoroughly enjoyed loading up my PC rig and going to some geek's basement for a LAN party

While I am sure kids today will have good memories I find that having easy access to tons of stuff makes me appreciate things less - they whole having 100 channels to watch and not finding something worth watching. I think they will have less special memories about games because they have access to so many of them.

You are probably right about that, Farley. What is commonplace is rarely remembered at all, let alone fondly. Funny you should mention cable TV (presumably?). It's become so irritating trying to find something so simple as a decent football or baseball game on my DirectTV that I mostly don't even bother any more. I wouldn't even have it except for the SO wanting it to watch detective shows and Game of Thrones.

While I agree with Farley in many ways, and am very fond of my memories of c64 and nes gaming with friends in my youth, mowing lawns to afford a snes and then staring at it running the attract screen of super mario world, and experiencing the scope of my gaming world expanding infinitely almost overnight via the internet and quake....I'm still jealous.

I want that lack of responsibilities back. I want to be able to dive off the deep end again. I want those reaction times to return, and I want that ENERGY TO DO IT all back, rather than the constant tiredness that leads to long evenings just browsing the same 10 sites/reading forums rather than actually playing something.

EDIT:
...and while I'm at it, I miss having gaming buddies (especially local) with just as few responsibilities as my 20-something self. In the last almost 11 years, I've had only three proper local multiplayer (couch or LAN) sessions, and the last time I played online with any of my real-life friends/former regular gaming buddies was about four years ago. This used to be a "several times a week" thing for us.

I'm 35 this year and I wouldn't say I'm jealous of the 20 somethings so much as happy for them. *Old man voice* Back in my day we got like one game every 6 months, and while I was blessed with a high and middle school that didn't have much in the way of bullies, my small circle of Magic the Gathering and Star Wars certaiinly were not the height of popularity and invited to all the parties, we felt some of that stigma.

I am over joyed my younger friends can openly embrace their fandoms without fear of being ostracized for it. Sure there is a flood of games, TV shows, books, and movies these days, but I am sure they will find the gems among the slag that shine for them and be moulded by them the way The Thrawn Trilogy (I claimed this nom-de-net when AOL first came out and have kept it ever since), B5, QFG:Shadows of Darkness and various others shaped me.

thrawn82 wrote:

I'm 35 this year and I wouldn't say I'm jealous of the 20 somethings so much as happy for them. *Old man voice* Back in my day we got like one game every 6 months, and while I was blessed with a high and middle school that didn't have much in the way of bullies, my small circle of Magic the Gathering and Star Wars certaiinly were not the height of popularity and invited to all the parties, we felt some of that stigma.

I am over joyed my younger friends can openly embrace their fandoms without fear of being ostracized for it. Sure there is a flood of games, TV shows, books, and movies these days, but I am sure they will find the gems among the slag that shine for them and be moulded by them the way The Thrawn Trilogy (I claimed this nom-de-net when AOL first came out and have kept it ever since), B5, QFG:Shadows of Darkness and various others shaped me.

Good point - and not trying to come off as grumpy middle aged guy. Mostly I'm happy for my son and college age nephews.

I've thought about this as well, but I also fall in the "I'm ok how it all went down" camp.

To Jdzappa's point, video games were definitely not main stream in my area. I had a core group of friends who played sports games (RBI baseball, tecmo bowl) and another group for other genres in the NES era. We definitely kept those activities on the down low with our larger school class.

Once I got to HS, I had friends who started to dabble in online play (dial up Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, and Warcraft 2). We finally got to the point where we were ok with how we were, and talked about it openly.

College was the real start of internet acceptance. My roommate and I were one of the only rooms in our dorm to both have computers (and we had Ethernet for the first time, only had 33.6 dial up at that point!).

Long ramble, but I while I enjoyed how I was able to experience gaming, I'm excited for my kids to enjoy it more mainstream (if they even want to do so). I hooked up my Atari and got them to play some pitfall, so with my 8-bit, 16-bit and beyond all in plastic totes waiting to be fired up if needed, I may get them to be gamers yet!

Nope. I was a kid in the most exciting time of a new industry when leaps and bounds were made so often in so many ways that there was always something actually huge on the horizon to be excited about. And also before huge companies figured out a way to try and water down and make turnkey a large chunk of the industry without having to do things like innovate, take creative risks, or make games that don't fit into easily marketable genres.

Also, having too many choices makes everything less cool. Scarcity is a pretty vital component to entertainment and enjoyment of things in general IMO. I believe there's some research that backs that up but I'm too lazy to cite sources.

I wouldn't give up the time period I grew up in for anything.

Heh.

I'm not the least bit jealous. I am, after all, able to enjoy the hobby as it is now. I'm not a fan of online FPS anyway, so the whole reflex thing doesn't bother me.

I thank my lucky stars I couldn't really get into the multiplayer scene until I was more mature. Who knows what kind of troll I could have become.

I liked the excitement of being there when it was new, when nobody had ever thought of any of this stuff before. Even the concept OF a video game was new.

As I said in the other thread, I very much miss my young reflexes, but I don't like the design of most modern competitive games. Overwatch sounds pretty okay, and I'd probably get into that if I was still wired enough to be good at it. But most of the games that are out sound pretty sh*tty to me, exploitative and full of hidden costs, despite a large up-front fee to even start. Not interested in that kind of business model.

I've seen how gaming should be, and I don't like what it's turning into, Skinner boxes and rent extraction.

The only thing I'm jealous of is the time/attitude to play games all day long. My kids were off school today, and even though my wife and I were gone so I can't confirm it, I'm pretty sure my 12 year old son spent a good 8 hours playing XCom 2. Even when I have a day off I can't bring myself to do that.

The bad side of this is sometimes I'll come home and have all the parental/adult work to take care of, and my kids will come home and just throw their backpacks anywhere, leave their shoes in the middle of the floor, make a mess getting a snack and then go play video games all afternoon. At times I sort of resent their freedom to do that, which isn't all that healthy or justified.

Nah, we had experiences they didn't have, and I don't think the Twitch/Youtube scene is a particularly compelling reason to be jealous. We had arcades and auteurs who made giant janky-yet-compelling systems all on their own. We stumbled onto incredible little worlds that no one else knew about, and explored them without benefit of an online map (or really any map) or a GameFAQ walkthrough. We knew DOS command lines. We altered our BIOS at will. The current gaming scene is okay, but I like my little nerdy niche memories just fine.

And I was always too strong and fast to get stuffed into a locker.

Yeah, I was pretty tall and fairly muscular, so there was no locker-stuffing for me, and not even a lot of teasing, even though I was uber-nerdy. I also wasn't a dedicated video gamer as a teen, as there weren't enough video games for that yet. It was more AD&D. Video gaming as a primary hobby didn't happen until my 20s, because that was about the soonest it *could* happen.

Didn't get stuffed into lockers, either. Sorry about those who were. That must have been terrible. I did not stuff anyone into lockers. If I wanted to bully someone I'd kill their paladin.

I'm 42. The thing is, the current world doesn't exist by itself. It didn't come into its own without any effort. Whatever the gaming world is now, those of us who are older directly or indirectly made it that way. Our generation did that. I think it's an amazing accomplishment and a great gift to those who enjoy it now. Even if all you did was buy a buttload of games, your dollars funded an industry that eventually commanded respect simply by how many dollars it was bringing it, and that leads to mainstream acceptance.

I am a twitch gamer. I still enjoy Borderlands 2. I'm pretty sure I can smoke a bunch of kids even now. Maybe newbies, haha. But I'm also a strategy and tactics gamer and at no time before have we got it so good. XCOM 2 and Divinity OS2 are both games you can buy and play for small amounts of money today. That's amazing. I want to live long enough to see how the current 20-somethings play these games and then take them to new heights.

While the games today may seem more impressive than the games we played in our teens and 20s when compared directly, I wouldn't change it for anything. I grew up with occasional arcade runs and in my late teens and early 20s we had LAN parties. While I didn't do either often I would take those few great experiences over everything that pervades modern gaming 'culture.'

Not remotely. I feel lucky to have witnessed and been along for the ride as the games rapidly advanced over the course of a few decades.

Hell, I have really fond memories of over-the-shoulder co-op'ing early Sierra and LucasArts adventure games. That's something which my brother, born a decade later, had no experience with. By the time he was co-op gaming, it was online or the tail-end of couch co-op on the PS1.

Nah, it's been fun to see gaming grow from its infancy to where it is now. Plus, I'm saving to have myself dipped in synthetic amber when I kick it. Make sure one of your grandchildren Jurassic Park me up so that my DNA-cloned self get's to try out a real holodeck. That's the next big 'gaming' thing I'd want to experience.

To clarify, I'm happy to have experienced gaming as I did....I just want more of it

Not every change has imo been entirely positive - that LAN parties are on life support is one of those negative changes.
I'm glad that indie gaming has grown as big as it has - the indies are doing a similar type of experimenting that was prevalent by "the industry" (as it existed) in the 80's and somewhat into the 90's. That experimentation had become fairly rare between the mid 90's and mid-to-late 00's.

As an officially old man, I'm mostly jealous of 20 somethings because they are 20 something!

But as far as gaming goes, nah. And I kind of feel bad that they missed out on D&D. I know it's still around but hard for kids now to go back to PnP when you can have the Witcher 3. But I have such great memories of all nighters with my nerdy friends rolling dice and eating junk food.

Mark me down as jealous of their full heads of hair and their ability to drink all night and function the next day.

I'm not in the jealous camp. Kids have different types of bs to deal with that I never had to. Even Twitch seems predator at times with streamers give you a shout out when you give them money.

It doesn't seem all bad with cheaper games, easier to get games, being connected to your friends at school, and the ease of play.

LarryC wrote:

Didn't get stuffed into lockers, either. Sorry about those who were. That must have been terrible. I did not stuff anyone into lockers. If I wanted to bully someone I'd kill their paladin.

I'm 42. The thing is, the current world doesn't exist by itself. It didn't come into its own without any effort. Whatever the gaming world is now, those of us who are older directly or indirectly made it that way. Our generation did that. I think it's an amazing accomplishment and a great gift to those who enjoy it now. Even if all you did was buy a buttload of games, your dollars funded an industry that eventually commanded respect simply by how many dollars it was bringing it, and that leads to mainstream acceptance.

I am a twitch gamer. I still enjoy Borderlands 2. I'm pretty sure I can smoke a bunch of kids even now. Maybe newbies, haha. But I'm also a strategy and tactics gamer and at no time before have we got it so good. XCOM 2 and Divinity OS2 are both games you can buy and play for small amounts of money today. That's amazing. I want to live long enough to see how the current 20-somethings play these games and then take them to new heights.

Good point Larry - I hadn't thought that my purchasing decisions and word of mouth helped shape things but you're right. I also agree that I would never have had the patience to get involved in deep strategy games like EU 4 or Crusader Kings 2 in my youth.

@ Docjoe and Agent 86 - I think you guys are on to something. Maybe I just want the energy and ability to shrug off bad decisions back.

I should add that by high school I started doing martial arts and boxing so the chronic bullying I experienced in middle school largely ended. But I had to pretty much give up any trace of my geeky personality to do so. Maybe that's why I'm a bit disgruntled, though happy that my son hopefully won't need to do that.

Unlike the other seven deadly sins, envy doesn't even feel good while you are doing it.

No matter your age or generation, I'd say whatever media you were consuming during your younger years is (with rose tinted nostalgia specs) the best there'll ever be. So jealous of the younger folk now, nah don't think so.

Nope. I don't necessarily miss the reflexes. I am good enough now. But the real reason is deeper.
In my 20's I experienced the launch of Mechwarrior 2, Quake, Command and Conquer, pretty much the entire Gold Box series (Dark Sun included), Starcraft, Age of Kings, Populous, Wing Commander 1+2, Privateer, Sim City, and Diablo. (Ultima Onine and Everquest too)
You can't go back but there are two sides to that coin. The games don't hold up as well now. Many newer games do more better.
However, that doesn't mean they weren't incredible when they were contemporary. You can't recapture that and it is priceless.
It is like saying that the first time you rode a bike is meaningless because you have ridden a motorcycle for 5 years. Or maybe instead of bike, use the first time your rode your big wheel or even opened it up as a gift.

Boudreaux wrote:

The only thing I'm jealous of is the time/attitude to play games all day long. My kids were off school today, and even though my wife and I were gone so I can't confirm it, I'm pretty sure my 12 year old son spent a good 8 hours playing XCom 2. Even when I have a day off I can't bring myself to do that.

The bad side of this is sometimes I'll come home and have all the parental/adult work to take care of, and my kids will come home and just throw their backpacks anywhere, leave their shoes in the middle of the floor, make a mess getting a snack and then go play video games all afternoon. At times I sort of resent their freedom to do that, which isn't all that healthy or justified.

Yeah this are my feelings as well.
When I was a teen I hated that I could not buy every game I wanted when it came out and someone else (my parents) told me when to play and when not.
In my 20s I was not really interested in gaming. I came back being around 30 when Skyrim was on the horizon and I saw the first trailers.
Since then I am back but of course Work, Children and all this adult stuff (not talking about dirty media here hehe) takes a lot of time.
Although money is not an issue I buy max. 7 games a year.
I am also still a big fan of Fantasy literature and try to watch each Manchester United game so my free time is fully booked.

I am glad to be able to witness where gaming has gone and what kind of games are possible today.

Only jealous because they likely have more time than I do.

No. This is going to make me sound like an old man (I always 5 years from being old) but many of us got to live the history. For example Ultima Online is turning 20, the younger generation will never get the experience of taping a key down so you can fish in the game to level up while you sleep.

Seriously though It has been a real pleasure to see gaming being where it is now.

No, I'm not jealous of 20-something gamers, but I am envious of those who will follow them; the generation of gamers-to-be who are just being born now. As processing power continues to increase, and the costs of both that processing power and of storage continues to fall, I can only wonder at the depth, breadth and complexity of the games that they will be able to play.

In my gaming lifetime, we've gone from Space Invaders cabinets to - as an example - GTA V on the home console. A staggering advance in 40 years or so. I desperately want to have the faculties and dexterity to be able to play in another 40 years time.