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The Aging Gamer
An anonymous reader writes "There is a short article at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle about the surprising statistic that a large potion of computer gamers are over 35. This actually makes sense, since many of them began gaming in the 70's. A short and semi-interesting read."
I am sure everyone knows what "Nintendo Thumb" is. Playing so long that you form blisters on top of blisters.
What kind of health hazards do we need to watch out for in the future.
Chronic arthritis of the thumbs is one thing but what happens when we all start gaming in VR?
Look maybe I exaggerated a bit. He has eaten, he has slept - a bit. I read the Korean thing. I'm trying to give him some space while school's out. But I'm willing to consider alternatives, if it will help him to have a happier life.
Geez, give me a break $0 elite; some constructive suggestions would go down well........
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For great justice!
I started playing games on a model 33 Teletype. Then we got an OSI 540 board going and I played Tiger Tank 'til the wee hours. And Wumpus and all matter of things, before discovering $DUNGEO (many refer to this as Zork) and $ADVENT (Colossal Cave), both brought back on a tape from a DECUS. Then there were many others written by students, before the first Apple Lab opened on campus and color was introduced. Eventually arcades sprung up at the mall, where Mario lept over barrels to rescue a princess.
Aging gamers? Well, there's aging games, too, which many call AbandonWare (and many a site dedicated to the nobel cause of keeping these things alive, while EA keeps recreating the same themes over and over...)
It's really a question of what a generation does with its leisure time. Mine spent it gaming. The current one does, too. It's rather hard to imagine future generations not doing it (unless everyone suddenly falls for some absurd cult.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Why would anyone quit gaming?
I've been gaming for the last 14 years (I'm 20 right now) and every year that passes I find I enjoy games less and less. Nothing can ever bring me back to the highs I achieved with Mario 1 or Warcraft 2. Even though the games today have better graphics and are supposedly more advanced, I just don't find them fun, and it gets worse with every new game I get. I expect to stop gaming altogether within a year or two. I kind of think its like playing with lego or something, a lot of people just grow out of it as they get older. It is sad for me though, I havn't really found anything new to fill the void that games used to fill.
I started playing computer games at age 14 in 1980, on a TRS-80, then an Apple II. I started playing a fair bit (growing up in a town of 350 folks there isn't a lot to do, anyway), when my science teacher noticed something in me. He said, "You know, I'm not going to let you play on that thing anymore unless you learn to program it!" I asked, how am I going to do that? He responded by throwing the programming manual in my lap and said, "Here. Ask if you have any questions."
That got me started down the path to my current career! I played a lot of games in HS, but I also wrote my own text based adventure game on an Apple II, and I even wrote a little "Star Wars" game on a Vic 20 that I borrowed from a neighbor kid over Christmas Break!
I'm now a Software Engineer for a Government Contractor firm, working in some cool technologies. I still play games today (having moved up from Apple Panic and Castle Wolfenstein 1 to Serious Sam II), but I don't play as much as I used to, having a wife and two kids. I do let my kids play a little more than I probably should, but I'm hoping that the love of computers might get them interested in programming, too! Since we homeschool, I personally think they'd have a GREAT computer programming teacher!
P.S. Thanks, Mr. B! (science teacher) Without you, I might still be a gamer, but I probably never would have become a programmer!
...just for the older gamer, like me.
I'm 38, and I still enjoy most kinds of games. Least amused by D&D style games like Neverwinter Nights (great title, though). I still rock with FPS and easily kick the ass of most people my age. Been playing a long time, since the 70's and Mattel's handheld football, the Ataris, and even DEC terminals with Camel and Trek.
Passing time with Diablo II still, getting into some Sims, been really fragging the shit out of some young-ums in Quake 3, and looking forward to showing young meat how to catch a lightsaber when Jedi Knight II comes out for Mac OS X in a couple of weeks.
Yep, card carrying, Excellent Fragging Member of The Old Gamers Club: Where you are never too young to get your ass kicked.
I sincerely plan to be old but still able to hang and beat my grandchildren at whatever marvels show up in the future. I was around during the dawn of the electronic gaming age, and my "Tron finger" is as snappy as ever.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.