The age effect

[charlesr]

Many of us at Bordersdown have been around a while and have seen almost the entire history of gaming from genesis to current day. I wonder how our perception of a new game is altered by having pretty much seen every genre and game style, in 2D and 3D, with few games able to provide anything new apart from story and quality. Someone new to being old enough to play a new Call of Duty might be rather a lot more excited and have a deeper level of enjoyment than myself sitting down to play another iteration of something I've enjoyed a lot already in previous releases.

Maybe the same applies to cinema too - once you've seen zillions of films, things begin to seem all vaguely similar.

Fortunately I'm happy to play new iterations with tweaks here and there as long as I don't overdose e.g. Forza 1, 2 and 5 was great for me. The break between 2 and 5 made 5 worthwhile putting the time in.

[Gradius]

I'm 43 and still enjoy modern games although i probably only play 4 new games a year.

Nearly everything is a sequel these days. I got bored of COD after MW2 and now completely ignore the series as it all seems the same to me. The only game I'm looking forward this year is Just Cause 3.

Back in the mid 80's the first we knew about the latest Commodore 64 game was when when we saw it on the shelf in John Menzies! There was little to zero previews of games in them days.

[Kit]

I ignored Modern Warefare 2 to whatever the hell it's called now. I just play through games at my own pace now. Like, I eventually played Modern Warefare 2 this year and am playing blops but those games came out five years ago right?

Suppose getting older has killed my immediacy to play the latest games. I'd rather go through a series leisurely in one go with all the bells and whistles on show. Same for tv series really.

[Golgo]

I still get excited about new stuff, but -being the wrong side of 40 - I just get disappointed more often. One of the things I've always loved about games is the chance to escape into alternative worlds, so the simple tech-driven grind of greater visual fidelity and immersion will always be naturally appealing to me. I draw the line at oculus/morpheus etc, though...that's fell witchcraft.

[darkangel]

I'm 28, turning 29 this year, and for me I remember my first console being the NES which was shared with my brother then my first handheld was the original Game Boy. I loved playing and remember how every game drew me in, I think back then the cynicism we have for the industry now didn't really exist and even though it was of course still a business and developers etc still wanted to make money, it didn't come out so blatant as today where nearly every game is just a cash cow for DLC BS. I think more devs had tons of passion, originality and creativity and this showed.

My high point for excitement for playing new game releases was with the Sega Dreamcast era, I got into importing early and that carried on into the GC days with a U.S launch unit, hell I even had a modded PS2 and can still remember buying a modded Saur Hori stick from Saur himself for Gradius V back when this forum was NTSC-UK.

Every game felt fresh, and every game carried pure hype. Nowadays, while I still love gaming I'm certainly not as excited over waiting to play a new release, and not that bothered if I don't get to play a game at launch. I also think that fewer and fewer new releases are bringing anything as great and fresh as they did in the old days. I still remember Shenmue and PSO Online blowing my mind to this day.

Even though the NES was my first console, I had many wonderful years as a child playing the PC Engine and Neo Geo AES at my cousins house in Israel, along side the Mega Drive, Genesis and other consoles etc, they had pretty much every release and random accessory you could think of and it's because of that that my love for retro gaming is still here to this day. I think I had more fun with those consoles and games then the PS3/360 and PS4 put together and I think that says allot for where the industry is today.

I'm currently trying to get that huge collection imported over here, fingers crossed. If that happens I can see my PS4 gathering dust very quickly.

[eastyy]

i am 35 and literally gaming has grown up with me first console was a atari 2600 and just continued since then.

I remember getting my first megadrive which was a import and was not really aware of the import scene i just knew it as a japanese megadrive with some games form japan.

i just do not like where gaming is going and the point i think it started going downhill was the xbox 360/ps3 era. When online became such a major part of games with patches and dlc i remember thinking at the time that this could kill some games from ever becoming retro for example say skyrim never got a game of the year edition and you just had the base version in 10 years while you could still play it probably would not be able to get the patches.

And you have games now which have countless bugs...i mean mortal kombat x for the pc made me really angry had so many issues with it

Then you have mobile games which i really do not see as games more of a timewaster with no real goals.

And with age i have got a lot more critical of games and tend to see the negatives in stuff a lot more then i used to

[Dogg Thang]

I'm 40 and bald and almost dead and mortality is a horrible, hobble joke played on all of us. Wait, what is this thread about?

[Brad]

I get excited about games still..
Usually followed by disappointment. I'm too old for this **** basically (45). I'm like Gru's mum in despicable me; show me 100 man years of work on a game and I'm like meh.

It's hard for me to spend the time to get into things so recently I've found Diablo fits the bill nicely. No twitch skills needed, rewards me regularly with new stuff. Immaculate presentation. Can play in 20 minute chunks if I want. Win.

[Colin]

I still love games, though right now there's next to nothing out or soon to be that's catching my interest.

[Golgo]

This is turning into a right grump off! Who can be oldest and grumpiest?

Golgo: 41.
Motto: Seen it all before, only better.

[kryss]

33 (34 this year) and gaming since the GB. I think the N64 days were the best for me, Perfect Dark and F-Zero X were all I needed.
It took me longer to get into imports, and in fairness my love of Japanese games on really developed in the early 2000s. I missed out on a lot of games by not having a PS1 but don't care too much, I can get the occasional bargain from PSN.

I'm enjoying this generation as much as the last, but it's all silver and there's no gold out there anymore.

[fishbowlhead]

I'm 31. Got pretty bored of games for years, then destiny came out and I'd love to say I've played something else since, I havent. My wiiu is a collection of half completed gems.

My business sucks most of my life away leaving little time for games now days being the main reason for my gaming apathy.

[jim g]

I am 57, still play me games most days.

Find less time now, so something really has to grab me is suitable to short bursts. Online game suits the short bursts I guess.

[speedlolita]

I'm 24.

Lately I've been bored of modern games. Perhaps since 2012. Since the beginning of 2012 there have been 4 games that I have enjoyed released. Metal Gear Rising, Pok?mon Y, Bayonetta 2 and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V - I guess that makes 3 actually!

Back in 2012 I seperated from my ex and had serious issues with it. I blamed my addiction to video games and that led to me selling EVERYTHING. All I was left with was my PC, and on that I began my TERA addiction which remains to this day - but that is a story for another time.

More recently I've been rebuilding my collection. Last year I'd purchased tons and tons of PS3 games but earlier this year I decided that it was pointless buying every single half decent looking game developed in Japan for the PlayStation 3 - I wasn't going to play a good chunk of them. So now I'm down to maybe 20 titles. For my PlayStation 4 I have 2.

For me my joy in gaming comes from the past, along with the modification of older hardware, and the enjoyment of lovely clean RGB video on my CRT display. I also enjoy discussion of such topics, and with me recently having completed my 16bit console "collection" (Duo R/SNES Mini/Modded Mk1 Mega Drive) I plan to purchase a Mega EverDrive and sd2snes and really explore the library of these consoles as I completely missed them due to my age.

Earlier in the year too I spend a lot of time playing PlayStation, which was fantastic. So many games hold up so well despite their age, although that might be related to the fond memories I developed in the past of them.

First person shooters? Got bored of those with Call of Duty 4.
Fighting games? Decided Third Strike was the only one worth my time investment.

[importaku]

38 and been gaming since i was around 6 started with a Vic20 ended up discovering the world of imports when i was 16 started with an american gameboy the rest is pretty much history. Have yet to join this gen of consoles can't say i'm in a huge rush anymore to have the latest and greatest for everything would rather just hunt down the games that are to my tastes, still enjoy gaming as much as ever, it's the more unusual games that tend to keep me entertained.