Media/older generation's perception that games are for kids and how this can be changed

Nope, never. I'm growing slowly more autistic every day in this forum though so I may outgrow this place.

Well, I'm 55 years old and I still enjoy video games. I dunno what that says about me - good or bad, it is a fact. Then again, I live alone, I have the bare minimum of responsibilities outside of a job and paying the rent. I have time (and disposable income) on my hands and I find video games are a perfect distraction. I was late to the whole video game thing, anyway. It wasn't until I was in my 30s that I properly got into video games. As time has gone by I have at least worked out what I like and don't like in the hobby (mostly, I like slow, immersive single-player games, RPGs in particular, and racing games - definitely not a twitch gamer and I never will be).

I'm currently enjoying my new (old) XBox 360 E. I picked it up for £60 with a 500GB HDD and it was in almost perfect condition. So far, it's been an absolute joy - and I have a pretty large library of 360 game disks I've collected over the years. I don't tend to play so much on the PS4 Pro these days. That might change; for now, the 360 is where it's at for me. I think I'm fatigued with excessive pricing on brand new current-gen games - so I'm drawn back to the 360, where I can spend half as much for three times as much - although now I feel I perhaps have just as many 360 games as I might ever want.

I'm just coming off the back of a financial splurge on all things FFXIII, XIII-2 and LR (three brand-new Collector Edition game guides, all the games in their respective Collector Edition packs (again, brand new, sealed)) and just today I've spent out on some brand new empty 360 game cases and a modest, but well-reviewed game capture device (Globmall HD Game Capture - works with anything, but I got it specifically to capture HD footage from the 360). Perhaps I'll make some kind of a documentary/critique/celebration about my favorite trilogy in video games. I have some ideas.

So yeah, I'm an old(ish)man who still plays video games. I haven't yet decided what I want to be when I grow up.

Reading Trelliz's posts he doesn't seem to have outgrown them more grown tired.

Tsunade wrote:

Ironhide wrote:NEVER.

This. I've been gaming since I was 10 when I was sent a bright pink game boy colour from my dad. Im 30 now and Ella now owns it, I play games all the time still and a lot of the artwork I do involves video game characters in some way.

That gameboy could become your family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation for decades to come.

Ironhide wrote:

Tsunade wrote:

Ironhide wrote:NEVER.

This. I've been gaming since I was 10 when I was sent a bright pink game boy colour from my dad. Im 30 now and Ella now owns it, I play games all the time still and a lot of the artwork I do involves video game characters in some way.

That gameboy could become your family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation for decades to come.

It probably will end up that way, my brother is just as mad a gamer as me (probably moreso) so there's bound to be a next generation in our family who also games like us.

Tsunade wrote:

Ironhide wrote:

Tsunade wrote:

Ironhide wrote:NEVER.

This. I've been gaming since I was 10 when I was sent a bright pink game boy colour from my dad. Im 30 now and Ella now owns it, I play games all the time still and a lot of the artwork I do involves video game characters in some way.

That gameboy could become your family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation for decades to come.

It probably will end up that way, my brother is just as mad a gamer as me (probably moreso) so there's bound to be a next generation in our family who also games like us.

Just make sure the Game Boy includes a copy of Kirby's Pinball Land.

Magnificent game.

Trelliz wrote:

I have been contemplating this a lot recently and think i'm definitely heading that way. I've begun aggressively deleting and hiding downloaded games from view which i've had a good hard think about and concluded i'm just not interested in playing, either one of the many genres i just don't like or they're one in many massive behemoth games like dragon age inquisition whose sheer scale are offputting and, to be honest, whose padded length doesn't justify the not great story. Or they're games which i can get a similar experience elsewhere - how many colin mcrae/dirt/wrc games does one person need or could reasonably play, for example? I would rather play The Witcher 3 than Dragon Age, for example.

I also have days where i feel like selling (almost) the lot and moving on, for two reasons. Firstly:

I understand the appeal of but have zero interest in Fortnite, PUBG, Hearthstone, Dota, League of Legends or any of these gaming juggernauts. Combined with (you guessed it) lootboxes, microtransactions, battle passes and the compression of every game into an ur-game of open world combat with rpg elements, skill trees and crafting through "live service" models that play on making you come back for your daily/weekly events.

Secondly I don't have any real outlets for creativity which has a lasting definite presence - i suspect its the same motivation which drives people taking up painting, sculpting etc., but I want to get back into model kit making, tabletop wargaming/rpgs, that sort of thing; something physical with face to face interaction that involves creativity and gives you something tangible to show for your time and effort rather than a list of arbitrary achievements/a higher gamerscore.

The combination of the two is making me take a long hard look at whether/to what extent i want to keep going - my pc could do with a new gpu, but i could get a LOT of paints, tools, materials and models for the same money.

Are you me?

That's bang on where I am right now. Even down to deliberately hiding portions of my Steam library, and the desire to do something more creative with my free time, except I've started to draw, instead.

There is one thing that for me differentiates gaming from books/films/music, etc, but it's not too do with any being more mature or having an age limit. You know how much of your free time a film is going to take up. You know how long a book will take to read, or how many episodes there will be in a TV series, before you start. Games are a bit of an unknown quantity, though. Look at the variance there is on howlongtobeat.com. Something like the Witcher 3 varies from 50 to 170 hours. Not only can the total play time vary wildly, but if I'm trying to grab just half an hour of gaming, I sometimes can't be sure if I'm going to be able to fit a whole mission or level in. Games with lengthy cutscenes are the worst for this. You want to play some game, and instead, you spend 20 minutes of your free hour sitting through non interactive exposition.

It's reached the point where I think it's giving me mild anxiety trying to play games when I feel like i'm pushed for time. I feel genuinely stressed when I can see my time ticking down, and I've not been able to get the enjoyment I wanted out of a section of game, or progress as far as I wanted to, or if I've triggered a cinematic that could go on for however long when I want to switch off in 5 minutes.

It's obviously closely tied to a more general feeling in my life that I waste time, so it's not like I'm outgrowing anything, but I find gaming as a form of entertainment offers the least tangible sense of reward compared to other media, so I'm increasingly uneasy about spending time on it, and I'll often step away from a gaming session feeling disappointed, rather than relaxed. In that sense I'm certainly making a conscious decision to game less as I get older.

I'll never outgrow them, but I've come to the realisation that gaming isn't what it used to be for me.
As others have said, there are titles that I wish I could pour time into (like the good old days, pre-any-kind-of responsibility) but I'm 38, have 2 young kids and am in charge of a department in a comprehensive secondary school. I look at my library of games and am forced to choose something that I think I could see the end of in a relatively short period of time.
I've just finished Spiderman. Granted, it took a while so I obviously had enough time free to achieve this, but it was a simple act to pick it up and play an hour here and there and not become baffled and confused about where I was in the game currently. Compare this to Witcher 3, or FFXV, or even something like Dying Light or Prey. I own them all; I've even started a couple of them. 15 years ago I would have poured myself into every one of them. But I contemplate firing them up now and can't face the amount of disruption my lifestyle will bring to the experience. I'm going to stop buying titles like this.
Approaching 40, I'm now more likely to play something like Hob, Little Nightmares, Firewatch, a short FPS, than a game with masses of content. The reviews of AC: Odyssey and it's size and scope create so much excitement in me, but I need to realise it's the excitement from a different (free) era of my life bubbling up that I need to give a slap. It's kind of depressing, but I'll adjust accordingly. Games are brilliant, at the end of the day.

Vermilion wrote:

Tsunade wrote:

Ironhide wrote:

Tsunade wrote:

Ironhide wrote:NEVER.

This. I've been gaming since I was 10 when I was sent a bright pink game boy colour from my dad. Im 30 now and Ella now owns it, I play games all the time still and a lot of the artwork I do involves video game characters in some way.

That gameboy could become your family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation for decades to come.

It probably will end up that way, my brother is just as mad a gamer as me (probably moreso) so there's bound to be a next generation in our family who also games like us.

Just make sure the Game Boy includes a copy of Kirby's Pinball Land.

Magnificent game.

It'll probably be passed on with Pokemon Red. It's the first game Ella played on it and started her love of charmander and video games in general. I started playing Pokemon blue on it myself, but we couldn't find it when I gave her the game boy.

Diceman wrote:I'll never outgrow them, but I've come to the realisation that gaming isn't what it used to be for me.
As others have said, there are titles that I wish I could pour time into (like the good old days, pre-any-kind-of responsibility) but I'm 38, have 2 young kids and am in charge of a department in a comprehensive secondary school. I look at my library of games and am forced to choose something that I think I could see the end of in a relatively short period of time.
I've just finished Spiderman. Granted, it took a while so I obviously had enough time free to achieve this, but it was a simple act to pick it up and play an hour here and there and not become baffled and confused about where I was in the game currently. Compare this to Witcher 3, or FFXV, or even something like Dying Light or Prey. I own them all; I've even started a couple of them. 15 years ago I would have poured myself into every one of them. But I contemplate firing them up now and can't face the amount of disruption my lifestyle will bring to the experience. I'm going to stop buying titles like this.
Approaching 40, I'm now more likely to play something like Hob, Little Nightmares, Firewatch, a short FPS, than a game with masses of content. The reviews of AC: Odyssey and it's size and scope create so much excitement in me, but I need to realise it's the excitement from a different (free) era of my life bubbling up that I need to give a slap. It's kind of depressing, but I'll adjust accordingly. Games are brilliant, at the end of the day.

This pretty much sums me up as well

I will never ‘outgrow’ gaming but I just don’t have the time to spend on games that I used too. I probably have about 8-10 hours a week to spend on gaming so I tend to play shorter/focused experiences than big branching adventures.

I have a PS4 and XBone but they are hardly played now, I have a renewed love for portable gaming however so my 3DS and Switch and the only systems I use now.

The next gen will likely be the first I skip on buying the big boy systems at launch.


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No, not as long as they cater to my tastes, and desire to have an interactive medium to utilize for escapism purposes.

I remember someone making an interesting point when discussing a video of Charlie Brooker trying to play a AAA game with Jon Snow (the newsreader, not the LARPer). It's not that the "older" generation wouldn't appreciate the narratives that gaming can offer, it's more that they lack the basic gaming literacy that we take for granted. Trying to control a character during a cutscene and skipping it. Being asked to "hold L1, aim with the right stick, then press R1 to fire" when they can only type with one finger on each hand. Even having one hand control movement and one hand control looking can be difficult if you haven't done it before. A fun gaming session can quickly become a frustrating coaching exercise. As "our" generation ages this will become less prevalent, as in 20 years a much higher proportion of 50-60 year olds will have used a Dual Shock or 360 pad, so it'll be more a case of whether older gamers like the content of new games, rather than them struggling to function in the game world.

I don't think I'll ever grow out of games. If I grow disenfranchised by the modem industry of the day I'll go retro and complete my backlog.

Nope. 46 here, and still love playing games and the excitement of getting into something new. The only thing I would say is it’s harder to find the time to play these big, open world games to completion - I’m playing (and loving) Rise Of The Tomb Raider, and I’m at 96% in terms of completing the game. But it’s taken ages...I feel like I should have moved on to something else.

The attitude to a 40-something playing video games is amazing at times. Stealing a Dara O’Brien joke, mention it around people of the same age, who don’t game, and you might as well say ‘I masturbate to hard core pornography.’ You also get the same kind of sneer that you get when you tell someone who considers themselves ‘well read’ that you read a lot and love Stephen King.

The age thing is weird and I think we are all guilty of thinking people are older than they are. Even as I approach 40 ( ) in my head I think of 40 year olds as old fashioned and technologically illiterate.

Which is ridiculous, people who are 50 were born in 1968, they were in their mid-20s when the PlayStation was released. People who are 60 were only in their mid-30s.

As we all get older, gaming is only going to become more mainstream amongst the pensioners. And when we are retired, we might then have the time for those massive sprawling adventures.

TonyDA wrote:
The attitude to a 40-something playing video games is amazing at times. Stealing a Dara O’Brien joke, mention it around people of the same age, who don’t game, and you might as well say ‘I masturbate to hard core pornography.’ You also get the same kind of sneer that you get when you tell someone who considers themselves ‘well read’ that you read a lot and love Stephen King.

My boss is 47 (and a bit of a pleb) and has the mindset that all video games are like Sonic the Hedgehog and are all are for children. To quote him he thinks "I'm crackers playing video games at my age" (45) while he does an impression of holding a control pad. I just laugh it off of course and tell him that as a footy fan he should get some FIFA in his life, it might do him some good. Release some of that pent-up aggression.

(This is a guy who also likes to announce that he doesn't watch movies or read books like its some sort of accolade, and one who sneers at my work colleagues should a discussion about the MCU or Star Wars kicks up. His wife is a sister at the hospital and a bit of a battle axe who drags him along to Ed Sheeran gigs, so we wonder if his non-gaming, non-movie watching stance stems from him not actually being allowed to. A bit of a "hen pecked Ken" if you will. He's also a raging homophobe, one who considers himself a "man's man" and who proudly announced to us one time that he'd happily disown any of his children if they told him that they're gay, but that's for another discussion).

Point being is, most people I know in my age group are like this on one level or another in how they view the world. It's a mindset I'm happy not to share.

Moggy wrote:As we all get older, gaming is only going to become more mainstream amongst the pensioners. And when we are retired, we might then have the time for those massive sprawling adventures.

I think perception and portrayal will also change as our generation gains more control over media.

Amongst most 5-35 years olds gaming is seen in the same light as TV, movies and music.

But outside The Guardian the mainstream media treats it little more as an odd curiosity and, worse (see Daily Mail) an epidemic issue for children.

The Daily Mail's view on gaming is unsurprising. Its a ghastly paper that panders to that older, middle-England, "kids should do national service and learn some respect! " generation, and like its readers will eventually die out.

Gemini73 wrote:My boss is 47 (and a bit of a pleb)

He sounds like the most boring man in the world - I bet he just watches a load of shite TV which is somehow better

Trelliz wrote:

Gemini73 wrote:My boss is 47 (and a bit of a pleb)

He sounds like the most boring man in the world - I bet he just watches a load of shite TV which is somehow better

Pretty much.

What baffles me is that for all his posturing and his rather distasteful views on homosexuality I can't help but admire the fact that he's also a Fireman who has, on more than one occasion, saved lives. It's completely at odds with the dull, gay bashing, wife fearing man I see at work every day.

Does anyone know of younger people who have this "gaming is for kids/nerds" mindset, or is it purely a generational thing?