People that are older than the gaming generation

[cartlidge]

I remember those.. some people used to print out pages of the manual to get around it.. f-19 steath fighter, that later became f-117 when they found out the name I think used that. Ah Microprose. When flight sims had a manual as thick as any book and used nearly every key on the keyboard

 

[Kalfear]

Welp im 56 and have no problem with game.

So doubt its a age thing as OP suggests

BUT I will say as a gamer whose been playing computer games since they began, there is generational differences to be found.

But only in mass general terms as there will always be someone who stands out or counters the norm.

What Ive found over the years is gamers have become less patient and more reliant on action action action.

A game like say Pools of Radiance by SSI from 1989 would never fly now a days because the mass majority of gamers would reject its unbending difficulty and slow progression,
Same can be said for a game like the original Might and Magic RPG (not heroes of Might and magic but the actual cRPG that started the franchise.

If you wish to challenge this opinion, both games can be bought on GOG.com for literal pennies.

Each new generation is hooked on graphics and action above all else.
Not really their fault
Developers themselves dumb this @%# down making it the norm.

Take Biowares highly successful Mass Effect franchise
RP Fans of the era LOVED LOVED LOVED the Original Mass Effect game
In a era of mostly linear design Mass Effect offered the "POTENTIAL" of moving out beyond that with open ended storylines that didnt fully conclude in ME1 and were carried over to ME2

or that was the concept
Unfortunately Bioware was bought by EA and the first thing EA did was close off all those open storylines from ME1 and revert Mass Effect to the standard module linear RPG with more action and less RPG elements

And the new generation (at time) loved it while the old generation hated seeing so much potential flushed down the toilet
But ME2 had better graphics and more action action action
Eventually graphics and action won out over story telling and RPG.

Best example is WOW
Biggest selling MMORPG of all time

WOW is just EQ dumbed down
that's all its ever been
As one reviewer called it during its beta test
Everquest on training wheels
Rather then making players wait and earn things
levels and items were just mindlessly handed out with no effort involved
And the newest generation of the time loved that

So future MMORPGs saw WOWs success and copied their dumbed down, give everything away format
and they failed
they all failed
Yet every new generation still loved WOW and still demanded that being challenged was old school thinking and out of date.
Honestly WOW almost damn near destroyed the MMORPG genre.

So if we talking in a mass general terms (again nothing ever 100% applicable to all)
The biggest difference in gamers generation to generation is action and graphics have over taken story and thought and patience.
Look how many people "CLAIM" to have beaten Cyberpunk in 20 hours.
It took me 277 hours to fully explore the game and everything it had to offer in my first play through
But they think they "completed it" in 20 hours

 

[quintivarium]

If you had to enter the fourth word in the second sentence of the third paragraph on page 16 of the printed manual(!!!), you've probably been playing video games for a long time. And, since you're reading this, it doesn't look like you'll be stopping any time soon.

Bah! You weren’t a true gamer unless you had memorized the fourth word in the second sentence of the third paragraph on page 16 (and all the others combos they asked).

 

[SigilFey]

Bah! You weren’t a true gamer unless you had memorized the fourth word in the second sentence of the third paragraph on page 16 (and all the others combos they asked).

No -- to be a true gamer, you had to memorize the answer in runes at the correct coordinates on the cloth map included in the box. And you could be asked any 3 of 16 sets of coordinates!

(I never memorized them all. I am not a true gamer.)

 

[lyin321]

Yet every new generation still loved WOW and still demanded that being challenged was old school thinking and out of date.

I agree! See how many people hate souls like games

...sarcasm aside I am not sure I agree with you. The people that prefer stories etc. are still here (including newcomers), they just suddenly found themselves surrounded by a lot more people that don't prefer that style of games. And thus seem like a smaller group.

 

[Zonixa]

I'm 68, been gaming since '93. Really like CP2077, but I have issues with how they have developed the game, the fact that driving controls still totally suck on PC and there are still a lot of other issues with the game. Need another major patch already, as last patch broke a ton.

 

[Simpson3000]

In my whole family i was the only kid that ever played computer games. From the C64 over the Amiga to PC and some small handheld games inbetween. Today they probably use personal computers but still not for the degree of entertainment i use it.

But i have to admit I either lost some abilities to play as fast as i could in the past or the games became faster. So i think that age does matter in a way, the reactions getting slower at higher age.

 

[Guest 4621243]

I've both talked about, displayed, and demonstrated CP77 with people that are like 50-60 years old just to gauge their thoughts about the game. I've never had the expected response. Some have told me that they'd probably just walk around and look at everything, others had a glossy glaze in their eyes as if they had no comprehension of what they were looking at, even when I would do something outrageous, like hit a Valentino in the back of the head, randomly, with a dildo baton. Others would be impressed by the stories I'd tell about my in-game experience, but even with seeing and appreciating how realistic it looks, prefer to watch movies of the same caliber (like the Original Robocop, Terminator, or Predator), but will only engage with some "bubble pop" game on their tablet or smartphone.

It causes me to think that the gamer generation is unique in perspective and experience. I've even shown my mom videos of robots like Sophia and Ameca to see if she can see what I see in them. . . Ultimately she, like many others, can't even fathom the trajectory of technology and the future that's replaced action figures and dolls with models and robotics.

I, my friend, AM the original gamer generation, weighing in at 59 years of age. It all started with "Pong" on Atari, and went from there. Played Wolfenstein when it came out (were you even born?); moved on to Doom, Doom II, Doom 95, etc.; Tombraider (all), Call of Duty, Modern Warfare (all) Black Ops (some), GTA, Fallout, etc., etc., etc.

So what was you said about "people, like, 50-60 years old"?

 

[Aris_Tarkus]

Oh for the good old days eh!? Computers without monitors, playing 3D tic tac toe on a teletype terminal hooked up to a time share system. That's where I started.

How many players still remember what a Grue is?

I must say though, that one of the games I used to play a lot, and enjoyed the hell out of wasn't even on a computer... How many of you remember play by mail games?? Not play by email, but play by mail. It was a blast getting a packet of several pages in the mail, figuring out what your next several moves would be and then mailing it back to the people running the game. If you were lucky you would get 1 turn every 7 - 10 days. I can remember my desk being covered with all variety of hand drawn charts and plans.

 

[Guest 4621243]

Oh for the good old days eh!? Computers without monitors, playing 3D tic tac toe on a teletype terminal hooked up to a time share system. That's where I started.

How many players still remember what a Grue is?

I must say though, that one of the games I used to play a lot, and enjoyed the hell out of wasn't even on a computer... How many of you remember play by mail games?? Not play by email, but play by mail. It was a blast getting a packet of several pages in the mail, figuring out what your next several moves would be and then mailing it back to the people running the game. If you were lucky you would get 1 turn every 7 - 10 days. I can remember my desk being covered with all variety of hand drawn charts and plans.

Jesus! You got me by a decade, it sounds like. But, alas, yes... the Good Ol' Days... "Lost in time, like tears in the rain..."

 

[Aris_Tarkus]

Lost in time, like tears in the rain..

From one of my all time favorite movies. Going to have to watch that again now.

 

[Nevver_]

I'm old. Fuck y'all.

 

[83427]

I, my friend, AM the original gamer generation, weighing in at 59 years of age. It all started with "Pong" on Atari, and went from there. Played Wolfenstein when it came out (were you even born?); moved on to Doom, Doom II, Doom 95, etc.; Tombraider (all), Call of Duty, Modern Warfare (all) Black Ops (some), GTA, Fallout, etc., etc., etc.

So what was you said about "people, like, 50-60 years old"?

so you were about 10yo when you played pong for the first time? Yop, you can be at the true beginning of something what we call gamer generation.

 

[Spectral_Warrior]

I've come to qualify a gamer in a far different way.
I am yound compared to some people here. Yet I still know the times when you inserted that floppy disc of the first duke nukem or boot up mario on win 3.11.

But more importantly now, I tend to qualify myself as a gamer based on the time I involve myself with games, playing, modding etc and to a lesser degree have the ability to cite common phrases from game characters and such.

I have however walked (and still do) a fairly different path through what games I was drawn by and for how long I stuck with them, compared to most everybody on this forum I think.

 

[Wolfways]

I'm a 52yo gamer, and the only thing I don't understand in games is some pop culture references.
IMO the only reason there's a "gamer generation" is because life has become easier and people have more money and time to enjoy hobbies, but that is changing now and things are going to get tougher for many people so gaming popularity might start to wane.

 

[SigilFey]

I'm a 52yo gamer, and the only thing I don't understand in games is some pop culture references.
IMO the only reason there's a "gamer generation" is because life has become easier and people have more money and time to enjoy hobbies, but that is changing now and things are going to get tougher for many people so gaming popularity might start to wane.

I'm really surprised by how many of my students nowadays don't play games at all. I'd say that's still a minority of kids (middle and high school) but there are a significant number of them. They have no interest in gaming whatsoever.

 

[83427]

yeah, young generation rather watch how someone else playing on youtube, twitch or whatever instead of them. weird.

 

[Guest 4621243]

so you were about 10yo when you played pong for the first time? Yop, you can be at the true beginning of something what we call gamer generation.

Yup, 13 to be exact (we got Atari "Pong" in 1976). I was fascinated by the fact that we could control what was on the TV screen, rather than having to watch what was being "fed" to us. Really cool. We played for hours on end!

 

[XianeX]

So what was you said about "people, like, 50-60 years old"?

You'll have to read the rest of the thread. I've already addressed it a couple of times.

 

[SigilFey]

You'll have to read the rest of the thread. I've already addressed it a couple of times.

Memory is the first thing to go. Then eyesight, so re-reading older posts is difficult. Then the memory issue comes back, so the reasons for re-reading the posts are forgotten...