In Defense of Old Gamers

[The Brown Hornet]

Yes gentleman we who grew up in the 80s are officially old gamers. As a result we are probably also somewhat annoying to younger gamers as we complain too much about the current state gaming. As for me ... Guilty as charged!

My guess is that you youngsters probably wonder if we dislike gaming so much these days why do we stick around, alright I'll give you three reasons though there certainly are many:

1. We are the first hardcore gaming generation - Gen X. We started it, evolved it, and revolutionized gaming so we take pride in it.

2. Our kids (who are getting older themselves) keep us exposed, engaged, and involved in gaming; who do you think has the money to purchase and buy all the latest hardware tech and gizmos (looking at you Steam Deck) we do!!

3. Habit, it's embedded in our DNA, we were privileged to see and experience every console and PC generation so far. We bought, played, loaned, traded, and collected every game when it was still fresh and new; from Space Invaders to Cyberpunk which I'm assuming is the most technically advanced game today.

So with that said it's kind of hard to stop doing something you've been doing your whole life but I do believe it's winding down for Gen X, not from lack of interest but because those big generational leaps in gameplay and design don't seem to be happening anymore. What comes next has been mostly the same.

If anyone young or "old"...hmmm let's say wise, wants to contribute to this topic have at it!

[xBCxRangers]

Well, younger folks are always gonna think what's being presented is the best thing ever. I remember being the "geezer" in the rise of MP gaming.

When MP became a thing, i predicted it would end gaming as we know it, and they were dumbing down the games to put emphasis on MP. I was accustomed to '"SP Games".

Today, they're 35 or 40, and i'm seeing them on YT, complaining about these same matters i complained about 20 years ago.

That the games are being dumbed down to cater to MTX and other fads, such as game services. That games are broken out the gate. That the gaming industry are a bunch of greedsters looking for the quick buck.

That was me, 20 years ago.

The point being, even the Milennials today, as we did back then do not like the direction, being shouted down by the Zoomers, who are enjoying every minute.

In short, there was nothing we can do about grunge music, then rap. It happened whether we liked it or not. The great thing is, we can stick with the older stuff

[Piston Smashed™]

Opprinnelig skrevet av The Brown Hornet:

Yes gentleman we who grew up in the 80s are officially old gamers. As a result we are probably also somewhat annoying to younger gamers as we complain too much about the current state gaming. As for me ... Guilty as charged!

My guess is that you youngsters probably wonder if we dislike gaming so much these days why do we stick around, alright I'll give you three reasons though there certainly are many:

1. We are the first hardcore gaming generation - Gen X. We started it, evolved it, and revolutionized gaming so we take pride in it.

2. Our kids (who are getting older themselves) keep us exposed, engaged, and involved in gaming; who do you think has the money to purchase and buy all the latest hardware tech and gizmos (looking at you Steam Deck) we do!!

3. Habit, it's embedded in our DNA, we were privileged to see and experience every console and PC generation so far. We bought, played, loaned, traded, and collected every game when it was still fresh and new; from Space Invaders to Cyberpunk which I'm assuming is the most technically advanced game today.

So with that said it's kind of hard to stop doing something you've been doing your whole life but I do believe it's winding down for Gen X, not from lack of interest but because those big generational leaps in gameplay and design don't seem to be happening anymore. What comes next has been mostly the same.

If anyone young or "old"...hmmm let's say wise, wants to contribute to this topic have at it!

Speak for yourself, I've never complained about the state of gaming, in fact I've defended it. I love gaming now as much as when I was six years old playing Pong.

[The Brown Hornet]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Piston Smashed™:

Opprinnelig skrevet av The Brown Hornet:

Yes gentleman we who grew up in the 80s are officially old gamers. As a result we are probably also somewhat annoying to younger gamers as we complain too much about the current state gaming. As for me ... Guilty as charged!

My guess is that you youngsters probably wonder if we dislike gaming so much these days why do we stick around, alright I'll give you three reasons though there certainly are many:

1. We are the first hardcore gaming generation - Gen X. We started it, evolved it, and revolutionized gaming so we take pride in it.

2. Our kids (who are getting older themselves) keep us exposed, engaged, and involved in gaming; who do you think has the money to purchase and buy all the latest hardware tech and gizmos (looking at you Steam Deck) we do!!

3. Habit, it's embedded in our DNA, we were privileged to see and experience every console and PC generation so far. We bought, played, loaned, traded, and collected every game when it was still fresh and new; from Space Invaders to Cyberpunk which I'm assuming is the most technically advanced game today.

So with that said it's kind of hard to stop doing something you've been doing your whole life but I do believe it's winding down for Gen X, not from lack of interest but because those big generational leaps in gameplay and design don't seem to be happening anymore. What comes next has been mostly the same.

If anyone young or "old"...hmmm let's say wise, wants to contribute to this topic have at it!

Speak for yourself, I've never complained about the state of gaming, in fact I've defended it. I love gaming now as much as when I was six years old playing Pong. :spazwinky:

Touche' Pong certainly predates Space Invaders, I remember those paddles and black white graphics

[The Brown Hornet]

Opprinnelig skrevet av xBCxRangers:

Well, younger folks are always gonna think what's being presented is the best thing ever. I remember being the "geezer" in the rise of MP gaming.

When MP became a thing, i predicted it would end gaming as we know it, and they were dumbing down the games to put emphasis on MP. I was accustomed to '"SP Games".

Today, they're 35 or 40, and i'm seeing them on YT, complaining about these same matters i complained about 20 years ago.

That the games are being dumbed down to cater to MTX and other fads, such as game services. That games are broken out the gate. That the gaming industry are a bunch of greedsters looking for the quick buck.

That was me, 20 years ago.

The point being, even the Milennials today, as we did back then do not like the direction, being shouted down by the Zoomers, who are enjoying every minute.

In short, there was nothing we can do about grunge music, then rap. It happened whether we liked it or not. The great thing is, we can stick with the older stuff

Interesting, I think I had a premonition or inkling to stay away from most multiplayer games back then. I chose to stick with single player so I fortunately missed those arguments and debates, The thing that angered me the most about multiplayer is when the other player quit cause they were losing, this predates the cheating and hacking era, the quitter phase!

[Komarimaru]

I think the state of gaming has just constantly improved in all honesty. More options, more accessibility, cheaper to keep doing the hobby.

GPU's no longer cost 4 months rent.
Internet is now so fast you can have over a gigabit speed at home, for as much as it cost you to run 2-3 land lines for dial up at home.
Hardware in general is cheaper, faster and more advanced and lasts longer.
Games now range from just platform and FPS, to so many genre's it's hard to keep up.
Games are cheaper now to buy, than back in the day too.

For 5 grand US today, you can build a gaming PC of legendary power, that lasts for many years. For 5 grand in the 80-90's? You had a PC that lasted a year, maybe two.

[DarkCrystalMethod]

Games went from thumbs of steel rapid shooting to charge shots because people's hands hurt(especially from the N64 controller). These kiddos don't know true suffering.

[The Brown Hornet]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Komarimaru:

I think the state of gaming has just constantly improved in all honesty. More options, more accessibility, cheaper to keep doing the hobby.

GPU's no longer cost 4 months rent.
Internet is now so fast you can have over a gigabit speed at home, for as much as it cost you to run 2-3 land lines for dial up at home.
Hardware in general is cheaper, faster and more advanced and lasts longer.
Games now range from just platform and FPS, to so many genre's it's hard to keep up.
Games are cheaper now to buy, than back in the day too.

For 5 grand US today, you can build a gaming PC of legendary power, that lasts for many years. For 5 grand in the 80-90's? You had a PC that lasted a year, maybe two.

That's a good point, I can't really poke many holes in that, it is a fact that another reason "old gamers" stay in the game is accessibility. I definitely don't have to spend much to feed the habit, you can literally build a library for free courtesy of Epic Games. The day I learned how to download on Steam or use an emulator was in itself revolutionary and one of those leaps and bounds I refer to... Maybe someone can tell me what the next big generational leaps will be, for me it's not ray tracing or DLSS or multi frames or any of that stuff, it's got to be something more interesting than that...

[nullable]

Why do we need defense?

Did your grandma give you an In Defense of Old TV Watchers speech? No?

People change. Games change. Tastes change. The industry changes. Not everyone likes change, and those people will often complain, sometimes naively. That's never going to change.

[SLAYER187]

Gaming today is nothing like back in the day For starters going too toys r us (and everywhere else) and paying $40 and $50 bucks for games in not cheaper then today's games priced at $60 and $70 is hillarious. Gpu's today price wise are out of hand especially nvidia who uses cheap materials (s**t chip sets), HORRIBLE SOFTWARE stacks ram and says hey our cards are so powerful yet they are not. PC's in the 90's did not cost 5 grand or anywhere close to it and lasted way longer then two years LOL and 2 grand or less today will build what a gamer needs not 5 grand and last 10 years or a little more.

[HereIsPlenty]

Joysticks that broke easily, games with terrible graphics (apart from Pacman and Space Invaders), terrible tape decks that took ages to load games. No, much as I loved early gaming, I don't miss it. Give me AC Black Flag any day.

Although I gamed before owning a system, mainly at arcades, I saved up for a year from a paper round to get the Amstrad 464 in 1984. The first game I owned was a horrorshow called "Roland on the ropes" - you can see images of it on YT now still.

Gaming now is far more accessible and of the quality that dreams are made of.

[xBCxRangers]

Opprinnelig skrevet av SLAYER187:

Gaming today is nothing like back in the day For starters going too toys r us (and everywhere else) and paying $40 and $50 bucks for games in not cheaper then today's games priced at $60 and $70 is hillarious.

That's funny. I don't remember games being that much. In fact they were so cheap, i remember a kid at Electronic Boutique trying to sell me a game he thought i'd like (of the WW2 genre) on PS2, and i said sure, throw it in there.

It def was not no 50 or 60 bucks for me to have said that.

I thought they were around 20 bucks or something.

[HereIsPlenty]

SNES cartridges in the 90s were £50 new.

[The Brown Hornet]

Opprinnelig skrevet av nullable:

Why do we need defense?

Did your grandma give you an In Defense of Old TV Watchers speech? No?

People change. Games change. Tastes change. The industry changes. Not everyone likes change, and those people will often complain, sometimes naively. That's never going to change.

Well we don't want to simply be seen as "Get off my lawn," so just trying frame and put a point of view in context. I will agree that "change" is a big part of it, I guess we are debating if it's been more good or bad?

[Piston Smashed™]

Opprinnelig skrevet av HereIsPlenty:

Joysticks that broke easily, games with terrible graphics (apart from Pacman and Space Invaders), terrible tape decks that took ages to load games. No, much as I loved early gaming, I don't miss it. Give me AC Black Flag any day.

Although I gamed before owning a system, mainly at arcades, I saved up for a year from a paper round to get the Amstrad 464 in 1984. The first game I owned was a horrorshow called "Roland on the ropes" - you can see images of it on YT now still.

Gaming now is far more accessible and of the quality that dreams are made of.

That's how I funded my gaming, when I was twelve I started doing multiple paper rounds, working in the shop filling the shelves, bagging sweets, sorting out the returns etc until I started full time work at sixteen.

That noise loading a game from cassette, then I'd get my parents screaming "turn it down" to which I'd scream back "I can't it's loading my game".

[Crazy Tiger]

OP, your "get of my lawn" old people rant only goes for you, not for the rest of us. I've been gaming for 35+ years now and I've always enjoyed it.

It would be much better if people dropped the nostalgia goggles when they look back at the past. Then they see the loads of shovelware, broken games and other issues that have always been around in the gaming industry.

Today is a great time to be a gamer. So many great games available, so many great games yet to be released.