As a hoary old bastard I've found that over the years I actually prefer twitch combat to the boring old tab target which was the heart of most classic MMORPGs. I find games without the ability to dodge, block, roll, or jump to be a complete snooze fest these days.
But...how do you watch Netflix with all of that dodging, blocking and rolling going on?
Oh, you actually devote your full attention to gaming?
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
sure blame age for you lack of coordenation, I still keep the same movement, if not better then when I was young
If they are 60+ then I buy the "old" moniker.
Too often I've seen people in their 40's and 50's say they're "old."
*insert "really?" emoji here*
Depends on what you are talking about. Games and sports you generally are old once you get out your 30s. Even your 30s can be greatly diminished. Reflexes are nowhere near what they used to be.
Look at Olympic level gymnastics. You're considered over the hill before you hit legal drinking age.
Only for female gymnasts really, many Olympians stay competitive until their late 30s.
Forty seems to be the magic cut off point for most athletics
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Not too old but no deny my vision, button usage coordination and reflexes have diminished. Not to mention motivation and care.
In my experience, it's really the last part (motivation and care) that affect your gaming as you get older. Sure the physical aspect does play a part but it is really your mind set and preferences that change the most.
When I was younger I'd like games that challenged me even if it meant frustration. Now however, I'll be turning 40 in July, and I know that my choice in games revolves much more around fun then anything else.
When i was 15 i just wanted to kill everything at mid 20 i discovered i need to do some other stuff in order to kill everything at 30+ i had to grind my self, endless hours to kill something Now at my 40+ i finally choose not to play an MMO which dictates me into meaningless mechanics so i can kill. I just want to create, cooperate, assist, evolve, craft, and so many other things that promote humans to the next level of that stone age feeling of kill or be killed.
"Human beings make life so interesting. Do you know, that in a universe so full of wonders, they have managed to invent boredom. (Death)” ― Terry Pratchett,
I'm in that 50+ crowd and I still have the eye-hand coord that I used but, the games I enjoy playing are different than when I was younger. I still play WoW, ffxiv, lotro, and wizard 101 with my younger daughter on a rotational basis, but everything else is SP games.
I guess I have less tolerance for a$$hats now than I used to and shooters tend to be full of those as are mmorpgs, but I can solo most of the games I mentioned, only group up when I have to, and only long enough to get done what I need to get done.
They don't need to cater to an older crowd. I think they may years from now as the internet generation gets older.
I'm not an IT Specialist, Game Developer, or Clairvoyant in real life, but like others on here, I play one on the internet.
Even 15 years ago I could pull a 5 day Everquest camp for a FBSS with zero sleep and minimum bathroom breaks, but now I need at least 10 hours of sleep each night and I still wake up feeling like I got run over by a truck every day. Getting old sucks.
Video games are something that is usually aimed at the young and twitchy -- people who are at the pinnacle of their hand-eye coordination -- the same crowd most TV shows are aimed at.
MMOs do not have to be set up that way. Indeed in the old days when pings were much worse, games were set up differently.
There are a LOT of aging gamers out there and people who weren't gamers but are empty nest, or retiring/retired who have the kind of time and patience needed to excel in an MMO but not the standard current MMO.
I think if some game company came up with something that specifically catered to the older crowd, it would do surprisingly well.
I have to laugh when I see these posts. I am 63 and have been playing games on both PC and consoles since the 80's. I still play a lot of "twitchy" games. I don't seem to have any problems with them. I also don't sit around and watch TV. I guess I am not the demographic you are looking to address here. lol
What i find difficult these days is the ability to maintain long gaming sessions. No matter how i enjoy a game my limit is about 3 hours. Then i need to take a lengthy break and focus on something else. Gone are the days where 8 hours focused on a single game where nothing. On raid nights in WoW i usually bail out before the raid ends unless i need a specific boss kill.
A lot of how good you are at games depends on how much you play them. I was never any good at first person shooters because I didn't play them much.
Getting older can mean that you get worse at games because you get busy with other things and have less time to play. Or the opposite upon retirement.
Getting older sometimes means that you physically can't play games as much as when you were younger because your body can't handle the stress. Repetitive strain injuries can happen, and that rather than reaction times is the biggest reason why professional e-sports gamers are so young.
Reaction times generally peak in your twenties and only slowly diminish as you age until your early fifties. It's after that that they go downhill much faster. Someone who really likes twitchy games and has a life that allows him to play them a lot absolutely can be competitive in such games until around 50 or so. That doesn't mean "professional gamer" levels of competitive, but it can mean significantly better than the average person playing whichever particular game.
A lot of people tend to have more money as they get older. Certainly, having a real job helps. And that makes it possible to buy a faster reaction time to some degree, in the form of reducing input latency and display latency. If player A has a 20 ms faster reaction time than player B, but player B has 3 ms lower input latency and 17 ms lower display latency, then they're on even footing in a twitchy game.
If game streaming becomes as common as some people think it will, then your ability to buy a faster reaction time could expand dramatically. If you're rendering a game locally and someone else is streaming it over the Internet, that could easily give you a 50 ms latency advantage if streaming is implemented well, or a lot more if implemented badly.
I'm puzzled as to where all these twitchy MMOs that older people can't play are. I can't name any such games at all off hand. It's possible that some people are thinking about first person shooters, which I ignore because I don't like that sort of game.
For starters, most MMORPGs are pretty heavy on vertical progression. Being one level higher is usually a lot bigger advantage than reacting 20 ms faster.
There's also the issue that most MMORPGs are tuned to be so easy that everyone wins unless you really have no clue what you're doing or get disconnected or something like that. Or at least PVE is that way; PVP is a different beast entirely. If the complaint is about PVP, then the problem is usually one of whales buying advantages or grinding giving advantages, not one of faster reaction times.
The only semi-MMO games I've played that had PVE content that was both twitchy and challenging were Spiral Knights and Kritika Online. And in both of those, catching a tell to recognize what a mob was going to do half a second ahead of time was a much bigger advantage than reacting 20 ms (or even 100 ms) faster when the mob actually attacks.
I'm puzzled as to where all these twitchy MMOs that older people can't play are. I can't name any such games at all off hand. It's possible that some people are thinking about first person shooters, which I ignore because I don't like that sort of game.
For starters, most MMORPGs are pretty heavy on vertical progression. Being one level higher is usually a lot bigger advantage than reacting 20 ms faster.
There's also the issue that most MMORPGs are tuned to be so easy that everyone wins unless you really have no clue what you're doing or get disconnected or something like that. Or at least PVE is that way; PVP is a different beast entirely. If the complaint is about PVP, then the problem is usually one of whales buying advantages or grinding giving advantages, not one of faster reaction times.
The only semi-MMO games I've played that had PVE content that was both twitchy and challenging were Spiral Knights and Kritika Online. And in both of those, catching a tell to recognize what a mob was going to do half a second ahead of time was a much bigger advantage than reacting 20 ms (or even 100 ms) faster when the mob actually attacks.
I think you're reading into it a bit much, maybe taking it too personal? Regardless of OPs age they're looking for something slower paced than what seems to be trending.
I'm 42 and I can't handle tab target games anymore. I want faster paced games, even ESO feels to slow to me. To each their own.
I'm puzzled as to where all these twitchy MMOs that older people can't play are. I can't name any such games at all off hand. It's possible that some people are thinking about first person shooters, which I ignore because I don't like that sort of game.
For starters, most MMORPGs are pretty heavy on vertical progression. Being one level higher is usually a lot bigger advantage than reacting 20 ms faster.
There's also the issue that most MMORPGs are tuned to be so easy that everyone wins unless you really have no clue what you're doing or get disconnected or something like that. Or at least PVE is that way; PVP is a different beast entirely. If the complaint is about PVP, then the problem is usually one of whales buying advantages or grinding giving advantages, not one of faster reaction times.
The only semi-MMO games I've played that had PVE content that was both twitchy and challenging were Spiral Knights and Kritika Online. And in both of those, catching a tell to recognize what a mob was going to do half a second ahead of time was a much bigger advantage than reacting 20 ms (or even 100 ms) faster when the mob actually attacks.
I think you're reading into it a bit much, maybe taking it too personal? Regardless of OPs age they're looking for something slower paced than what seems to be trending.
I'm 42 and I can't handle tab target games anymore. I want faster paced games, even ESO feels to slow to me. To each their own.
I have nothing against the younger crowd, but I don’t have much in common with them either besides the games we play, but thats because we only have access to what is available. I don’t think they play games the same way as I do for the most part. I know my gaming tastes and habits have changed alot over time and I sometimes wonder how much of that is expression and how much is conditioning.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I'm puzzled as to where all these twitchy MMOs that older people can't play are. I can't name any such games at all off hand. It's possible that some people are thinking about first person shooters, which I ignore because I don't like that sort of game.
For starters, most MMORPGs are pretty heavy on vertical progression. Being one level higher is usually a lot bigger advantage than reacting 20 ms faster.
There's also the issue that most MMORPGs are tuned to be so easy that everyone wins unless you really have no clue what you're doing or get disconnected or something like that. Or at least PVE is that way; PVP is a different beast entirely. If the complaint is about PVP, then the problem is usually one of whales buying advantages or grinding giving advantages, not one of faster reaction times.
The only semi-MMO games I've played that had PVE content that was both twitchy and challenging were Spiral Knights and Kritika Online. And in both of those, catching a tell to recognize what a mob was going to do half a second ahead of time was a much bigger advantage than reacting 20 ms (or even 100 ms) faster when the mob actually attacks.
You played any POE? The boss fights are pretty twitchy, and while theres no dodge and roll leaping has saved my life.
I'm going with a war chief champion totem build which is perfect for a new player like me, especially one who gets confused by all of the busyness that is on screen some times.
I had a hard time beating Dominus which was before I reached my full totem spec, a friend actually helped me.
I had just specd into totems when I hit Malachi and I took him down in 3 tries, most by dropping totems and circling and jumping madly until he and piety were dead. (Even I can learn to stay out of glowing circles....)
So I'm sure there are POE builds with more challenge which I could master with practice, but it's all just so busy, busy, busy.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I know a few 50+ to 70+ players and they do play less twitchy games. Wiz101, Pirate 101, LOTRO, other RPGS. They just accept they will never be in a "raiding" guild/clan in games like LOTRO.
I played high level TSW dungeons with a 70+ guildie and these were brutal and twitchy. He rocked them. Another 60+ guildie I played WoW with (god bless her soul) was a high level raiding warlock in TBC and kicked ass. Just saying.
/Cheers, Lahnmir
Its absolute bullshit that you are required to slow down as you age. At some point yes, your body will, but it varies greatly from person to person, and can be slowed or reversed with dum dum dum! Physical activity. I guess that is why I can still compete in shooters. I am very active, and while 48 isn't all that old, with the breathtaking amount of injuries I have sustained over the course of my life I sometimes feel like I am at death's door.
Comments
Oh, you actually devote your full attention to gaming?
Sissy.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Forty seems to be the magic cut off point for most athletics
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
at mid 20 i discovered i need to do some other stuff in order to kill everything
at 30+ i had to grind my self, endless hours to kill something
Now at my 40+ i finally choose not to play an MMO which dictates me into meaningless mechanics
so i can kill.
I just want to create, cooperate, assist, evolve, craft, and so many other things that promote
humans to the next level of that stone age feeling of kill or be killed.
― Terry Pratchett,
I guess I have less tolerance for a$$hats now than I used to and shooters tend to be full of those as are mmorpgs, but I can solo most of the games I mentioned, only group up when I have to, and only long enough to get done what I need to get done.
They don't need to cater to an older crowd. I think they may years from now as the internet generation gets older.
I'm not an IT Specialist, Game Developer, or Clairvoyant in real life, but like others on here, I play one on the internet.
Let's party like it is 1863!
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
Getting older can mean that you get worse at games because you get busy with other things and have less time to play. Or the opposite upon retirement.
Getting older sometimes means that you physically can't play games as much as when you were younger because your body can't handle the stress. Repetitive strain injuries can happen, and that rather than reaction times is the biggest reason why professional e-sports gamers are so young.
Reaction times generally peak in your twenties and only slowly diminish as you age until your early fifties. It's after that that they go downhill much faster. Someone who really likes twitchy games and has a life that allows him to play them a lot absolutely can be competitive in such games until around 50 or so. That doesn't mean "professional gamer" levels of competitive, but it can mean significantly better than the average person playing whichever particular game.
If game streaming becomes as common as some people think it will, then your ability to buy a faster reaction time could expand dramatically. If you're rendering a game locally and someone else is streaming it over the Internet, that could easily give you a 50 ms latency advantage if streaming is implemented well, or a lot more if implemented badly.
For starters, most MMORPGs are pretty heavy on vertical progression. Being one level higher is usually a lot bigger advantage than reacting 20 ms faster.
There's also the issue that most MMORPGs are tuned to be so easy that everyone wins unless you really have no clue what you're doing or get disconnected or something like that. Or at least PVE is that way; PVP is a different beast entirely. If the complaint is about PVP, then the problem is usually one of whales buying advantages or grinding giving advantages, not one of faster reaction times.
The only semi-MMO games I've played that had PVE content that was both twitchy and challenging were Spiral Knights and Kritika Online. And in both of those, catching a tell to recognize what a mob was going to do half a second ahead of time was a much bigger advantage than reacting 20 ms (or even 100 ms) faster when the mob actually attacks.
I'm 42 and I can't handle tab target games anymore. I want faster paced games, even ESO feels to slow to me. To each their own.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I'm going with a war chief champion totem build which is perfect for a new player like me, especially one who gets confused by all of the busyness that is on screen some times.
I had a hard time beating Dominus which was before I reached my full totem spec, a friend actually helped me.
I had just specd into totems when I hit Malachi and I took him down in 3 tries, most by dropping totems and circling and jumping madly until he and piety were dead. (Even I can learn to stay out of glowing circles....)
So I'm sure there are POE builds with more challenge which I could master with practice, but it's all just so busy, busy, busy.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Good read but read it all.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.