Editorial: Becoming an “Older Gam3r”

by Seyon, in Games: Rant (6 Comments)

I have a history of gaming. It started with Pac-Man in a Crystal’s restaurant. Then a Pong unit hooked up to our 12-inch black and white TV. Which was then followed up by an Atari 2600 and pile of games. Up until that point, I was still too young to be any good or really get into any gaming. Years later I sold my Atari 2600 and all the games so I could buy a Nintendo and the Legend of Zelda. I remember it taking two weeks to play through both quests of LoZ, faster than any of my friends. It was around that time that my gaming obsession really took off. I played many, many games on the NES. Friends and I would trade games like our fathers may have traded baseball cards.

Sadly, I missed out on the SNES; I just never got one. My gaming picked back up later with the Sega Genesis during the end of high school and a 32x addon when I went to college. Then came the Playstation and an insane amount of gaming; playing Soul Edge and Twisted Metal 2 until the finger-cramping hours in the morning. I even almost lost my job at the time from calling in so much because of staying up too late gaming. Other systems followed, including Nintendo 64, PS2, Xbox and Xbox360. PC gaming came into the picture around the time of the PS2 when a friend (Gravity) gave me a spare computer- so started my PC gaming.

After getting into PC gaming, my first huge addiction was Counter Strike, the introduction of PC gaming for many teenage boys. But there was a problem: I was no longer a teenage boy. There were always gamers we played against that were faster and quicker. We would always come out ahead by using strategy.

So now, it is ten years later and things have changed. Better strategy and tactics just aren’t enough. But truthfully, it’s not even that; it’s just that no longer is my strategy the best. Slowly I see that I can no longer excel at new games. I struggle to keep up with the better players and am passed by friends and strangers alike.

I noticed this with first with Left4Dead. My reflexes are no longer always able to get me out of bad situations. I find myself relying on teammates more often than not. The end game score shows how I take the most damage, require the most health packs and die the most.

But it’s not like is all doom and gloom. I know there are gamers much older than myself out there. I had guildies in Guild Wars that were retired. I meet gamers all the time that are older than me that kick my ass regularly. I’m not bemoaning the death of my gaming life. I will be gaming on death bed. It’s just who I am.