As Gamers Age, The Appeal Of Competition Drops The Most

i disagree, it's not because ppl get older that they dont like competitive games, simply because older ppl often play MMOs, games that kills any competitive aspect by going f2p, pay2win, cash grab crap
 
Hypergreatthing said:
When are they going to do a study about how much older gamers dislike grinding?
Click to expand...

I think this has a large effect on it too. I really started with BF42 with clan members and friends that came from UT. The multiplayer has become so much about unlocks and bell's and whistles and what clothing your character is wearing that I just DONT CARE.
 
otherweeb said:
I think this has a large effect on it too. I really started with BF42 with clan members and friends that came from UT. The multiplayer has become so much about unlocks and bell's and whistles and what clothing your character is wearing that I just DONT CARE.
Click to expand...

What I HATE is when unlocks require things that either are outside normal use or require the player to be useless while trying to achieve it thus making it harder for the team.

Cosmetic unlocks i love, i don't like unlocks that allow you to be stronger. Grinding a sniper rifle on iron sights before getting a scope comes to mind.
 
alamox said:
i disagree, it's not because ppl get older that they dont like competitive games, simply because older ppl often play MMOs, games that kills any competitive aspect by going f2p, pay2win, cash grab crap
Click to expand...

You are referring to Grandparent and Mom casual gamers. Because most people here, I doubt this is the case. I can't stand MMOs for the most part. And many hardcore gamers are ardently against pay2win, or even the DLC type atmosphere we have currently. I for one won't buy any DLC that doesn't have new story content. I remember when PC games would give free new maps etc, I sure as hell am not going to pay $15 for 3 maps. Nope.
 
My hypothesis was correct. Even though I'm not yet 30, I prefer to remain competitive, serves me well.
 
I glanced at their pdf and one thing I didn't see was number of years of gaming experience in category as a factor. Maybe the reason a lot of 50+ gamers no longer are as interested in competitive FPS is they have 20+ years experience doing FPS and that genre just isn't as appealing anymore.

Another factor may well be interface limitations. If your wrists or other body parts start hurting after a few minutes of play because the game limits your controller options or forces you to be constantly mashing buttons, your interest in that game is likely to suffer very quickly.
 
I love(d) playing competitive games with friends at lan parties. My favorite type was always Free deathmatch. JUst throw 5-6 people into a random map and let them run around getting frags. And someone finished on the top of list at the end. But it was as if all of us had won.

But I absolutely and utterly despise playing games with strangers. Including but not limited to MMOs, or any competitive games. And this is not a new thing, I never had a desire to play against or with strangers.

And as far as competition goes, for me it takes all the fun out of games. As soon as you're playing to win instead of having fun the whole premise is ruined. I knew this when I came 2nd in my age group at a local Quake deatchmach tournament in 1998. But it was terrible. and stressful.
 
Oh and I didn't hate it because I failed to win, I was actually pretty pleased with myself, for getting that far as an absolute newcomer against gamers who where professionals, and knew a bunch of console commands for quake that they used. Like huge fov, and blurry walls, to make other players characters stand out on the screen.
 
B00nie said:
I only play multiplayer and I'm 44. Scripted games are dead boring. I'd rather shoot myself in the head.
Click to expand...

Same here. I'm 45 and only play MP. I am competitive only with certain games. Battlefield 3/4 I was somewhat serious about it. Playing Battlefront am a bit more relaxed and play for fun.
 
Dead Parrot has a point.

Yes, I think when and to what level a gamer became a gamer has an effect. For instance, I had played games earlier, pong comes to mind as do hours and many dollars of tokens in arcades, but I really didn't become an online gamer until about 1991. The early 386DX and Pentium days with 56K modems, Voodoo Monster cards and my Space Orb 360. That first real online FPS title for me was Decent2, that was the real start for me.
 
Just hit 36.

I have never enjoyed competitive games and the drama from trying to keep up in in even PVE WoW ruined online gaming for me forever.

Played Destiny and it wasn't nearly as bad, because I only played with decent people, but still didn't enjoy the carrot on a stick of never ending new items that you need to keep up. Tired of that.

Lately I've only been playing co-op with my brother and immersive SP experiences. I'm much happier that way.
 
Of course it does because as you get older you figure out what the more important things in life are. Competition isn't one of them, (unless you're a Lion).
 
I somewhat agree.

High school was mainly online FPS for me, always competing in ladders, etc.

Now I don't really care about FPS category as much, or online gaming in general. Not so much because I have lost interest, but because I have so much shit going on in my life that I know I don't have the time to dedicate to ladder schedules, or longer play time periods that online games require.

In general I now play RTS or 4X
 
Any multiplayer games I play are all stragy. Any FPS type games are single player story mode only. No valid story to my single player=pass on it, no play.
 
I still play mobas like league of legends. Never got into shooters, but used to be into real time strategy games quite a bit with warcraft and starcraft.


Part of the draw was crushing your enemies into a fine powder and scattering their ashes to the wind. Problem, as we get older our twitch reactions are not as good. I'm 33 now and I'm pretty sure I'd get my ass kicked if I jumped into starcraft 2 again online.

But mobas have a bit of a slower pace, and I can still get in there and snuff the life out of some 13yos avatar. That brings me great joy and happiness.


So this seems to track perfectly with peoples capabilities.

And now, I think it's time to let you all know how old you really are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxcbppCX6Rk
 
I used to practice everyday. Learn the map, learn how to handle each weapon and were are all the powerups are located and when they will appear again. Now....

My need to be at the top of the leaderboards and the highest rank has faded.
I can play an FPS game for an hour or so to past time and then I'm back to the real world.

Games like Tomb Raider and Mass Effect piques my interest more than Battlefield these days. Interesting story lines keeps me gaming. If it were just FPS, I would have quit already. A big change from less than 3-4 years ago with BC2 and BF3, playing everyday.
 
I probably wouldn't love FPSs anymore if it wasn't for Planetside 2. Once that game dies I don't think there will be another multi-player FPS that can match it.

I'm 30 years old as feel just as competitive as ever though. Probably 80% of my gaming time is spent in online competitive games (shooters, racing sims, and RTS mostly). Most of the rest of the time is spent in open world games.
 
HotS is a nice blend of a bit of twitch to land spells, positioning, etc, with strategy, but not so hardcore of either that you need a 16 year old's reflexes anymore.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Biologically speaking, Testosterone drops with age in both males and females for most of the population as part of the aging process. Testosterone affects a lot of things, but it does have a huge influence on aggression and competition. Combine that with an ever increasing pile of bullshit that adults have to deal with it makes this study and its conclusion glaringly obvious. As with any study, there will be a few outliers.
Click to expand...
I was about to post something similar. It's definitely the testosterone levels, at least to a very large degree. The blood cools as you get older.
 
Well as reflexes slow a bit and we lack the time to play video games 24/7 this makes sense.

Maybe this is cliche "old man yells at cloud/get off my lawn" stuff but I also believe competitive gaming communities have become even more toxic and extreme.

And outside of some gems like Rocket League there are honestly not that many competitive games that I even find fun. It's mostly the same shit we were doing 15+ years ago.
 
I've always hated PvP. Co-Op, on the other hand... Some of my fondest memories involve getting the guys together to try and finally take down <this month's big bad boss>. WoW, FFXI, FFXIV... Hell, even Halo had excellent Co-Op fun.

Sadly, that's gone the way of the dodo.
 
I would tend to agree with this as now that I am 47 I have slowed down with the occasional evening if but kicking. I just get to excited and go to bed and my brain races and I cant sleep from all the snap shooting. These days I mostly enjoy Americas Army:proving Grounds, MechWarrior online and Rise of Flight. I no longer sell my computer parts the day the new ones ship just to keep my system bleeding edge. That $500 video card to gain from 3 hairs to 5 just isnt as important now.
 
I am still competitive over 40 but I can say that as I've gotten older my body doesn't handle to strains of stress and long sessions of gaming well. To me that is one reason as well as getting older you have more responsibilities and less time to be competitive in a game, especially if the game isn't providing your sole income.

Currently I have 915 Battle Royale wins in H1Z1, the most out of any player in the world.
Once I hit 1K wins I can relax and be casual for awhile, but in the end I think I will always be competitive just not for long periods of time.

Guess I'll plug my twitch if anyone wants to stop by it's www.twitch.tv/omniskillz
 
What I got out of that graph was that we're slowly beaten into submission by women over the years, and once we fall to a low enough level, they quickly take control. Look at the graph, the proof is there! :eek:

Never surrender!
 
Darunion said:
I love fps games but usually only when playing with friends. Playing by myself with a bunch of random people really doesn't do much for me. I really love co-op with friends vs AI bots or npcs.
Click to expand...

Same here...sadly with this MP-only focus on most AAA titles, we barely get any decent AI / co-op comp stomp games anymore.
 
TwistedAegis said:
It's also time; as a teenager, I had all the time in the world to play and be at a certain competitive level. Now, it isn't as much fun when I can't whoop that newb ass. ;)
Click to expand...


This is a very good point. In college I put more time into CS weekly than a full time job. No shit I got good at it. These days I'm lucky if between work and other responsibilities I have an hour or two a week for games.

Competition starts to lose its appeal if you can't practice enough to be among the best.

I still enjoy mildly competitive games, but these days more of the highly team and strategy based ones as well.

Red Orchestra 2 was HUGE for me, loved that game, but it appears to be hemorrhaging players lately, which is sad.
 
I can definitely attest to this. I do think there are other factors though. At 36 I work full time, have kids, am working on my Master's. I don't have the time to play enough to be all that competitive. The only game I still play that is competitive is CS:GO, and that is mainly because I have played that game long enough that I can jump in a casual match and still be fairly dominant. I also have less patience for the trash talking nonsense. I end up muting half of every server I join to not have to deal with the racist hate mongering that happens from the teenagers who play these days. I will also say that I know my reaction time isn't what it used to be. Whether that is from lack of consistent play or age, I just don't know. I have traditionally been a very aggressive player who would be able to force my way through choke points, but I just don't have the skill to do that as much these days. I end up playing a slower and more strategic rounds.
 
AK0tA said:
I would tend to agree with this as now that I am 47 I have slowed down with the occasional evening if but kicking. I just get to excited and go to bed and my brain races and I cant sleep from all the snap shooting. These days I mostly enjoy Americas Army:proving Grounds, MechWarrior online and Rise of Flight. I no longer sell my computer parts the day the new ones ship just to keep my system bleeding edge. That $500 video card to gain from 3 hairs to 5 just isnt as important now.
Click to expand...

Ahh, I think I had a couple of matches with you recently, your tag here looks similar to one I have seen in MWO lately. I am BadKimche in MWO.

I always thought it funny to see the text "So-n-So was killed by BadKimche" :p
 
As we get older, our priorities change and we have other things to do. I love doing competitive running now and that takes quite a bit of time. Gaming also takes a lot of time and that is time I just do not have to devote to it anymore.
 
TwistedAegis said:
[H] likely doesn't have much in the way of DOB data for users (do you?), but I'd be interested in the our average/median age and its trend over time. Perhaps its skewed by forums use, but seems slightly older, say 35 average age?
Click to expand...

Many have been here for a long time, many more have been here longer than the forum tracks. I first started going to the [H] is about 2000 or 2001. I would claim membership for 15 years easy even though it lists me as being here for a much shorter time.
 
Steve said:
A recent study seems to suggest that, as we get older, competition is less important than strategy when gaming with other players online. I'm actually the opposite of what this study suggests, I've gotten more competitive as I got older. What about you?
Click to expand...

Seems like a difficult question to answer absent of context. Competition can often be strategic, and strategy often involves competition. I will say though, that as I've gotten older, the value I attribute to playing games with random people has significantly decreased, while the value I place on playing games with actual friends has significantly increased. As a result, my gaming has gradually shifted over to games that more suited to playing with friends. Overall time spent gaming though has not gone down.
 
lcpiper said:
Many have been here for a long time, many more have been here longer than the forum tracks. I first started going to the [H] is about 2000 or 2001. I would claim membership for 15 years easy even though it lists me as being here for a much shorter time.
Click to expand...

Ditto.

I started lurking in the late 90's. when I was in highschool, and starting in college.

Back then I had some major computer envy, as i was still stuck on a Pentium 150 (pre-MMX, overclocked to 200Mhz) and a Canopus Pure3d Voodoo1 card, when most on here were overclocking pentium II's and newer Celerons.

That system was with me until after my first college summer job, when I could finally afford an upgrade, and got a Duron 650 (overclocked to 950) and a Geforce 2 GTS.

I vaguely remember the forums having some sort of database loss in those early years. I wonder if that has contributed to the slight inaccuracy of join dates.

TwistedAegis said:
[H] likely doesn't have much in the way of DOB data for users (do you?), but I'd be interested in the our average/median age and its trend over time. Perhaps its skewed by forums use, but seems slightly older, say 35 average age?
Click to expand...

We could always start a poll thread :p

Side note: I was trying to look up the history of HardOCP while typing this post, and realized that some tool admin just deleted the HardOCP wikipedia page on February 2nd. I had to go to the Waybackmachine Internet Archive to find it.

I was really only looking for a founding date, and found it, 1997. I wanted to validate my memories of approximately when I started coming here, to make sure I wasn't remembering wrong :p
 
Zarathustra[H];1042135112 said:
Ditto.

We could always start a poll thread :p

I was really only looking for a founding date, and found it, 1997. I wanted to validate my memories of approximately when I started coming here, to make sure I wasn't remembering wrong :p
Click to expand...

I used to work at IBM Store (no longer exists) and used (lurked) [H] as a reference for component performance while doing sales. That was 1998 - 2001

I remember [H] used to have this neat wave like effect when moving your mouse over drop down boxes. Can't remember what year that was.

Didn't sign up on the forums until years later, but I guess must have been reading [H] for over 18 years now. That is half my life....
 
I remember when CSS came out. I was all over it, but then the years passed by and I became less competitive with online gaming.

Now I play FPS with a handful of friends in private matches just for fun. 2-3 hours of that and I'm done and I'm 55.
 
I think there is something to be said for how plugged in a guy stays over the years.

Like me, once I started gaming online when I was about 32, I never really ever stopped. I have had stretches where I had to go places where I couldn't reliably play online, but when I got home I always returned with a vengeance usually heralded by the purchase of a new gaming machine or build.

I started at 32, my kids were already old enough to not need constant care. They could manage their Super NES all by themselves :D and already knew how to blow on the cartridge before inserting them.

Now that the kids are out of the house I have so much time for myself that finding time to game isn't hard at all. I'm at the tail end of my working life, 56 next month, retirement in a few years. Spending time and money on professional development seems a waste now as it's far less likely to impact what working future I have left. IHop let's me order from the over 55 menu and what's worse, my cheap ass'd wife get's mad if I don't ask for a seniors' discount.

The woman has no regard for a man's ego I tell you :(
 
Age 29 here and can agree - in high school I was heavily into MOHAA and all the expansions. Was in a clan and signed up for tons of competitions. Now I just play co-op with my friends (Borderlands mostly) and stick to Single-Player (currently on Skyrim... missed the boat when it first came out)
 
Definitely agree. I've been gaming for 20 years now. When I was in my teens it was all about multiplayer games. Now in my mid to late 20's I prefer a solid single player experience to a great multiplayer game.
 
frelled said:
I can definitely attest to this. I do think there are other factors though. At 36 I work full time, have kids, am working on my Master's. I don't have the time to play enough to be all that competitive. The only game I still play that is competitive is CS:GO, and that is mainly because I have played that game long enough that I can jump in a casual match and still be fairly dominant. I also have less patience for the trash talking nonsense. I end up muting half of every server I join to not have to deal with the racist hate mongering that happens from the teenagers who play these days. I will also say that I know my reaction time isn't what it used to be. Whether that is from lack of consistent play or age, I just don't know. I have traditionally been a very aggressive player who would be able to force my way through choke points, but I just don't have the skill to do that as much these days. I end up playing a slower and more strategic rounds.
Click to expand...

I agree. I'm a pharmacist, I work full time, I'm happily married and I have a kid. I'm just really busy.

I just don't have the time to commit to be good. On lumosity I'm in the 99% percentile for "speed" for my age so I think I could still play well enough not to embarrass myself if I actually had the time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top