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    Gaming, When I’m 64

    By Richard Windsor | August 15, 2006

    gamerlooksatforty.jpgIn a little over a month I will turn 29 years old, and as I was thinking about how close I am to the dreaded 30, I wondered if the first generation of gamers will still be playing games in the future. Will we still be playing video games when we are 50, 60 or even 80 years old? Will retirement homes around the world have to install Xbox

    Topics: Articles, Culture | Comments

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    • Pappy
      I hope I'm gaming when I'm 50. I'd never give it up. I also hope that Rockstar does release Curling! Because it'd be the best Curling game ever made. Especially if they throw in a violent curling game or two.
    • Carl Jt
      Midnight Club 10, Sleep Edition - HAHAHAHA Priceless!
    • Paul
      It'll be hard not to call all the kids n00bs when I'm 50+ years older than them. n00b.
    • Anonymous
      I also hope I'm still gaming when i reach old age. Nothing could be sweeter than beating your grandson in a FPS game :D.
    • Anonymous2
      The list is missing Duke Nukem Forever
    • n00b1957
      Hell, I'll be 50 in <15 months, and I'm still gaming now and have no plans on stopping, you whippersnappers! The best part is that Mrs nOOb1957 is only a year younger than I am and I can't get her to put the controller down & let me play the 360. I will admit that it was kind of weird camping out for the 360 last November. All I could think of when I looked at the other campers was, "could be my kid, could be my kid, could be..." http://www.aeropause.com/archives/2006/08/biggrin.gif
      http://www.aeropause.com/archives/2006/08/biggrin.gif
    • Carstein
      Duke Nukem Forever won't be released by the time anyone alive today reaches 50
    • Dragonsorcerer
      Getting old? I'm 58. My youngest son and I run a guild in WoW, and we're both waiting for NwN II and the world we've planned since NwN came out. I might slow down in another 60 years
    • OldCynic
      Anonymous2 complains that "The list is missing Duke Nukem Forever"
      ... I reckon it *still* won't be ready by then
    • Rabbitgod
      "The list is missing Duke Nukem Forever"

      We are only takling about 60years down the road here.
    • Anonymous
      In terms of the issue of gaming gradually becoming more difficult and requiring more dexterity, one aspect of WoW which I've seen answers that question, I think.

      I've used a particular WoW UI addon called Combo Cast. What Combo Cast allows me to do is pre-queue a sequence of skills/spells and then execute the sequence by pressing a single button repeatedly. I also no longer trip up on the global cooldown, because the Combo Cast script also knows about cooldown timers, and automatically waits the required time before casting the next skill/spell.

      Although I'm not yet quite 30, my reflexes aren't what they could be, and I can't drive due to a number of subtle neurological problems. Because of this, with my computer use I strive to look for ways to enable the computer itself to co-operate with me in the performance of a number of tasks, not just playing WoW.

      As yet another example from WoW, the Hunter and Warlock class are able to have computer controlled pets. You can give the pets orders to be sure, but they are ultimately controlled by (admittedly rather basic) AI.

      This is where I can see games going in the future, in the sense that not only does the computer run the game, it also runs agents/pets/other such things within the game which actually assist you in playing/winning it. If games did develop along those lines, the elderly could quite easily perhaps play games of far greater complexity even than those available today...because they could delegate certain tasks to agents within the game.
    • granpappy
      My best friend's father is 62 and he rules Halo2. He has every square inch memorized. Don't forget that they are the ones who have all the time to play and enough money for the coolest systems and giant HD plasma displays. (Apparently this previous generation had this thing they call "savings"?)
    • Duje
      I can't wait till I am over 50 and playing games. I will be retired and I am gonna buy the biggest TV ever made
    • I'm not even 25 and already call kids noobs because they think Mario Sunshine is the best Mario game ever. :(
    • Takkahasi
      very nice. it will be a site to behold when we are all older
    • a nonny mouse
      ugh, another site with gray text on white background. ffs guys, think readability, not how vogue your color scheme is.
    • Maak
      grr im 51 been gamin since the zx spectrum an c64

      Dammit tribes 2 still rules:-)
    • Koduza
      I and a hoard of 30+ still ferverently MUD. I doubt that habbit will fade even in the comeing age of senility. I can depend on the tintin bot scripts of my youth to keep me plugged in and competitive.
    • I belong to an online community of mature gamers. We have several members over the age of 50, and I think the oldest is over 70.

      Gaming with "older" (the avg age is probably high 20s or low 30s) gamers is just much more enjoyable than with the pottymouthed teenagers. And at least everyone knows what an Atari 2600 is.

      All you elders reading this article should check it out. Link in my nickname.
    • Netbozo
      Arrogant pup!
      You aren't the first generation of 'gamers'. There are many of us who started gaming back in the old days of the first home pc's - trs-80's, c-64's, ataris and apple's (i'm sure some IMSAI and CP/M users are saying, hey we gamed too, but i'm talking mainstream commercial comp's here) - who are still gaming today. That is the true 'first' generation of gamers. I'm sure there are people who started gaming back then who are now in their 50's and still gaming strong.
    • Tigger
      Netbozo, your generation might have been the first ones to play, but it was my generation that made games what they are today!
    • Anonymous
      Wow, what a blissfully ignorant and self-centered article. As a 51-year-old gamer, I guarantee you no 29 year old is the "first generation of gamer." There are already tons of us "senior gamers" rockin' the consoles.

      Frankly, dexterity is not the issue. It's reaction time. Twitch games are no good for us cranky old farts.
    • sadbuttrue
      Unfortunately....I think being a hard core gamer in itself may weed out some of the retirement competion more so than any individual person's gamer skill. A good many of us will die from diabetes complications, heart attacks, and other complications of being obese. Not to mention the dietary habits of a gamer.
    • Anonymous
      I'm already there, I'm 52 and not ready to give up my keyboard and mouse. I started on the ColecoVision and PC Jr. I will admit I'm slower but thats why they made difficulty levels for.
    • ryan
      who says we'll be using controllers, keyboards, ect...for games in 60 years i mean if you think about it technology has developed so much in the past 20 years the likelyhood of true virtual reality is extremely high and who's to say all of these companies will still be around? not to bring anything you guys are saying down since i find this article pretty funny but i don't think any of us will have the patience or the agility to learn the games that'll come out in 60 years and alot of us will already be dead =P but whatever happens in 60 years happens.

      As far as duke nukem is concerned it will come out within the next 6 years i assume cause i seriously doubt that 3d realms would announce a game and get so many people hyped up then keep it in developement for 60 years =P so i'm thinking it will be out for next gen.

      As far as consoles go though i think nintendo is just running out of ideas and the wii is pretty much their "nuke" and the price is insanely low for next gen so they use the controller to advertise wii, so wii is pretty much eye candy right now and once the mass population get tired of the controller wii will die unless they get some great exclusives besides zelda, mario, smash bros, and metroid. what i'm saying is that you can't define a console by the controller if the console is bad and doesn't have enough exclusives to sell the system and only has a ton of 3rd party games why would people buy the system when they could get a different one?

      ok i'm done and i know i got completely off topic there so don't flame me =P
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