[Closed] grown men and games consoles

Never seen the point myself. I bough a PS1 years ago, played it about 4 times, probably for an hour in total, got bored and swore I would never waste my money again.

I've heard there are people who spend all their time riding bikes, posting on forums about riding bikes, or shopping for bits for their bikes.

Wierdos.

There are also people who play computer games.

All things in moderation yunki, Gaming can be good fun, my nephews are a reasonably balanced pair but fukme they like to "game" they are also obssesed with skiiing and skateboarding - no drugs yet!

Getting old doesn't make you stop doing things. Stopping doing things makes you old.

Just because you read it in the news doesn't mean it's true for everyone!

I admittedly don't have a console or gaming PC these days. But I played a LOT of games in my youth. But then I also windsurfed a LOT. And rode bikes a LOT. I used to skate a LOT too!

Maybe the key thing was that my Dad used to play them with me though, rather than leave me in room to play at all hours. He also rode, windsurfed, but thankfully not skated, with me a LOT too.

I don't get it either. I'll play a game with my 10 year old if he insists... but it's like... er.. playing games.

Don't touch my xbox much for games in summer, only use it for media streaming, but on a cold miserable winter's night it's loads of fun

I like games, I just don't want to buy a PC for gaming and sit at a desk playing any more so prefer something in the living room which is a bit more sociable

We have loads of entertainment with ours - Singstar, PGA Golf, Gran Turismo it's not all online death and destruction. Quite an enjoyable experience in the living room with a decent tv and sound

I was only thinking this reading same post today and concluded it's healthy to be able to engage brain in as many different activities as possible, so no harm done. I don't get it myself, but then I never did get playing games in my yoof by yourself.

However, playing Wipeout with friends in my late teens on a PS1? Just epic; still smile now thinking about it.

EDIT:

Getting old doesn't make you stop doing things. Stopping doing things makes you old.

In my free time, I occasionally enjoy sport, reading, watching films, playing board games, playing video games, watching TV and numerous other whimsical diversions. Which ones of those are "acceptable" and which ones aren't?

I know men in their 40s that spend as much time as teens playing games (at the expense of actually moving). I'm not convinced they'll make it to their 50s though.

I likes angry birds I do.

Sitting about gaming seems a lot less silly than sitting about watching telly or a movie.

At least with gaming you are actively involved, interacting, and using your skill and intelligence to progress.

Those who don't [i]get[/i] gaming are from the same mold as those before them that didn't [i]get[/i] television, movies, wireless or the phonograph. 😀

yunki - Member

what's it all about.

Having fun. And it's a lot more involving than watching TV...

Games can be a lot of things but for me the best games are about stories that involve you. Co-op/social play can be good too, playing company of heroes online is how I stayed in touch with a mate who moved abroad... the games I play have changed as I've got older, run-and-gun types, driving games, platforms etc don't have much appeal any more but I don't know if that's because I'm old or just because I've played them a lot in the past...

The best games stay with you like the best films or books... I was at uni when I picked up Final Fantasy 7, I remember more from that game than I do from General Principles of Scots Law 😆 It's a wonderful story, a cinematic experience that you drive yourself... Superb music (the soundtrack's been performed in full orchestration round the world) a great world to explore and characters to live with. Funny and sad and haunting and hopeful and beautiful. Only trouble is you can't just recommend people to give it a bash because it takes about 60 hours to finish...

But it's a shame that people'll miss such a work of art because "video games are for kids"... It's a bit like writing off early cinema because it's not in IMAX.

Playing games, playing on bikes, some like it, some don't.

I tend to go in fits and starts with games. Some amazing games out nowadays though.

I have an ancient PS1 sitting somewhere gathering dust.

Games for me nowadays tend to be silly little things on a tablet, rather than proper 'gaming'. Far better for travelling/life etc.

That said, I do remember spending waaaay too much time playing Civilisation in the past!

Games for me nowadays tend to be silly little things on a tablet.. I do remember spending waaaay too much time playing Civilisation in the past!

Pssst.. you can get Civilisation Revolution on the iPad - it's not quite as in-depth as the later PC versions, but it is good for a long flight or train journey.

Can you get it for a proper tablet as well? 😉

[i]I know men in their 40s that spend as much time as teens playing games (at the expense of actually moving). I'm not convinced they'll make it to their 50s though. [/i]

I have a mate who developed DVT from sitting playing X-Box so much.

Personally I don't "get" games. Maybe it is because I am pretty bad at them when I do give them a try.

Gaming is a lot cheaper than my other hobbies! £40 for something that will last 3-6 winter months in my book is value for money!

A friends son has just been employed by a big firm to play real simulations (military) as he was soo good at them. Gaming has it's perks, he was a big online gamer with strategy and things like COD. So it's not all bad.

I'm sure I read the average age of a console owner is 30ish. That makes me below average (just..). As said above everything in moderation. I don't play mine that much anymore (less than 3-4 hours a week in the summer I'd say). But have been known to play 12hour sessions if the time is available, the game is very good and it's raining outside.
I can see myself booking time off work when the new GTA comes out.

Amazingly I'm not obese and I do have an active social life!

Whilst we're on gamer stereotypes I've also played every GTA game since my early teens and have yet to commit a violent crime in real life!

Oh and btw NO one could be beat me at SFII back in the day 😛

I'm sure I read the average age of a console owner is 30ish.

I did the legwork on this last time someone went "games are for kids" on here. See the first few posts here:

http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/grooming-or-am-i-being-too-daily-mail/page/2

(Heh, seems I used the same trite phrase back then, too)

out of all the things I was into as an adolescent, I think I still like / do all of them except the drugs.

I can often be found furously flicking my controler in the bedroom for instance.

Apart from one or two computer nerds I know, the others who play games are all stoners! When some of them packed the weed in, the gaming would stop a few weeks later.

For the record, I don't do either of the above.

but it's like... er.. playing games

And that's bad?

As above - I think well rounded tastes are a good thing. It's oversimplistic to say that say, reading is good, or conversation, and gaming is bad. Your conversation could entirely be vacuous gossip, your reading material could be Mills and Boon, and your games could be properly interesting and thought provoking.

- GTAIV was like watching a good gangster movie, I reckon.
- The Cave (little platform puzzle game downloaded) was pretty difficult and amused me greatly. Not so different to doing a puzzle from the newspaper.
- Gran Turismo and smilar, driving games, require supreme accuracy and skill, much like snooker or darts, but with an added high speed real-time element for a bit of endorphin action
- I haven't played it yet but I own The Last of Us, a thriller closely based on The Road by Cormac McCarthy. If that's not grown up, I don't know what is. It's meant to be very profound and serious.

Grown-up games are no different to grown-up films or books, they are just interactive media. As gamers have grown up, so has gaming.

For the record, I don't do either of the above.

You [b]did[/b] though? 😉

Funnily enough, one of the main times I catch up with friends is playing online with them. I see them reasonably regularly, but I live a good 4 hours drive away from some of them so don't get to catch up often.

Spending an hour or two messing around in games is fun by itself, but we also catch up. I'd never think of calling them to say "Hi, how are things / the missus / the family" but conversation does turn to that. It's a nice way of keeping in touch, whilst not having to go against my manly manly man nature and make a phone call to communicate with someone 😉

Also, you can do stuff like this:

I'm 33 and still play games (Xbox 360, PS3, 3DS, PC and iPad). I also make games for a living

But I'm a woman, so I can't contribute to this thread. 🙁

I can see myself booking time off work when the new GTA comes out.

Mate o mine did this years ago when he lived at home with the rents. He still does it now engaged, and with mortgage.

Why not...

Still love playing PC games. Will play an hour a night of TF2 or CS:GO or whatever else I'm feeling this month.

In among riding and my other hobbies, it sits as a good change of pace 🙂

but then again I don't watch TV so that is my "sit at home doing nothing" activity.

Plyphon, it's become mine. Kids in bed, wife's busy weaving, I often put the PS3 on.

Personally I don't "get" games

You get home, it's cold and raining, and you're reminded that the house needs fixing, otherwise the basement'll flood again, but you don't have the cash to do it til next year. And the missus wants you to go and do some curtain-choosing over the weekend, so no riding the bike.

Gaming serves exactly the same purpose as every other hobby people have in these circumstances - it's something else to focus on, completely unrelated to whatever's stressing you out; it's a way of unwinding, and giving yourself a sense of achievement and something to think about afterwards. Books/ films/ games, knitting, gardening - it's all the same. Although some of it is, admittedly, more productive.

If you never play them you're probably not aware how much they've advanced in the last 10 years. They can be completely immersive, a satisfying challenge and a way to just zone out for a bit away from the general hiss and static of life.
I can't get why so many people will sit on the sofa watching other people play sport on the TV but each to their own, video games aren't the evil they're made out to be.

I'm 33 and still play games (Xbox 360, PS3, 3DS, PC and iPad). I also make games for a living

But I'm a woman, so I can't contribute to this thread.

The games developers I know don't play games.

That could be where they are going wrong 😀

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food

For me it's far more involving playing games than it is watching TV. the original question can easily go the other way, 'I don't get adults who watch TV all the time'. I also don't get going to watch football games, playing golf, going to church, going down the pub all the time, bird watching, fishing etc etc etc.

All these activities are things I don't get and some of them I personally think are a complete waste of time but each to their own. I don't question why other people do them because it's clear it floats their boat.

If all I did was play computer games then yes, that doesn't seem quite right but game playing takes up a very small part of my life. They've certainly never turned me to drugs or car theft.

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5thElefant - Member

The games developers I know don't play games.

I game quite often with a bunch of bioware guys, they're proper addicts. Must... game... on... lunch... hour. They mostly kinda suck, too.

Sorry Mrs Toast.. I forget there are wimminz on here too.. 😳

It seems that my prejudice is probably unfounded then perhaps, and that we haven't all evolved into the pale socially stunted wierdos of my darkest fears, instead, games have evolved to accommodate modern man (and woman)

Scary though that the argument of quite a few seems to be 'it's better for you than TV'
I think jerking off to the Littlewoods catalogue in a storage cupboard at the local bingo hall whilst listening to recordings of Molgrips reciting passages from the bible in his best Kate Beckinsdale voice is probably better for you than TV

Some of the most interesting, inventive, affecting, brilliant stories I've experienced in the last few years have been via games - but then there's been superb ones via TV, film and books too.

It's another entertainment medium, a $66bn industry with an incredible range to offer from simple (yet deep) indie offerings to AAA stuff with budgets that exceed most Hollywood movies.

Most leisure activities are a waste of time. I don't think spending a chunk of your free time gaming rather than passively watching TV or building airfix kits or going to the pub is a bad thing.

(edit: 34, probably play 5-6 hours a week, and meet some mates for a day of boardgaming every month or so)

Never mind about grown men. Imagine the scene, at Xmas and my mother (recently 60) asks for tips for missions related to the Dark Brotherhood (assassins) on Skyrim. Couldn't really offer any advice as thats a bit dark for me.

Which basically means my mother gets enjoyment creeping around stabbing virtual creatures in the back. And my missue wonders where I get it from...

It seems that my prejudice is probably unfounded then perhaps, and that we haven't all evolved into the pale socially stunted wierdos of my darkest fears, instead, games have evolved to accommodate modern man (and woman)

Oh, I wouldn't go that far! 😀

Never mind about grown men. Imagine the scene, at Xmas and my mother (recently 60) asks for tips for missions related to the Dark Brotherhood (assassins) on Skyrim. Couldn't really offer any advice as thats a bit dark for me.

I remember when I was at uni at working at Game, a woman in her late 50s came in and excitedly bought Time Crisis. She was a HUGE lightgun fan, "ever since Duck Hunt on the NES", she said...

Duck Hunt is fantastic, tbf.

(Why can't you shoot the bloody dog?! 😡 )

jimmers - Member

Never mind about grown men. Imagine the scene, at Xmas and my mother (recently 60) asks for tips for missions related to the Dark Brotherhood (assassins) on Skyrim.

I was very proud when my mum combined her fledgeling silver surfer skills and her newfound appreciation of the Nintendo DS to cheat at Professor Leyton. Will get her on proper games sooner or later, nearly got her hooked on Xcom

yunki - Member

Scary though that the argument of quite a few seems to be 'it's better for you than TV'

You are rather easily scared! The point there isn't "It's better than TV therefore it's obviously great", it's that adults watching TV isn't viewed as bizarre or childish. Comparing the two shows up the weird perception of gaming for what it is.

Unless of course you fancy starting a thread about how weird it is that adults watch tv and films?

The best games stay with you like the best films or books... I was at uni when I picked up Final Fantasy 7, I remember more from that game than I do from General Principles of Scots Law It's a wonderful story, a cinematic experience that you drive yourself... Superb music (the soundtrack's been performed in full orchestration round the world) a great world to explore and characters to live with. Funny and sad and haunting and hopeful and beautiful. Only trouble is you can't just recommend people to give it a bash because it takes about 60 hours to finish...

[Top tip] Get yourself over to Steam and do a search for the newly re-released FF7 [/top tip]

I love gaming... a throwback to a mis-spent youth, perhaps...

450 hours on TF2 and counting! 25, by the way. With a wife, two children, a dog, a serious job, some bikes and other perfectly-normal-socially-accepted stuff!

Edit: That's 450 hours since i bought it in 2007!

[i]I think jerking off to the Littlewoods catalogue in a storage cupboard at the local bingo hall whilst listening to recordings of Molgrips reciting passages from the bible in his best Kate Beckinsdale voice is probably better for you than TV[/i]

/panics and starts searching for hidden cameras in storage cupboard.

Oxymoron? 😉

I'll summarise OP for the world.

There's no such thing as "grown men"; we're just us, as children, with a slower metabolism and a sense of responsibility as life dictates upon circumstance.

it's that adults watching TV isn't viewed as bizarre or childish

I don't think that I said that gaming was either mind.. but it's interesting to see what your paranoid mind assumes others think of you.. 😀

If you're scorning "grown men" for doing something then it must be because you think it's not suitable for adults. And if you admit your prejudice of thinking it'll turn people into "pale socially stunted wierdos of my darkest fears" then you can't think it's normal. Well, either that, or you're just a bit incoherent. But either way, I rate your troll an E 😆

I'm neither incoherent nor scornful.. I was asking what the attraction is, which most contributors to thread seem to have plainly understood..

I guess you have issues.. 🙁

yeah, think the way the question was phrased was not great, came across a bit like....why are silly old men playing games...anyway chill out guys. Yunki, you ever gone bowling? paintballing? played rounders as a kid? think you know where im going..

I still haven't finished manic miner

But when I do. I'm going to get Jet Set Willy

i have a PS2 and like playing it in the winter when the weathers bad.

Only play for a couple of hours max.

There are even a few weirdoes on here that play on their bicycles in the woods!

I still haven't finished manic miner

But when I do. I'm going to get Jet Set Willy

I finished Manic Miner, with infinite lives. I can almost do it without, but that Skylab level does for me every time.

JSW I finished with an auto-collect objects poke, so ostensibly visited every room in a single play-through (which is still hard enough).

(And ~30 years on, I still remember POKE 35899,0)

Much happiness 😀

There are even a few weirdoes on here that play on their bicycles in the woods!

There's people complain on here about adverts for games consoles on TV not being about something active, just like watching TV then.

Used to do a lot but stopped about the time the kids reached an age they started playing them. Not sure why but no interest now.

There's a fight club school of thought they're a substitution for lack of achievement in real life, and even inhibit it. Obviously these generalisations are only applicable in extremes. But there are a few people I know that game all night, yawn all day a their desks, and seem to have been in a life rut for a few years now.

[i]Never mind about grown men. Imagine the scene, at Xmas and my mother (recently 60) asks for tips for missions related to the Dark Brotherhood (assassins) on Skyrim[/i]

Reminds me - my old next door neighbour, he's in his 70s - whole house is set up for maximum gaming... 60" 3D tv, consoles, gaming chair...plays online war games with his family. My son was rather impressed with his set up!

I have a few old consoles, with lots of games, that the wife wants me to sell. She is right, they take up loads of space, but I remember playing Goldeneye on the N64 during many long student nights.

I have an old gameboy, N64, PS2, GameCube and Wii that all sit in the cupboard getting little use. I don't pretend to be grown up though.

However, we sit down in the evening and watch a load of kak on the TV, which I also think is not that healthy.

When did playing games become gaming instead of playing?

I don't really get it any more, I used to love games but hardly ever play them now. I get bored after about 10 minutes. I especially can't stand RPG type games such as the elder scrolls series. Waste so much time levelling stuff up when you could actually be doing stuff in real life 😆

The only game I've really enjoyed recently is Fahrenheit (I know it's an old game, I just never played it first time round). But I suspect that's because it's more of a playable film!

For me, video games peaked with R-Type. I loved that game, and shovelled a small fortune in 20ps into the arcade machine in Las Vegas*

* former seedy games arcade, not the US gambling den.

I can't understand grown men who spend hours and hours on here yet can't even wheelie a bike.

boxfish - Member

For me, video games peaked with R-Type

To be fair, it was [i]awesome[/i].

For me, video games peaked with R-Type

To be fair, it was awesome.

But yes, it was awesome. I was a Vulcan Venture man myself.

But there are a few people I know that game all night, yawn all day a their desks, and seem to have been in a life rut for a few years now.

I can understand that. People need a challenge and stimulus, and you have to go where your mind takes you. If your mind doens't take you to those TPS reports you have to get done, then what're you gonna do?

I can't understand grown men who spend hours and hours on here yet can't even wheelie a bike.

I spent a happy half an hour on the big patch of grass in the middle of my estate practising wheelies.

Pretty sure most bystanders observing me would have considered it a juvenile activity.

Gaming is great BTW its just another form of entertainment