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(Question of the Week) Playing Video Games: How old is too old?
On the Today Show’s segment of “The Other View: Getting a Guy’s Perspective on Love” the final question in the segment read as follows: “What’s up with men and video games? Do you think it’s OK for men to play video games in their 30s and over?”. The answer to said question was basically “No, it’s weird”.
How old do you think is too old for anyone to play video games? I personally think that anyone at any age should be able to play video games. Tell me your thoughts in the comment section below.
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Ageism? In my video games? Sadly, the public/news interest gamer profile seems to inexorably tied to the under 27-crowd, but in reality there is no sense of age n a game. Hell, my father plays video games! Plus, the developers and people running the companies are usually over 30 or approaching it, so to say that “it’s weird” shuns a good majority of the people responsible for games. Next they’ll say that you can’t beta test if you are over 23.
I think everyone forgets that the age group that started with gaming back in the Atari 2600 days are pushing 40 now. The average gamer is 37 years old (Source: http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.asp). The generation I’m a part of has been playing games for the majority of our lives. While we’re obviously yet to hit the 30-40 year old range, to think the number of gamers in that range will do anything but increase by the time we hit it is absurd. Video games are no longer a “fringe society” hobby. They are mainstream culture. What is “weird” is not accepting it as such.
What they also fail to realize is how hard it is to get into gaming. Pressing all those buttons on the controller to make a guy do a 360 air-time no-scope is no easy feat.
All they know from watching tv and seeing it happen in their househould is that their children play video games and that doesn’t seem normal for an adult over 40 to be doing as well. AJ, you’re right about games not being a “fringe society” hobby anymore because it’s everywhere: on mobile phones, tvs, bluray players, even in urinals.
think those who were mocking that society are starting to feel a bit isolated that they never picked up gaming.
I think it’s alright, I’m only 17, but I plan on gaming till I’m dead. I know this sounds dumb, but not all videos games are toys, it’s the parents that make them toys (Parents buying 10 years old COD games). My dad is 42 now and has been playing since he was 10 or so, so I mean there are alot of gamers over he age of 30, and I will be in that group one day…
Youngster! In MY day we had to look for games on the foreign market via shady looking websites with tons of pop-up ads (ah the glory daze of ROM hacks!) or even shadier eBay deals. And god forbid you wanted to find an out of print game for your 8- or 16-bit console!
Isn’t it still like that today?
The eBay thing has gotten more secure thanks to better updates, and now we have torrent sites for those hard to find ROMs. So, no, it isn’t like that.