Gaming in your 40s

rhkcommander959 said:
I need a game I can jump into after a week... Shooters are obviously easier for that but I haven't had many I like to play anymore.
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If you haven't played Battlefield HARDLINE, I highly recommend it. Ignore the pre-fix "Battlefield", it's a cop drama (built on BF engine).

It's a very "episodic" game about cops in Florida - almost like watching a TV show (lots of story cut scenes), so I could jump in and play 45~60 mins for one story segment once or twice a week. It's only about 8-10 hours long and can be found on sale for $20 all the time. There are 10 episodes according to this guide, but playlists on youtube are typically 20 videos.

I wish HARDLINE had become an annual series.

I want more games structured like this.
 
I wouldn't feel guilty at all. As long as you're on top of everything else, you deserve to game a few hours a week! No guilt whatsoever! I think it's a problem if for example you were tight on money for the month but that 3090 ti is your number one priority. Then, ok, I see it. If not then please game on guilt free!
 
Come on man, I NEED that 3090Ti. **Chatter**

Ok a 3080!

Anything maaaaannnnn!!!!!

I can pay you next year!!!!
 
CAD4466HK said:
Man I'm glad I had my kids early!
The wife and I are empty nesters, and being 47 and my own boss is icing on the cake.
Game on!
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Same! Still have 2 at home but they're self sufficient teenagers. I laugh at my friends having kids mid 40's. I feel like I have the free time to experience life as I should with the disposable income to do it. As to gaming, I don't focus on it like I used to but I also have a great life balance. I'm an avid outdoorsman too so I split my time between family, work, outside and gaming. I seem to game more during the hot months as going outside to be devoured by mosquitoes isn't my idea of fun lol. I don't feel guilty taking time for myself. Decompressing and focusing on my own mental health is as important as the time I spend with the family
 
I just started drinking coffee that helps a ton but I'm doing decafe still drink like 8 12 cups on my days off. Basically this is my safe Gamefuel I add creamer sometimes just drink it black. It doesn't raise my BP too much where I should give it up. It does help keep me engaged in games longer. I never drank coffee in my life basically looking for a better coffee maker at the moment but my Mr. COFFEE 5 cup is good enough at the moment. Was looking at Ninjas but they didnt use regular filters. I know one thing Starbucks will turn you into a creampuff.
 
Comixbooks said:
I just started drinking coffee that helps a ton but I'm doing decafe still drink like 8 12 cups on my days off. Basically this is my safe Gamefuel I add creamer sometimes just drink it black. It doesn't raise my BP too much where I should give it up. It does help keep me engaged in games longer. I never drank coffee in my life basically looking for a better coffee maker at the moment but my Mr. COFFEE 5 cup is good enough at the moment. Was looking at Ninjas but they didnt use regular filters. I know one thing Starbucks will turn you into a creampuff.
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Sounds like you're ready to upgrade to a Bunn coffee maker. Fresh pot brewed within minutes! I like to pair mine up with McDonald's coffee (I'm in Canada, so I don't know if you guys still use the old 'chalk' McDonald's coffee) but, really, it makes most coffee taste good.

Also, yes, a cup of coffee while gaming is my 'fuel' of choice too.
 
As I quickly approach 40 (Currently late 30s), I found myself more inclined to play older games from when I was a kid. I don't really consider it a "mid life crisis" or anything of that sort. It's mostly because the games were designed short. So, the challenge is high but the length short. Which, is perfect for someone like me that honestly doesn't have that much time to spend on long games. The open world nonsense and games that approach 100 hour plus just aren't possible for someone like me.

Now, the mid life crisis part....well, that's been the acquisition of older hardware. I bought a MiSTer early last year and have been slowly buying up accessories and equipment for the "true experience." This then led me to buying up OG hardware and modding it for RGB. Then, acquiring old CRTs (I have a storage unit full of them at this point) for gaming use, trading, and arcade cabinet refurbishment. I even restored an old 89 Turtles Arcade cab with a friend.
 
Well folks I’m a youthful 66 and I’ve had a plum job for the last 22 years that afforded me to work from home. Thus I’ve been able to not only have plenty of gaming time but also plenty of time to do all the things you do with your kids as a parent as well as plenty of time with my wife. After over 10 years of hardcore MS Flight Simulator, I bought Batman Arkham Asylum when it came out, stopped doing flight simulator and never looked back.

I’m able to usually game for a good 60-90 minutes in the morning before work and roughly the same each day beginning at 5PM. That includes making dinner for my wife and myself, doing yoga, going to the gym, work my day job from home, and occasional work as a professional tv actor, etc. Gaming became part of my life with Flight Sim and then again beginning with Batman AA. I feel no guilt as my life is full of other experiences as well and it’s good escapism and enjoyment.

My younger son would sometimes sit on my lap while I would play flight simulator. He’s now a professional pilot with one of the major corporate jet outfits in the U.S. I believe that my interest in aviation and MS Flight Simultor were direct influences on his career decision.

My wife understands my hobby and doesn’t belittle me with the amount of time I spend with it. I think the one thing that I have missed out on though are some of the streaming shows and movies that I have yet to see. When we watch TV, we often watch things that we can enjoy together. But some other shows that would only be of interest to me I’ve yet to see as I have chosen to spend some of my “me” time gaming instead. (Presently playing Elden Ring.) I will likely retire sometime in the next year or two and THEN I’ll catch up on some of the shows I wish to see.

Live a full life, don’t sit in those gaming chairs for too long and move your body. You will appreciate it when you get older. Happy gaming!!!
 
blade52x said:
You are the anti of those people who brag about working 80 hours a week. What you have, is something to truly brag about.

Good for you. I also work remotely and while I don't really game much during work hours (mostly because my interest in gaming has waned over the years), it's definitely been a life changer for the better without sacrificing (and in fact even improving) my quality of work.
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i would never brag about working 80 hours a week. i am, after all, a millennial - the ethos growing up (especially in tech where i work) is to work smarter, not harder - more time to enjoy what you love.
 
Vincent Vega said:
I've been a PC gamer my entire life for close to 3 decades. It all started for me in the early 90s when my dad brought home a DOS Pentium 75 Gateway 2000 in the legendary cow-themed box. As an only child, the PC became the center of my teenage entertainment. All throughout college, mid-to-late 20s and 30s, gaming remained a staple and cornerstone of entertainment, part of my identity.

I am in my early 40s now and perhaps since the birth of my son 3 years ago, I've been feeling this unshakable guilt whenever I would queue up a casual round of whatever online shooter. Thankfully, I am my own boss and make my own hours, which should afford me the flexibility to engage with an activity I have always loved, but instead of being able to immerse myself into the title and enjoy the escapism, I get the feeling that I should be doing something else meaningful, productive, or constructive with my time. Yes, having two toddlers at home limits the amount of free time by default, but there's something about gaming in particular that conjures up this bizarre guilt that I don't get if I was to just sit down and watch an episode of The Expanse. I also noticed that competitive, stressful titles lost their luster years ago, any gaming I did in recent years was limited to easy mode "story play" instead of nightmare modes.

Maybe I've outgrown it? The thought of it saddens me. Perhaps it's just not the right time right now and I'll return to it at a later point? Anyway, I am interested to hear from other folks in the 40+ bracket, if they felt the same way and how they've dealt with it. Cheers!

P.S. 2 weeks away from my 20-year [H]F anniversary. Fuuuuck me time flies.
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The solution is easy.
Find something constructive to do, do it, then play games :)
Even better if parts of your constructivism can include your child.
Put some effort into it.

Feeling guilty and doing nothing is a royal waste of time, causes mental issues and is a bad example!
 
I'm in my mid-40s and still game albeit not as much as I was a few years back. Our son is now in college and out of the house. My ex and I had him young and he was in boarding school for most of the time growing up, so we didn't lose that much time raising him: paying others to help raise your children is highly underrated. Otherwise, I likely would have all but given up gaming for years.

The main struggle now is finding extended periods to dig into a good story-based game. There's always some need (invented or real) to interrupt, holiday, another hobby e.g. lifting, kayaking to take me away. And there's always work which seems to suck more time and seep more into every aspect of life as every year goes by. It's really made me focus more on quick fix games I can pick up for 30 minutes and enjoy e.g. Doom, Far Cry
 
harmattan said:
The main struggle now is finding extended periods to dig into a good story-based game.
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Yeah, story games are hard now because of limited time and I forgot the games keyboard controls and have to search youtube to figure out what dang quest am I trying to finish and what led up to this point?
 
twonunpackmule said:
As I quickly approach 40 (Currently late 30s), I found myself more inclined to play older games from when I was a kid. I don't really consider it a "mid life crisis" or anything of that sort. It's mostly because the games were designed short. So, the challenge is high but the length short. Which, is perfect for someone like me that honestly doesn't have that much time to spend on long games. The open world nonsense and games that approach 100 hour plus just aren't possible for someone like me.

Now, the mid life crisis part....well, that's been the acquisition of older hardware. I bought a MiSTer early last year and have been slowly buying up accessories and equipment for the "true experience." This then led me to buying up OG hardware and modding it for RGB. Then, acquiring old CRTs (I have a storage unit full of them at this point) for gaming use, trading, and arcade cabinet refurbishment. I even restored an old 89 Turtles Arcade cab with a friend.
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There's a reason the NES and SNES classic killed everything in sales when they came out. I mostly run retro style indie games like the new streets of rage now. I've realized graphics are poison and to stay the fuck away from them.
 
I'm 69 (yes, no shit), retired and find that shooters are harder now, I over shoot on aim and it's tougher to zero in, waste a lot of ammo, can't play twitch shooters any more. Don't have the patience any more for some slowly-developing games. Otherwise I have no guilt playing for hours (I was a single parent, so made quite a few sacrifices early on, although playing 'Radar Rat Race' on the vic 20 with my kid was a blast), with more frequent bathroom breaks, though.
 
pek said:
I'm 69 (yes, no shit), retired and find that shooters are harder now, I over shoot on aim and it's tougher to zero in, waste a lot of ammo, can't play twitch shooters any more. Don't have the patience any more for some slowly-developing games. Otherwise I have no guilt playing for hours (I was a single parent, so made quite a few sacrifices early on, although playing 'Radar Rat Race' on the vic 20 with my kid was a blast), with more frequent bathroom breaks, though.
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You've earned the right to have no guilt in anything you do at that age, keep on truckin!
 
pek said:
I'm 69 (yes, no shit), retired and find that shooters are harder now, I over shoot on aim and it's tougher to zero in, waste a lot of ammo, can't play twitch shooters any more. Don't have the patience any more for some slowly-developing games. Otherwise I have no guilt playing for hours (I was a single parent, so made quite a few sacrifices early on, although playing 'Radar Rat Race' on the vic 20 with my kid was a blast), with more frequent bathroom breaks, though.
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I have a huge backlog & I'm not as quick on the draw as I used to be, so I play on easy / rookie / beginner / etc. just to "get 'er done".

Have you played - Red Dead Redemption 2 - on PC? Excellent game - play at your own pace - I go hunting if I don't feel like story - go to story missions if I want to watch some TV style cutscenes or just stir up trouble with the locals in town or rob some trail riders or do side missions if I want some action.
 
usa all day said:
I have a huge backlog & I'm not as quick on the draw as I used to be, so I play on easy / rookie / beginner / etc. just to "get 'er done".

Have you played - Red Dead Redemption 2 - on PC? Excellent game - play at your own pace - I go hunting if I don't feel like story - go to story missions if I want to watch some TV style cutscenes or just stir up trouble with the locals in town or rob some trail riders or do side missions if I want some action.
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I've tried to play RDR2 a few times, but have never made it past the mandatory tutorial. Not sure why I haven't made it past it.
 
SOAREVERSOR said:
There's a reason the NES and SNES classic killed everything in sales when they came out. I mostly run retro style indie games like the new streets of rage now. I've realized graphics are poison and to stay the fuck away from them.
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I don't despise graphics. It's actually the poor pacing of modern games that's kinda put a damper on my enjoyment. I generally despise Open World and consider that a warning sign.
 
pek said:
I've tried to play RDR2 a few times, but have never made it past the mandatory tutorial. Not sure why I haven't made it past it.
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I tried Skyrim a few times and never got past the intro levels.

Why had everyone raved about that game? It seemed that RPG was not for me...

Long story long - I decided to watch a Skyrim walkthrough on youtube and skipped past that opening to see what was next. That led me to a some mods that looked interesting and that led me to graphic mods so I decided to play at least 8 hours and then try some mods IF I got hooked and I got hooked.

Witcher 3 RPG was now for me! I liked it so much, I played W2 and most of W1 (very diff than 2 and 3).

RDR2 intro is long with a lot of cut scenes, and I quit as soon as it was over and didn't go back to it for a month or so, assuming it was going to be more of the same - but again - a few youtube vids showed me the future and I put on my cowboy boots and got busy! ;D

EDIT: nexus mods has a skip intro or save game you can install, but just put your feet up and pretend you're watching a TV western so sometimes you have to shoot something.
 
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It changes with different periods of life. I'm 30 myself, and for the last six months I have hardly played any games - I just didn't feel the need. Now I feel that I want to and play
 
53 here and still playing regularly... Mostly Apex (PC) and lately a lot of MAME ... Robotron 2084, Mr Do, Joust, Track and Field.. I have a decent MAME setup on the kitchen counter.. Imma keep gaming until I can't heh..
 
Old fart here at almost 67 (In May of this year). I've been gaming since the early 80's, but when I had my first kid at 1985, I cut back on the pc gaming. When my son got older at around 8-9 years old, I introduced him to a game called Orcs & Humans. We played against each other on 2 separate pc's using a serial cable until I forked out some $ for some network cards. I beet him about 3-4 times, and after that I was toast. When he was 10 or so, we went to a LAN Party down in San Diego. I was the oldest one there, and he was the youngest one there. We had a blast playing games until early in the morning. My middle daughter does not play, but my opps daughter (25 yrs old) does play. My son still plays, but he learned from me - after the kids are in bed and finished any homework.

Since I retired in 2020 after turning 65, I've noticed that I can't play for more that 2 hours before my body starts to complain, so I have to take a break. Currently, the only on line game I play is TF2 using the handle OLDMAN1955. I mainly play on the UK sever since there are more mature folks on there. I just finished Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4 single player only. As another person mentioned, I used to be pretty good at shooting, but old age is starting to catch up with me. I shoot more than I need in order to get a kill since I miss a lot. Just reaction time is not the same as it was 30 years ago.
 
43 here. Still game quite a bit, but I don't enjoy playing competitively anymore like i used to back in q1-q3 days. I still hop into those shooters, and newer ones, and can still hold my own, but find myself playing games that I can hop into for 15-45 mins(hearthstone, Tekken 7, SF, etc) and hop out and take a break just because my attention span for them wanes. Doesn't mean a certain game still won't grab me and i'll play for hours and hours once a year or so. My kid is 14, so ill be kid free, hopefully, at 47 as well. Will see what takes up my time then. I definitely think I am a hardcore gamer in my mind, but its obvious now that I am not. I still buy the new shinys, X1X, PS5, and just built a 12900k(3080), but in reality I don't use them as I would have 15+ yrs ago.
 
4saken said:
43 here. Still game quite a bit, but I don't enjoy playing competitively anymore like i used to back in q1-q3 days. I still hop into those shooters, and newer ones, and can still hold my own, but find myself playing games that I can hop into for 15-45 mins(hearthstone, Tekken 7, SF, etc) and hop out and take a break just because my attention span for them wanes. Doesn't mean a certain game still won't grab me and i'll play for hours and hours once a year or so. My kid is 14, so ill be kid free, hopefully, at 47 as well. Will see what takes up my time then. I definitely think I am a hardcore gamer in my mind, but its obvious now that I am not. I still buy the new shinys, X1X, PS5, and just built a 12900k(3080), but in reality I don't use them as I would have 15+ yrs ago.
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Apex is great for 20 min matches... or 30 seconds depending on the drop lol. The engine feels the most like Q2 CTF and Litium mod back in the day... super fast with fun weapons.. If you play Pathfinder the grapple is a blast. I play him and Octane a lot.. I am getting into Bloodhound and Mirage a bit too..
 
twonunpackmule said:
I don't despise graphics. It's actually the poor pacing of modern games that's kinda put a damper on my enjoyment. I generally despise Open World and consider that a warning sign.
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Open World is also bad. For graphics I long realized that any game with the sort of AAA budget to pull those off probably has to dumb down the hell out of itself to sell enough units to justify the investment in it. That's just how capitalism works. Same stuff happens with movies, same stuff happens with music.

There are exceptions of course but in general if I see something with really high production values I take that as a warning sign.
 
I’m 43, self employed, married no kids. I don’t feel guilty while gaming but admittedly I don’t have nearly as much time for it as I used to but still enough time to launch COD for a round or two almost daily with getting together with 2 or 3 friends once a week for 2-3 hours of Warzone action
 
41, work from home, newly single, no kids. I play a crapload of console games and really don't care what anyone thinks about it. Figured out last night i can murder my squad on Battlefield V and had a fantastic time griefing people for 3 hours, well past when i should have been asleep. Was 10 minutes late to doctors appointment this morning because of it, still worth it.
 
Verge said:
41, work from home, newly single, no kids. I play a crapload of console games and really don't care what anyone thinks about it. Figured out last night i can murder my squad on Battlefield V and had a fantastic time griefing people for 3 hours, well past when i should have been asleep. Was 10 minutes late to doctors appointment this morning because of it, still worth it.
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Wow you spent 3 hours griefing your team? Way to be a pos.
 
Verge said:
41, work from home, newly single, no kids. I play a crapload of console games and really don't care what anyone thinks about it. Figured out last night i can murder my squad on Battlefield V and had a fantastic time griefing people for 3 hours, well past when i should have been asleep. Was 10 minutes late to doctors appointment this morning because of it, still worth it.
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I've done multiple nights of apex until 5am in a row and still made it to work on time.. well, since I work from home just need to roll out to the desk by 10am (first meeting).. kind of zombie mode for a bit but I snap out of it.. but I tell you that shit catches up with you when you string the nights back to back...whew. I did that summer 2019, the summer I spent in skull town.. heh.. though I had to be in the office for work so it was way more rough.. I hear skull town coming back this May so I better rest up. lol!
 
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