It will probably come of little surprise to my fellow geeks that a huge percentage of the world’s video gamers happen to be adults aged 30 and over. It is because of this reason that there are an ever grown number of video games released that come with an 18 certificate. Of course just because there is a huge array of video games aimed at adults does not mean that you average 30 year old does not still enjoy controlling an Italian plumber in a go-kart.
While grown-ups still enjoy video games regardless of their age there is one thing that all senior citizen gamers will tell you. Once you get to a certain age video gaming becomes a lot less satisfying than it was when you were a child.
Here we are looking at why 6 Reasons Why Gaming in Your 30’s Is Not So Much Fun.
You Don’t Have the Time
When you were a kid you probably got really excited by a game that reportedly took 100 hours to complete. Games like this were brilliant when you were young and it was not uncommon to find yourself stuck on a difficult part of the game for weeks, even months. In some cases you may even find yourself having to re-learn the controls from time to time. If a game lasted less than 15 hours it simply was not worth bothering with.
Now that you are an adult your whole concept of time has changed. A video game that is said to last 15 hours is likely to take your average adult 30 different gaming sessions to work through unless they are lucky enough to be getting paid to play video games. The harsh truth about been a video gamer in your 30’s is that you rarely have the time to sit down for a gaming session that lasts an hour so a 15 hour video game is likely to take you months to complete.
You Have too Much Money
I will always remember the summer I saved up all of my pocket money and money from my paper round and walked into my local video game shop with bags full of lose change to buy a Super Nintendo. There was a real sense of pride and achievements. I’m sure that every 30 year old video gamer can relate to this story and have their own tale of saving up pennies over weeks and months so they could go and buy a single video game.
Nowadays I have an adult wage and more money at my disposal so this means it is much easier to get my hands on all of the latest video games. Maybe this is the reason that my top 3 video games are all video games that I bought as a child.
They Stopped Making the Video Games You Love
Having grown up in the 80’s it is of no surprise that my favourite video game genres are platform games like Mario and Sonic and graphical adventures. Obviously these type of games are old news in today’s world of Call of Duty so I find that when I sit down to play a video game I have to change my expectations and accept that they just do not make them like they used to.
Old Age is Catching up with You
When I was a kid my mother would shout up to me in my room for one reason or another and I would not for a second break my concentration from Super Mario. My thumbs were made from industrial steel and I could sit up till the early hours of the morning making a hedgehog collect gold hoops. Unfortunately now that I am in my 30’s I am suddenly aware that age is catching up with my body and my mind is losing its ability to concentrate. If I try to play a video game for more than 30 minutes my thumbs begin to hurt and my back begin to ache from sitting too long.
Not only that I find the easiest of video games I struggle with and keep dying repeatedly. What is worse is the fact that I keep dying because I keep getting distracted by remembering something I forgot to do at work or a bill I have to pay. God help me when I get real responsibilities like kids and a wife.
Video Games Begin to Offend You
I am not the type of person who gets offended easily. I have seen hundreds of horror movies and between you and me I have even watched a bit of porn in my time. Nothing that you would consider hard core, maybe at worst two Siamese midget twins massaging a goat. Like I said it should take quite a bit to offend me.
Strangely when it comes to video games I seem to be getting offended all of the time. Maybe it is just the idea of a computer generated character swearing or shooting a zombie. I can’t put my finger on it but I seem to get offended by video games all of the time. It is actually that bad that I find myself falling in to the trap of been an old person who kids think are offended by everything.
You Should Quit But Won’t
When you become a grown up your priorities change or at least they should. So when you get stuck on a video game or if it becomes boring to play you really should just give up. When you are a kid you have nothing more important in your life so you can justify playing on and on but as an adult you have tonnes of responsibilities. The problem is if you give up you are not just giving up your attempt to beat a video game you are giving up on your youthfulness. Oh, the shame of it all.
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you can always make time to play video games. at least i will. no matter how old i get. i grew up with halo and call of duty. and grand turismo. and iv mastered all lol. and i doubt there gonna get anymore complicated to play than they already are.