Well said, man, that is THE WAY TO BE.
I try to do this as well. It’s hard letting go of what you feel defines you and instead seek to make a new definition of yourself. +1 like, Gordon.
A tangent here. I’m 58 years old. Yet I am totally involved in PC games. It feels weird. Sure, when I was 20 or so I got into gaming in a big way. When I play a game like XCOM2 or Eternal, I don’t think about my age. Then I read posts about age, like this one, and I think “I’m a 58 year old gamer? How the fuck does that work?”
You are literally older than my parents.
My son is playing Mario Kart and Mario Galaxy with me.
I know that helps ;)
My dad’s 58 and I’m like 3 years younger than you, dude. Your parents were young :P
I don’t know how old you are Armando, I think you’re younger than me (I’m 34), but this is a great observation. It really struck me because I’m one of the most grumpy people I know in RL (my mum sometimes calls me Victor Meldrew) and I hate those bitchy-emo-hardass-chick memes that seem to get shared or liked on my Facebook feed by too many females I know. Okay, I get it, you’re not going to put up with anyone else’s BS and we’re going to have to put up with yours–blocked.
Your observation got me looking at myself though. I will say that while I grumble about plenty of things (rarely on social media), I’m unashamedly enthusiastic and giddy when it comes to things I love so I try to immerse myself in those as much as possible and distance myself from things that bring the worst out in me (unless it’s Splatoon Ranked or Antihero against @lordkosc). ‘Immerse your soul in love’ indeed. Who’d have thought that one of Radiohead’s most miserable songs would be home to such a warm sentiment.
Yeah, I kind of cringe at my younger self over this kind of stuff. Worse still: my younger self listened to some tripe.
Yeah, I sometimes feel like I’m doing this with games but I usually only persist with the universally praised titles in the hopes of them finally ‘clicking’, a bit like I might with a TV series. I do draw the line somewhere though. The more widely something is praised and the more hours I’ve sunk into it, the more likely I am to pipe up and air some of my problems with it. I’d certainly not stick with something just to bitch about it though, life’s too short!
Well, with all the prostate exams…
I already learned from you guys that apparently the real problem with aging is when the hair goes grey. And not the one on my head. I had no idea that would happen. Sigh.
I’m due for one soon. :(
I feel this way too. But I think it stems FROM our age, not from gaming itself. Percentage wise there are a lot more gamers today than there were when we jumped in. It was geeky, it was nerdy, but it was fun. Now … it’s just normal. The platforms have changed, but the market has opened up considerably.
Show me someone under 30 these days who doesn’t have at least a single game on their phone. Seriously, that is a pretty hard thing to find.
Which reminds me I need to go back in for another one of those. Sigh.
Fight it? I embrace it!
But seriously, I don’t have a lot to be grumpy about. Pretty much all of the young people I meet are pretty damn great. Or they’re acting.
Even on Youtube, where I like to drop comments on some of the new bands I hear on the radio, if I get into a conversation with people there and my age is mentioned, virtually nobody will give me crap about it. Either Youtube is getting to be less of a cesspool, or I’m just happening to find videos that don’t attract griefers.
I have great optimism for our youth. The ones I’ve met are certainly a lot more well-adjusted than I was at that age.
The girl at Subway said to me, “You’ve played Fallout, right?” So many emotions flooded into me. Momentary shock that a girl played Fallout. I would never have dreamed of that when I was a kid. Anger that to her “Fallout” meant the heretical deviations of Bethesda. Happiness that she had a game she could enjoy. And finally, when she expressed interest in playing Fallout: New Vegas, I felt an immense hope for the youth of this country.
Trump was elected and Grimoire was released. Anything is possible now.
Lol! This sums things up nicely.
They LIKE to watch stuff they don’t like on purpose. See? it’s still something they enjoy…on some crazy level.
On the topic of getting older:
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20s: I was a really grumpy old YOUNG man but didn’t want to seem like an asshole because I cared what people thought of me to some degree so I kept in ALL in check.
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30s: I couldn’t hold back anymore, to the point that I became be a major asshole and didn’t care what anyone thought…only sometimes though, because I couldn’t live with myself if I was a major asshole ALL the time…and deep inside I still cared what people did think. But I could be a real dick on occasion. And everything irritated me to some degree.
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40s: I’ve calmed down quite a bit because at this point I feel I don’t really give a shit what anyone thinks and through that I’ve learned that well, it’s only fair that no one should give a shit what I think! I’ve learned to live and let live. Yeah, some people are really stupid, and it still bugs me, but unless they are directly responsible for some unhappiness of mine, who am I to rain on their parade? Also, looking back at stupid things I did when younger, I find myself being more empathetic in general.
But I guess at times I still want the kids off my lawn and I still don’t understand why people do some of the things they do, but mostly I keep the comments to myself or share them with my wife (who is in her 30s but fortunately for me not like me in my 30s!). Overall, I’m nicer about things…unless I’m on my daily NYC subway commute. If you’ve lived it, you know what I am talking about.
Thanks!
Hmmm…then I like to think of myself as the Ungrumpiest of the Grumpy!