Just wanted to know if it’s just me. :? I’m 32, and I know a lot of you guys are my age or older then me. Latley I find it more and more tiring to play any game that requires me to do things fast, or moderatly fast. I used to play FPS games (mainly UT and recently UT2k) and RTS’s. But now I can’t make myself move the mouse fast enough. I don’t think that I lost my interest in these kind of games, it’s just that moving the mouse and tracking these fast moving thing seems harder. I just finished WC3 and I think this was my last RTS.
I got back to alfa centaury and mind rover. I also got disciple2. I just sit and play like an old man.
I know I am not making myself very clear, but maybe some other people who feel the same understand.
I find the same thing… but I’ve always had slow reaction times… I remember reading an article about how humans have lag as well… something about how quickly the signal gets from your eyes to your brain then down to your arms and fingers… how short people have better reaction time to taller people… due to the shorter paths the signals have to take.
That or it’s the blasted Matrix lagging out again.
Sure, there’s an age factor there, but I don’t think it’s only you, the player; I would also attribute some of it to the actual game designs. For instance, I think that shooters really have gotten faster lately, with the UT games being a good (bad?) example of super-hopped-up-on-speed gameplay.
By the way, do you play games as much as you used to? ‘Practice’ time counts for quite a bit too.
Yes the old hand/eye co-ordination gets worse as you get older, that’s why there’s an upper age limit on fighter pilots :) . Welcome to the Golden Years.
Try other game besides Q3 and UT for shooters. A game like Vietcong, Raven Shield and Ghost Recon (depending on map) usually plays alot slower paced than UTk3. i still can hold my own on most of these shooters, but I do notice my aim/reaction is off alot more than 5 years ago. Though I remember a whole year wasted playing Quake Mods from TF to CTF to DM and just Total Annhilation for RTS. So like someone here said, alot of it has to do with practice as well.
I’ve never been great at FPS multiplayer, but I can luck into a few kills now and then. I just find that after 15 minutes of playing online I’ve had my fill. Maybe if I was better at them I’d find them more interesting.
I’m 32 as well, and I haven’t noticed much difference in my desire to play. I used to play shooters a lot, I still play shooters a lot–in fact, the last four games I played regularly were three shooters (NOLF2, Vietcong, PlanetSide) and a strategy game (LSN). The game I am waiting to get is a shooter (HL2). So for me, the shooter interest is still going strong.
OTOH, I do notice that I don’t seem to do as well as I used to at shooters. Whether that’s because I’m getting old, or just because the games are changing, I don’t know. When I played UT2K3, I definitely felt like it moved faster than I could comfortably keep up with. But my impression was just that UT2K3 was a faster game than UT. Maybe that’s just my aging perceptions, though :?
I’m probably the oldest person in our gaming group, with Alan Au is the youngest, just a wee kid :wink:
In our games, I rarely score the highest, but I’m often second or third – although we mostly play co-op (BF1942, UT2003). On the rare occasion where we deathmatch, it’s pretty much the same.
Recently, Alan and I played a session of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. At first, I was the clueless noob, getting fragged often before leaving the spawn point. After a bit, though, I was holding my own, though I never really climbed into the top half. But with some perseverence, I could have moved up – though I’d never be in the top 2 or 3. On other servers, though, I may just be meat…
A lot depends on experience. I’ve played these things since the original Doom. You come to understand the conventions. My issue isn’t reflexes, but endurance. After about an hour or so, I have to take a break because of “mouse claw”.
I’m 33 and was quite good at multiplayer HL before I recently quit (for the other reason that a geezer quits online gaming — intolerance of d00dz).
I never moved into the ranks of the real l33ts (thank God), but after some investigation it became apparent that the difference had more to do with binds and scripts than with reflexes. Patient practice was all it took for me, though progress was fairly slow.
Maybe you can bring aging reflexes up to speed just through consistent application over time? I dunno, but I’m not feeling the lack…yet…
I’m almost 34, and have noticed a drop in my reaction speed.
BUT, what I lack in mobility, I make up in smart playing. Use the enviroment to your benefit, use the idiot adrenaline junkies thirst for kills against them, bait players, set up traps by leaving the flag out in the map instead of at your base…exc. Remember though don’t snipe…that’s lame:)find a role to play , like defense or flag escort, cuz i sure the hell can’t flag run on my weak legs anymore:)
There is something to be said that I don’t do 8 hour marathon sessions like the Doom-Quake II days, so of course my skillz are going to suffer.
I am still at the top of the leader board most of the time, but it is a slow crawl to the top instead of a burst of 10 -15 quick frags. Now I pick my moments, play smart and stick to my gameplan.
Funny though, I have a harder time in the ‘slower’ games. i find the quicker the game,like Ut or the original Star Trek :EF CTF, the better I do. I do agree that UT2k3 is a pale shadow of the original Doom or Quake in terms of gamespeed.
My reflexes have never been the problem. It’s the motion sickness that got me several years ago. 20 mins. playing Deus Ex, Retutn to Castle Wolfenstein, BF1942, puts me down for the count. Silent Hill 2 and State of Emergency has done it too. Upset stomach, nausea, eye strain…not sure how long ago it started, but it sucks ass!!!
I’m occasionally subject to vertigo, but I discovered that higher frame rates make a big difference. Even a seemingly imperceptibly lower frame rate (30-40 fps instead of 60+) makes a difference. Fatigue is another factor – if I’m really tired, I’m more subject to vertigo.
I’m occasionally subject to vertigo, but I discovered that higher frame rates make a big difference. Even a seemingly imperceptibly lower frame rate (30-40 fps instead of 60+) makes a difference. Fatigue is another factor – if I’m really tired, I’m more subject to vertigo.[/quote]
800mhz Athlon, 128MB GeForce MX 5200 (which I only recently added and then got BF1942 to run) 512MB RAM
I was strictly a consoler until 6 or 7 years ago and missed the birth of FPS and pretty much got a PC to play Heroes II and the like. Because of this, I have never, ever checked frame rates as my strategy and RPG titles were not too dependent on that stat. :) I don’t really have any games I can point to and say, “Those made me sick first.” Now, even the console games with wild camera movements make me sick.
Try turning the res down to 800x600, and cranking down most features, then see how a shooter plays. You might even try a demo using an older engine. Then see if the vertigo improves.
I’ve just turned 33 and I can keep up with the twitch-kiddies pretty much as well as I always have, but I can’t seem to keep it up for as long as I used to ;). I’ve long been able to compete at the higher levels of RTS, but I’ve been driven away from that by the pressure I put on myself to win. I’m still winning as much as I always did, I just can’t stand losing any more. I’m enjoying FPS games much more now, because I’ve always been hopeless at these kinds of games. Now when I get good kill counts, I feel really pleased with myself, and don’t mind so much when I die.
I am 35 and I play a lot of twitch type games (sports, fps, action, etc.) and in competative shooters I still do pretty well when I play. I am sure my reflexes aren’t quite as crisp as they were in the DOOM2 days but games really don’t move that quickly anymore. Aside from aim a lot of games like BF1942 and Planetside are about being smart about where you attack from and when. I definitely tend to think a bit more strategically now that I am older.
Edit: I have also for a long time been much much better in the first half an hour to an hour I play. After that I slowly get worse until I just give up.
