5thElefant – Member

The games developers I know don’t play games.

I game quite often with a bunch of bioware guys, they’re proper addicts. Must… game… on… lunch… hour. They mostly kinda suck, too.

Sorry Mrs Toast.. I forget there are wimminz on here too.. 😳

It seems that my prejudice is probably unfounded then perhaps, and that we haven’t all evolved into the pale socially stunted wierdos of my darkest fears, instead, games have evolved to accommodate modern man (and woman)

Scary though that the argument of quite a few seems to be ‘it’s better for you than TV’
I think jerking off to the Littlewoods catalogue in a storage cupboard at the local bingo hall whilst listening to recordings of Molgrips reciting passages from the bible in his best Kate Beckinsdale voice is probably better for you than TV

Some of the most interesting, inventive, affecting, brilliant stories I’ve experienced in the last few years have been via games – but then there’s been superb ones via TV, film and books too.

It’s another entertainment medium, a $66bn industry with an incredible range to offer from simple (yet deep) indie offerings to AAA stuff with budgets that exceed most Hollywood movies.

Most leisure activities are a waste of time. I don’t think spending a chunk of your free time gaming rather than passively watching TV or building airfix kits or going to the pub is a bad thing.

(edit: 34, probably play 5-6 hours a week, and meet some mates for a day of boardgaming every month or so)

Never mind about grown men. Imagine the scene, at Xmas and my mother (recently 60) asks for tips for missions related to the Dark Brotherhood (assassins) on Skyrim. Couldn’t really offer any advice as thats a bit dark for me.

Which basically means my mother gets enjoyment creeping around stabbing virtual creatures in the back. And my missue wonders where I get it from…

It seems that my prejudice is probably unfounded then perhaps, and that we haven’t all evolved into the pale socially stunted wierdos of my darkest fears, instead, games have evolved to accommodate modern man (and woman)

Oh, I wouldn’t go that far! 😀

Never mind about grown men. Imagine the scene, at Xmas and my mother (recently 60) asks for tips for missions related to the Dark Brotherhood (assassins) on Skyrim. Couldn’t really offer any advice as thats a bit dark for me.

I remember when I was at uni at working at Game, a woman in her late 50s came in and excitedly bought Time Crisis. She was a HUGE lightgun fan, “ever since Duck Hunt on the NES”, she said…

Duck Hunt is fantastic, tbf.

(Why can’t you shoot the bloody dog?! 😡 )

jimmers – Member

Never mind about grown men. Imagine the scene, at Xmas and my mother (recently 60) asks for tips for missions related to the Dark Brotherhood (assassins) on Skyrim.

I was very proud when my mum combined her fledgeling silver surfer skills and her newfound appreciation of the Nintendo DS to cheat at Professor Leyton. Will get her on proper games sooner or later, nearly got her hooked on Xcom

yunki – Member

Scary though that the argument of quite a few seems to be ‘it’s better for you than TV’

You are rather easily scared! The point there isn’t “It’s better than TV therefore it’s obviously great”, it’s that adults watching TV isn’t viewed as bizarre or childish. Comparing the two shows up the weird perception of gaming for what it is.

Unless of course you fancy starting a thread about how weird it is that adults watch tv and films?

The best games stay with you like the best films or books… I was at uni when I picked up Final Fantasy 7, I remember more from that game than I do from General Principles of Scots Law It’s a wonderful story, a cinematic experience that you drive yourself… Superb music (the soundtrack’s been performed in full orchestration round the world) a great world to explore and characters to live with. Funny and sad and haunting and hopeful and beautiful. Only trouble is you can’t just recommend people to give it a bash because it takes about 60 hours to finish…

[Top tip] Get yourself over to Steam and do a search for the newly re-released FF7 [/top tip]

I love gaming… a throwback to a mis-spent youth, perhaps…

450 hours on TF2 and counting! 25, by the way. With a wife, two children, a dog, a serious job, some bikes and other perfectly-normal-socially-accepted stuff!

Edit: That’s 450 hours since i bought it in 2007!

I think jerking off to the Littlewoods catalogue in a storage cupboard at the local bingo hall whilst listening to recordings of Molgrips reciting passages from the bible in his best Kate Beckinsdale voice is probably better for you than TV

/panics and starts searching for hidden cameras in storage cupboard.

Oxymoron? 😉

I’ll summarise OP for the world.

There’s no such thing as “grown men”; we’re just us, as children, with a slower metabolism and a sense of responsibility as life dictates upon circumstance.

it’s that adults watching TV isn’t viewed as bizarre or childish

I don’t think that I said that gaming was either mind.. but it’s interesting to see what your paranoid mind assumes others think of you.. 😀

If you’re scorning “grown men” for doing something then it must be because you think it’s not suitable for adults. And if you admit your prejudice of thinking it’ll turn people into “pale socially stunted wierdos of my darkest fears” then you can’t think it’s normal. Well, either that, or you’re just a bit incoherent. But either way, I rate your troll an E 😆

I’m neither incoherent nor scornful.. I was asking what the attraction is, which most contributors to thread seem to have plainly understood..

I guess you have issues.. 🙁

yeah, think the way the question was phrased was not great, came across a bit like….why are silly old men playing games…anyway chill out guys. Yunki, you ever gone bowling? paintballing? played rounders as a kid? think you know where im going..

I still haven’t finished manic miner

But when I do. I’m going to get Jet Set Willy

i have a PS2 and like playing it in the winter when the weathers bad.

Only play for a couple of hours max.

There are even a few weirdoes on here that play on their bicycles in the woods!

I still haven’t finished manic miner

But when I do. I’m going to get Jet Set Willy

I finished Manic Miner, with infinite lives. I can almost do it without, but that Skylab level does for me every time.

JSW I finished with an auto-collect objects poke, so ostensibly visited every room in a single play-through (which is still hard enough).

(And ~30 years on, I still remember POKE 35899,0)

Much happiness 😀

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=6t7s9E7o1qY[/video]

There are even a few weirdoes on here that play on their bicycles in the woods!

There’s people complain on here about adverts for games consoles on TV not being about something active, just like watching TV then.

Used to do a lot but stopped about the time the kids reached an age they started playing them. Not sure why but no interest now.

There’s a fight club school of thought they’re a substitution for lack of achievement in real life, and even inhibit it. Obviously these generalisations are only applicable in extremes. But there are a few people I know that game all night, yawn all day a their desks, and seem to have been in a life rut for a few years now.

Never mind about grown men. Imagine the scene, at Xmas and my mother (recently 60) asks for tips for missions related to the Dark Brotherhood (assassins) on Skyrim

Reminds me – my old next door neighbour, he’s in his 70s – whole house is set up for maximum gaming… 60″ 3D tv, consoles, gaming chair…plays online war games with his family. My son was rather impressed with his set up!

I have a few old consoles, with lots of games, that the wife wants me to sell. She is right, they take up loads of space, but I remember playing Goldeneye on the N64 during many long student nights.

I have an old gameboy, N64, PS2, GameCube and Wii that all sit in the cupboard getting little use. I don’t pretend to be grown up though.

However, we sit down in the evening and watch a load of kak on the TV, which I also think is not that healthy.

When did playing games become gaming instead of playing?

I don’t really get it any more, I used to love games but hardly ever play them now. I get bored after about 10 minutes. I especially can’t stand RPG type games such as the elder scrolls series. Waste so much time levelling stuff up when you could actually be doing stuff in real life 😆

The only game I’ve really enjoyed recently is Fahrenheit (I know it’s an old game, I just never played it first time round). But I suspect that’s because it’s more of a playable film!

For me, video games peaked with R-Type. I loved that game, and shovelled a small fortune in 20ps into the arcade machine in Las Vegas*

* former seedy games arcade, not the US gambling den.

I can’t understand grown men who spend hours and hours on here yet can’t even wheelie a bike.

boxfish – Member

For me, video games peaked with R-Type

To be fair, it was awesome.

For me, video games peaked with R-Type

To be fair, it was awesome.

It was designed to take your money. It painted you into corners and the only way you could progress was to die and remember for next time.

But yes, it was awesome. I was a Vulcan Venture man myself.

But there are a few people I know that game all night, yawn all day a their desks, and seem to have been in a life rut for a few years now.

I can understand that. People need a challenge and stimulus, and you have to go where your mind takes you. If your mind doens’t take you to those TPS reports you have to get done, then what’re you gonna do?

I can’t understand grown men who spend hours and hours on here yet can’t even wheelie a bike.

I spent a happy half an hour on the big patch of grass in the middle of my estate practising wheelies.

Pretty sure most bystanders observing me would have considered it a juvenile activity.

Gaming is great BTW its just another form of entertainment