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When do you hit your prime in gaming?
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23-11-2009 12:48am#1
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I'd even say earlier.
Was talking to a friend of mine the other day and we were discussing Metal Gear Solid. We'd be in the early to mid 20s and remember the PS1 version of this and having a fun breezing through it. Took a break from gaming during my last year in college and when i finally got to sit down to MGS4, i was playing like a girl, hiding in a corner on the first level for about 2 hours
Starting to get over it (nearly finished MGS4) but def shook me for a while. I'd have no problem tackling any game about 4 years ago, now, i'm a pussy 0 -
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In fairness MGS3 I played 3 or 4 years ago was just hard as balls, if you ask me. I got frustrated with it, I believe, on the old sniper guy. Though I hear he dies of Old age if your save file sits idle long enough - which is funny - but only indicates they knew the dude was BS when they put him in there.I'd even say earlier.
Was talking to a friend of mine the other day and we were discussing Metal Gear Solid. We'd be in the early to mid 20s and remember the PS1 version of this and having a fun breezing through it. Took a break from gaming during my last year in college and when i finally got to sit down to MGS4, i was playing like a girl, hiding in a corner on the first level for about 2 hours
Starting to get over it (nearly finished MGS4) but def shook me for a while. I'd have no problem tackling any game about 4 years ago, now, i'm a pussy0 -
In fairness MGS3 I played 3 or 4 years ago was just hard as balls, if you ask me. I got frustrated with it, I believe, on the old sniper guy. Though I hear he dies of Old age if your save file sits idle long enough - which is funny - but only indicates they knew the dude was BS when they put him in there.
One of the best and most satisfying boss fights in any MGS game - FACT(it was funny, changing the PS2 system date and having him die on you)
O/T, am in my 40s now and reckon I'm as good at playing games now as when I was younger. Nearly have MW2 on veteran completed and have the Perfect Playthrough on MGS4.
I would say when my thumbs seize up in my 50s, that my peak will have been passed.
The only thing I suck at is the online stuff, great fun, but am absolutely crap - seriously, anyone want to improve their kill/death ratio, give me a shout.0 -
There's more to gaming than reflexes, especially as games become more tactical and complex. Being able to pattern your opponents quickly is a skill that comes with experience, knowing where they will be, what weapon they will likely have etc. and being prepared has as much value as being faster on the mouse. I hit my peak in gaming probably about 3 years ago, mid 30s, I still rise to the top on the servers/games I choose to play against guys I know are faster and have better aim because I can predict their play or outmaneuver tactically.
In short I think as you get older you only move out of your zone when you choose to.....well at least until your get so old your eyes start to fade and arthritis fks with your mouse hand
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have been playing for the last 30 years, aaah pacman!
anyway i think gaming has changed so much in that time that it is only the last few years where i have been able to play big expansive games or online games to any degree
Whereas as a nipper games were shorter or repetetive due to having to restart all the time
I'm still not that great at online shooters but i like to persist and see how much of a trashing i can take in TF2, LFD and BFH 0 -
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This thread is depressing me
I say we're not past our prime. Never! We'll never be too old for this ****. Three cheers for the washed up old timers who cant hit a tank from 20 paces with a rocket launcher anymore. Or for the people who can't do skills in Fifa. Or the people who play on easy for the story. As long as we still tell people how much better gaming was in our youth, we'll never be forgotten!0 -
It depends on the game, and at what level you play, and at what your style of play is.
Some replies are along the lines of 'When you are at college, because that's when you have most time to play'. That's not a very interesting response in some ways - obviously, you'll be better when you are practising vs when you are not practising. When are 10K runners at their best? Well, obviously its when they are training.
But if you are talking about in terms of raw potential, then its more interesting to consider the case if you were to play games a lot, all the time.
Then it would depend on the game somewhat.
Games are going to take a certain amount of accumulated experience to learn all the rules, the patterns, the tactics. For some games this might take a few days (think Snap, with a deck of cards, or maybe an extremely simple shooter), for some games, it might years.
For example, Chess players typically have to start young, so they've played for many years, to reach their peak in terms of experience, when near their peak in terms of age driven mental ability. I've no reason to suppose that certain classes of deep complex strategy game don't have a similar set of curves.
To put it another way, if you've a game thats complex to the point that it takes 20 years to learn all the advanced strategies, you aren't going to peak at 23, even if the game incorporates a reflex element.
I suspect it takes many years to learn all the common patterns and strategies in a complex game like Starcraft.
In terms of pure reflexes and motor neuron speed, I often anecdotally hear that its younger people who have better reflexes (old gamers complain about this!) I don't know about the science behind it, but this abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2921473 would seem to say that people peak in terms of reaction speed in their 20s, and go downhill from there.
So, if its possible to fully learn the tactical best play of the game you are playing, in your 20s, and if the game has a reflex component (so, many shooters), then 20s is probably a good answer.
How much of a significant factor reaction speed, vs learned skill, is will depend game to game. Perhaps theres an intelligence and determination aspect to it too - some people might never take it seriously enough to be learning the skills consciously, or maybe some people just don't have the aptitude to - I dunno.
Personally, anecdotally, I think a huge part of many shooters (CS etc) is tactical play, and that once you hit a certain standard of intermediate reaction and aiming ability, it very much comes down to doing the numbers on the situation, so you have a higher probability of encountering your opponent in a situation thats advantageous to you, rather then them.
So, for example, ideally you attack your opponent from behind; or even more subtly, from an angle that they didn't expect - sure, you might lose, theres a certain randomness in most encounters, but on the averages, the extra split second means you'll win more than you lose.
Equally, you set up the condition so that you've got a longer range weapon at longer ranges - you could still take an unlucky HS, but on average, you'll do better.
Its like poker - you don't always win with the better hole cards, but being good is about simply having better averages, and over the game, this stacks up.
I personally think there's a huge degree of learned skill in this to get to this stage. I had to play CS (casually) for many years before I got reasonably good at it.
So, in a nutshell, the answer to the question probably depends a lot on the specific game in question - how much learning is required, and how much benefit is there to learn beyond a certain point? Obviously, if the best (dominant) strategy is always a tank rush, then it comes down to who clicks fastest to build tanks. But in a complex, balanced game, I think there can be a lot of learning before you get to the point of diminishing returns, and factors like reflexes start to balance out.
I think for a game like CS, there's a really interesting combination - deficiencies in tactics can be compensated somewhat for by aiming skill, and vice versa, but you need both, and to reach your peak, you probably need to be well trained and practised at both, and probably at an age where your reflexes are still pretty sharp too. Of course, I'm not sure how many people there are playing games at that level of seriousness.
I certainly don't have time to! 0 -
On above note, one thing I took a craze at a year or two ago was to re-live yesteryear and compare how I was to how I am, now.
It may have been the fact that I was using a Keyboard, rather than a Joystick (back when I had to wait for 5mins for such a game to load via the tape cassette recorder as a child) but it's safe to say that when I could get to Black Belt without using Emulator saves back then, and I'd struggle to get past Round 2 on the first try now, you appreciate the age
I'm sure if I gave it more time I'd do great (I gave some of my old classic favourite games a quick once over and moved on, whereas I spent countless hours with each one as a child) but still, thats how it goes.
I find that if I go back to a game I used to be really good at very young (eg mario), it's shocking how bad I sometimes am. But I find that if I spend a few hours playing, I learn so much faster than I did as a kid - my skills return in no time. This actually came as a big relief when I started to improve.
I'd hate to think my wasted youth was wasted.
Another thing thats shocking is that I watched someone play a tiny bit of zelda 3 recently, and I remembered where all the secrets were - in dungeons I'd only done once. Its weird the stuff your brain recalls!!
Absolutely...So many games took so much time out of my life in those days, it's a bit weird playing them again 10-19 years later.0 -
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