Are Modern Shooters Too Much for Older Gamers?

totally agree with this article. I'm 35 and when I hop on live with my son who is 12, not only is he unreal, but the amount of degrading sexual comments, and just plain swearing is almost jaw dropping. I mean I like to swear with the best of 'em, but trash talking should be more of a intelligble experience that does't rely on the words "your mom, gay, faggot, fu#$" etc... Talk about not having to worry about the kids playground at the school!

The last part is so true cuz no one over 30 will be able to stand the trash talking that goes on. And go Walshy!

Here's a good one- just ban the ones, that are screaming "ur dum!!!" and "no, ur DUM!".

well i am not into FPS much these days anyway since most of them are all co-op now. granted i liked CTF games but i was mostly a death match type kinda player. man i miss the original unreal tournament.

I see their point with the lack of sportsmanship, teamplay, and conduct. I am 27 and find it very irritating when people just bash each other the whole game. Its a game, its meant to be fun. It happens all to often when I am playing TF2 where no one on my team is working together, and guess who usually loses when that happens. Its called Team Fortress for a reason.

This is where dedicated servers come in to play. Control. I play TF2 with some of the nicest folks you could ever ask to meet... new people are always welcome, but attitudes aren't... and in-game admins see to this.

Say rather that few people over the age of 30 would be particularly impressed with the thrash talking that goes on.

On another note I consider the entire FPS genre to be geared for younger players, being the ripe age of 33 myself. But then again I held the same view 15 years ago, go figure.

I remember when "pong" first came out. I played all the original Atari console games. I played the original "Duke Nukem". I am 61 years old now and my hand and eye coordination is not what it used to be.

This is the part I found most interesting:

"But there also seems to be a lack of sportsmanship, teamplay, or any kind of code of conduct, thus leaving the game undesirable for an older generation."

If xbox and Playstation supported Key board and mouse it would even the odds and have the guys with the big screen TV's buy their stuff

certain games attract a younger/more immature crowd, and you'll find much more of the teeny trash-talking on console servers, in my experience anyway.

i do agree w/ the article overall tho, at least to some extent. my nephew is loads better at FPS games than i was at his age. that's probably because the FPS games i played back then were wolf3d and doom and other games that involved clunky horizontal aiming and were nowhere near as complex. i actually think gamers are getting worse overall though. i can think of a few old PC/NES games that the younger gamers would get too frustrated by to even beat. Games that didnt have "checkpoints" and infinite saves and used things called "lives" and "continues".

I love me some Duke Nukem 3d... That was fairly sophisticated. But if anything, modern shooters are actually lacking complexity. Most of them are 3rd person, and the ones that are not have precariously thin plots... Too much emphasis on graphics, not enough on wit and gameplay.

Insults and swearing at others have a time and place where they are appropriate, for example LAN parties with friends.

I'm 33, and still get together with all the gamer friends from high school once a year. I swear more at LAN parties then I do the rest of the year combined.

It's true. And not only is time limited as age progresses, frankly the desire to play games does diminish too. ;-) (Add a kid or two and it accelerates the process.)

Very interesting perspective. I especially agree with the statements regarding lack of sportsmanship among today's gaming community - MMO's especially (WoW comes to mind) are full of individuals constantly insisting that nobody else knows how to play the game, and would rather spend time insulting people instead of developing teamwork skills. Sportsmanship is definitely a characteristic of the minority - more precisely, sportmanship among people that don't know each other. Random teams on MW2 are similarly full of people who love to cast stones at people who may need a little bit of guidance.

Imagine the chaos if the US Army simply threw new soldiers into the mix and nobody tried to show them the ropes; instead, resorting to crude name calling and horrid insults. Not much of a team there at all.

The crude gamers need to refine and re-deploy their willpower and ability to work with other people, instead of channeling their real-world frustrations into other people's game time.

im 35 and have a 13(almost 14 boy)

I played modern warfare 2 just yesterday with my son on his PS3... He is phenomenal... I blamed the controller because im used to mouse/keyboard. so i made him play the original modern warfair on my PC... yah, even though i have it mastered he is better... and new to that version

I think this is simply because he has more spare time then i do. I don't let him play 24/7 but he still gets FAR more hours game time then i do.

As for the trash talking... i find it funny, those guys are so sad. Even my son laughs at them, and hes just a child.

The last paragraph is so True. I've about quit playing console games because of the immature idiots that infest the mic. PC gamers have so much more intelligence.

Walshy is my boy. New Carbon is going to be great.

i play css and i tried modern warfail 2. i wanted to smash my head against my keyboard so many time because of the 12 year old bs that goes around in that game. im 24 and its stupid i can top the charts in that game without trying and i top the charts in css everytime i play all most modern fps's are recently is who uses the most gimics and not strats at all its the same way with what world of warcraft has become. Pre bc the game took took time and skill to get to 60 alone now i can get from 1-80 in 2 weeks without trying.

That last paragraph is so very true and very very sad. It is hardly enjoyable to play any game with the non-stop insults and profanity from teenagers and young adults(if you can call them adults) with diarrhea of the mouth spewing out constant verbal abuse.

This does seem to be more pertaining to consoles but it happens on PC's aswell.

What has/will society become?

I like FPS and playing them as a single player and then play them in MP but when I do I play with MY son and his friends in a private game on my game server. My son and his friends are all in their late 30's and have been playing all their lives. On the other hand I played very little tell I was 55 when my son gave me Doom III and I was hooked.

@drksilenc - WOW has never taken any skill to level, at all, ever.

I am 36 and hold my own in games perfectly well, you either have the skills or you dont. Perhaps at older ages then yes it may apply but not yet.

It is a simple case of how much time does a 13y old spend gaming versus a 30y old / 45 y old etc. and this has a effect on gameplay + commonsense to get your hardware / software working properly.

Younger players want to have fun, wall hack etc. and trash talk as this is the only thing they are used to / wired for and will not change until playing with decent skilled persons and so get a respect for themselves and the need to trash talk will fall away.

The older crowd comes from a horrible day at work and want to let off some steam by playing online just to get more frustrated with the lack of playable games or disasters like eyecandy MW2 / irritating non gamer friendly MW2 online play, Graw2, L4D2.

Young players use this as a socialize tool and not so much a frustration release tool "online play.

Older players want to use more skill or anything that can completely distract them from the days work / nagging wife/ psycho daughters. They prefer to be slower moving more accurate hunter killer types and not blow everything up team killers like the younger crowd.

Tested the C&C4 beta or tried to and in 5 mins got more annoyed with QOS defects or lack of QOS products / missing or broken installer / long wait times to connect lack of servers no I am not talking about MW2, same with AVP Feb 2010 demo.

This leaves only a few really old buggy dated games for normal players to play with and then hope someone with skill will make more content / maps for it.

The lack of Demo's is also causing a major issue as I have spend $60 on MW2 and cursed myself after 10 hours for buying that junk so more players will be reluctant to waist money on 99% of the games being released as past experience proved that 99% of the new is junk and not worth the money you pay for it or has lack of user friendly features like lack on user dedicated server features to establish a save and properly working online gameplay or get stuck with MW2 online play Soon to be C&C4 AVP online play disasters/

This results in why waist money on useless games or useless new hardware as my old pc 3 years old can play my usable pre ( UT3, Graw2, FEAR project origins) disaster games = buggering the economy and lack of new jobs created as a result of all this.

Also older players will not switch to tortureXbox or irritating PS2/PS3 as they have a gaming pc/work pc just to play the unreleased pc versions of the games they like.

This F U attitude from gaming company's towards those that drive technology / the economy / new pc hardware sales will bite them if not already.

Xbox / PS3 console for 3 y old kid toys / junk will result in inbred hardware and a loss of future sales / product to sell and use by gaming company's so their narrow minded view or hit and run cash the check and run attitude will be their downfall.

The best games was developed by kids in their garages and then destroyed by the cloned version made by gaming company's.

UT2k4 very nice game ruined in UT3/2007, Graw1 needed a few bug fixed and ruined in Graw2, FEAR1 ruined with project orrigins and the list goes on.

Recap:
30+ international game players above 25y are looking for a new common game to play FPS action shooter and there is nothing out there for the last 3 years and nothing in the near future.
So stuck with old folks ( 25y+ )playing extremely old games on dedicated modded hosted servers / teamspeak to limit kids for wall hacking team killing MW2 stunts defective online play experiences that MW2 failed to provide.

This article is so true. I am in the mid-20s and I cannot believe gamers nowadays. I remember when I started playing HL and CS and how I was young and everyone was older than me. Sure there was always some nub older player (usually 18) that was a trash talking loser. But nowadays almost all of the really "offensive" trash talking players are little nubbies - kids under 13. Naturally, they usually get their As handed to them but instead of shutting up, they rage quit. The rage quitting of the new generation of gamers is astounding. They scream, whine, and swear like morons. If they get one kill they gloat like crazy. If you kill them 20 times, and they kill you once, they still gloat!

All of this online gaming crap has got to stop. Those of us older FPS gamers learned to be civilish (appropriate trash talking, not freaking out, etc) because we gamed with our real life friends in person. You can't scream and swear and cuss out your friends in real life without getting your a** beat or having no friends. So help me if I hear another 9 year old call a player an offensive gay name and then giggle, I will have to kill myself (or just stop playing).

"But there also seems to be a lack of sportsmanship, teamplay, or any kind of code of conduct, thus leaving the game undesirable for an older generation."

This right here is where my love/hate relationship resides with online gaming. I love L4D and L4D2 but I really dislike the community. The players are rude, mean and really unsportsmanlike. I had much more fun in my TFC days just because the communities were so much better. I largely attribute this to the matchmaking setup that has no way to punish bad behaviour or to at least make it so you could mark other players as "I no longer with to play with this person".

Its rather interesting. Im almost glad that I have been able to find mature communities in the few games I have played online. Im a PC gamer and have been able to find communities that are primarily based out of older players and gaming with them is by far better than any regular server you hop into. Not to mention proper team play actually improves the skills of individual players and if pit against a team of individuals that have not yet had a taste of the world would wipe the floor with them.

Why can't they emphasize well done art and colorful landscapes like Unreal and Unreal Tournament? Those were with 3dfX cards...
I will admit, I have hit a wall on my ability to improve with WarRock... However, a big part of that is the fact that if I do too well, I get kicked.

The first company that makes games for the 25 and older crowd with multiplayer ability is going to make a ton!!! I know in WoW, there are guilds that filter out the teenagers because they are the most annoying and immature gamers there are. It really cuts down on drama for sure.

As for skills....I disagree that the younger ones are better. It's all about how much time you put into it. The old phrase 'practice makes perfect' comes to mind. When an older gamer that is in the 25-40 age range is out working a full time job and has real-world responsibilities, that dramatically cuts into game-time (fun-time) vs. the 15 year old, that doesn't even do homework and just games all day like it's a job.

I'm 47 and the turning point for Me was getting kicked off of a UT2004 server for not changing My Clan Handle.
The Admin was trying to score some brownie points with some of the female players.
What a Knight in Shining armor,there!
My handle contained no vulgarities of any kind and I was not flaming,I found out by mailing the Admin for the reason for the ban.
I thought that They were My friends.

Trying to reign in the non-sense is a slippery proposition,but despite My crying and whining about My last bad experience,I agree that a cool-headed Admin
should be in charge with the authority to kick/ban those that will not play by clearly posted rules.

I do not know whether the Younger gamers are better or not.
The graphics sure are better though.