Oh no I no longer can play the incredibly toxic matchmaking multi-player games and instead have to enjoy the automation, exploration, story, management and strategy games I've always loved
Hmm should I try different party combos in BG3 to see how the dialogue changes or run around a COD map getting shot in the back of the head every 9 seconds while ads for mtx strobe flash my corneas?
Feel kind of lucky. They weren't so toxic when I was good. The only place to really find that was from the notorious Xbox Live kids experimenting with their first ever swear words.
It was when gaming reached a broader audience and wasn't just for "nerds" that toxicity became commonplace. Went from making friends with strangers all the time to just default muting mics and avoiding communities.
Nowadays, the less reflex-deoendent, the more you'll be surrounded by players from those days and the less toxicity. Compare HLL to MW, for example.
As always, the closer a game gets to being a full blown simulator, the older the playerbase tends to be.
Almost like arcady bs with autoaim and automatchmaking and very short game round times and superhuman movement capabilities appeal to people with poor impulse control.
... of course you can then go way, way too far into fullblown sim territory and end up with actual geriatrics and/or turboautists, lol.
(I say this lovingly as a turboautist who has spent probably an unhealthy amount of time in various niche sim communities, lol)
Kind of. Growing up playing Counter-Strike and Battlefield titles, toxicity was still a much rarer thing than these days. Hell, smacktalk wasn't even a thing unless playing with friends and joking around.
Hrm, I encountered plenty of toxic assholes back on CS and BF/42/Vietnam/2, to the point that I had to explicitly seek out better communities, and then landed at Project Reality, being an alpha/beta tester / gameplay design concept discussion enthusiast (lol) with them for years.
Maybe I just had worse luck back then, or maybe its just way, way worse now with modern casual shooters.
Could be a bit of both.
...
I still remember the final test before PR 0.5 was released.
DBzao had written the first iteration of the injected python script that was to govern how you could request which kits depending on which squad you were in, who had what kits in your squad, how many kits were available to your whole team, etc.
Problem was... sometimes, for a completely indiscernible reason... some players just couldn't use the system at all.
We spent 3 hours in TS ... or maybe it was Ventrilo?... we spent hours trying everything we could think of, could not identify any pattern.
As the session was being wound down, as we had basically given up... I had a realization.
I pulled up the in game scoreboard... many times.
I then started barking orders at various remaining players to see who could and could not use the kit system.
If a non alphanumeric character was in your username, you could not use the kit system.
DBzao didn't believe this at first, pulled up his code, and then screamed.
... yep, he hadn't properly handled strings or string conversions or special characters at some stage of the code.
We'd been stuck on this for almost 2 weeks, and 6 hours later, it was fixed and released.
The controls and game mechanics tend to be so complicated that... well, people tend to have more realistic expectations from their teammates, and if you find a decent community, people tend to be more mature and friendly.
It actually requires a part time job level of commitment to be an exceptional shooter or tanker or pilot or even medic if you're playing with a sufficiently complex health simulation... so, somewhat true to life, people tend to specialize and thus have much, much more incentive for decent communication standards.
Downside: Also true to life, a lot of games will end up feeling like 90% camping/hiking/road trip, punctuated, often essentially randomly, by 10% sheer terror.
...
You are not authorized for retirement unless you want a dishonorable discharge, soldier! If you need a wrist splint and vertical ergonomic mouse to continue your duties, check the nearest supply depot! Dismissed!
Those are pretty much the most commonly played milsims, with tons of available mods and dlc, huge expansive maps, players have their own inventories, can customize your whole load out and such...
SQUAD is sort of a milsim lite, maybe? It evolved out of Project Reality for Battlefield 2, they eventually made their whole own game in Unreal.
It retains the round based, class base core concept, but greatly expands on the more arcady nature of the Battlefield series with many more realistic gameplay concepts, much of them revolving around playing a role in a squad.
The maps aren't as big as Arma, but you can still end up with a whole game session taking an hour or two.
There are also other games that basically aim for what SQUAD does, but not in a modern combat setting, Hell Let Loose for WW2 as an example.
I think Gray Zone Warfare is trying to be a new sort of milsim on the block, but so far I've heard roughly mixed reviews of it... and there are tons of 'tactical shooters'... but they tend to be smaller in scope and usually lack vehicles, or don't include near as many, or simulate them as extensively... and a whole lot of them tend to be developed by basically people who vastly overestimate their ability to make a game, and can be very toxic / in denial about this... so be careful with those, haha, probably check youtube for some reviews before diving in.
There's also Gunner Heat PC if you want a very tank oriented tank sim, and DCS if you want an excruciatingly detailed, combat oriented flight sim, and you also hate money, lol.
Oh right, for basically most of these, you're probably going to want to try and find and join some kind of larger community on discord or something like that... usually they'll have guides, tutorials, plan matches/games on a schedule, maybe even offer some kind of psuedo boot camp / training for enthusiastic noobs, hehe.
Me being terrible at games now is because I am old and can’t sink the same time into it. But I beat Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on NES. Do I really need to prove myself anymore?
I can barely play online games against anyone without getting wiped in 0.0001 nanoseconds if it's a PVP game. Never had skills, so I'll never be in denial about losing what I never had.
I have never been good in FPS when it comes to "both jump around the corner and shoot, who wins?" But i have always been good at: "Where the heck did he come from?! what is this stupid play, this is not the meta!!!" happily frustrating some tryhards. As i get older i can still enjoy that way of playing.
Super recommend Mario and the Rainbow Stars! It's a free fan game with a ton of fun moments. They'll have fun watching, and you'll get something new to keep your interest.
I know what you mean I thought that too but I think it was more the way you move in the reboot. I went back and played old school quake and quake 2 and still had it.
I never had skills in gaming to begin with, I ain't good at all. At best I'm OK at strategy, but even then I'm bad. Just give me the computer and let me do DnD
It's frustrating because I feel like my skills are actually still improving and better than they used to be but there's always some 11 yo kid who will absolutely wreck me over and over again to the point where I just quit out of shame.
Honestly, as long as you're still having fun and enjoying game, I don't see an issue here. Sure, in some areas it might have gotten difficult, but if you're able to adjust
15 minutes to build a simple 4x4 shelter and tame a dodo. Raptor appeared in my tiny peninsula, killed my dodo, wrecked my house, and almost killed me. I'm too old for that crap.
I was already outdone like 10 years ago by my cousins who practically came with gaming consoles out of the womb. Idk how they figure the stuff out so fast.
When you finally accept that the days of truly fun competitive shooters are gone, replaced with loot boxes grinders and gatcha mechanics, so you opt to play the actually fun, solo games.
Have to relate to this somewhat, it's hard to find time or interest to practice fighting games with all the accumulated responsibilities of being responsible adult and a parent. While boomer reaction time checks are one thing, the bigger problem is having to practice against multiple different matchups in 3-4 different games. Probably should play these online a lot more, currently mostly playing on locals few hours once a week.
Or maybe ya'll are have been so full of hubris and are now finally getting wiser with age and start to recognize that you were always shit or average at best.
People are too stressed and exhausted to live at a basic level, that tends to impact their ability to game although sometimes it makes them even more competitive with the small amount of time they have... but no I don't agree at all.
I am far better at video games than I used to be, admittedly I play a lot of them but that only makes my hand eye coordination locked in, the actually "being good" at games has little to do with that most of the time.
Just play different games. Sure the kids may have fast reflexes but they don't have the wisdom to commit the number of warcrimes that an older gamer can in Rimworld.
Honestly, going 27 years (of gaming), and I never was smarter and quicker to make tactical decisions. My hand may move slower, but I don't rely on dexterity when flanking your cover.
never was all that good, but declining coordination and a desire to quit investing time/money playing games made me stop. Asynchronous social interaction is more my speed now. also gave away my guitars for similar reasons. quit driving last year. if you are still having fun, keep going. I can still type, sort of.
Oh no I no longer can play the incredibly toxic matchmaking multi-player games and instead have to enjoy the automation, exploration, story, management and strategy games I've always loved
Factorio, my beloved
Yeah. Now I only have like 3 hours to play by day and I'm not gonna waste them in losing.
I'm the same way. I know some like the feeling of beating a hard boss after trying for hours, but I just don't have that time.
The secret is they like the process of beating them too. It's not all about "winning".
Hmm should I try different party combos in BG3 to see how the dialogue changes or run around a COD map getting shot in the back of the head every 9 seconds while ads for mtx strobe flash my corneas?
Feel kind of lucky. They weren't so toxic when I was good. The only place to really find that was from the notorious Xbox Live kids experimenting with their first ever swear words.
It was when gaming reached a broader audience and wasn't just for "nerds" that toxicity became commonplace. Went from making friends with strangers all the time to just default muting mics and avoiding communities.
Nowadays, the less reflex-deoendent, the more you'll be surrounded by players from those days and the less toxicity. Compare HLL to MW, for example.
As always, the closer a game gets to being a full blown simulator, the older the playerbase tends to be.
Almost like arcady bs with autoaim and automatchmaking and very short game round times and superhuman movement capabilities appeal to people with poor impulse control.
... of course you can then go way, way too far into fullblown sim territory and end up with actual geriatrics and/or turboautists, lol.
(I say this lovingly as a turboautist who has spent probably an unhealthy amount of time in various niche sim communities, lol)
Kind of. Growing up playing Counter-Strike and Battlefield titles, toxicity was still a much rarer thing than these days. Hell, smacktalk wasn't even a thing unless playing with friends and joking around.
Hrm, I encountered plenty of toxic assholes back on CS and BF/42/Vietnam/2, to the point that I had to explicitly seek out better communities, and then landed at Project Reality, being an alpha/beta tester / gameplay design concept discussion enthusiast (lol) with them for years.
Maybe I just had worse luck back then, or maybe its just way, way worse now with modern casual shooters.
Could be a bit of both.
...
I still remember the final test before PR 0.5 was released.
DBzao had written the first iteration of the injected python script that was to govern how you could request which kits depending on which squad you were in, who had what kits in your squad, how many kits were available to your whole team, etc.
Problem was... sometimes, for a completely indiscernible reason... some players just couldn't use the system at all.
We spent 3 hours in TS ... or maybe it was Ventrilo?... we spent hours trying everything we could think of, could not identify any pattern.
As the session was being wound down, as we had basically given up... I had a realization.
I pulled up the in game scoreboard... many times.
I then started barking orders at various remaining players to see who could and could not use the kit system.
If a non alphanumeric character was in your username, you could not use the kit system.
DBzao didn't believe this at first, pulled up his code, and then screamed.
... yep, he hadn't properly handled strings or string conversions or special characters at some stage of the code.
We'd been stuck on this for almost 2 weeks, and 6 hours later, it was fixed and released.
Or you can graduate to milsims.
The controls and game mechanics tend to be so complicated that... well, people tend to have more realistic expectations from their teammates, and if you find a decent community, people tend to be more mature and friendly.
It actually requires a part time job level of commitment to be an exceptional shooter or tanker or pilot or even medic if you're playing with a sufficiently complex health simulation... so, somewhat true to life, people tend to specialize and thus have much, much more incentive for decent communication standards.
Downside: Also true to life, a lot of games will end up feeling like 90% camping/hiking/road trip, punctuated, often essentially randomly, by 10% sheer terror.
...
You are not authorized for retirement unless you want a dishonorable discharge, soldier! If you need a wrist splint and vertical ergonomic mouse to continue your duties, check the nearest supply depot! Dismissed!
lol
On the other hand, sims tend to get a lot of guys that are a bit too into it.
Yep, thats also true lol.
Quoting myself from another comment in this thread:
What milsims would you recommend?
Well, you got Arma 3 or Arma Reforger...
Those are pretty much the most commonly played milsims, with tons of available mods and dlc, huge expansive maps, players have their own inventories, can customize your whole load out and such...
SQUAD is sort of a milsim lite, maybe? It evolved out of Project Reality for Battlefield 2, they eventually made their whole own game in Unreal.
It retains the round based, class base core concept, but greatly expands on the more arcady nature of the Battlefield series with many more realistic gameplay concepts, much of them revolving around playing a role in a squad.
The maps aren't as big as Arma, but you can still end up with a whole game session taking an hour or two.
There are also other games that basically aim for what SQUAD does, but not in a modern combat setting, Hell Let Loose for WW2 as an example.
I think Gray Zone Warfare is trying to be a new sort of milsim on the block, but so far I've heard roughly mixed reviews of it... and there are tons of 'tactical shooters'... but they tend to be smaller in scope and usually lack vehicles, or don't include near as many, or simulate them as extensively... and a whole lot of them tend to be developed by basically people who vastly overestimate their ability to make a game, and can be very toxic / in denial about this... so be careful with those, haha, probably check youtube for some reviews before diving in.
There's also Gunner Heat PC if you want a very tank oriented tank sim, and DCS if you want an excruciatingly detailed, combat oriented flight sim, and you also hate money, lol.
Oh right, for basically most of these, you're probably going to want to try and find and join some kind of larger community on discord or something like that... usually they'll have guides, tutorials, plan matches/games on a schedule, maybe even offer some kind of psuedo boot camp / training for enthusiastic noobs, hehe.
Thank you so much for the detailed response, a upvote wouldn't be enough. <3
I threw in some more details after I made the comment, more context and hopefully more useful info =D
Jokes on you. I never had the skills to begin with.
MFW: you have given up PvP in favor of single player and PvE games as that live service treadmill and toxicity are too much now
I just never did PvP in the first place.
For me its more of a return to the fold.
skill issue
It just means it’s time for solo 4x and single player RPGs.
A huge Rimworld expansion drops today. Solo game players have never had it better.
omg its out now! I know what I am doing all weekend then.
I’m stuck at work right now just dying to play it
Single player and PvE superiority
Me being terrible at games now is because I am old and can’t sink the same time into it. But I beat Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on NES. Do I really need to prove myself anymore?
That deserves a medal as far as I'm concerned.
I am just going to frame your reply. Thank you.
Honestly the opposite happened to me. I'm 31 and I've been playing much better in terms of aiming than any other time ten or 20 years ago.
Same, maturing and looking at things more intelligently made me better at online games. Still average to be honest, but I was really bad as a kid
By the time, I got better at puzzle resolving games. Has been a while since a get stuck in a videogame.
Wait, y'all had gaming skills to begin with?
I can barely play online games against anyone without getting wiped in 0.0001 nanoseconds if it's a PVP game. Never had skills, so I'll never be in denial about losing what I never had.
Play 4x/grand strategy and youllvonly get better as you get older.
You might find yourself playing on slower speeds with rts styles though
Jokes on you, I've always been bad at RTS
Strategy games are interesting, I feel aged when playing mount and blade.
I used to take on 10 men at once by myself with only half health but needed 25 men to fight an army of 35.
Now I lose a simple 1v3 but can beat armies thrice my size on hardest settings with my barely trained archer units.
I also use bufs and consumables in pokemon now so that's a thing.
I have never been good in FPS when it comes to "both jump around the corner and shoot, who wins?" But i have always been good at: "Where the heck did he come from?! what is this stupid play, this is not the meta!!!" happily frustrating some tryhards. As i get older i can still enjoy that way of playing.
I've noticed that with experience comes better predictive play, rather than relying on reaction time.
59 years old today and still in denial.
From Atari's Combat, through Tribes, and now Helldivers, the gaming goes on. There may come a day when I put away my mouse and controller ...
BUT IT IS NOT THIS DAY!
The best part, I've never been competetive so I never tested myself, but sure as hell I am getting currently better at gaming.
Mostly because I am finally fighting off a list of mental shit I picked up growing up so my mind is growing cleaner and hand is becoming more sure. xD
For real?
Happened to me ages ago :3
I don't play enough competitive games to care anyway tho
late 30's and I'll still whoop your ass at Street Fighter 6 or The Finals
Strategy and turn based RPGs FTW!
I cut my teeth on games when being balls hard was the standard. I paid my dues. Nowadays I just put them on easy (and use save states for old games).
This is the real reason to have kids. I'm not up on the Mario Kart meta, but I'll whup my seven year old around rainbow road any damn day.
Getting there. I'm introducing my oldest (3) to all the Mario games now.
Super recommend Mario and the Rainbow Stars! It's a free fan game with a ton of fun moments. They'll have fun watching, and you'll get something new to keep your interest.
Never heard of that one, but will look it up. Thanks!
For me it was the Doom reboot. I discovered my twitch reflexes just weren't what they used to be. Now I play only strategy games if anything at all.
Ah, OP makes more sense now. I've only ever played strategy and RPGs and was going to say I'm better now than I've ever been.
I know what you mean I thought that too but I think it was more the way you move in the reboot. I went back and played old school quake and quake 2 and still had it.
I never had skills in gaming to begin with, I ain't good at all. At best I'm OK at strategy, but even then I'm bad. Just give me the computer and let me do DnD
My FPS skills have diminished mostly because I stopped playing them. But my souls skills are still good up until I get the adrenaline shakes in PvP.
Those people are cracked tho
48 years old and I haven't dipped yet 😂
Not only that but my shit talking is unmatched!
But.... Why is the logo for this community a Bad Dragon?
I see it as a curved sword handle on top of... idk a set top box 🤣
Priorities change. Now I spend more time working on my house or riding my bike than I do gaming and that is OK. It’s fun to be casual too.
It's frustrating because I feel like my skills are actually still improving and better than they used to be but there's always some 11 yo kid who will absolutely wreck me over and over again to the point where I just quit out of shame.
Late 20s: You realize gaming from the couch is getting difficult because the distance to the TV is too blur without glasses
Mid 30s: No longer able to consume infinite packets of instant ramen. In fact it kinda tastes nasty. Halo 3 at Legendary still tho.
Early 40s: Quake 3 Arena and Half Life 2 now give you motion sickness. Can still get by Halo at Heroic.
Late 40s: The 2ft distance to your monitor now looks blur without glasses. not getting past gold or silver in ranked Overwatch
Mid 50s: Gonna need reading glasses to play. Clair Obscur difficulty now set to Story.
Honestly, as long as you're still having fun and enjoying game, I don't see an issue here. Sure, in some areas it might have gotten difficult, but if you're able to adjust
I'm in my 30 and I fucking can't beat Golgra at medium. Rrrrraaaaggeeee
I'm stymied at Renoir at the Paintress' monolith. My pride is such that I rather take a break from the game than go down to Story.
I was never that good.....and then I got old. Still enjoy gaming though.
Same here, mid 50s, was never better than average - I'm now mediocre
I'm not even in the initial phases of
dentaldenial, and Im a millennial, I'm not ready to get attacked like this in a meme!!Me, on the other hand, I gots my toothbrush right here in my pocket, and I'm ready to go.
(Lmao! Also wtf scumbag brainhole.)
I have my electric toothbrush in my pocket too,
ready to goalready went, but I'm not wearing any pants.It's not me who changed. It's the esports driven fast twitch game style that has. I should probably try out my backlog of rainbow six games.
Tried Ark the other day, looked awesome. So much damn micromanaging and juggling. Just nope
It can be fun if you ignore the breeding and dinosaur related stuff
15 minutes to build a simple 4x4 shelter and tame a dodo. Raptor appeared in my tiny peninsula, killed my dodo, wrecked my house, and almost killed me. I'm too old for that crap.
Nope. Not me! I’ve got new glasses. That was the entirety of the problem. Nothing to see here…I’m not old
Fine, my kids can beat me at Rocket League sometimes now, but they still can't manage their duchies and bloodlines for shit in Crusader Kings.
I was already outdone like 10 years ago by my cousins who practically came with gaming consoles out of the womb. Idk how they figure the stuff out so fast.
I'm in this picture and I don't like it.
Don't have to worry about gaming skills disappearing if you never had any in the first place :3
i still go on cod ww2 to pwn noobs but if i ever lose its because im going against no life sweats
Omfg we are so old :D :3
When you finally accept that the days of truly fun competitive shooters are gone, replaced with loot boxes grinders and gatcha mechanics, so you opt to play the actually fun, solo games.
Have to relate to this somewhat, it's hard to find time or interest to practice fighting games with all the accumulated responsibilities of being responsible adult and a parent. While boomer reaction time checks are one thing, the bigger problem is having to practice against multiple different matchups in 3-4 different games. Probably should play these online a lot more, currently mostly playing on locals few hours once a week.
Tomas Jerby
Or maybe ya'll are have been so full of hubris and are now finally getting wiser with age and start to recognize that you were always shit or average at best.
What? I don't find that at all.
People are too stressed and exhausted to live at a basic level, that tends to impact their ability to game although sometimes it makes them even more competitive with the small amount of time they have... but no I don't agree at all.
I am far better at video games than I used to be, admittedly I play a lot of them but that only makes my hand eye coordination locked in, the actually "being good" at games has little to do with that most of the time.
Just do m1w
Just play different games. Sure the kids may have fast reflexes but they don't have the wisdom to commit the number of warcrimes that an older gamer can in Rimworld.
Honestly, going 27 years (of gaming), and I never was smarter and quicker to make tactical decisions. My hand may move slower, but I don't rely on dexterity when flanking your cover.
And other gaming skills, only better.
never was all that good, but declining coordination and a desire to quit investing time/money playing games made me stop. Asynchronous social interaction is more my speed now. also gave away my guitars for similar reasons. quit driving last year. if you are still having fun, keep going. I can still type, sort of.
Idk I keep hitting full combos in my favorite rhythm games