I just realized - I suck at most games!
 

couldn't resist the parady title, :) but the topic is real


Anybody else think that their skills at video games are getting worse and worse as they get older?

It seems I always need to put the games I get on easy instead of medium difficulty these days. I remember as a kid always beating my Dad at Atari.

How long untill my kids beat me at playstation 2?

I remember I used to play all my games at every difficulty. That meant playing through games (namely, the Doom series) several times. Nowadays I just don't have that much time. I usually play through a game on the default difficulty or easier. If I like it enough to play through it again, then I bump up the difficulty.

There are TOO many games out there to justify wasting time on the most difficult setting of a game to be rewarded with something cheesy. Especially since game prices are dropping so quick. Normal/Medium is the way I go.

There was a thread about this a while back.

This is about how I am now. My first time through a game I'll play the easiest level to get a feel for the game. If I enjoy it I'll go back and try a harder level. If it's a PITA it's on to the trade pile ;)

Agreed with the above poster. Most games are meant to be played on "normal" difficulty. If you choose anything harder, you'll only get through if you save ten times as frequently, and it will take you five times as long. You get down to rationing every ammo pack and every shot. It's more drudgework for the same experience - thoroughly unenjoyable. Unfortunately, the "challenge" in most modern games doesn't require skill to beat... just gobs of diligence, and a high boredom threshold.

(Probably the only exception is Unreal Tournament(*), which offers about 10 difficulty levels, with 2 or 3 being "normal." It's a nice, steady grade, and your opponents actually seem to improve - rather than just acquiring ultra-precise aim or five times the health. If you've played a lot of FPS games, you'll probably feel comfortable with a skill level of 5 or 6.)

Age has little to do with it, by the way. Yeah, kids have a reflex edge - but tactical judgment honed by <i>years</i> of game playing easily makes up the difference. Kids also have <i>gobs</i> more time (and fewer interesting alternatives!) to memorize levels, practice with weapons, etc.

- David Stein

I'm 35 and actually do pretty well at video games.

PC games especially. I'm usually at the top at the end of battles on Desert Combat....or at least near the top.

Helps when half the kids playing have "bong" in their on screen names ;) :D

I find that even normal is too difficult for me somtimes. I think as I get older, my reflexes and hand eye are going...

About sums it up for me.

I don't think it has anything to do with age, I think I just suck at video games. I play a lot of them so I am decent but I still consider myself average at best at most games.

I play games exclusively to be entertained. I don't play to achieve any sense of accomplishment (that's what real life is for). Entertainment (that which is fun) and accomplishment (that which is rewarding) are correlated, but they are not the same thing. I only care about accomplishment insofar as it bears on entertainment.

If the difficulty of a game adds to its entertainment value, then I'm all for it. An example might be puzzles. Clearly, a more difficult puzzle has the potential to be more entertaining than an easier one. However, if the difficulty is just there to make the game longer or if it makes the game frustrating, then it doesn't add to the entertainment value. Examples are games in which the harder setting gives you fewer lives or gives enemies more hit points.

Something I have noticed recently, is that when I go back and play games like the Super Star Wars series on SNES, those games are REALLY hard! lol. I can't believe I use to get to the last levels of those games when I was little.

It seems the older I get, the less of a challenge I am looking for in video games. I would like that most games offered fun and challenging moments for me at the same time, but I find that is seldom the case.

I guess I always sucked at video games. As I get older, I just suck more.

I'm 38 and still pretty good at the FPS games, and online I can get ranked up there sometimes. But for single-player games, I play on normal and easy sometimes. I would rather enjoy the experience of the game than get frustrated. Since working is required to pay my mortgage, I guess I want to get in more game experiences, than to try to overcome a challenge 100 times until I get it. :-)

The difficulty that I find as I get older is justifying spending forty or fifty bucks on a game. As a result, if I read that a game is short, I might up the difficulty level so that it will last a little longer.

I suck at most games too. Just don't have the hand-eye coordination to play those games well. Glad many of those games let you continue the game where you die. Or else the frustration factor would be too high if one have to keep starting from the beginning all the time.

Yep, I just want to have fun playing video games. For the most part, I play sports or racing games, simply because I don't suck colossally at them. I just never got a lot of fun out of games that take themselves too seriously, where you are rescuing hostages or something. FPS games aren't bad as long as the arcade factor is high too.

Maybe it's not that you have worse reflexes, but you have less patience and time to master a game as you get older. Perhaps you don't remember when you were younger how long it took you to master games. You just remember that you were really good, but not the time it took you to get that good.

At 30, I'm still really good at the games that interest me. But now I don't have the ability to learn and play games that aren't my cup of tea. I'm awful at FPS because they're not my thing. I'll still play Halo with my friends if I go over and they have the multiplayer hooked up, and I'll enjoy it on a strictly fun level. I just don't have that competitive instinct anymore to try to "get better" just for the sake of whooping their asses the next time around. There was a time that I would have bought the game and practiced just so I didn't get "pwned", but nowadays I just don't care. It's just a game.

I play a lot of 2D shooters and anyone here who's played them will tell you they are tough as nails. A lot of them are meant to be played on the default setting. I'm 19 and didn't get into shooters until I was 18, BTW. When I was younger than that I played a lot of easy games and would set the difficulty low and I actually didn't end up beating as many games as I do now. I'm all up for a challenge as long as it's not cheap AI I'm dealing with.

A lot of games have become experiential and less reflexive. I find that i've lost a lot of my gaming skill with the advent of RPGs.

I play most games on default, but if I get frustrated there's no shame on switching it to easy.

I'll tell you though, I'm up to level 17 on Manhunt (PC) and it is one of the hardest games I've ever played and I'm loving the challenge.

Re: I just realized - I suck at most games!
 

I have had a lot less time to game since the move to 3D, so I'm not nearly as good at games today as I was in the NES/SNES era.

But I still can't beat games on normal rather than easy most of the time.

Plus anymore, I'm just like the other poster, I play games sheerly to be entertained, not to get a sense of accomplishment. That's what work, school, and my 5 days a week in the gym are for.

I aptly name myself "S-U-C-K"! I have to get my 8 yr old daughter to even attempt the final mission on Dark Summit..I can't move the guy around in RE for NUTTIN! However I am pretty good at fps and driving games. I did used top be better (now 38) could be the eyes/reflexes but probably moreso the lack of time and effort spent. Also SMBall gives me the "roller coaster" stomach at times which is pretty funny. Kinda like looking over the edge of an 80 story building~

Thats is another thing thats changed, I'm playing more RPG and turned based statagy games. Love the GBA for that. Bring on advance wars 3 and fire emblem 2!