Will you be playing video games till the day you die?
 

So, I was chatting with the parents today and they are under the impression that someday I will "grow up" and won't be interested in playing video games anymore. I can't really ever fathom not playing video games. I grew up on them and I don't see myself ever being too mature to not want to play them. There may be life events that get in the way such as having a child or what not but I think I'll still find time to play. I'm not gonna be one of those old people that refuses to learn new technology, I'll keep playing all the new games till the very end.

I see myself the exactly same way. I can't wait to see what new gaming technologies will allow greater immersion into fantastic worlds.

Probably, considering i work at a video game company as it is :p

Every now and then i chat up a person who thinks im too old to be so into video games, and im 26. I absolutely love video games, ive been playing them since i was around 7 or 8 and i dont see myself stoping anytime soon. As long as there is interest i will be playing.

I just turned 30 and people think I'm just a big kid because I play games. You know what? Who cares what people think! :) I like playing them and i'm not going to stop!

Hopefully I will. I also hope I'll still enjoy comics. :D

My stepdad plays and he's in his 50's. I can see playing til you're old as long as you can deal with them new fangled gizmos.

I've been playing home video games since we had Pong as a young child in the late 70's. Loved and lived thru the Atari and Arcade craze of the 80's and enjoyed a friend's Nintendo and my Sega thru high school and college.

Just got my 360 and I love it more than any console I have ever owned (and I am 34).

Yeah...I definitely see myself playing video games until I die. I just wish I had more time to play right now.


A friend of mine and I had a discussion the other day how it might actually make us a little more spry as 85 year old men still playing video games instead of vegging out watching television and drooling ourselves to sleep at 4 in the afternoon.

Probably not. I was hesitant to buy a nex-gen system this go around as I wasn't interested in pretty much any game out there. I did end up picking up a Wii, and I'm not disappointed but I do only play it on my free time. I don't go out of my way to play video games anymore.

I do see myself playing sports video games for a long, long time though.... and guitar hero.

I've had this discussion with people before, video games unfortunately still have that association for many people. From my standpoint I think they are the ones that have some "growing" to do, growing out of their misconceptions that gaming is only for children. Nothing inherent to the interactivity of video games makes them childish.

For their defense I do think the gaming industry has some growing to to. It doesn't really seek to break gaming stereotypes, if anything it revels in them. The mature label games get is often an immaturity label.

I fully expect to continue playing games when I am older, my grandparents watched a lot of tv and read a lot of books in their retirement. Maybe I will finally be able to get through my backlog.

Its not like I play 30 hours a week anyway. I play when I feel like it which is usually a few hours per week. Im not completely obsessed with games to the point where I dont do anything else. I can definetely see myself casually gaming for the rest of my life. I just play when I feel like it or have nothing better to do, why should I stop?

Absolutely.

My video game time has ramped down massively from the school and university days, peaks of probably 40+ hours per week, to around 0-5 now. But it still would qualify as pretty much my number one hobby and I get pleasure out of it. Also, recently, playing more PSP and DS has helped me get more gaming in than before.

I get into gaming spurts and dry spells. Right now is a spurt for sure. Loving every minute of super mario galaxy.

That said, I can definitely see my gaming trending downward due to hand pain. The older I get, the harder it is to hold a controller for extended periods of time. I can only imagine how difficult it will become when I get really old. This was one of the driving forces behind my decision to get a wii, due to its motion controller which leads to a more relaxed grip on the controllers.

Yes. They have been a part of my life since I was a little kid in the late 70s. I'll play them as long as I can.

You bet. I hit 40 a couple of months ago and have been gaming all my life. Who's up for some Tribes?

Definitely. My wife will probably have to inscribe a little pac-man logo somewhere on my coffin.

I used to get horrible hand cramping with the NES and Genesis controllers after playing for about an hour (at about 11 years old), but I can hold a 360 controller for hours on end and it doesn't effect me at all. I think as long as controller design keeps getting more and more ergonomical we should be fine.

Yeah... I mean, Ive never understood the whole when you get older you shouldnt do things you didnt enjoy as a kid. I mean I stopped playing with GI Joes and Transformers because its boring and not fun, not simply because I got older and mature.

As the last generation spends (or spent) their retirement watching soaps and other TV, I'll be spending mine playing video games (and reading and gardening and cooking). I do find it quite funny that people that spend an inordinate amount of time watching TV derisively label other people's activities.

So true, so very, very true.

As long as they keep making RPG's and Madden, I will continue to play games.

46 and still playing. Started way back when with pinball and the Odyssey/Magnavox home pong game, Space Invader and Space Wars in stores/arcades, etc. Don't play as much as have at times, but still spend some time with the Wii and GBA. The Wii is pretty good for a workout too (Victorious Boxers). ;)

33. Married. 2 daughters (8 years and 18 months old). I have a Wii (my older daughter is the one that actually plays more with it), Xbox 360 (~20 hrs a week) and I'm planning on getting a PS3 this month.

And like a lot of "old" people here, there have been low and high gaming seasons. There were times when I was just partying and getting drunk. Then when the PS2 was released, my roommate and me used to get at home around 2 am drunk and play Red Faction, Madden, etc. for a couple of hours.
Then I got married, and I basically stopped playing, you know when you get married you have to spend most of the nights having sex :p
But then my wife got pregnant 2 years ago, and then the xbox 360 was released and the rest is history!

(Oh I forgot, I also have a PC with the latest hardware so I can play the latest games, except Crysis of course)

44 still play some most days (mostly PC right now, but that varies over time). I have no plans to stop.

When I'm 60+ playing video games, I'd imagine that it's keeping my brain functioning enough that I won't develop Alzheimer's. I don't think it would help my eventual arthritis tho. :(