What's the age cut off for socially acceptable gaming
So, hear me out.
I'm a 47 year old guy and I'm not ashamed to say that I enjoy video games. I always have, from playing Head over Heels on a Speccy +2 to ESO and Valorant on my self built PC.
Due to various life circumstances, I'm also on the dating scene and to most women I meet, around my age, video games are anathema. When I say that I like them it's usually meet with an "oh dear" or a "my son would probably love to talk to you about them, I find them really boring"
I have two boys, both teenagers, both play all the time and sometimes we all play together (although they are better as they have more time to apply to games). Their friends are amazed that I will talk about games with them, that I know someone about games and that I play games. None of their parents want to talk with them about what is effectively their main hobby that they do all the time (big sad).
So the question, there must be some sort of cut off age at which video games are no longer an acceptable pastime. Is it absolute age based (nothing after 35) or is it something to do with the progression of games into popular culture and people born after, say, 1986 will not see it as unacceptable?
I don't have an answer, I just think it's an interesting question. Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!
Edit to add: I'm not planning on stopping through peer pressure, just wondering about the phenomenon!
My grandfather played games (CIV, WoW, and Elder Scrolls) until his death at 89 years old. Enjoy the things you enjoy, someone who is your person will like that you enjoy things you enjoy.
Kudos to your grandfather for keeping that going!
it was him who got me into computing and gaming, I remember we'd play Lemmings together on his old Amstrad :D When he passed he had about 6k cumulative hours in the CIV series.
I loved playing lemmings, it was about all my first computer could cope with!
That's an impressive CIV time, I remember how time would pass so quickly trying to manage all of the parts of your empire! I don't think I've ever had quite that same immersion again!
Your partner doesn't necessarily need to enjoy all the things you enjoy, but they should respect your preferences and hobbies even if it's not theirs.
while not necessarily true for the younger generations, gamers above 30 stem from a time where video games were predominantly male targetting, and as such, far fewer women at that age will still play games.