410°

The Aging Gamer: I Don’t Feel the Hype Anymore

This week, Jon takes a look at something that has only begun to shows it’s head in the past year or so.

Read Full Story >>
parallaxmedia.one
CYALTR1923d ago

As a 50 year old gamer who has been playing since the dawn of video games, I have a bit of an issue calling a 28 year old an "aging gamer"!! Still I like this series of articles and recommend them to any old farts out there.

ParallaxMedia1923d ago

Hey! I appreciate the criticism. I thought of a few different names and this one seemed the most fitting even though I'm not old per se. Thanks for reading!

- Jon

TiredandRetired1921d ago (Edited 1921d ago )

Hey, at least you're cool about it, that was a good response.

I get ya. Around the age of 25 is when a lot of us start to go through life changes into adulthood. Give or take for others. Whether it's finishing college, beginning a career, getting married, starting a family.. our gaming life will ultimately go through some changes.

You're at 28, so you're going through that transition, hence "aging gamer". I'm 38 myself, 39 later this year. Married for 8 years, a 2 year old daughter and hopes of another one. I still have my gaming passion, I've still have been buying the blockbusters day one... but finding myself hardly finishing any of them. I love God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2, Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn even... and I haven't finished any of them. I don't feel a strong pull to finish them right now. I will, but maybe my need to keep up with the latest and greatest is fading.

I enjoyed Kingdom Hearts 1&2 also, but can't find myself overhyped for it though. It's been so long. I even played the demo at Lisbon Games Week back in November. I left feeling like, yea that was really good, but it's something I'm not in a hurry to get to. My desire to play it now rests more on seeing how my daughter reacts to the Disney characters, sharing the excitement with her. That will probably get me to buy it sooner than later than anything. I want for her and any other child we may have to grow up gaming with me.

I used to play Colecovision, Atari 2600, NES and SNES with my Dad. I have fond memories of us trying to best each other's track records on the original FZero. I would think I had squeezed out every bit of time saving manuveur, my score was unbeatable... then I would turn on my SNES the next day to see his initials above mine. He had stayed up late into the night to beat mine! ..then I'd manage to barely beat it, and it went on and on. I am about his age now as he was when we played. I can see for him, the reason that he played. I want to share that with mine. I only get to see my dad once or twice a year now bc we live overseas now, but when we do, we play a bit of racing and golf on my PS4. His favorites.

AnnaDea1921d ago

I´m 34 year old and I got my Nintendo 8-bit back in 1988 and been a gamer since then.

For me it has been going in periods and hype comes and goes. I think that is for everyone and trust me that we will still be gamers in 70 years lol.

stupidusername1922d ago (Edited 1922d ago )

I’m 25 and I still feel like a aging gamer, at least considering Kingdom Hearts, even though I’m still very young.
I played the first game in primary school and got hooked and I’ve since graduated from uni and started working full time, and now I‘m finally about to play KH3.
I feel like the magic has disappeared, and I don’t feel the hype anymore. (I’m still moderately excited, and I will without a doubt gonna play it.)

I remember that I in 2010 read a article on N4G that said that KH3 was likely to release in 2012. If I only then knew it would release 9 years later instead :’/

AK911922d ago

Holy sh*t 50? That's awesome man!

krauley1922d ago

@tyler im right up there with ya, actually @58 i past you by lol but i thought the same thing. 28! i was a kid but had been doing video games for years. my favorite time in gaming would have been in the late 70s/early 80s during the arcade period. not the mall arcades but the mom and pops type with black lights and music to go along with the games like asteroids, star castle and turbo. Man those were the days

bigmalky1922d ago

I really miss arcades, although the 5 mile walk home after spending bus fare on Double Dragon and Outrun was terrible, haha.

1922d ago
DefenderOfDoom21921d ago

My favorite 2 memories of playing video games are playing the arcade cabinet DEFENDER in the early 80's in smoke filled bowling alleys and playing orginal DOOM in 1995 when i was 28 years old.

TheOneWhoIsTornApart1921d ago

Arcades were one of my fondest memories from when I was a kid. I used to play Mortal Kombat 2 all the time and I learned all the moves and fatalities and beat all the older kids that were in highschool. Great times!!.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 1921d ago
badz1491921d ago (Edited 1921d ago )

Holy shit...I thought being 37 is old for gaming LOL. props to you. I wish I will still be a gamer when I retire

1921d ago Replies(2)
madpuppy1921d ago (Edited 1921d ago )

hey, I'm going to be joining the 50+ club in a little over a month. I remember when the only way you could play a video game is to have a pocket full of Quarters and either a mall with an arcade or a stationary store with an owner cool enough to have a space wars arcade machine.

krauley1921d ago

Im willing to bet there is a lot of older people into gaming but they arent the n4g type and just play. some may be hardcore some just play casual but i believe we do have numbers.

sprinterboy1921d ago

Agreed, 44yrs myself and been gaming since 7. Tbh i still get super giddy at live console midnight launches, plus the occasional big release.
My games i am hyped for still this gen are Tlou pt2, Death stranding, Days gone, Sekiro and Dreams. Other than that roll on nxt gen tbh and see the nxt evolutional step of VR.

Tetsujin1921d ago

I don't age, I level up. So instead of saying "I'm X age," I respond with "Today I'm level X" which a lot of people scratch their heads except gamers; which they get a good laugh out of.

Gaming to me is more than just picking up a controller and playing single/multiplayer games; it's about experience, learning, and making a career out of something I like doing. The whole hype discussion isn't dead with me; but rather different than when I was younger. Before it was "oh man I can't wait to get X and Y game. I'm gonna go to the midnight release." Now, it's "I'll wait till it goes on sale" unless it's something I'm really looking for, then I'll think of buying day one/midnight to get the experience. From experience, the more hype a game has, the more disappointed I get because the shortcomings appear quicker than expected; and it's sad to see some franchises I grew up on turn into money grabbers instead of unforgettable experiences. I remember the first time I played Metal Gear Solid, and it was something I'll never forget. Now? When 5 was first releasing I waited, and waited, and then the game was offered on Plus; and the trusted reviews unfortunately did fit what I was concerned with, which is sad. Street Fighter fell under the same thing; when 2 was in the arcades I'd actually found ways to save money just to get a chance at beating the arcade version; when 5 released I did buy it since I was able to play at Evo, but again was disappointed when characters were added over time instead of at once. Street Fighter isn't the same series I grew up with; same with Mortal Kombat.

From my perspective, hype didn't die, the hype is still there. It's the companies who made masterpieces died. Where's Rival Schools? Einhander? Contra? Bushido Blade? An actual, good balanced Street Fighter? Where's buying a complete game/experience instead of parts of a game and releasing DLC later?

1921d ago
1921d ago
+ Show (8) more repliesLast reply 1918d ago
isarai1923d ago (Edited 1923d ago )

My hype has gotten concentrated into really small windows as i've gotten older. Now the only time my heart races is when a game is first shown off/announced, and then not till i have the game in my car driving home, and in order to savor it i usually pick up some craft sodas (i don't drink beer/alcohol) and a personal pizza or burrito and put my phone on Do Not Disturb. Then i'll usually chill and redeem DLC codes, read the manual (if it has one) and watch pre-release trailers while i eat and wait for it to install/update.

Part that sucks is there's only 1-2 games a year that do that for me anymore. In fact only games that made me feel that last year were Shadow of the colossus Remake, Yakuza 6 and Spiderman

stupidusername1922d ago

Haha, I’m just like you. I feel like I’m in some way forcing myself to get hyped with some games. With RDR2 I first installed the game and then I cleaned the house and did laundry while listening to a podcast about rdr2 just to build up anticipation before I started playing. Then I ordered pizza and sat down with the game as some kind of reward.

1921d ago
Rachel_Alucard1922d ago

Games have gotten longer and longer for the wrong reasons and you have much less time as an adult to enjoy anything. You feel like you are wasting what little free time you have playing video games instead of doing something more productive. Work puts your time into serious perspective.

Snookies121922d ago

Very much agreed there. I've bought God of War, Spider-man, Red Dead Redemption 2, Smash Bros., and Ace Combat 7. I haven't played much of any of them... Shoot, I still haven't even finished Uncharted 4, which I bought day one.

I've told myself I'm going to at least finish Kingdom Hearts 3 when it drops. I took 3 days off straight to do just that, haha.

bigmalky1922d ago

I'm not sure about that. I have a job and family, but I avoid social media and using phones and such. I seem to have enough time to play games like RDR2.

It's just down to time management, and getting rid of the useless fluff, like the 5 minutes that turns into half an hour on Facebook. Life has been so much more enjoyable and relaxed since I quit it.

melrex1921d ago

I need to start doing that

CaptainObvious8781921d ago

I disagree. It's like what Bigmalky said, though.

I have a job, a wife, other responsibilities, but I make time for games and I am not ashamed at all to say that.

Life can be hard. I of course make time for my family and friends, but you also need to make time for the things you love. It's a simple matter of health and well being.

I believe you can always make time for the things you love. If you truly can't, you need to reorganise your life and/or start saying 'no' to people once in a while.

BigTrain1920d ago

Totally agree. 42 going on 43 later in the year. Haven't purchased a single AAA title from 2018 due to working. So unlike me, but the older you get the more busy you get and when you get free time all of a sudden gaming seems to have a "you're wasting precious time" guilt trip attached to it. Not to mention I've recently become addicted to golfing in the last 3 years so one can say new hobbies begin to compete with gaming as well.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 1920d ago
-volt-1922d ago

To me it is more like everything has this "been there done that" feeling.

1921d ago
Michiel19891921d ago

same here, there are hardly any Halo's, wow's, Portals, smash bros's etc anymore. Games that totally define their genre, yes they continue to produce sequels or expansions but its not like 20 years back when you picked up a game of a genre you never played before.

I think this also contributed to the rising succces of indie games, since a lot of them put original twists on existing genres.

Gardenia1921d ago

I feel the exact same. I remember the days when weeks before a game release I read all magazines and articles that I could find multiple times just to ease the waiting time. Or the demos that came with the magazines that I could play for hours, Metal Gear Solid for example. Even games like COD were big on release back then.

Maybe gaming has become too much mainstream and more about business than about the fun and creativity now. When a game like Fortnite makes the most money of all games I think that says enough on what the gaming industry has become

FalconofLucis981922d ago

Ooh one of those clickbait articles, before the launch of KH3. Its funny how everyones shitting on the game just before launch. But for 5 years everyone had nothing but good things to say.

stupidusername1922d ago

I wouldn’t categorize this as shitting on the game

1921d ago
melrex1921d ago

Nobody's shitting on the game, some gamers don't feel the passion about games in general like they did in the past. Most of the comments not even about KH3. The article could replace KH3 with any other game and it would not change anything. In my case I'm older (48) and work takes away from my gaming time. I need to manage my time better like @bigmalky said he started doing.

Michiel19891921d ago

Everyone had good things to say about it for 5 years? They hardly released any footage untill 6 months back or so. Nobody was even talking about kh3 besides about how long it was taking them to produce it and how much they wanted it.

Show all comments (86)
70°

Final Fantasy XVI Has Finally Given Donald Duck A Worthy Opponent

For a long time, it's been widely accepted amongst Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts fans that Donald Duck is the most powerful mage ever to exist, mainly due to his use of the stupidly powerful Zettaflare spell towards the end of Kingdom Hearts 3. This spell is one step up from Teraflare, a spell which was used in Final Fantasy XIV that was so powerful that it completely wiped out the base game, giving the developers a canonical reason to let them bin everything and start again from scratch.

Now you're armed with this information, you can see how it was pretty surprising for Donald Duck of all characters to bust out Zettaflare and establish himself as the most powerful character in Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts lore. However, now that Final Fantasy XVI has arrived and delivered a whole new cast of characters, a new challenger has arrived to provide Donald with some much needed competition.

Read Full Story >>
thegamer.com
70°

Final Fantasy's Strongest Canonical Magic User Is... Donald Duck?

Final Fantasy features many strong characters, but an unlikely character from Kingdom Hearts is able to cast ​the most powerful spell ever seen

gold_drake350d ago

that was pretty amazing, not gonna lie, i might have shed a tear or too, just cause of pure awesomeness.

he was already my favourite disney character and one of my favs from KH and then to see that amazing spell too. aah so good xD

FGHFGHFGH350d ago

Final Fantasy's strongest magic user is Donald Duck, who never appears in a final fantasy game.

60°

This Kingdom Hearts Boss' Unpredictability Gave Me Sekiro Vibes

Kingdom Hearts is filled with otherworldly boss battles, but only one stands out like a phoenix dancing with ethereal grace across the night sky. Before we embark upon a discussion concerning Kingdom Hearts' exceptional boss battles, it may be prudent to first reflect on the evolution of the criteria for appraising video game bosses. This criterion has undergone a major metamorphosis over the past decade; one that owes much to the profound influence of From Software and its iconic Souls series.

Read Full Story >>
dualshockers.com
-Gespenst-362d ago

"Yozora is much more than a grueling secret encounter; he is a reflection of what Kingdom Hearts' bosses should be"

No thank you. If every boss in Kingdom Hearts was like Yozora, the series would be unplayable. That's not to say that they shouldn't include such challenges, but making them fundamental to the game would be too much. And don't say that this is what the From Software games are, because Yozora is absolutely harder than most of the bosses in those games. He is waaay faster, has a ludicrous number of abilities (and does them in random order AND can chain most of them together), and punishes you severely if you make a mistake. On top of that, you have to survive this onslaught for a really long time because of how much health he has. It's borderline too much - for me at least. Still, it's a stunning battle.

OMNlPOTENT361d ago

I agree, while I do really enjoy the Yozora fight, I think it's far too difficult to be anything more than an optional boss. However, I do believe that there should be more bosses that are in the same weight and size class as Sora, as the majority of those in KH3 were the best fights. The giant heartless bosses just aren't as enjoyable.