Submitted 2 weeks ago by Anissem@lemmy.ml to [deleted]
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When I was a kid, I had this fantasy that gaming 10s of years later would be fantastic… Schooling all the kids with my 20+ years of experience they lack, running circles around them.
Turns out dulled reflexes are a bitch and it’s exactly the opposite.
Competitive multiplayer games are nowhere near as much fun as they used to be. I do still feel good about being able to complete (non-dexterity-based) puzzles and make complex deductions a lot faster than them, though.
I ended up getting glaucoma in my late 30s, so my eyes have really sucked in my middle age. Occasionally though, life throws me a bone and it all seems to click. I agree though, I prefer co-op these days. Not much use in multiplayer aside from maybe sim racing
The trick is too just play the 20 year old game online still instead of moving on to the newer shooters. Everyone still playing is 30+ and have diminished reaction time as well so you still have a shot lol.
CS 1.6 is still going for a reason 😂
Last time I was really good at competitive shooters was in my 20s playing MW2, Left 4 Dead, and Battlefield 3. Battlefield 4 and Black Ops 1 were when I felt it shifting, and now I just don’t play online shooters anymore.
I feel like multiplayer games need a special chill lobby for verified players over 30. One where you can step aside and deal with the kids without causing issues. A space where you can call it a night without spoiling the fun because it’s 8:15 and you really need to get ready for bed.
That’s funny - MW2, BF: Bad Company 2 and BF3 were the last competitive shooters I really enjoyed, too. I had a good time playing Apex Legends for a while, but not because I was good at it… more because I could have fun playing my own version of The Running Man until someone inevitably found me.
It’s not necessarily just your reflexes, the console players with their built-in aim hacks are fucking ridiculous these days
I was ranked in the top 10 for pistol kills in modern warfare 3 for over a year and a half.
Then I lost interest in fps games for a few months. Tried to come back and play with some friends, and completely sucked ass.
This is my main problem as well. I can still get to the same skill level I had, but if I stop playing for 2 weeks, I’m basically back to square one.
You might have fun checking out Hunt Showdown.
While twitch reflexes help, you can also get a big advantage by game knowledge, tactical thinking, creative plays and/or patience. Not too many kids playing though…
Arc Raiders has been pretty fun imo. There’s a ton of room for outsmarting your opponents, or even just diplomacy in some cases.
Just last night, I was paying in a group of three, my two teammates were up ahead with me lagging behind. Another group suprise attacked us from on top of a huge concrete wall with massive high ground advantage, firing on my teammates whom had little more cover than sparse trees. This group hadn’t seen me yet, so I told my friends to keep them occupied while I flank. I found a strong position to their side where they had no cover from me, but I had cover from them, lobbed a couple grenades and opened fire. It caused them to scatter in a panic, trying to find cover from both me and my teammates, and we absolutely slaughtered them. Felt incredible.
This is me with Overwatch. My game sense helped me so much more than click head skills. I would support main and shot call and it was a huge game changer. I eventually went to dps role and was amazed and how effective I actually was just from literal years playing backline and knowing how most games would flow and who to target. I eventually outranked my support and tank roles in dps despite being mediocre from a skill standpoint.
It’s why I switched to the boardgames for the competitively itch
That’s why I’m an RTS enjoyer. Less twitch reflexes and more know-how, control, and good habits.
My kids who are teens/20 year olds.
“Dad why are you always playing in a tank or a plane on BF?”
Me “Because I am old.”
I used to have reaction times like that made other people weep. I was constantly on watchlists for cheating and even banned by a few poor losers in private servers. Those days are well in the past now.
Nobody on rocket league would ever believe someone in their mid 50s could play at champ 1 level.
And when I was having a bad game and the inevitable toxic bullshit was typed up the reply of “I’m probably over 20 years older than your dad and I’m at the same rank as you are” usually got them to stfu. It felt great.
Bathe in their anger
Every now and then my quake 3 reflexes kick in and for a few minutes I become a God.
I loved Quake 3: Arena as a kid. That and Unreal Tournament, I can still see that Facing Worlds map in my head.
Unreal Tournament was a drug. So many times, that game caused the, “IT’S MORNING ALREADY!?” effect.
It’s honestly maybe more flattering than you realize.
Motor Reaction time starts to decline around age 30.
Comparing a 20 year old and a 30 year old. About a 200ms decline. That’s not huge in real life activities. But it can make a difference in games.
So essentially if you are over 30, playing against 20 year olds, you are literally playing with a handicap.
If you still beat them, that’s something.
It could mean your prediction skills are superior, that they circumvent motor response delays.
It’s likely something like that is occuring.
Some humans are really really good at compensation in the brain.
When something starts to slow down or not work as efficiently as it used to, people with higher cognitive intelligence, often find alternatives approaches to compensate for this loss. To the point where the end product is even superior to a young healthy brain.
This is actually the real reason why people who are higher educated and more intelligent show less severe dementia symptoms and get the disorder later in life. Or so it seems.
They actually have it just as bad (biologically) but are masters of brain compensation.
A famous study on nuns is how we first learned about this. If you are interested.
oh that’s because you started at -40ms
Imo, this test is flawed and doesn’t take display refresh rate into account. Well, at least flawed in the sense that you can’t compare it to other people because they may have measured it differently on different hardware. Its not universal.
I’m at work right now and using this shitty screen at 60hz, I got 230ms. I upped the refresh rate as fast as it can go, to 75hz and improved my reaction time to 200ms.
To get accurate results, you’d need to do this test at different stages of your life on the same hardware with the same software version of the test. So take it with some salt.
So I said there is a difference of about 200ms. But humans cannot typically react faster than 200-300 ms. Even young people. Because it takes at least 200ms for a signal to be sent. So I’m suspicious of this result.
I used to do research on reaction time. We throw out any number under 200 because it’s considered not humanly possible and it’s an error measurement.
Motor Reaction time starts to decline around age 30.
but it can be trained back to peak.
This is actually the real reason why people who are higher educated and more intelligent show less severe dementia symptoms and get the disorder later in life.
Higher educated have better diet, healthcare, bank account, and take care of themselves. Pinning that on brain use is a typical epidemiology mistake.
Yeah but there are hard limits. Cause of physics.
I’m happy I’m still pull a avg 140-160ms reaction time at 35.
It’s all super interesting, thanks for all the info!
He concluded that Alzheimer’s disease is likely caused by early childhood experiences or trauma instead of something from adulthood
Woah
Yeah but that was not supported.
It’s biological.
I can basically play like I was younger but I can’t stay hyper focused for as long 🤷♀️
You can also see a lot of multiplayer ranking systems basically make sure only the turbo grinders make real progress past a point
You might be just as good but they make sure it takes hundreds+ hours per season to get to the top.
How I used to play Counter-Strike for 3-4 hours as a kid amazes me. Last time I think I bailed after 30 minutes.
Yep. There’s definitely a shorter performance arc when firing up a fast-paced game. Couple short rounds to warm up, then several good rounds, then frustration at why your hits don’t land as hard. Time to take a break. Used to last a lot longer at top level a decade ago.
I got accused of using scripts in a street fighter 6 lobby, I was so flattered ! And I didn’t even know scripts existed or what they do I And I am not even good.
I could never remember all the button combos for fighting games like that, it’s impressive!
I don’t use them and some people frown on them but there are modern control scheme now with some auto combo and easy special moves. So it’s better than before on that front but still not for everyone I guess.
I’m 42. I suck at FPS. I downloaded battlefield 6 and hated it.
It wasn’t always this way. I still have a screenshot from COD World at War where I got over 100 kills and only died once during a game.
I miss being good at games… But somehow I’m still better than like 50% of my teammates, it’s paradoxical
Depending on genre the avg age of players has literally just kept going up.
Gaming as we knew it is kinda dying. There’s no new blood into a lot of genres.
MMOs, strategy, mobas etc as some great examples. The avg age of players is like 30+ cause the genres either arnt popular anymore or they went to mobile.
Mobile gaming has basically gutted the pipeline for new PC and console gamers.
As a kid there use to be plenty of folk from 10 to 40 playing wow or what ever hot new mmo was just released
Nowadays you would be hard pressed to find someone under 25.
better than 50% of my teammates 25% of the time!
They’re all 50 years old
I miss the madness of Battlefield 1942.
I remember if you were very high up in a plane and jumped out, your play would shit his pants while falling.
I honestly thing the absolute buginess and crazy run and gun play style of the battlefield games of the past keeps me as a better player than new players who insist on trying to fight like it is a real war simulator. Grenade launchers and beating people with the melee still work.
Crossplay get mad when I tell them im playing with a controller and im beating their keyboard and mouse ass. Son I’ve been gaming on a controller since 1984, your keyboard is no match
“I can shoot the dot in a yellow subpixel on a dpad that moves 100 pixels at a time”
There’s just something about fps with keyboard and mouse that my brain doesn’t grasp, a controller is muscle memory and second nature so I’ll always prefer them.
I got kicked from a Cursed Halo game for being too good with the backwards pistol.
Use their anger to nourish your soul
There are public lobbies for cursed halo? Awesome lol
Cursed Halo: CE (custom edition), so custom servers.
The last time I tried to play CS, somebody politely (I thought) told me that perhaps I should play with bots.
Aww that’s brutal
The real punchline is that that was 8 years ago
My buddy and I weren’t doing so hot last year and used Halo Infinite as our therapy. Pretty sure both of us alternated between being called a bot and a cheater every other match. It’s amazing sometimes just how bad you can do and still be called a cheater. (High plat to low diamond lobbies, we weren’t amazing)
I’m solidly middle aged and the last shooter I played regularly was a Battlefield game. Despite my age and there being a lot of players in any given match I got good enough at the game to move the needle on matches consistently and virtually always stayed on top of my team’s scoreboard.
Reaction time and aim is important but overrated. Understanding the game’s mechanics at an in depth level is far more important. This was true even back when I was a kid playing Halo PC and CoD4.
Aging sucks. When is the anti-aging research starting?
Not gonna be for us poors, Bubba
And I want none of this healthy diet and exercise BS from the nutritionists either. I want to peel or an injection not salad.
My Dad made it to 99 smoking, drinking beer, and Chinese take out and frozen pizzas. He was also skinny and made it through his 40-60s in relative poverty so he couldn’t get fat.
Some people eat well their entire lives and die of an aortic dissection at 38.
And I’m not talking peels or injections here, I’m talking understanding what is aging at the molecular level, since atoms don’t have an age. Where does it come from?
once the last boomer is cold l.
29 years old and still able to make top 500 in a lot of competitive games. Hopefully it isn’t ONLY downhill from here.
Hang in there champ
Thanks friend 😭
He really is a vampire though
That one time in CS 1.6 I got a lucky burst and three headshots…
I miss high school, oh wait no I don’t
I never put in the time to get past about average, so lower goals for me.
I’m ngfl this snortled me
Thanks friend
No, im still young. Nevet mind i saw that movie, face off,in the theater
I use the aimlabs trainer to stay sharp.
crazycraw@crazypeople.online 2 weeks ago
Ohhhh yeah called a cheat is fun and sexy but I’m still high from when I googled my gamer tag years ago and I had made a list of “gamers to look out for”.
mmmmmmm
Anissem@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
You should frame that
0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
It was on crazypeople.online
Like crazy gamers to look out for.
/jk