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!
No, if that doesnt affect negatively your life there’s nothing wrong about gaming. That can actually be a nice way to bond with your kids
I hang out with my son and we play games together. We either play together or he plays on the PS5 and I play on the PC in the same room.
It’s allowed me to teach him healthy habits such as taking a break when he’s getting frustrated rather than getting angry at the game. We also share our triumphs and disasters which makes it much more social and since I’m a gamer I can curate the games he plays.
Personally I’ll be gaming until I die, fortunately my wife doesn’t see it as immature as I’ve never allowed it to interfere with being a functional adult.