Aging-Era: How's the age of twitch combat treating you?

[pikachief]

Only 28 but most games I just put on normal or whatever the halo-Heroic equivalent is now. Dont have time for al that dying and respawning from when I used to play on the highest difficulty. Stuff like celeste tho I love, although I stopped grabbing *every* strawberry about halfway through.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Slightly OT but something that's rapidly deteriorating with me is the 'sense of acomplishment' of overcoming something that took my upteen attempts. It doesn't take too long for me when I repeatedly fail to beat a boss or make a tricky platforming session after multiple deaths to sour to the point that if I do beat it I get nothing from it.

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Yup. I don't feel accomplishment when I beat a difficult fight. I'm just glad it's goddamn over.

 

[xpownz]

not really aaaaaged as I'm almost 30 but starting to feel lazy about competitive gaming or anything besides having fun with my wife/friends.

And since I've never been into really fast games, I can finally call myself a noob in those games... strategy/rpg games are even more appealing now

 

[Team_Feisar]

I'm still better than all those kids in my Internet killer-games. Just now I fragged one guy named [AI]St3ven without a problem

 

[ghibli99]

46, and while I don't play MP, I'm not really feeling like I've lost much, although I do suffer from tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome, which is annoying. But right now I'm absolutely loving Ghostrunner, I'm almost done with the third island in Cuphead, and I'm hoping to psyche myself up enough to go back and finish the Celeste and Hollow Knight DLCs.

 

[sirap]

Not well. In CS can barely nail shots I could've done in my sleep 15 years ago.

 

[purseowner]

I mean my body's functions are slowly turning into melted ice cream and I get by, the biggest factor for a lot of stuff is time to learn and adapt this goes for people with disabilities too. Now there are things I can't really enjoy anymore (beatmania type rhythm games with addons) or VR basically any physical heavy games as Im bed ridden and obviously disabilities cover a large large variety of different hurdles. But I feel like it's on the consumer to do some research into what they are buying, if they are not sure just wait and see what the general feedback of things are. More accessibility is always good but lets be real people with disabilities do their homework typically.

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Okay, good for you that you get by, but a lot of people have disabilities that mean they can't 'learn and adapt' so to speak, and are locked out of playing specific games entirely. Personally, I'm incredibly sensitive to frame-pacing and FOV, and I do indeed do my research thoroughly, but it's time to start challenging the notion that those of us with disabilities or impairing conditions should just walk away from a game because the developers didn't throw us the bone, especially when it's often just a small tweak that's necessary to enable more people to play.

Myself and a few others recently struggled with the heavy motion blur in Paradise Killer's otherwise very impressive Switch port. The devs became aware of this and after a few weeks an update landed on Switch adding a motion blur slider that can adjust or disable the effect. Now I can enjoy the game. More on topic to the thread at large, elsewhere I've seen options to adjust the window within which buttons can pressed for particular actions and quick-time-events.

Sure, those with difficulties should do their homework, but that shouldn't be the point at which they fold and decide they can never play something. It's on them to work out the issue they face with particular titles, and it's on developers to listen and keep making improvements, tweaks and options where possible to their games so that more people can enjoy them.

 

[purseowner]

Accidental double post due to internet time out

 

[Calabi]

I don't think people's reflex's deteriorate that much, at least not when your in your 40's or even 50's. It's more likely just a time thing, you can't focus enough time into multiplayers games as the young people can.

 

[Darth Karja]

I don't play them.

 

[Deleted member 59126]

I don't think reaction time / reflexes matter even a fraction of the amount people make them out to, to be honest.

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Agreed

 

[QisTopTier]

Okay, good for you that you get by, but a lot of people have disabilities that mean they can't 'learn and adapt' so to speak, and are locked out of playing specific games entirely. Personally, I'm incredibly sensitive to frame-pacing and FOV, and I do indeed do my research thoroughly, but it's time to start challenging the notion that those of us with disabilities or impairing conditions should just walk away from a game because the developers didn't throw us the bone, especially when it's often just a small tweak that's necessary to enable more people to play.

Myself and a few others recently struggled with the heavy motion blur in Paradise Killer's otherwise very impressive Switch port. The devs became aware of this and after a few weeks an update landed on Switch adding a motion blur slider that can adjust or disable the effect. Now I can enjoy the game. More on topic to the thread at large, elsewhere I've seen options to adjust the window within which buttons can pressed for particular actions and quick-time-events.

Sure, those with difficulties should do their homework, but that shouldn't be the point at which they fold and decide they can never play something. It's on them to work out the issue they face with particular titles, and it's on developers to listen and keep making improvements, tweaks and options where possible to their games so that more people can enjoy them.

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Imagine telling someone who can barely move their their body anymore and is bed ridden "good for you" and then cry about frame pacing. The point is that if you know you have problems you shouldn't be jumping into stuff blind, at that point you don't have that privilege anymore, it sucks yeah but it saves you money and frustration. Once you see how things are and if it's something you really want to play reach out to developers like you said and reward the ones that put the effort in to expand their audience. If a dev doesn't move on, it's not the end of the world and there are other devs that deserve your time and money. Change happens when bigger companies start to feel like it's "safe" to put the work in and that's after it's been proven from people that gave a shit in the first place. This is just the reality of it all.

 

[ZeroX]

I think I'm fine. My reactions are slower but I'm generally a much better player and patient when it counts so it makes up the difference.

 

[Firima]

I used to play fighting games competitively years ago. Fast forwarding a bit, I started playing Overwatch at launch and still play it almost every day. I am 35 now and my reaction times clock better than they did 10 years ago and my execution is better. I'm not sure why, but there it is.

 

[QisTopTier]

I used to play fighting games competitively years ago. Fast forwarding a bit, I started playing Overwatch at launch and still play it almost every day. I am 35 now and my reaction times clock better than they did 10 years ago and my execution is better. I'm not sure why, but there it is.

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If you are still playing and regularly you adapt muscle memory and reactions to things over time. Time is the biggest hurdle to getting and maintaining this.

 

[KrillinLikeAVillan]

Badly.
I used to have freakishly fast reflexes, those are gone, and my wrists and fingers are in a rough shape after 30 years of videogames.
My tastes in videogames have changed accordingly, i don't find myself playing many shooters and fighters anymore.

 

[Mentalist]

I die. A lot. A level in GhostRunner usually takes me over 100 deaths, so I'm tackling it 1-2 levels per night.

But in the end, it's all about patterns. You die enough times, your fingers memorize the pattern. I beat Sekiro, and although it was difficult, I wouldn't say it was unfair; GhostRunner can be extremely difficult (the first boss took me 400+ tries... thank God the checkpoints were generous), but I can usually analyze what I did wrong, and (ever so incrementally) improve on it.

 

[petethepanda]

34. There are moments where I feel like my reflexes are dulling slightly, but for my entire life I had been playing games at a stupid high sensitivity (on PC), and finally coming to my senses and cranking it way down has so far worked against it. I'm pretty much as good as I've ever been at competitive multiplayer games.

 

[pizzabutt]

I'm only 23 but been playing FPS games since I was 11, my reflexes definitely don't feel as fast as they were when I was younger, along with my typing speed? I also don't think I could pull all nighters anymore lol, I get way too tired.

 

[Firima]

If you are still playing and regularly you adapt muscle memory and reactions to things over time. Time is the biggest hurdle to getting and maintaining this.

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I do mean that my reaction times have literally gotten better re: human benchmark. Ten years ago, I was clocking 240/250ms on average and now I'm down to 200ms. I'm almost wondering if I had brain problems or something.

 

[purseowner]

Imagine telling someone who can barely move their their body anymore and is bed ridden "good for you" and then cry about frame pacing. The point is that if you know you have problems you shouldn't be jumping into stuff blind, at that point you don't have that privilege anymore, it sucks yeah but it saves you money and frustration. Once you see how things are and if it's something you really want to play reach out to developers like you said and reward the ones that put the effort in to expand their audience. If a dev doesn't move on, it's not the end of the world and there are other devs that deserve your time and money. Change happens when bigger companies start to feel like it's "safe" to put the work in and that's after it's been proven from people that gave a shit in the first place. This is just the reality of it all.

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I found your first reply to be unfairly dismissive towards people with disabilities that prevent them playing certain games at all, suggesting that they can just adapt, so my 'good for you' was in response to you saying that you 'get by' whilst suggesting that others with disabilities can simply 'adapt' too. I didn't mean any hostility in response, I was just asking you to consider that some people have conditions that mean that they can't 'adapt'.

I find your hostility and dismissive attitude towards the issues I face myself sad to see, especially as someone who has difficulties with visual stimuli due to physical conditions (and has been bedridden in the past myself to boot). I don't see why you think it's reasonable to classify your accessibility needs as more valid than others.

As I said in my previous post, I don't jump into things blind. Simply shrugging and saying that it's not the end of the world and there are plenty of other games out there isn't a solution, it excuses the exclusionary nature of countless titles in their current state. And besides VR, few titles have to be necessarily exclusionary. I don't understand what you mean by change happening when larger companies start to feel 'safe' to put the work in.

 

[QisTopTier]

I don't understand what you mean by change happening when larger companies start to feel 'safe' to put the work in.

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Features cost money to put in, as dumb or simple as they are to put in in some cases. All it takes is higher ups saying don't waste time on it for stuff to not land even if some devs want to put the work in. The standard has to start somewhere and typically companies don't want to fall behind in those standards. Until they feel like they need to expand those standards or they are losing money they wont make things a new standard.

 

[Mupod]

The one time I've ever been kind of shocked by the affects of aging on reaction time was playing WoW. I played the game VERY VERY heavily when it was new and I was in my early 20s, and spent hundreds of hours in battlegrounds. But I fell off the game around 2008 and didn't come back in earnest until 2016. Trying to do PVP was a real eye opener. I'm sure part of it was that I was no longer steeped in every aspect of the game so I was a little overwhelmed...but it really did feel like the game was running on fast forward compared to what I was expecting. And yet I was better at PVE because I was far more experienced with raiding, and more willing to use resources available to me.

Overall I have only gotten better, when I apply myself to something. I will say I have much less interest in competitive stuff nowadays but a big part of that is the huge push towards everything having to be esports all the time. I mean I had a ton of fun with Overwatch until competitive came out, after which the community turned unbearably toxic overnight. I was very good at the game and could easily reach high ranks solo but I just have no patience for that shit anymore. Can only handle so much of 14 year olds screaming at teammates for not following exactly what their streamer idol would do.

I haven't touched fighting games in a while, I got harder into SFV than I ever did with a fighter, but haven't been back since. New Guilty Gear is looking kinda promising for me (I'm traditionally bad at the series) so if they make it a bit more friendly to learn I'll try again. But either way, the degree to which I was 'good' at SFV was an order of magnitude beyond what I'd managed in any other fighter.

DMC5 was a good example of my improvement as well. I was never able to play those games 'stylishly' and was always jealous of those combo videos people put out. But after a few years of Platinum games, and even DmC, I built up enough skill that I was able to handle DMC5 with ease and it was a ton of fun.

 

[purseowner]

Features cost money to put in, as dumb or simple as they are to put in in some cases. All it takes is higher ups saying don't waste time on it for stuff to not land even if some devs want to put the work in. The standard has to start somewhere and typically companies don't want to fall behind in those standards. Until they feel like they need to expand those standards or they are losing money they wont make things a new standard.

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There's outliers like Naughty Dog, but at the moment I'm seeing most of the advancement in accessibility options in specific games coming from indies - Paradise Killer and Lair of the Clockwork God are two I've been especially impressed with lately. Make that a more widespread thing, and I think it'll get the attention of bigger companies. I get what you're saying though and it is surely costlier to implement these features in AAA titles with complex graphics and scope than visually more simplistic indie titles. I see too many AAA publishers who seem not to mind excluding the few when they already have the cash of the many. There's a conversation about empathy that I'm not sure the AAA game industry is quite ready to have, but is long overdue. Steven Spohn's doing amazing work on this front with AbleGamers.

As for accessibility on the controller side of things, I wish the other companies would follow Microsoft's lead.

 

[Bruceleeroy]

Speak for yourself grandpa's I'm just as twitchy as ever. (38 Here)
Here is my I might be old but can still hang with the cool kids resume:

1. Won CoD Warzone 10+ times solo and like a good 20+ times in a team
2. Consistently 1/2 in R6:Siege and I think that might be the twitchiest game of all time outside of maybe Counterstrike
3. Beat all Valks in GoW
4. Just beat Sekiro last week - bosses no issue

Now what is bothering my old ass is starring at a tv too long. Just can't do it anymore. Longest gaming session I can handle is like 2 hours tops
Also I need naps lotssss of naps.

 

[QisTopTier]

There's outliers like Naughty Dog, but at the moment I'm seeing most of the advancement in accessibility options in specific games coming from indies - Paradise Killer and Lair of the Clockwork God are two I've been especially impressed with lately. Make that a more widespread thing, and I think it'll get the attention of bigger companies. I get what you're saying though and it is surely costlier to implement these features in AAA titles with complex graphics and scope than visually more simplistic indie titles. I see too many AAA publishers who seem not to mind excluding the few when they already have the cash of the many. There's a conversation about empathy that I'm not sure the AAA game industry is quite ready to have, but is long overdue. Steven Spohn's doing amazing work on this front with AbleGamers.

As for accessibility on the controller side of things, I wish the other companies would follow Microsoft's lead.

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Yup Microsofts controller stuff is fucking amazing. When I first saw that I was super happy. Microsoft has the $ and the people on staff that seem willing to work on things and advance stuff

 

[thetrin]

I'm 37 and I really thought twitch gaming was a thing of the past for me. Then I picked up Ghostrunner over the weekend. I've been able to pull off things in that game I really thought I wasn't capable of doing. Getting through some of the hardest encounters made me feel real good lol.

 

[joffocakes]

I'm 37 and I don't find that modern action games often call for fast reactions; more often they're about pattern recognition and tend to be quite generous in their tells for attacks you ought to react to.

I primarily play fighting games and don't find reaction times to be hugely important, not at my middling level of ability anyway. It would definitely help if I could react more quickly but awareness and predicting an opponent's choices are more valuable.

 

[MetalKhaos]

I don't think reaction time / reflexes matter even a fraction of the amount people make them out to, to be honest.

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Kind of it. I can skip out on Battlefield or Call of Duty for a few games and hop back into whichever new one and generally pick right back up. It really comes down to just time invested. I can't also sit there and play the same game over and over, I like to have some variety.

 

[Zaki2407]

39 here. I mostly play single player story driven game only. But once in a while I like to have a challenging game (i.e Souls games).
It's a matter of balance for me.

 

[Tokyo_Funk]

Mid 30s here, there are some games in the past where I've gone "How did I ever beat that?".

Still have muscle memory for a few games like Ninja Gaiden and DuckTales NES

 

[Tapiozona]

Early 40s here and I've handled it by not playing games anymore and solely watching others do it on twitch.

 

[Dr. Doom]

30 here. I don't play video games very often therefore my skills have deteriorated.

I used to be very good at multiplayer games when I was a teenager.

Now I get my ass handed to me as I barely play anything. Call of duty is the worst offender here. I'm still okay at Destiny 2 although the titan punch can go fuck itself.

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

I don't think I'll ever get good at twitch first person shooters but at the same time it's not a genre that I care much either so I'm okay with it.

If anything I feel like I'm getting better at ARPG and character action games the more I play them over the years.

The real struggle for me are fighting games, still feels unnatural to me.

 

[QisTopTier]

The real struggle for me are fighting games, still feels unnatural to me.

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Real talk, go beat punch out and super punch out. It will help despite how different they are from fighters

 

[DeadMoonKing]

37 and I freely admit, had I not found JRPGs at around the age of 12 or 13, my gaming would have been relegated to casual status if I gamed at all.
As a kid, I can remember playing on relatives' and friends' Ataris and NESs, but the games were too hard and nothing really stuck. I can remember feeding quarters into arcade machines only to lose quickly and my parents to rush me off to wherever we were supposed to go so that style of gameplay didn't leave a lasting impression either.
When the 16-bit era started, as my parents wouldn't let me buy a console, I could only go to friends to play theirs. Most of the games we played were sports titles or beat 'em ups, but again, nothing really caught my interest.
I got my first SNES second hand from a friend at the start of the 32-bit era and played mainly NBA Jam and Madden on it, but the discovery of Lufia II changed the course of my life, literally. I was hooked and throughout high school, I played JRPGs exclusively, pretty much ignoring everything else.

Fastforward to today and, weirdly, I'm finally playing more titles that require my reflexes. I love the big-budget action titles like God of War and Uncharted (though I usually play those on normal, dropping the former down to easy for most of the Valkyrie fights). By far, however, the most difficult game I've beaten that requires reflexes is Hollow Knight. I slammed my head against so many walls from the platforming sections and racked up loss after loss to bosses most people down in a handful of tries. In fact, I spent so long on NKG that my fingers ached for days afterward making me think I had rheumatoid arthritis and getting tested for it only to realize that it was the hours (yes, plural) spent consecutively on that one boss that did that. I can't really say it was fun, but it was worth it to see what came next and I learned that I had some crazy stubbornness in me.

Still, I honestly don't care for twitch based gameplay or ultra hard games, but at this point, there's enough of a trickle of one player games that catch my interest, to say nothing of the backlog of Japanese RPGs I have on my shelf that never made their way to the West. Should every game here on out be multiplayer and/or a twitchfest, I think I would be content to just chip away at my backlog and replay some favorites.

 

[MP!]

36
Not as fast as I used to be
Not because I'm worse at games but more likely that I don't care about winning as much

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

I think its more just that games become less interesting. I can still do frame perfect shit in fighting games, and carry games in FPS but its just not something I spend nearly as much time on because its harder to care about.

Not because I'm worse at games but more likely that I don't care about winning as much

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it really is mostly this.

if you're all paranoid about getting old try this site
I think im doing alright at mid 30s

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[Zombine]

31, and I still find myself completely competitive. Multiplayer is still my bread and butter. I'm also physically fit and active so this may play a part in the lack of deterioration.

 

[StereoVSN]

This is something I've wanted to talk about for a while, and since I'm trying desperately to not stress myself out about the election, I figured there's no better time.

I've been playing games for the better part of three decades; for a long time, my primary genres were turn-based RPGs, fighting games and stylish action games. But the older I get, the more my reflexes - more specifically, my hands' response time - decay. I can't necessarily react to things with the alacrity of a 14-year-old any longer. And in an era where RPGs have almost completely died out, and virtually every single major game is an action game with a heavy emphasis on reaction time and perfect dodging/parrying mechanics, this means less and less games feel playable, some for extended periods of time and others (Sekiro, as an example) almost entirely.

So for my fellow aging gamers, I wanted to ask: how are you handling the almost complete death of non-twitch combat? Are you still managing to have fun? Do you miss turn-based games or games with more relaxed combat mechanics? Do you think developers need to do more for players who can't necessarily keep up with the increasingly strict demands of twitch-heavy combat systems? What solution would you implement to increase playability in modern games?

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I play Turn Based CRPGs :). Otherwise, Easy mode FTW if needed :P. Or... play on PC and cheat. Since its SP, it don't matter as long as you have fun (heaya Dark Souls :P).

 

[Sotha_Sil]

I used to be a pretty high level cod player back in the OG modern warfare days. I'm definitely not as good as I once was. Still got 55 Warzone wins though!

 

[Cleve]

I don't think my reactions are really any worse than they were before, my conditioning to play something like Quake 3 Rocket Arena is gone, but I can still sit down and play any shmup as well as I used to, and for most of the games I play (over the shoulder action stuff) reactions aren't a problem. Am I as good as I used to be at twitch stuff? No way, but I used to play 6+ hours a day as a teenager, can't stay that sweaty playing on a normal adult schedule.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

The part that sucks for me is that my stress and anxiety make my reaction time even worse than it normally is, and every game nowadays seems to be designed to be stressful. I tried Hollow Knight for the first time tonight and the insane penalty for dying coupled with how you don't even have a fucking DODGE at the start of the game, and one death started a tailspin until I eventually just quit the game. I'll probably delete it instead of playing it again.

 

[Zuly]

My reaction time is a non-issue. My lack of stamina has become a huge issue when I sit down for long sessions. I also basically live with long term wrist pain at this point, and I have had to let go of the mouse for many genres with the exception of turn-based RPGs and shooters.

 

[J75]

Pretty bad here, but honestly, I even get my ass handed to me on non twitchy games so this isn't a exclusively reflexes related issue for me.

 

[Alek]

What twitch stuff is there? On console outside of Call of Duty which has been popular for a long time, you have games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, Overwatch and Destiny as the most popular shooters on the platform. None of which are twitch shooters in the slightest.

If anything we've moved away from twitchy shooters. I would say.

Same with racing games too, all the arcade titles are gone. We're almost only left with racing sims. Whenever someone tries to make an arcade racer, or sim-arcade game, they get flak for it being too shallow, or allegedly not knowing what it wants to be (e.g. Dirt and Driveclub).

 

[Love Machine]

While I'm not exactly "aging" at 34, I do feel you OP. The reaction times are not what they used to be.

That said, I can see myself enjoying Apex and Titanfall, as well as action RPGs for a while to come. Difficulty/accessibility options are more varied and wide-spread these days, and when it all gets too much, there's still a vast assortment of games out there that require no twitch skills whatsoever.

I can see myself settling down into "gaming retirement" with things like Stellaris, No Man's Sky, etc. There's just so much more to enjoy.

 

[Weeniekuns]

Im just as good at FPS games.... knowledge of the map, communication, and situation awareness matter just as much as twitch reflexes.

 

[JumbiePrime]

I'm pretty comfortable where I'm at with my gaming reflexes at this time in my life .Not the best but okay ..41 BTW . I hope this isn't seen as a plug ..

 

[Young Liar]

only 31 but i have been gaming since i was, like, 7. i actually believe i'm much better at games nowadays too. beat all of from's modern titles multiple times, platinumed god of war 2018 and beat it on hard, same goes for ff7 remake, had a great time with doom eternal and cuphead, got all achievements in hades, got through dead cells and celeste just fine, and got the 112% achievement in hollow knight.

i wasn't into competitive multiplayer games as a kid though, so when i did get into it a little at the start of this console generation, i was already starting from a disadvantage. still, i've done okay in the online shooters i've put some time into: overwatch, apex legends, destiny 2, titanfall 2.

i think i've just gotten better at jiving with what games want me to do, or at the very least predicting where the design will lead. this is definitely the case for most AAA titles, as they've mostly gotten more predictable. whether it's boss attack patterns or resource management, i can pick up on that sorta thing relatively quickly, so i don't have to rely on twitch reflexes too much.

The main difference is in terms of energy. I tire out much more easily, and don't stay in the zone for as long. I can't pull hours-long gaming sessions like I used to as easily.

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this is actually it for me. i have to be really enjoying a game to be able to play it for more than 3 hours straight when i used to crank out marathon sessions in my early to mid twenties and as a teen. now it's either i have to take a nap or my attention just wanes, which i guess also dovetails nicely into how i feel about AAA game design being something i've gotten overly familiar with that i "get" what a game is going for most of the time, so there's not much in the way of surprises for me to look forward to.