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!

  • dmickey@lemmy.caEnglish
    3·
    2 years ago

    I’m mid thirties myself and games are what I grew up with and it’s how I like to enjoy my storytelling. I think it’s entirely lost on some people how different games are as a media. My SO and I have had chats about it and she understands that it’s a whole different experience than a movie or tv and appreciates my enthusiasm for truly great games.

    I can totally understand that some people just don’t jive with games but I’m so grateful my SO tolerates my gaming even though she doesn’t partake much herself.

    I feel no pressure to stop so I don’t see myself stopping gaming anytime soon. You just need to find the right one, they don’t even need to like games, they just need to like you as a person.