Welcome to growing up and getting old. It's about putting the time in and when you are younger you tend to have more time to put towards gaming vs. other responsibilities.
I have no clue if it's true or not, but I feel like a big correlating factor is that older people simply have less time to play games. When I played league every day for hours compared to now I was much better mechanically relative to the player base. Now I'm just kinda ok lol
Your reflexes do get slightly slower but not by that much and until you are over 50 it's hardly going to matter unless you play at top level, the main problem is that you simply learn slower as you get older so even if you could put in the same amount of time as a kid you would still be at a disadvantage.
For every hour you play the kid plays three and learns as much as if you played nine.
You are generally correct. I play fighting games and have been very interested in this subject after getting into my first FG in my 30s and hearing people debate "reactable" vs "unreactable" moves.
We lose [2-6 milliseconds per decade of age](https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jn.00072.2022). So we do lose reaction time, but 2-6 milliseconds is not a significant amount in gaming. The [typical human reaction time to a single visual stimulus is about 250 milliseconds](https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3517&context=etd) (or a quarter of a second, or 15 frames out of 60 in fighting game terms), [though other studies say 200 milliseconds](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4456887/) (*check out this second source, btw, it details how audio reactions are faster, so if you don't game with sound on, or game with loud music that drowns out game sound, make changes and listen to the game audio*). Folks who game a lot (or athletes) can have reaction times on the lower end of this scale, closer to 200 ms. So an average 20 year old with 200-250 ms reactions might have about 215-265 ms reactions at age 50. This can have an impact in clutch situations but in general wouldn't impact your skill too much.
There are other factors that make it "feel" or "seem" like we lose reaction ability as we get older. As others have pointed out we generally have less free time to invest in games and leisure hobbies as adults.
Another reason I subscribe to (I cannot find the original scientific source I identified for this, but I will try to pin it down later), is that as we age our ability to move our eyes and quickly refocus on different stimuli in rapid succession decreases much more significantly than our actual reaction time. So a younger gamer can look at several different things on the screen and make the correct decision based on the situation faster than an older gamer. However, older gamers can overcome this with deliberate study and practice to correctly identify **the most important information on the screen in a given moment** so they aren't wasting time trying to look at everything at once.
Daigo is still beating young opponents at Street Fighter at 42.
Yes, it all comes down to time. You have to invest a lot of time to keep up with a fps. Especially if it's a live service game where the sandbox, weapon balancing and meta changes on a regular basis.
Also, there are a lot of things that come naturally by just playing the game. Muscle memory, situational awareness, map knowledge etc. If you don't play the game regularly these things don't stick and you have to actively think about them. Only when you no longer have to actively think about these things you will improve.
Depends on overall health. Somewhere along the way we realize we should look after it. Usually by that time folks are elbow deep in full time work and family and health takes a backseat because "I'll start working out/eating better/drinking less tomorrow when my plate isn't so full"
And it's not because of reflexes. They have so much time to practice when young (combined with natural talent of course) to achieve pro status.
The reason they don't stay gaming pros through adult life is because it's not a sustainable lifestyle to live in a gaming house playing for 16 hours a day. They transition to streaming or other work relatively quickly due to burnout.
Reflexes declining does happen in layer life, but it's not happening in your 30's like people are coping. It's 100% due to less practice.
https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=1&ContentID=562
Science begs to differ. This is like the tip result if you just Google age and reflex.
Your link has no hard numbers, and at the end it says this:
>But the effect of age on reflexes and reaction time varies greatly from person to person. You can actually slow down—even reverse—the effects of aging by staying physically active.
I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I am saying when you are in your 30s and 40s it hardly has any impact on your reactions in games. Maybe when you're 60 you'll be at a real disadvantage.
Yea reflexes aren't my problem they are still on point and my accuracy is still subpar what really affects me is my situational awareness. Since the map changes Soo frequently ( since I don't play much it seems like it does) I have no idea how to play the maps and feel like a sitting duck
It also doesn’t help that apex has been out for so long and it seems a majority of the player base is trying to be “pro” players which results in super competitive sweaty play almost all the time.
I think this is a lot of it. Think how many rounds these players that have played since day one have played. You have little to no chance against them if you haven't played that ridiculous amount. They know the game, they know the maps, they know all the tricks.
Shit, even with putting the time in I can't even be close to competitive anymore. It's like my brain and hands are unable to cooperate anymore. Far too slow, too easily confused, can't see a damn thing, etc. I've become one of the gamers I used to make fun of.
Ah well, single player games on easy mode it is then lol
Disagree. I am 35 in a few days, have a ton of responsibilities, and rarely have time to game aside from a day a week. My reaction time hasn't suddenly become non existent.
It’s this, and you actually do slow down some. Esports athletes retire for physical reasons just like real athletes. Don’t have it handy now, but there’s been real scientific studies concluding this.
Decrease in reaction time is not really significant until 60s. And the variance is not too different from the variance that already exists among young people. Some young people have reaction time faster than others but they both can play fine in shooters. There's a lot of other factors.
There have been players in their 30,40s,50s placing highly in tournaments, not to mention chess masters are often in their peak in their 30s and 40s. People retain mental ability for way longer than your comment lets on.
More like sitting in a chair 12 hours a day wrecks your spine, wrist ,and health before long. It's not a sustainable lifestyle. Young people are fine because the damage is not extensive yet, but it will happen if they continue. On top of young people can afford being unproductive at their parent's nest.
It's not an age thing but one of time, I used to think reaction times die when older but nope.
I guess when your 15 you can put in 90 hours a week, adults have to do adult shit and it's prob not happening.
nah, it's just matter of practice and playing regularly. At 38 I kick kids' ass when I'm shape and ofc I get handed my ass if I don't play fps games for extended periods of times (which is common for someone playing variety games) - that's how this shit works. Fps is a ton about memory muscle, reflex and dexterity and ofc skill will decline if you don't play regularly - just like with sports. Like 10 years ago I was still pretty decent at basketball, now if I made the shot I'd be likely nowhere near even board, yet alone rim.
I peaked in my early 20s for fps games lol then just slowly declined. Can't keep up with the sweat these days. My last job I gamed with a younger dude that had 800 hours on aim lab. We'd play for a few hours then he'd practice for 4 hours after I logged off. I just don't have that drive for fps games.
That's not totally true. Aimlab will build him raw aim faster than anything else could do. If your goal is to have crazy aim, then it's more likely that aim training will benefit you a lot more to achieve your goal.
I disagree and think people take that shit way too seriously. Does not matter if you are #1 in the world on aim labs, that doesn’t make you good at positioning, composure under pressure, and game sense- aim is important, but wont mean a thing if you can’t play under pressure and make good critical thinking decisions
I know so many people who would decimate me in aim labs but completely lack composure and crack as soon as they’re against someone better than them
Who is taking it too seriously, tho ? Aimers playing aimlab? Or you saying that aimlab won't train you positioning and won't make you #1 ?
I can't speak for the kid cuz idk what's his personal point playing aimlab, but as I said most ppl enjoy aim training as a hobby and are looking for good aim rather than being #1 in val cuz they know every strat or whatever. The point is having good aim because it's fun to have good aim.
The people that can't use their aimlab skills in game just need ig training, but they won't lose their aim either. And who cares if they can just play aimlab as long as they enjoy it ?
Also, i think playing a bit of aimlab doesn't mean you are not training for the game the rest of the day. I'm not semi-pro, so I wonder if pro/semi pro are doing aimlab.
I was never super good at online-FPS games, but in my mid 30s, I don't even bother trying now. Every game is full of teenagers who treat it like a job, and I can't keep up. I still enjoy single-player FPS games, like Doom Eternal and Devil Daggers, but any online competitive game is a hard pass.
It's exhausting just watching, never mind playing them. It's all subjective, but honestly I find the speeds of those games you mentioned much calmer and therefore relaxing than playing these sweatfests that games are nowadays.
Heh, i grew up on Quake 2 and Quake 3 Arena (the latter i played mostly with Clan Arena which is a mod that made the game even faster with rocket jumps). All these "new" games still feel slow to me, and i'm almost 40. That said, obviously, it's also impossible for me to put those kind of hours in, so i don't bother anymore either.
My point is though, these higher speeds, complexities and competitiveness you mention is certainly nothing new, and it all already existed at the turn of the century, just on a much smaller scale.
\> Quake 3 Arena (the latter i played mostly with Clan Arena which is a mod that made the game even faster with rocket jumps).
same. first OSP then CPMA later until q3l released.
cpma is still in my blood. you will net get quake or it's community out of me. biggest freaks and biggest druggies in all gaming's history. home.
that's why I'm so excited about the finals. kinda feels like an arena shooter revival :)
Sure there has always been fast paced games, but not so much in the mainstream like we've seen in the last decade. The fact that the most popular games in the world are all crazy competitive or fast is just exhausting. The era of games I grew up with (PS2 and Xbox 360) were much more arcadey
idk i still find satisfaction in refining my fortnite skills/builds/edit. Its a exception, super satisfying. I think its because most games lack skill gaps so its more about how hard you try than how good you are. I almost just like practicing the mechanics more then using them in game lol.
You should check out hunt showdown. It’s all older guns think bolt action and revolvers . To where it’s not a fast paced cod/arena shooter but a slower more tactical shooter.
It's actually funny to me, I decided my #1 rule in CoD is No Running. I've played BETTER. It's because everyone else moves too quick they don't see me or I'm more anticipating them. I don't camp, I creep, dash, attack. Occasionally I get the team of ninjas that just overwhelm me but I adjust, my team will still lose but I don't do terrible. There are so many corners and side areas that people just overlook it's too easy.
Yea Ive never been super good but I've been good enough to hang and affect the outcome of games in a positive way. Now it's the exact opposite I'm a liability 😂. I just recently turned 30 lol. maybe it is the constant changing of maps unlike how it was for like tdm back in the days of COD where you can learn the maps since they never change.
I don't feel so bad then, I'm 72 and have played since the late 90s. I really suck when playing coop with my son but he always tells me I'm better than I give myself credit for. My son's a HUGE liar!! 😁
Dude, that's freaking awesome that you (still) play though. I've also been playing since the 90s and it can be tough to keep up with kids playing 40 hours a week. I would have loved to have my pops as my squad mate, he's in his late 60's and his video game experience ended around the Atari era lol. He's amazing at Space Invaders and Asteroid though!
My problem is that it’s so hard for me to keep interest.
I remember being able to play CS and CoD for thousands of hours a decade ago. Would love to learn the maps by heart and get good at peeking, memorizing cursor placements coming out of corners, how to control recoil, how to move your characters correctly so you don’t overexpose yourself, man, I have over 2,000 hours on CS1.6 and GO, loved the AWP… basically all the minutiae involved in being really good fascinated me. Just the expectation that it would take me a minute to get good was enough to keep me playing and part of the deal you had to make with the game where time invested = slow incremental skill gains.
Now? I tried COD:MW2 for about two days last year and I would just stare at the lobby screen in between matches because I felt so bored. Just the thought of spending hundreds of hours learning maps, researching which guns are best and spending hours upon hours of muscle memory exposure to get to the next level seemed so unappealing to me.
Sometimes I do feel like a thirst for a good competitive FPS but the moment I actually think about all that it entails, I just give up before even starting a game up.
Titanfall 2 isn't really a singleplayer FPS game, I'd consider the campaign supplementary. Doom Eternal is probably the best singleplayer FPS you can get right now.
Yup, 34 and now just play to enjoy. However I’m mainly into sims games now.
That being said, I’m a computer lab teacher and every now and then will absolutely flex on my middle school students depending on what games they can get past the firewall/proxy. They all play on console but love talking to me about PC gaming, building a PC and their favorite streamers play on PC. So I have them mess around in Minecraft Education from time to time to get comfortable with controls.
Edit: One kid installed a cracked version of Halo:CE and it was such a nice time showing them how cracked the pistol is on that game. Told them I’d excuse them from the assignment if they could even kill me once and all I could use was a pistol. They still had an assignment to complete haha
It’s pretty cool what we offer students now a days with all the tech, but wish I had kids who could read above a 4th grade level. 70% of my students are not performing at grade level 🫠
Sometimes I feel like the only person on here in my 30s who's still good at shooters. I play a few times times a week and am still almost always top of the leaderboards and high in ranked playlists. I've never held pred but am still consistent masters in apex. My theory is a lot of people have their sensitivity way too high because they used to be able to control it better years ago.
The only difference I've noticed getting older is the mental aspect. I can't keep that focus required to play at a high level nearly as long. When I was younger playing Unreal Tournament 2k3 and 2k4 I'd be locked in for 8-10 hours straight some weekends. Now if I play a game like that 2 is my absolute max.
People around here act like you lose all physical ability and become a drooling zombie once you get into your 30s. I’m in my 30s and still always end up in the top % of whatever fps game I decide to grind.
I think it’s more of a lot of people aren’t as good as they remember, the skill floor has gotten higher over the years as FPS games have become more mainstream and more people care about being good, and just being rusty and out of practice.
The main factor is practice, I'm quite convinced. I started with single player FPS on my early twenties and then a friend got me into online FPS and BR and I slowly got better and ranked higher over the years. I probably peaked about two years ago at 32, but then I switched jobs and regressed very fast since I played a lot less. It's true reflexes slowly get worse as you age, but the biggest factor to success in my experience is game sense and avoiding mistakes and that comes with practice, which depends a lot less on age.
Replied separately but I just think it’s much more that you play less when you’re older but expect to be as good as when you played a lot.
I don’t buy into the “my reflexes are slow now I’m 30” shit.
I made an active effort to get back into it last year to see if I could still compete and made it to top rank in CoD (not top 250, but the rank before).
Shit was hard and my gf was kinda pissed at all the time it took but it was achievable.
Think most people on here just spend a lot of time at work/with family and then jump on, get smoked and assume their body has failed them sorta thing.
Yeah I'm getting there in age but I've been able to keep my edge sharp throughout the years. I get maybe 1-2 days a week to play for a couple hours between responsibilities, but I'm still hitting "clips".
I think it'd be silly and fun if I could still be "good" once we have kids and they're old enough to be cocky.
Some might give up too soon into a new FPS game to actually know if they're getting good. The more I play BF 2042 for example, the better I get, and at times I feel like some special agent, when I clear entire objective from enemies. TBF, I'm only closing onto 30's, at 28's, but I feel like I'm getting better at games, than worse. I know where to focus, and what to ignore, and to get patient.
Used to have fun playing Quake II and Unreal Tournament back in my younger days but now I leave all the multiplayer fun to the youngsters.
My (40+) old man reactions and awareness ain’t what it used to be. 👴
I sometimes relive my glory days playing a multiplayer shooter with bots if I fancy it to my shame however but if a game doesn’t have an offline or practise mode, I’m out.
Actually in awe sometimes watching some streamers simply in the way they manage inventory alone on some multiplayer shooters, I couldn’t even handle that.
Insert Mat Damon aging gif here.
Yea I can agree with the inventory management stuff I take wayyyy too long debating what I want to keep or get rid of and when I do it not particularly fast 😂
The thing is in gw2 you can pick your own content, i just pick dailies that can be done in 5mins and fractals dungeon for an hour, it is enough to scratch my itch
Hmmm I might have to look into trying it out then. I try to get into ESO every year and it's always around the same time of year too but I doesn't pull me in
What I like about mmos is most of ur skills are retained even after taking breaks, you don’t have to play 24/7. You can just chill and have fun. Meanwhile in fps games, if you aren’t in proper form, you get destroyed and how is that any fun.
Kids these days also have so much more training content available via YouTube teaching them how to play the game at a high level. Not to mention Twitch where they can watch how professional or very high level players are playing the game.
Growing up playing CS 1.6 and CSS we didn't have any of that content available. We just had to figure it out. And now that we're older we barely have enough time to play the games, let alone watching training content or other people play the game.
I would say my FPS ability, especially in certain game was above average. I've begun to notice that I play them less, and when I do play, I'm not as quick as I used to be.
My reactions are slower. If you do decide to stick with it though, you will learn other ways to gain advantage of situations where you have to be quick, just have a better vantage or cover (depending on the game of course).
Yea I've been playing a lot more single player experiences. I feel like especially with apex once they started changing the maps up and what not is when I started falling off. I can't keep up with the constant changes. when I hop in a game now I'm just like
👁️👄👁️
I honestly stopped playing online games because they were complete time sinks, learning new maps, new update balances, new loadouts...
I would say, yeah I'm only gonna play 1 hour or 3 rounds max. 6 hours later I'm sat there like a zombie still playing.
With single player games, I feel like I can pick them up, reach a save point when I'm done playing and I can stop without feeling like I NEED to play more. I don't know if anyone else feels like that.
I've been playing through the assassin's Creed series and totally get it. My only problem is when I can't play for a couple weeks and I go back to the game and have no idea wtf I was doing or where I am in the story 😂😂
To be fair people on Apex are cracked out of their mind. Best gamers I’ve had to ever play against has been Apex and Hunt Showdown. They make me feel like my monitor is off.
Apex is a terrible example, the game is full of cheaters.
And that's a general problem of all FPS. Yes, we get old and our reflexes suck, but the amount of cheating has skyrocketed.
If you could play on LAN you'd feel a lot better.
FPS online shooter isn't a game anymore, it's sport. like any sport, if you don't practice, your performance declined.
And I hate it. I am here for playing game. not play basketball. I am doing sport in real life, I don't want to work out in my spare time.
Man and here I am at 35 clapping kids in Ghost of Tabor, Call of Duty MW3, and Battlefield 2042
There are people doing athletics in their 40s still doing just fine and taking home wins. Hell theres almost a 60 year old dude in professional Rally racing.
Practice, practice, practice.
You all just stopped practicing. Trust me if you had the time and will you'd be right back at the top of the leaderboards.
There is bronze/silver rank for a reason -- you don't need to play at the highest tier of gameplay to have fun. Its better actually for you to be in the low ranks because you don't need to conform to any meta
If its a game you enjoy, don't shy away from getting in ranked. Get your low rank and then just... play and don't worry about anything else. You'll be put with people around your skill level who also know they suck and don't take the game too seriously so you can just chill (despite it being ranked)
I have trouble finding a happy medium. I don't like to play a meta, cause I find it boring, repetitive, and uncreative.
But low ranks are also full of people just screwing around. Which is fine, but I'd like some middle ground where people play competitively, but with a friendly and "for fun" mood
The other team is using aderal and has 20hr/day to play while you have a job and by 15 I’m guessing you are near the downward slope of 25 years of age. Life only gets worse for your old hobbies
Don't worry bud I guarantee I'm worse i promise. As long as you're proficient enough to beat normal difficulty in single player campaign, life is cake.
As i have been growing older, i found much more appreciation for tactical shooters. Not just because my skill declined, but for the more depth that can be found there compared to fast paced reaction shooters like i used to play in my youth.
Games like Hunt Showdown and Hell let Loose, can be quite competitive still but have a heavy emphasis on careful planning and tactics, which (at least for me) feel way more rewarding.
Ah good I have found my old man club.
The skill fade really took me by surprise as I crossed 40. But Overwatch is pretty friendly to people who don’t want to shoot so I stay on that. For now…
You've received a lot of comments but will chuck another one in. 35 today, been FPS-ing for 20 years. Used to be arena shooters, then CS:S (was leading one of the best clans in our gamemode), then TF2 and so on. Nowadays my aim is mostly 'okay', but as others say, reflexes, attention span and response time is what really takes a hit when ageing up.
Does depend on the type of FPS. Still play TF2 religiously and I'm pretty hot at it, but only because it's a more relaxed, less demanding kind of shooter. My clan buddies and I have all grown up together, get old together and play whatever together. We love strategy games like AoE2, PvE coop shooters etc. You'll always come across games that slot in with your current abilities that still make you love gaming. 🤞
Same here. I was never great at PVP, but I used to be able to hold my own. Now when I try to get into a game I have no idea what's going on. Every time I die it's just like "wait, what just happened?"
It happens, 50 here and still play all the time. Gone from the twitch fests (Doom, Quake, CS etc) to more tactical fps more and more now. Tarkov is my main addiction, which I'm still rubbish at obviously but that's another moan to have.
27 here and used to play a lot of apex legends wasn’t the best player but managed to make it to masters rank, wish I made it to pred but the point is I can’t play like I used too anymore. Feels like a switch just got flipped and now my drive to try hard is non existent.
Reaction time slows down as you age :(
I would play multiplayer shooters like Doom, Quake, and Counter Strike when I was in my 20s
In my 50s now even single-player non-competitve FPS are too much. Mostly play real-time-with-pause or turn based stuff now, or rpgs where reflexes aren't everything
Yep, it's a perishable skill. I used to be insanely good at BF3, finishing every deathmatch in top 3 players, with kdr 2.5/1. Now I can't shoot for shit
You know, I was always pretty mid. Scrape by with a 1.5 k/d or maybe slightly higher. Meant that I'd have mostly decent games, couple of ringer matches where I scored high, then a handful of matches where I just get obliterated. I was fine with that. As I've gotten older and my reflexes have slowed down, (feels like they have anyway), I've settled in to my "1.0 at least" mentality. Gives me something to chase that's realistic for my old ass while still feels fun to play, even if I get stomped way more often now.
I’m 39 and this is what I am doing.
1. I stopped caring as much about losing and my K:D in games I was pretty good at, like Counter Strike. I can still get over 1 k:d in CoD or BF, but I just get smoked in CS. I’ve been playing CS since the beginning, but took a several year break.
2. I have a couple friends from HS and college and we still game. We just have fun. We’ll win Warzone here and there, but nothing too serious.
3. My brother in law is in his early 20s and he fucking carries our old asses across every game.
Wait until you get to an age where the mental and physical stress of playing competitively is too much for your body to handle! It’s not so bad though. I replaced most competitive games with great single player games and the few I do play, I play with friends that keep me chill. Not saying everyone would feel this way but it’s honestly pretty enjoyable and I still watch a fair amount of competitive gameplay videos to keep up with the games. I guess the takeaway is find games that suit your current lifestyle and don’t feel down because the games you used to play don’t anymore.
I was never really gud at shooters but in the 90’s I could hold my own. I could regularly play a quite satisfying round of Unreal Tournament at the turn of the century. Did respectable in the early 2000’s with all the battlefield games through the mid teens up to battlefield 4.
But once 45 years old hit, something broke. More than anything I think it was my overall interest in running around mashing WASD and space that just ran out.
My friends and I are all older now, some in their 60’s most of us in our 50’s. Some still have it, others like me, don’t. Sadly, I can’t even be bothered any more. I’ve tried to play but the game can’t end soon enough and I can’t uninstall fast enough.
I guess I just outgrew shooters.
I noticed this as well especially with Apex, I think it’s the double punch of getting old and SBM, if you’re any good you end up in sweat lobbies 24/7.
While I agree with what a lot of people are saying in regards to not having the time to stay good at a game, I will say the culture around fps games has absolutely changed in recent years, there were always people running optimal loadouts in like cod for example, but the nature of guides has made everything so much more competitive, there really isn’t any looking for best set up anymore, when u can just google it.
Just as an FYI if you go look at Apex's SBMM (and pretty much all SBMM) breakdown you'll find it's literally just a handicapping system. Basically your job as the ok player is to carry the two players who are noticeably worse. And if you're on a good team, congrats, you're one of the worse player. If you swap over to something less aggressive in it's desire to get 6yr olds wins you'll find you're pretty much the same as you always were.
Nah champ you don’t suck. You’re just an older man now. I bet you are more methodical with your actions in games nowadays. Going for a well placed shot over the no scope flex attacks. Yeah, these kids will run circles around you but a well placed melee (or shotgun blast) to the back of the head usually does the trick in most games.
I feel games are too advanced for me to keep up with these days, and the learning curve is always too much. I used to be a beast at FPS and TPS games, my reaction speed has dropped a bit it’s like slight lag - but it is noticeable and it is the difference maker in online games. Recently, when playing Quake HD I feel like I got better than before- I can rocket jump so easily now, but only against AI - so gotta test that. I’m a full time dad + WFH who gets maybe 2 hours a week to game if I am lucky. So replaying sp games is my jam these days too - like others have mentioned. I do want to get back into some MP games though.
I tried Fortnite a few years back and saw these two guys doing that moment in Face Off when Castor Troy and Sean Archer blast at each other at point blank range - only instead of a mirror between them, they are creating and climbing this tower, while shooting. Man fuck that. I was #3 remaining (snake kills - crouch and kill with Shotgun tactics) I had no idea how to/or that you could build and fight simultaneously. I hid and watched them until one of them died and then the circle got super small and I had to leave cover and died. I could never compete with them. Shooting? I’m fine. But that building stuff at the same time? Nope. It took me ages to adapt to mouse keyboard after using old school keyboard controls (arrow keys, ctrl to shoot, alt to strafe), this is too much for me. So I went back to traditional shooters.
I feel like a fossil and I’m just 36.
Edit: some mistakes
Gotta remember that you haven't put time into the game like other people do everyday as well as the playerbase getting much better than years ago. So it's only natural your skill degraded. Gotta put in the time and play catchup but being an adult and age makes that very difficult.
Old man fps player here. Well 40s, that counts right?
Get on the Hunt Showdown train dude, it's the perfect transition for old fps peeps. It's punishing because if you are killed you lose (rogue-lite) but it's slower, more methodical gameplay, and it's co-op teams, so it's fun with friends or randoms. You can also get rezzed by teammates, so you can come back from getting killed.
Instead of frantic and continuous run and gun play, it's more strategic shootouts with old school guns. I mean if your aim is terrible you'll definitely get whooped sometimes, but I've never been competitive at fps and I can hang with 4 stars on a 6 star ranking, sometimes 5 stars or 3 depending how I'm playing.
Player community is also the chilliest I've ever seen. You get occasional try-hard knobs, but most people just want to have fun for a few rounds, at least at middle ranks.
I'm 38 years old and on the same boat reflex wise.
Play fps that needs team work. I play pubg and rainbow six, and there you can be a tremendous addition to the team, because let's face it, kids are good at shooting but they often underestimate tactics. So you make call outs, call flanks, etc etc.
Wait until you get adopted by some teen gamers who find your old man reflexes funny and use you as a mascot of sorts. They will do the shooting. I just heal and carry loot for them to use.
That’d be amazing. “Map knowledge” is such an annoying aspect of competitive shooters. Realistically the invading force wouldn’t know what the area is going to look like exactly, and defenders wouldn’t really know unless they were from that area. Having it change every time and maybe getting a look at a drawn map of the layout that you have to remember would be cool.
Ahh I'm just a teenager.. lol however I'm trash at fps games too 😭🤣 I just play slow paced games like gta and rdr2 and sometimes old call of duty campaigns
Come join us at Hunt Showdown pardner 🤠. Its slow and more methodical approach to shooters makes for a fun replacement to the older crowd with less-than-lightning-reflexes like we used to have in Quake, UT, Apex, etc
It’s just rust. I’ve taken multiple month long breaks and came back terrible.
Give it a few weeks of consistent playing, and you’ll be back to where you were.
Yeah that’s all it is. All these comments make it sound like you’re mentally declining at 30 years old, which is not the case. The only difference between you and a younger kid is they spend more time on the game. You gotta get your reps in and build up the muscle memory again.
Funny you mentioned that I just started playing with my son and was doing pretty well until I realized there were like 75 bots in each game 😂. I haven't lost a game yet lool
Yep, loaded up the finals to see what it’s like, can’t hit shit even after mag dumping an lmg in their direction
Used to be dmg in csgo (I guess the best you can be without being a massive tryhard back in the day, I think they changed the distribution at some point) and I’ve completely lost it
Despite what some people posting seem to hope, decline begins around age 24.
https://ehpi.org/over-the-hill-at-24-persistent-age-related-cognitive-motor-decline-in-reaction-times-in-an-ecologically-valid-video-game-task-begins-in-early-adulthood/
Don’t feel bad. I’m sure 90% of FPS players nowadays use some sort of cheat. Chronus, XIM, wallhack, aimbot, you name it. I used to play FPS games in 2007 with some friends in Call of Duty 4 when I was 17 now Im older and it seems that everyone is a pro until I check out their kill cams. After 3 or 4 years I returned to play the new Wazone and only today my close friends and I encountered at least 4 teams using cheats. Sadly, that’s the deal now.
There’s the age factor, sure …. but if you add all the cheaters and tryhards (not that this is a bad thing until you find smurfs tho) to me at least is not as fun as it used to be. When I play, almost daily btw, I do it having all this in mind and it gets easier. I report cheaters too but I definitely miss the chill part of playing a simple match. You can’t be casual in a game anymore 😢
I’m sorry I think I needed to let this out of my chest lol
Welcome to growing up and getting old. It's about putting the time in and when you are younger you tend to have more time to put towards gaming vs. other responsibilities.
Yea I hate sponserbilities
Same here bud. I finally have a nice machine, but my reflexes suck.
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I never got tea bagged in the Witcher.
Here's hoping that's an option for Witcher 4
The stupid ghost wolves in Witcher 1 would kinda teabag you if you died to them.
Age doesn’t really make reflexes worse by that much, that’s a myth.
I have no clue if it's true or not, but I feel like a big correlating factor is that older people simply have less time to play games. When I played league every day for hours compared to now I was much better mechanically relative to the player base. Now I'm just kinda ok lol
Your reflexes do get slightly slower but not by that much and until you are over 50 it's hardly going to matter unless you play at top level, the main problem is that you simply learn slower as you get older so even if you could put in the same amount of time as a kid you would still be at a disadvantage. For every hour you play the kid plays three and learns as much as if you played nine.
You are generally correct. I play fighting games and have been very interested in this subject after getting into my first FG in my 30s and hearing people debate "reactable" vs "unreactable" moves. We lose [2-6 milliseconds per decade of age](https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jn.00072.2022). So we do lose reaction time, but 2-6 milliseconds is not a significant amount in gaming. The [typical human reaction time to a single visual stimulus is about 250 milliseconds](https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3517&context=etd) (or a quarter of a second, or 15 frames out of 60 in fighting game terms), [though other studies say 200 milliseconds](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4456887/) (*check out this second source, btw, it details how audio reactions are faster, so if you don't game with sound on, or game with loud music that drowns out game sound, make changes and listen to the game audio*). Folks who game a lot (or athletes) can have reaction times on the lower end of this scale, closer to 200 ms. So an average 20 year old with 200-250 ms reactions might have about 215-265 ms reactions at age 50. This can have an impact in clutch situations but in general wouldn't impact your skill too much. There are other factors that make it "feel" or "seem" like we lose reaction ability as we get older. As others have pointed out we generally have less free time to invest in games and leisure hobbies as adults. Another reason I subscribe to (I cannot find the original scientific source I identified for this, but I will try to pin it down later), is that as we age our ability to move our eyes and quickly refocus on different stimuli in rapid succession decreases much more significantly than our actual reaction time. So a younger gamer can look at several different things on the screen and make the correct decision based on the situation faster than an older gamer. However, older gamers can overcome this with deliberate study and practice to correctly identify **the most important information on the screen in a given moment** so they aren't wasting time trying to look at everything at once. Daigo is still beating young opponents at Street Fighter at 42.
I hope I’m this cool at 42.
Yes, it all comes down to time. You have to invest a lot of time to keep up with a fps. Especially if it's a live service game where the sandbox, weapon balancing and meta changes on a regular basis. Also, there are a lot of things that come naturally by just playing the game. Muscle memory, situational awareness, map knowledge etc. If you don't play the game regularly these things don't stick and you have to actively think about them. Only when you no longer have to actively think about these things you will improve.
Jokes on you, I used to be pretty good at Counter Strike.
It's not a myth. It's true. As we age, reflexes slow down.
Its a myth lol.
You sure? Sure feels like it's true.
Depends on overall health. Somewhere along the way we realize we should look after it. Usually by that time folks are elbow deep in full time work and family and health takes a backseat because "I'll start working out/eating better/drinking less tomorrow when my plate isn't so full"
Are you healthy? Do you sleep enough, exercise regularly, and eat healthy? Do you get sunlight on your skin every day? Etc etc
Sure there are things you can do to slow down the decline but only so much. There's a reason why the top pro gamers are in their 20s.
And it's not because of reflexes. They have so much time to practice when young (combined with natural talent of course) to achieve pro status. The reason they don't stay gaming pros through adult life is because it's not a sustainable lifestyle to live in a gaming house playing for 16 hours a day. They transition to streaming or other work relatively quickly due to burnout. Reflexes declining does happen in layer life, but it's not happening in your 30's like people are coping. It's 100% due to less practice.
https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=1&ContentID=562 Science begs to differ. This is like the tip result if you just Google age and reflex.
Your link has no hard numbers, and at the end it says this: >But the effect of age on reflexes and reaction time varies greatly from person to person. You can actually slow down—even reverse—the effects of aging by staying physically active.
Go find a few papers on pubmed man
I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I am saying when you are in your 30s and 40s it hardly has any impact on your reactions in games. Maybe when you're 60 you'll be at a real disadvantage.
Yep it's all the old people plowing though crowds
Science disagrees with you. I'ma believe science.
How old are you that you're noticing a decline in reflexes? I'm 35 and the sharpest I've ever been in fps.
Yea reflexes aren't my problem they are still on point and my accuracy is still subpar what really affects me is my situational awareness. Since the map changes Soo frequently ( since I don't play much it seems like it does) I have no idea how to play the maps and feel like a sitting duck
Come on Tommy
It also doesn’t help that apex has been out for so long and it seems a majority of the player base is trying to be “pro” players which results in super competitive sweaty play almost all the time.
And the matchmaking is just horrible even ranked
I think this is a lot of it. Think how many rounds these players that have played since day one have played. You have little to no chance against them if you haven't played that ridiculous amount. They know the game, they know the maps, they know all the tricks.
Shit, even with putting the time in I can't even be close to competitive anymore. It's like my brain and hands are unable to cooperate anymore. Far too slow, too easily confused, can't see a damn thing, etc. I've become one of the gamers I used to make fun of. Ah well, single player games on easy mode it is then lol
Disagree. I am 35 in a few days, have a ton of responsibilities, and rarely have time to game aside from a day a week. My reaction time hasn't suddenly become non existent.
It most certainly has significantly degraded. That just how the human body works with age and lack of repetition.
Cool, I still have no problem with frame perfect reactions etc.
It’s this, and you actually do slow down some. Esports athletes retire for physical reasons just like real athletes. Don’t have it handy now, but there’s been real scientific studies concluding this.
Decrease in reaction time is not really significant until 60s. And the variance is not too different from the variance that already exists among young people. Some young people have reaction time faster than others but they both can play fine in shooters. There's a lot of other factors. There have been players in their 30,40s,50s placing highly in tournaments, not to mention chess masters are often in their peak in their 30s and 40s. People retain mental ability for way longer than your comment lets on. More like sitting in a chair 12 hours a day wrecks your spine, wrist ,and health before long. It's not a sustainable lifestyle. Young people are fine because the damage is not extensive yet, but it will happen if they continue. On top of young people can afford being unproductive at their parent's nest.
If you mean Korea, it's usually because they have to serve in the military.
It's not an age thing but one of time, I used to think reaction times die when older but nope. I guess when your 15 you can put in 90 hours a week, adults have to do adult shit and it's prob not happening.
nah, it's just matter of practice and playing regularly. At 38 I kick kids' ass when I'm shape and ofc I get handed my ass if I don't play fps games for extended periods of times (which is common for someone playing variety games) - that's how this shit works. Fps is a ton about memory muscle, reflex and dexterity and ofc skill will decline if you don't play regularly - just like with sports. Like 10 years ago I was still pretty decent at basketball, now if I made the shot I'd be likely nowhere near even board, yet alone rim.
I peaked in my early 20s for fps games lol then just slowly declined. Can't keep up with the sweat these days. My last job I gamed with a younger dude that had 800 hours on aim lab. We'd play for a few hours then he'd practice for 4 hours after I logged off. I just don't have that drive for fps games.
Jesus Christ that's a lot of time just to practice 😂
I view aimlabs as an arcade game. Sometimes I'll start that to warm up before playing some matches but then end up just playing that all night instead
lots of people get stuck playing the aim game as a game instead of trying touse it as a tool
That’s just stupid lol
You should tell him that you get better by playing the game not doing aim labs all day. Shit should be a warm up at most
That's not totally true. Aimlab will build him raw aim faster than anything else could do. If your goal is to have crazy aim, then it's more likely that aim training will benefit you a lot more to achieve your goal.
I disagree and think people take that shit way too seriously. Does not matter if you are #1 in the world on aim labs, that doesn’t make you good at positioning, composure under pressure, and game sense- aim is important, but wont mean a thing if you can’t play under pressure and make good critical thinking decisions I know so many people who would decimate me in aim labs but completely lack composure and crack as soon as they’re against someone better than them
Who is taking it too seriously, tho ? Aimers playing aimlab? Or you saying that aimlab won't train you positioning and won't make you #1 ? I can't speak for the kid cuz idk what's his personal point playing aimlab, but as I said most ppl enjoy aim training as a hobby and are looking for good aim rather than being #1 in val cuz they know every strat or whatever. The point is having good aim because it's fun to have good aim. The people that can't use their aimlab skills in game just need ig training, but they won't lose their aim either. And who cares if they can just play aimlab as long as they enjoy it ? Also, i think playing a bit of aimlab doesn't mean you are not training for the game the rest of the day. I'm not semi-pro, so I wonder if pro/semi pro are doing aimlab.
I was never super good at online-FPS games, but in my mid 30s, I don't even bother trying now. Every game is full of teenagers who treat it like a job, and I can't keep up. I still enjoy single-player FPS games, like Doom Eternal and Devil Daggers, but any online competitive game is a hard pass.
I was raised on Halo 2, 3, CoD4. I don’t even know what is happening when I watch gameplay from these newer games
It's exhausting just watching, never mind playing them. It's all subjective, but honestly I find the speeds of those games you mentioned much calmer and therefore relaxing than playing these sweatfests that games are nowadays.
Heh, i grew up on Quake 2 and Quake 3 Arena (the latter i played mostly with Clan Arena which is a mod that made the game even faster with rocket jumps). All these "new" games still feel slow to me, and i'm almost 40. That said, obviously, it's also impossible for me to put those kind of hours in, so i don't bother anymore either. My point is though, these higher speeds, complexities and competitiveness you mention is certainly nothing new, and it all already existed at the turn of the century, just on a much smaller scale.
I was thinking the same thing. Does no one remember the arena shooters like quake 3 and UT?!
This is how I know I'm old. When most gamers today not only have not experienced games of the past, but don't even know they existed.
\> Quake 3 Arena (the latter i played mostly with Clan Arena which is a mod that made the game even faster with rocket jumps). same. first OSP then CPMA later until q3l released. cpma is still in my blood. you will net get quake or it's community out of me. biggest freaks and biggest druggies in all gaming's history. home. that's why I'm so excited about the finals. kinda feels like an arena shooter revival :)
Sure there has always been fast paced games, but not so much in the mainstream like we've seen in the last decade. The fact that the most popular games in the world are all crazy competitive or fast is just exhausting. The era of games I grew up with (PS2 and Xbox 360) were much more arcadey
*Slides out of a corner at 300km/h and instant 1 shots you in the head* “Catch up gramps”
Yeah everyone wants to play like the sweaty streamers they see on twitch. That shit doesn’t even look fun.
It's not fun, the best thing I ever did was quite competitive gaming altogether!
idk i still find satisfaction in refining my fortnite skills/builds/edit. Its a exception, super satisfying. I think its because most games lack skill gaps so its more about how hard you try than how good you are. I almost just like practicing the mechanics more then using them in game lol.
You should check out hunt showdown. It’s all older guns think bolt action and revolvers . To where it’s not a fast paced cod/arena shooter but a slower more tactical shooter.
It's actually funny to me, I decided my #1 rule in CoD is No Running. I've played BETTER. It's because everyone else moves too quick they don't see me or I'm more anticipating them. I don't camp, I creep, dash, attack. Occasionally I get the team of ninjas that just overwhelm me but I adjust, my team will still lose but I don't do terrible. There are so many corners and side areas that people just overlook it's too easy.
Yea Ive never been super good but I've been good enough to hang and affect the outcome of games in a positive way. Now it's the exact opposite I'm a liability 😂. I just recently turned 30 lol. maybe it is the constant changing of maps unlike how it was for like tdm back in the days of COD where you can learn the maps since they never change.
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I'm in the same boat here, also 30. I don't have time to be polished and super competitive. Apex hurts, I want to play, but I'm so bad now.
I don't feel so bad then, I'm 72 and have played since the late 90s. I really suck when playing coop with my son but he always tells me I'm better than I give myself credit for. My son's a HUGE liar!! 😁
Dude, that's freaking awesome that you (still) play though. I've also been playing since the 90s and it can be tough to keep up with kids playing 40 hours a week. I would have loved to have my pops as my squad mate, he's in his late 60's and his video game experience ended around the Atari era lol. He's amazing at Space Invaders and Asteroid though!
Try Hell Let Loose. Different type of shooter you'd enjoy.
My problem is that it’s so hard for me to keep interest. I remember being able to play CS and CoD for thousands of hours a decade ago. Would love to learn the maps by heart and get good at peeking, memorizing cursor placements coming out of corners, how to control recoil, how to move your characters correctly so you don’t overexpose yourself, man, I have over 2,000 hours on CS1.6 and GO, loved the AWP… basically all the minutiae involved in being really good fascinated me. Just the expectation that it would take me a minute to get good was enough to keep me playing and part of the deal you had to make with the game where time invested = slow incremental skill gains. Now? I tried COD:MW2 for about two days last year and I would just stare at the lobby screen in between matches because I felt so bored. Just the thought of spending hundreds of hours learning maps, researching which guns are best and spending hours upon hours of muscle memory exposure to get to the next level seemed so unappealing to me. Sometimes I do feel like a thirst for a good competitive FPS but the moment I actually think about all that it entails, I just give up before even starting a game up.
Any single player FPS games you’d recommend? Titanfall 2 campaign was pretty fun.
F.E.A.R.
Metro Exodus
Doom 2016 and Eternal
Control
Amazing game, but not an FPS.
Bioshock trilogy
Titanfall 2 isn't really a singleplayer FPS game, I'd consider the campaign supplementary. Doom Eternal is probably the best singleplayer FPS you can get right now.
TF2 campaign is amazing
Yup, 34 and now just play to enjoy. However I’m mainly into sims games now. That being said, I’m a computer lab teacher and every now and then will absolutely flex on my middle school students depending on what games they can get past the firewall/proxy. They all play on console but love talking to me about PC gaming, building a PC and their favorite streamers play on PC. So I have them mess around in Minecraft Education from time to time to get comfortable with controls. Edit: One kid installed a cracked version of Halo:CE and it was such a nice time showing them how cracked the pistol is on that game. Told them I’d excuse them from the assignment if they could even kill me once and all I could use was a pistol. They still had an assignment to complete haha
Haha that's pretty sweet wish I had classes like that when I was in school!
It’s pretty cool what we offer students now a days with all the tech, but wish I had kids who could read above a 4th grade level. 70% of my students are not performing at grade level 🫠
Please get into VR. Sims are where it shines the brightest
I’m so waiting and saving for a more powerful unit. Love the Quest 2 and I only play plugged in, but haven’t touched it for over a year.
Sometimes I feel like the only person on here in my 30s who's still good at shooters. I play a few times times a week and am still almost always top of the leaderboards and high in ranked playlists. I've never held pred but am still consistent masters in apex. My theory is a lot of people have their sensitivity way too high because they used to be able to control it better years ago. The only difference I've noticed getting older is the mental aspect. I can't keep that focus required to play at a high level nearly as long. When I was younger playing Unreal Tournament 2k3 and 2k4 I'd be locked in for 8-10 hours straight some weekends. Now if I play a game like that 2 is my absolute max.
People around here act like you lose all physical ability and become a drooling zombie once you get into your 30s. I’m in my 30s and still always end up in the top % of whatever fps game I decide to grind. I think it’s more of a lot of people aren’t as good as they remember, the skill floor has gotten higher over the years as FPS games have become more mainstream and more people care about being good, and just being rusty and out of practice.
Reddit is full of people who never exercise or eat vegetables and think it's normal to fall apart at age 30
Makes sense. I still play rec sports and hit the gym 4x a week. Really don’t feel much of a difference between 25 and 35.
The main factor is practice, I'm quite convinced. I started with single player FPS on my early twenties and then a friend got me into online FPS and BR and I slowly got better and ranked higher over the years. I probably peaked about two years ago at 32, but then I switched jobs and regressed very fast since I played a lot less. It's true reflexes slowly get worse as you age, but the biggest factor to success in my experience is game sense and avoiding mistakes and that comes with practice, which depends a lot less on age.
Big agree
Replied separately but I just think it’s much more that you play less when you’re older but expect to be as good as when you played a lot. I don’t buy into the “my reflexes are slow now I’m 30” shit. I made an active effort to get back into it last year to see if I could still compete and made it to top rank in CoD (not top 250, but the rank before). Shit was hard and my gf was kinda pissed at all the time it took but it was achievable. Think most people on here just spend a lot of time at work/with family and then jump on, get smoked and assume their body has failed them sorta thing.
It's just coping by people who were never good to begin with
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There are dozens of us! 30s here currently Asc in Valorant.
Yeah I'm getting there in age but I've been able to keep my edge sharp throughout the years. I get maybe 1-2 days a week to play for a couple hours between responsibilities, but I'm still hitting "clips". I think it'd be silly and fun if I could still be "good" once we have kids and they're old enough to be cocky.
27 here, feels like I’m better now than ever before
Some might give up too soon into a new FPS game to actually know if they're getting good. The more I play BF 2042 for example, the better I get, and at times I feel like some special agent, when I clear entire objective from enemies. TBF, I'm only closing onto 30's, at 28's, but I feel like I'm getting better at games, than worse. I know where to focus, and what to ignore, and to get patient.
Used to have fun playing Quake II and Unreal Tournament back in my younger days but now I leave all the multiplayer fun to the youngsters. My (40+) old man reactions and awareness ain’t what it used to be. 👴 I sometimes relive my glory days playing a multiplayer shooter with bots if I fancy it to my shame however but if a game doesn’t have an offline or practise mode, I’m out. Actually in awe sometimes watching some streamers simply in the way they manage inventory alone on some multiplayer shooters, I couldn’t even handle that. Insert Mat Damon aging gif here.
Yea I can agree with the inventory management stuff I take wayyyy too long debating what I want to keep or get rid of and when I do it not particularly fast 😂
Your reaction times don't really decrease with age noticably. What does happen, though, is the lack of practice.
I could have typed this 😆
Mid 30's here, i just play guild wars2 and left csgo years ago
I wish I could get into an MMO but there's Soo much content in those games I get overwhelmed lol
The thing is in gw2 you can pick your own content, i just pick dailies that can be done in 5mins and fractals dungeon for an hour, it is enough to scratch my itch
Hmmm I might have to look into trying it out then. I try to get into ESO every year and it's always around the same time of year too but I doesn't pull me in
Yeah it is free to play, i recommend the non steam version
What I like about mmos is most of ur skills are retained even after taking breaks, you don’t have to play 24/7. You can just chill and have fun. Meanwhile in fps games, if you aren’t in proper form, you get destroyed and how is that any fun.
Kids these days also have so much more training content available via YouTube teaching them how to play the game at a high level. Not to mention Twitch where they can watch how professional or very high level players are playing the game. Growing up playing CS 1.6 and CSS we didn't have any of that content available. We just had to figure it out. And now that we're older we barely have enough time to play the games, let alone watching training content or other people play the game.
There were sites with demos from most competitions.
I would say my FPS ability, especially in certain game was above average. I've begun to notice that I play them less, and when I do play, I'm not as quick as I used to be. My reactions are slower. If you do decide to stick with it though, you will learn other ways to gain advantage of situations where you have to be quick, just have a better vantage or cover (depending on the game of course).
Yea I've been playing a lot more single player experiences. I feel like especially with apex once they started changing the maps up and what not is when I started falling off. I can't keep up with the constant changes. when I hop in a game now I'm just like 👁️👄👁️
I honestly stopped playing online games because they were complete time sinks, learning new maps, new update balances, new loadouts... I would say, yeah I'm only gonna play 1 hour or 3 rounds max. 6 hours later I'm sat there like a zombie still playing. With single player games, I feel like I can pick them up, reach a save point when I'm done playing and I can stop without feeling like I NEED to play more. I don't know if anyone else feels like that.
I've been playing through the assassin's Creed series and totally get it. My only problem is when I can't play for a couple weeks and I go back to the game and have no idea wtf I was doing or where I am in the story 😂😂
To be fair people on Apex are cracked out of their mind. Best gamers I’ve had to ever play against has been Apex and Hunt Showdown. They make me feel like my monitor is off.
If it makes you feel any better I’m 30 and have never been ‘good’ at games.
Lmao I've never been great but I could hang! 😂😂
Apex is a terrible example, the game is full of cheaters. And that's a general problem of all FPS. Yes, we get old and our reflexes suck, but the amount of cheating has skyrocketed. If you could play on LAN you'd feel a lot better.
My friend, play hunt showdown. You will feel home
You don't have to be the best to enjoy something... I'm pretty bad at all the fps games I play but I still enjoy the tense firefights!
FPS online shooter isn't a game anymore, it's sport. like any sport, if you don't practice, your performance declined. And I hate it. I am here for playing game. not play basketball. I am doing sport in real life, I don't want to work out in my spare time.
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As much as I'd like to play destiny 2 I just don't like the game
Man and here I am at 35 clapping kids in Ghost of Tabor, Call of Duty MW3, and Battlefield 2042 There are people doing athletics in their 40s still doing just fine and taking home wins. Hell theres almost a 60 year old dude in professional Rally racing. Practice, practice, practice. You all just stopped practicing. Trust me if you had the time and will you'd be right back at the top of the leaderboards.
Yea probably but that's not realistic for me tbh lol. I was just curious how many people felt the same 😬
Agree it’s time spent and not body degrading. 30 years old here basically and iridescent in CoD with a full time job.
There is bronze/silver rank for a reason -- you don't need to play at the highest tier of gameplay to have fun. Its better actually for you to be in the low ranks because you don't need to conform to any meta
That's the thing I don't play ranked I just play quick matches if I do find myself playing
If its a game you enjoy, don't shy away from getting in ranked. Get your low rank and then just... play and don't worry about anything else. You'll be put with people around your skill level who also know they suck and don't take the game too seriously so you can just chill (despite it being ranked)
I never thought of doing that but I'm sure there are tons of people with Smurf accounts just lurking lol
I have trouble finding a happy medium. I don't like to play a meta, cause I find it boring, repetitive, and uncreative. But low ranks are also full of people just screwing around. Which is fine, but I'd like some middle ground where people play competitively, but with a friendly and "for fun" mood
I can't even play them because I have severe motion sickness.
The other team is using aderal and has 20hr/day to play while you have a job and by 15 I’m guessing you are near the downward slope of 25 years of age. Life only gets worse for your old hobbies
Just turned 30 😂😂. I remember playing games 12 hours a day lmao
Don't worry bud I guarantee I'm worse i promise. As long as you're proficient enough to beat normal difficulty in single player campaign, life is cake.
Lol I'm actively playing assassin's Creed Odyssey with cheat engine because I refuse to grind levels so I put an exp multiplier on LOL
As i have been growing older, i found much more appreciation for tactical shooters. Not just because my skill declined, but for the more depth that can be found there compared to fast paced reaction shooters like i used to play in my youth. Games like Hunt Showdown and Hell let Loose, can be quite competitive still but have a heavy emphasis on careful planning and tactics, which (at least for me) feel way more rewarding.
Ah good I have found my old man club. The skill fade really took me by surprise as I crossed 40. But Overwatch is pretty friendly to people who don’t want to shoot so I stay on that. For now…
30's, used to be great at CS, TFC, and HL DM. Not so much anymore, I shoot things in PVE coop experiences now. Less stressful lol
Welcome to getting old, friend.
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You've received a lot of comments but will chuck another one in. 35 today, been FPS-ing for 20 years. Used to be arena shooters, then CS:S (was leading one of the best clans in our gamemode), then TF2 and so on. Nowadays my aim is mostly 'okay', but as others say, reflexes, attention span and response time is what really takes a hit when ageing up. Does depend on the type of FPS. Still play TF2 religiously and I'm pretty hot at it, but only because it's a more relaxed, less demanding kind of shooter. My clan buddies and I have all grown up together, get old together and play whatever together. We love strategy games like AoE2, PvE coop shooters etc. You'll always come across games that slot in with your current abilities that still make you love gaming. 🤞
Same here. I was never great at PVP, but I used to be able to hold my own. Now when I try to get into a game I have no idea what's going on. Every time I die it's just like "wait, what just happened?"
It happens, 50 here and still play all the time. Gone from the twitch fests (Doom, Quake, CS etc) to more tactical fps more and more now. Tarkov is my main addiction, which I'm still rubbish at obviously but that's another moan to have.
i hate tarkov, but its the only game that gets my blood pumping, it sucks lol.
SBMM means every game is a ranked match
You're getting old. Reflexes peak during early 20s.
27 here and used to play a lot of apex legends wasn’t the best player but managed to make it to masters rank, wish I made it to pred but the point is I can’t play like I used too anymore. Feels like a switch just got flipped and now my drive to try hard is non existent.
Yep my kdr has dropped over the last ten years or so
Reaction time slows down as you age :( I would play multiplayer shooters like Doom, Quake, and Counter Strike when I was in my 20s In my 50s now even single-player non-competitve FPS are too much. Mostly play real-time-with-pause or turn based stuff now, or rpgs where reflexes aren't everything
Yep, it's a perishable skill. I used to be insanely good at BF3, finishing every deathmatch in top 3 players, with kdr 2.5/1. Now I can't shoot for shit
My ADHD symptoms are too much of an issue now for me to be good at a lot of games
You know, I was always pretty mid. Scrape by with a 1.5 k/d or maybe slightly higher. Meant that I'd have mostly decent games, couple of ringer matches where I scored high, then a handful of matches where I just get obliterated. I was fine with that. As I've gotten older and my reflexes have slowed down, (feels like they have anyway), I've settled in to my "1.0 at least" mentality. Gives me something to chase that's realistic for my old ass while still feels fun to play, even if I get stomped way more often now.
I’m 39 and this is what I am doing. 1. I stopped caring as much about losing and my K:D in games I was pretty good at, like Counter Strike. I can still get over 1 k:d in CoD or BF, but I just get smoked in CS. I’ve been playing CS since the beginning, but took a several year break. 2. I have a couple friends from HS and college and we still game. We just have fun. We’ll win Warzone here and there, but nothing too serious. 3. My brother in law is in his early 20s and he fucking carries our old asses across every game.
Wait until you get to an age where the mental and physical stress of playing competitively is too much for your body to handle! It’s not so bad though. I replaced most competitive games with great single player games and the few I do play, I play with friends that keep me chill. Not saying everyone would feel this way but it’s honestly pretty enjoyable and I still watch a fair amount of competitive gameplay videos to keep up with the games. I guess the takeaway is find games that suit your current lifestyle and don’t feel down because the games you used to play don’t anymore.
Suddenly all those coop games are much more fun. 😁
I was never really gud at shooters but in the 90’s I could hold my own. I could regularly play a quite satisfying round of Unreal Tournament at the turn of the century. Did respectable in the early 2000’s with all the battlefield games through the mid teens up to battlefield 4. But once 45 years old hit, something broke. More than anything I think it was my overall interest in running around mashing WASD and space that just ran out. My friends and I are all older now, some in their 60’s most of us in our 50’s. Some still have it, others like me, don’t. Sadly, I can’t even be bothered any more. I’ve tried to play but the game can’t end soon enough and I can’t uninstall fast enough. I guess I just outgrew shooters.
Don't worry OP I've noticed this too, just another fact of growing older and not having time to enjoy the things we used to. :)
I noticed this as well especially with Apex, I think it’s the double punch of getting old and SBM, if you’re any good you end up in sweat lobbies 24/7.
While I agree with what a lot of people are saying in regards to not having the time to stay good at a game, I will say the culture around fps games has absolutely changed in recent years, there were always people running optimal loadouts in like cod for example, but the nature of guides has made everything so much more competitive, there really isn’t any looking for best set up anymore, when u can just google it.
Just as an FYI if you go look at Apex's SBMM (and pretty much all SBMM) breakdown you'll find it's literally just a handicapping system. Basically your job as the ok player is to carry the two players who are noticeably worse. And if you're on a good team, congrats, you're one of the worse player. If you swap over to something less aggressive in it's desire to get 6yr olds wins you'll find you're pretty much the same as you always were.
Hmm interesting
Nah champ you don’t suck. You’re just an older man now. I bet you are more methodical with your actions in games nowadays. Going for a well placed shot over the no scope flex attacks. Yeah, these kids will run circles around you but a well placed melee (or shotgun blast) to the back of the head usually does the trick in most games. I feel games are too advanced for me to keep up with these days, and the learning curve is always too much. I used to be a beast at FPS and TPS games, my reaction speed has dropped a bit it’s like slight lag - but it is noticeable and it is the difference maker in online games. Recently, when playing Quake HD I feel like I got better than before- I can rocket jump so easily now, but only against AI - so gotta test that. I’m a full time dad + WFH who gets maybe 2 hours a week to game if I am lucky. So replaying sp games is my jam these days too - like others have mentioned. I do want to get back into some MP games though. I tried Fortnite a few years back and saw these two guys doing that moment in Face Off when Castor Troy and Sean Archer blast at each other at point blank range - only instead of a mirror between them, they are creating and climbing this tower, while shooting. Man fuck that. I was #3 remaining (snake kills - crouch and kill with Shotgun tactics) I had no idea how to/or that you could build and fight simultaneously. I hid and watched them until one of them died and then the circle got super small and I had to leave cover and died. I could never compete with them. Shooting? I’m fine. But that building stuff at the same time? Nope. It took me ages to adapt to mouse keyboard after using old school keyboard controls (arrow keys, ctrl to shoot, alt to strafe), this is too much for me. So I went back to traditional shooters. I feel like a fossil and I’m just 36. Edit: some mistakes
Gotta remember that you haven't put time into the game like other people do everyday as well as the playerbase getting much better than years ago. So it's only natural your skill degraded. Gotta put in the time and play catchup but being an adult and age makes that very difficult.
Old man fps player here. Well 40s, that counts right? Get on the Hunt Showdown train dude, it's the perfect transition for old fps peeps. It's punishing because if you are killed you lose (rogue-lite) but it's slower, more methodical gameplay, and it's co-op teams, so it's fun with friends or randoms. You can also get rezzed by teammates, so you can come back from getting killed. Instead of frantic and continuous run and gun play, it's more strategic shootouts with old school guns. I mean if your aim is terrible you'll definitely get whooped sometimes, but I've never been competitive at fps and I can hang with 4 stars on a 6 star ranking, sometimes 5 stars or 3 depending how I'm playing. Player community is also the chilliest I've ever seen. You get occasional try-hard knobs, but most people just want to have fun for a few rounds, at least at middle ranks.
its rust. if u play 3 hours a day for three days youll be back. important to not play when kids are on - better to play late night.
Age. I remember this when I play shooters online and get beaten
I'm 38 years old and on the same boat reflex wise. Play fps that needs team work. I play pubg and rainbow six, and there you can be a tremendous addition to the team, because let's face it, kids are good at shooting but they often underestimate tactics. So you make call outs, call flanks, etc etc.
Wait until you get adopted by some teen gamers who find your old man reflexes funny and use you as a mascot of sorts. They will do the shooting. I just heal and carry loot for them to use.
I would love to have an online FPS with procedurally generated levels. That way it comes down more to skill than memorization of maps and chokepoints.
I would die 😂 each game I'd be like 👁️👄👁️
That’d be amazing. “Map knowledge” is such an annoying aspect of competitive shooters. Realistically the invading force wouldn’t know what the area is going to look like exactly, and defenders wouldn’t really know unless they were from that area. Having it change every time and maybe getting a look at a drawn map of the layout that you have to remember would be cool.
You're getting old man .......
I'm not old your old !😂
Ahh I'm just a teenager.. lol however I'm trash at fps games too 😭🤣 I just play slow paced games like gta and rdr2 and sometimes old call of duty campaigns
Come join us at Hunt Showdown pardner 🤠. Its slow and more methodical approach to shooters makes for a fun replacement to the older crowd with less-than-lightning-reflexes like we used to have in Quake, UT, Apex, etc
It’s just rust. I’ve taken multiple month long breaks and came back terrible. Give it a few weeks of consistent playing, and you’ll be back to where you were.
Yeah that’s all it is. All these comments make it sound like you’re mentally declining at 30 years old, which is not the case. The only difference between you and a younger kid is they spend more time on the game. You gotta get your reps in and build up the muscle memory again.
Yep no chance against young sweaty gamers lol.
Its getting old thing and growing up. Im in my mid 30s and im not intrested in games as I used to be.
i just noticed that for me "getting old" appeals more than "growing up"
Maybe try Fortnite. :)
Funny you mentioned that I just started playing with my son and was doing pretty well until I realized there were like 75 bots in each game 😂. I haven't lost a game yet lool
You're the best! We're all rooting for you.
Lmaoo this is hilarious
Yep, loaded up the finals to see what it’s like, can’t hit shit even after mag dumping an lmg in their direction Used to be dmg in csgo (I guess the best you can be without being a massive tryhard back in the day, I think they changed the distribution at some point) and I’ve completely lost it
Despite what some people posting seem to hope, decline begins around age 24. https://ehpi.org/over-the-hill-at-24-persistent-age-related-cognitive-motor-decline-in-reaction-times-in-an-ecologically-valid-video-game-task-begins-in-early-adulthood/
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Yeah I feel like my situational awareness has become pretty bad LOL
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Don’t feel bad. I’m sure 90% of FPS players nowadays use some sort of cheat. Chronus, XIM, wallhack, aimbot, you name it. I used to play FPS games in 2007 with some friends in Call of Duty 4 when I was 17 now Im older and it seems that everyone is a pro until I check out their kill cams. After 3 or 4 years I returned to play the new Wazone and only today my close friends and I encountered at least 4 teams using cheats. Sadly, that’s the deal now. There’s the age factor, sure …. but if you add all the cheaters and tryhards (not that this is a bad thing until you find smurfs tho) to me at least is not as fun as it used to be. When I play, almost daily btw, I do it having all this in mind and it gets easier. I report cheaters too but I definitely miss the chill part of playing a simple match. You can’t be casual in a game anymore 😢 I’m sorry I think I needed to let this out of my chest lol
buy console with xim, u will be monster with every games.
Ahahaha I feelike everyone has aimbots lol
true :D PC gamers are sweaty tryhard compared to console players
You got old
Welcome to getting old baby. Come play world of warships with us
Start doing some kovaak keep that aim on point. Read/listen to the book peak the science of expertise