How old is too old to play video games?

Ya.... I'm a 50 YO that loves CoD in XBox Live.  My KD ratio sucks... badly, I can't discern the enemy unless they're in my face, and I always seem to walk (run) into a choke point! Doesn't matter.... There's nothing more satisfying than preventing some trigger-finger kid from getting his kill-streak package. Doing that every once in a while balances the hundreds of deaths in between! On a more personal of level, my son & I love gaming it up together either split screen or individual boxes.  He's 26 and experiencing his own life.... So the chit-chat aspect has become important to me.  The gaming is just a vehicle to communicate. Update: I haven't played CoD in months.  I'm on a World of Tanks (WoT) binge while waiting for Destiny to release.  WoT is truly an amazing game. As an MMO with a skills-based, tiering system, this has got to be one of the best games around for a casual gamer; especially for the older players.  In the lower tiers, it doesn't matter where you shoot a tank, you're going to get a penetrating hit.  For the most part, this occurs up until tier 5 (out of 10).  After that, the game requires you to aim for weak spots and effectively use cover. It also becomes very team oriented in the higher tiers. The team aspect is great when you're "tanking it up" with your friends. However, you can only platoon up with two of your friends.  The rest of the 15 teammates are strangers.  Your platoon members light up in yellow, other team members in green, and opponents in red. My garage is filled to the hilt with each of the Tier 6 Tank Destroyers. I have one tier 5 (the British AT2) that I use as a money-maker to help upgrade the other tanks.  To upgrade, you need to have a combination of in-game money and tank experience (silver & XP). Some of those teammate strangers will not be team players.  As in all MMO's, there's roles that need to be played by the type of tank you decide to play.  Heavy tanks are brawlers, medium tanks are all-round players, light tanks are the scouts, destroyers are the snipers, and artillery are the field support.  I hate when the heavy, medium, and light tanks camp at the base and refuse to advance. We have a saying, "Don't Trust the Green Guys!" Btw:  The Enterainment Software Association  says the average age of the gamers is 31 years old. http://www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp

Uhhhhh oh, you got me on my soapbox. Hang on. *pulls out box* I know in advance that this is going to sound kind of accusatory, but I've made this rant so many times it's hard to tame it back anymore. So, without further ado... ...I bet you were someone concerned when you were a teenager about whether you should be into the opposite sex and popularity contests rather than, say, climbing trees and getting messy. When someone told you something was "kiddie," I bet you had a second thought about whether you should be doing it. As a kid I felt bad for folks like this...because I deliberately made myself into the opposite of that. I'm a roleplayer and a gamer. I remember the pivotal points in my life where friends left me for boys and makeup and being on sports teams. It sounds stereotypical, but in a small town, I didn't have too many friends to start with, and the ones that I did have, were suckered in to the illusion that maturity = not being "kiddie." That somewhere along the line, you have to give up things like "playing pretend" and "wearing funny costumes" and "playing video games" and "collecting Pokemon cards" or whatever you did as a kid. That it's just something that Must Happen. I saw this drift through crowds. And I thought, no. I'm not going to be that. So I let those people go, and I wandered off to do what I liked, and eventually I did end up alone for a long time. Not having a wide social pool does that to you. But in the end, it felt more authentic than people who were just leaving behind what they cared about so they could impress a boy or spend half their money on eyeshadow so others would think they were pretty. And in the end, these people are the same folks, many times, who are going to tell you that there's something inferior about video games, that they're too "kiddie." (And for folks who will cry stereotype here, I did later learn to accept makeup and romance and so on and so forth. I am aware that I entered a sort of "anti-girly rage" for a while, but in the end...I realized *we can have both.* It's the people that still don't think so that bug me, especially among teenagers.) That's bullshit. Look at this rationally. What makes a book more valid than a video game as a way to convey narrative? Or a TV series? Or a movie? But let's get broader, to more nerdy hobbies than just solitary games or Call of Duty or whatever. Why is a knitting circle a better social activity than an MMO? Why is chess so much more mature than Warhammer 40k? Why is bridge a better hobby than Magic: The Gathering? Why is art of a landscape somehow more "artistic" than a well painted picture of a dragon? Why are book lovers charming, but gamers are cheeto-snorting losers pissing into bottles in their mom's basement so they won't have to get a job or even get up to go to the bathroom? Why is reading fiction okay but online roleplaying isn't? Why, why, *why*? Tell you what. Stop caring what society thinks, because society is a moron on the subject of gamers. And when you're of a certain age, where you can answer the paragraph of questions I wrote above...*then* you can tell me you're too old for video games. Because you won't ever be able to give a convincing argument. It doesn't exist. *micdrop*

You can have my controller when you pry it from my cold dead hands.... Okay, no, that's not true, but it's close. Joking aside, there's a cultural change that it's important to be aware of. Ask yourself what previous generations did instead of playing video games... after all, video games are a leisure activity and every generation has had leisure activities. Were they in bowling leagues? Fishing? Golfing? Spending hours upon hours at a bar bent over a pool table? Whiling away endless saturdays in a garage up to their elbows in engine grease? Doesn't matter. Some people still do all of those things. Some people yell at the TV as though it will make their favorite football team run faster. Some of us play video games. It's a hobby like any other, and it's one that has matured along with its players. Games are more sophisticated than they once were, but even if the games hadn't changed at all, you could still play them and enjoy them for as long as you want to. No one has a right to say that a hobby or interest is childish or immature or that you're too old to play with your favorite toys if you want to. Be who you are, and spend your leisure time as you wish. Now, I feel the sudden need to dig out my favorite comics for a re-read... or maybe some legos....

Remove the word "Video" from your question.Seriously.  Remove that one word.  Then ask the question. How old is too old to play games? Now.  Go to any retirement home.  What do you see in the recreation area?  Decks of cards, cribbage boards, dominos, checkers, chess... games.  You see games.  You see old people playing games.  Why?  It occupies the mind.  It passes the time.  It provides a feeling of accomplishment and achievement.  It allows you to compete with other people on a level playing field. But that's not enough for you.  Nooo.  So, let's widen the view.  We have entire industries dedicated to the idea of games.  Sporting Goods stores have been in business for.... well over a century.  Our national past-time isn't bird watching, or having picnics... our national past-time is a game.  Baseball.  People make complex games involving horses.  People make a game of watching others go around in a circle repeatedly.  Sure... people get too old to play football, when they would easily get injured due to an inability to compete on the same level as the other players... but that doesn't keep them from being a spectator and enjoying the game from a chair. So the real question is... why are you biased specifically AGAINST video games?  Why is someone playing a video version of solitaire or cribbage bad, but playing the actual version of solitaire and cribbage good? Oh... you are talking about SPECIFIC games... like... old people shouldn't play Call of Duty... or old people shouldn't play World of Warcraft.... or old people shouldn't play the Sims 4.  Does that mean the real question here is "When are people too old to play the types of games I believe old people shouldn't play?" Because if you are actually asking when people are too old to play video games... the answer is never.  Especially considering the existence of a video game version of just about EVERY "regular" game out there. "Sorry there old timer.... you are too old to play solitaire on that computer.  Regulations and all that." Just remember.... any time you feel the urge to say "What I Mean Is".. you are actually asking a different question.  Oh, it might be similar, but it won't be the initial question you started with.  That makes a huge difference in answers.