Five Reasons Why Being a 30-Year-Old Gamer Is Awesome

On Friday, our own Nathan Birch posted an article about why turning 30 and still being a gamer can wear on your suddenly aging bones. And, having turned 30 this year myself, I can see where he’s coming from.

But there are some upsides to having played games for more than two decades. Upsides I never expected to have, but are there, and are absolutely awesome.

Realistically speaking, gamers in their thirties have it made in ways we don’t often appreciate. Really. As hard as it is to believe, it’s way better than when we were kids.

Like for example…

#5) The Only Person Controlling Your Gaming Is You

Stop and consider what’s dictated your gaming decisions: it’s usually a combination of money and some form of authority figure. But by this point you presumably have an okay job and are living on your own. So you no longer have to use the console you got for Christmas; you can just buy one of your own. And buy any game you want.

#4) Revisiting Your Teenage Self Is Hilarious

Headsets add a little too much to many games, especially trash talk. And way too many teenagers have them, but, to be honest, part of the reason I can’t do multiplayer is the simple fact that I’m laughing too hard. I just can’t take all the chest-pounding and poor sportsmanship seriously, and it annoys other players. And we were all like that, back in the day, which just makes it funnier. Oh, yes, I remember when I thought being good at video games was deeply important.

Of course, even funnier is…

#3) Torturing Your Teenage Self Is Not Only Easy, But Encouraged

I rented the new “Mortal Kombat” when it came out, mostly for the nostalgia factor and to see what Netherrealm had whipped up, and went into the online mode, because I’m a masochist. And I found that years of playing “Mortal Kombat” were not, in fact, wasted because pretty much every opponent I ran into was a dick who stunk at playing the game, so I beat them handily. Which wasn’t nearly as fun as listening to them scream about how I must be cheating, while really all it was was experience and simply being better than them.

Maybe it’s unhealthy to find driving a twelve-year-old into a controller-smashing ragequit funny, but hey, he needs to learn that his mouth is writing checks his thumbs can’t cash, just like we did, back in the day, only instead of being a mullet-sporting loser at the bowling alley, we’re awesome guys with real jobs and significant others who touch us sexually.

#2) The Major Publishers Are Bringing Back All The Games You Knew and Loved

Granted, this reflects a larger industry creativity problem, but on the other hand, damn, major game publishers really want my money. Pretty much all the major releases are aimed squarely at the thirty-year-olds who’ve been playing games for years. They’re releasing arcade games you haven’t been able to find or play in forever for five bucks. They’re rebooting franchises you’ve missed for years. And really that’s because…

#1) Gaming is More Diverse, More Artistic, More Available, More Socially Acceptable, And Better Than It Has Ever Been In Our Entire Freaking Lives

Stop and consider for a minute that right now, in 2012, we live in a time and a place where a beloved game developer can go onto the Internet, appeal to their fans, and get the money they need to make the game they want. Can you imagine that happening in the 8-bit era? Or, hell, just one console generation ago?

We have more games available in more ways now than we ever have had before. And even better, we have genuinely new experiences like “Braid”, or “Journey”, or “I Am Alive”, or “Portal”. Want to play a classic game? Go to Abandonia, or Good Old Games, or Steam. I spent all of last summer playing all the classic LucasArts adventure games I didn’t have the money or the computer to enjoy in high school. I just finished playing a few levels of “Blood”, and maybe later I’m going to follow that up with some “Assassin’s Creed”.

Yes, it can be overwhelming, but remember the alternative? Remember buying games at a Babbage’s, or a Wal-Mart if you were really unlucky? Remember the Nintendo Seal of Quality, which was also a de facto censorship board?

And even better, gaming is socially acceptable now. Spending an hour or two playing games on a console is no longer weird or strange, it’s normal. Stop and consider that thousands of nerds went to a convention in Boston a few weeks back that was literally unthinkable just a decade ago.

Do I love everything about the games industry? Hell no. Often it drives me crazy. But occasionally it helps to stop, look around, and remember that the reason gaming drives us crazy, why we gripe about the lack of time for games and being spoiled for choice is that gaming has become more awesome now that it has even been.

Torturing brats is just a bonus.

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