Any Interest in Videogames Here?

[Stonewalker]

Good spot. I can't remember what game she was "playing". As our 2 kids got a little older they used to play text based games as a reading and typing exercise. "You are in a maze of twisty little passages all alike".

One of the first that the kids played that had basic graphics was Granny's Garden, and it was written for the Acorn BBC Model B Computer in 1983.

Fabulous, but I do have one word for you...


Zork

 

[gwraigty]

Have to admit we play a LOT. We used to use iMacs, but for gaming you can really use a PC. So we each have a PC and monitor set up in the Living Room at our seats on the couch.

...

Love Runescape. Had an account so long ago it was the sixteen bit graphics. My original account got banned when someone hacked it and used my toon as a gold broker. There's no coming back from that. At least I know what to do with the newer guy.

We use our living room as an office. We have 3 full-sized desks/3 PCs (one PC belongs to our daughter) in it. Our family room is for TV watching. I'm trying to imagine your set up. Can you share a pic?

Reminder: This weekend is bonus XP weekend on Runescape, unless you're playing Old School.

 

[Stonewalker]

My DH is currently playing Tom Clancy's "The Division 2" with friends he has played online with for over 20 years.

My retired brother plays this with the same sort of group. Though I like the game, it is a bit tough to play solo and I'm not meshed with his team like he is, so I felt like an outsider. Well, I am...

Fun game, though.

 

[Alan]

Fabulous, but I do have one word for you...


Zork

By heck, the Colossal Cave Adventure on a PDP-10 was my first ever adventure game. We used to play it at work during lunch. You couldn’t save your place so we had to draw a map of the caves as we discovered them then it was a rush each lunchtime to advance to the place we had left off the day or week before.

 

[rocketdog]

Before I retired I avoided video games because I found them addictive time-wasters. I planned to play them once I retired and had free time


That's what I did! I got a nice gaming PC and I play a lot! I'm more into modding and I'm teaching myself Blender to make 3D objects and I'm helping some Russian game developers with the English for their game. Also helping write the story for another game. I even find time to play.


There's an entire world of retired and/or disabled folks out there, playing games across the globe. I play city-builders (civilizations, city skylines) also survival and space games (Mass Effect, Empyrion, No Man's Sky), a recent game I like is Animallica where you travel across the earth and capture animals to save them.


It's an addictive time waster but I love it. I still find time for real life activities but once you have a computer or console--video games are cheap fun.

 

[Stonewalker]

It's an addictive time waster but I love it. I still find time for real life activities but once you have a computer or console--video games are cheap fun.

Too true. Especially the "cheap fun" part. DW and I love playing the games together, too.

 

[Stonewalker]

We use our living room as an office. We have 3 full-sized desks/3 PCs (one PC belongs to our daughter) in it. Our family room is for TV watching. I'm trying to imagine your set up. Can you share a pic?

Sure, but don't tell DW I showed you this.

Reminder: This weekend is bonus XP weekend on Runescape, unless you're playing Old School.

Thanks. We're traveling this week, and RS is my go-to game on the MS Surface.

 

[ER Eddie]

Glad to see so many people have an interest in videogames. When I made the thread, I figured I'd get maybe 4 or 5 "yes"s and about the same number of "nah"s, given the age bracket. I'm pleasantly surprised. More people gaming here than I figured there would be. Too bad we're all playing different sorts of games or we could get together and play co-op or something.

I haven't been into multiplayer gaming much in the past, but once I retire, I might explore that more. Co-op might be fun. I'm not much for the team vs. team stuff that is so popular, though.

Anyhow, thanks for all the responses. Good stuff.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

By heck, the Colossal Cave Adventure on a PDP-10 was my first ever adventure game. We used to play it at work during lunch. You couldn’t save your place so we had to draw a map of the caves as we discovered them then it was a rush each lunchtime to advance to the place we had left off the day or week before.

I loved the text adventure games, but when Rogue/Hack/Nethack came out, remember how amazing it was to have a GRAPHICAL adventure game?

 

[gwraigty]

Sure, but don't tell DW I showed you this.
View attachment 31480


Thanks. We're traveling this week, and RS is my go-to game on the MS Surface.

I won't.

 

[Kwirk]

I still play the old games that give you time to think like Master Of Orion, Heroes of Might and Magic.

So many games that I can't possibly remember them all! Started with Pong and Zork. Last "new" game was Zelda on the Nintendo Switch.

But, the game I keep going back to is Master of Orion (1993).

 

[Pointby2]

Used to love to play flight sims back in the 386/486 Intel chip days where you had to fix the autoexec.bat to get them to run. Got all the gear and tried to keep up with computer power. Got too hard eventually. Now I play a little world of tanks every week and just picked up Rollercoaster Tycoon a few weeks ago. I also have been iRacing for a few years and am waiting for the new Oculus Rift S to use in iRacing.

 

[scol]

I've been a video gamer all my life, starting on an Apple II+ . Still play many hours a week. Now more into strategy gaming although the shooters still interest me.


I've wondered if the games I play actually help my mental acuity and reflexes. I tend to think so. What do you think ?

 

[DeborahB]

DOOM!!! I played Doom and its offshoots like Heretic for years. OMG I forgot about them. And they’re still good. I have some kind of emulator program that lets me play on a laptop. I forget what it’s called. I played Rogue way back. But Doom was the first real FPS game and I got hooked in 10 minutes. Now I play stuff on Facebook and just dumb games. For years i ran a guild on a game - HonorBound, that was it. It was fun.

The best thing I did on Doom was change one of the monsters into Barney, the stupid purple dinosaur, and then blast him. Yes, I can be geeky!

 

[gooddog]

Currently playing ES4 and ES3. Was big into Quake III Arena way back when, and been into ID games from about 1990, and some others before that. Q3A is still alive after all these years, and has a lot of servers - worth checking out a UFT server at quakelive.com....or via Steam.

 

[Jollyquick]

I’ve been a gamer since discovering D & D in high school. Video games were a natural transition for me and when they went online I did too. When I was at my peak earning years I had to travel a lot (275+ days a year) and I would play online games with my kids to have a presence/interaction with them. The game allowed me to play with my children from anywhere that had an internet connection. We were “together” in hotels and airport lounges from Reykjavik to Albuquerque to Frankfurt. They literally grew up with World of Warcraft.

Over the years I tought them market investment strategies with the ingame auction house system. We joined guilds and learned about teamwork and interpersonal relationships. They learned about the difference between the chain of command and chain of communication. We were in guilds that failed due to bad leadership or followership. We were in huge, successful guilds that were so competitive we burned out and quit them. Life imitating Art or Art imitating Life?!

Since “vanilla” WoW (the original release in 2004) We’ve met hundreds of people from around the world from all different walks of life, religion, politics, and cultures. We’ve argued, laughed, cried, and found much more in common with people that we would never have met in the “real world”. We’ve held in-game funerals and weddings, and the more than occasional mass slaughter of the enemy! WoW is a game about war after all! We have real life friends to this day that we met in game years ago. It was, and is, a great experience.

When I retired we continued to play as they went off to chase their futures. I play pretty much daily now. Although the kids play a lot less now (filthy casuals!) we still get in the game together occasionally and beat down some opposing faction players for old times sake. Nothing tastes better than the tears of your enemy!

FOR THE HORDE!

 

[VanWinkle]

I've been a video gamer all my life, starting on an Apple II+ . Still play many hours a week. Now more into strategy gaming although the shooters still interest me.


I've wondered if the games I play actually help my mental acuity and reflexes. I tend to think so. What do you think ?

I love strategy games too, what have you found that would recommend for strategy?

 

[Totoro]

Try Polytopia. It's a shorter, compacter version of Civilization.

 

[ER Eddie]

I've wondered if the games I play actually help my mental acuity and reflexes. I tend to think so. What do you think?

I think so, too. There is research showing a range of cognitive and even social benefits to playing videogames. Naturally, there are downsides if you play games excessively and neglect other parts of life, but that is true of anything. Since the downside gets all the media attention, here are some articles about the upside:

15 Surprising Benefits of Playing Video Games | Mental Floss

https://ecirtam.net/autoblogs/autob...bf6d0c1b27186/media/affa8d7f.amp-a0034857.pdf

http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/15272/1/187769_5405 Griffiths Publisher.pdf

https://www.gamedesigning.org/why-video-games-are-good/

https://www.rd.com/health/wellness/health-benefits-of-video-games/

https://www.idtech.com/blog/video-games-are-good-for-you


Here are a few quotes from those articles about the cognitive and reflex aspects you mentioned:

"A study of surgeons found that those who played videogames for more than three hours per week made 32 percent fewer errors during practice procedures compared to their non-gaming counterparts."

"Contrary to conventional beliefs that playing video games is intellectually lazy and sedating, it turns out that playing these games promotes a wide range of cognitive skills." (APA research review)

"Research dating back to the early 1980s has consistently shown that playing computer games (irrespective of genre) produces reductions in reaction times, improved hand-eye co-ordination and raises players’ self-esteem."

 

[Masquernom]

Well, I've been resisting buying a PS4 and playing Diablo, but I guess you've all pulled me back into gaming big time again....

 

[MultiEventer]

Lifelong gamer here. Started with pong in the early 70's and never looked back. As a retiree now, I spend about 20 hours per week when I play. But after I finish a game, I rest a month or so and catch up on sci-fi books. For about 5 years, I was into Halo, playing with my son and co-workers on line. I travel in an RV around the US now so don't always have decent online connection, so I go through games. Love sci-fi oriented games, especially post-apocalyptic. Not much into fantasy like Sky Rim but I've played it some. Borderlands, Bio Shock, Half-Life, Doom...games like that. Currently in the middle of a game called Rage. So far, my all time favorite is probably the Bio Shock series which is sci-fi and based on an Ayn Rand (objectivist- Altas Shrugged) hidden society.

 

[MultiEventer]

Play the 2016 Doom game on an Xbox1. It will blow you away. So, so, so fun.

 

[Stonewalker]

Used to love to play flight sims back in the 386/486 Intel chip days where you had to fix the autoexec.bat to get them to run. Got all the gear and tried to keep up with computer power. Got too hard eventually. Now I play a little world of tanks every week and just picked up Rollercoaster Tycoon a few weeks ago. I also have been iRacing for a few years and am waiting for the new Oculus Rift S to use in iRacing.

So you have all the gear you need to play the new Elite. It is upper end graphics, and an entire universe, but still retains much of the premise of the original Elite.

 

[gstillson]

Wow classic now has a release date, August 26

Time to relive 2004

 

[Stonewalker]

Try Polytopia. It's a shorter, compacter version of Civilization.

I have it and tried it about a month ago. Was simply confused. Is it finished?