How does age currently affect your gaming?

[Kakariko Kid]

I'm curious. I was born in 1984. I know there are some quite younger members here and wonder what gaming system generation y'all were born in. I started out playing the Atari 2600 and NES. Now I'm 29 with a wife, 2 kids, live-in niece and soon - foster children. I can't keep up with games like I once did and avoid some since I have kids. I do have a NES, SNES, Wii, Xbox and a Xbox360, but I can't go next-gen for a while.

[Psychospacecow]

Personally, I'm from '95. Yeah, make your 90's kids jokes but that only increases my modem speed!

Anyway, I started more or less at my aunt's house. She had an old windows computer with Raptor and some Mouse maze set of games. We also had a plug in kind of system with duck hunt and one of the old mario games. I don't remember that too well minus how annoying that dog was.
I guess our first real console was the Playstation 1. I remember Final Fantasy 9, the twisted metal toy game, Legend of Dragoon, Crash Bandicoot's racing game, and Chrono Cross very well.
About a year after the PS2 came out, we got one for Christmas. It had Kingdom Hearts 1 with it, and I never actually played it. There was that sibling hierarchy, and not knowing how to read very well at the time did not help. My first handheld was the Gameboy Color. I got it around 2000. It had some Gradius type game, the Dinosaurs movie game, some tank game, and Pokemon Yellow. I eventually got Pokemon Gold with it as well and Mario Tennis. The PS2 eventually became mine when my brother became more of a PC Gamer. I remember very distinctly watching him play these wonderful games with his keyboard. This would have been around 2006. We had since played Devil May Cry 3, Final Fantasy 10, 10-2, and 12, Dragon Quest 8, Gladius, Every single DBZ game with Budokai in the name, Kingdom Hearts 2, Destroy All Humans 2, Soul Calibur 3, and the second Star Wars Battlefront. My neighbor had a gamecube and I would stop by every other day and we would play Smash Brother Melee, or Kirby Air Ride, Shadow The Hedgehog, etc.
What's funny is, I had been playing Starcraft Brood War since around the time we got the PS2 as well. My brother would always beat me, but I loved the map editor. The same story repeats with Warcraft 3, Empire Earth, and Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds. (will continue later)

[Kakariko Kid]

No 90's kids jokes. My little sister was born in '95. And I remember The Legend of Dragoon. I actually bought it for my little brother since I knew it was a lot like FF7 and he was into the series. I actually bought it because I'd be able to play it, too and actually played it more than him. That's okay. He got me back by buying me Fallout: New Vegas before I ever got a 360 and he had one. He still has the game and I only played it once.

[CosmykTheDolfyn]

I'm still ultra nostalgic about the N64, since it was the first system I owned. I guess my age also makes more leery of any online connectivity or DLC, because I hate that in games. I really miss cartridges and floppy disks also for gaming, just because you didn't need a car, and could write codes right on the game!

[Mass Distraction]

I think my first touch in gaming was my cousin's NES. We played that for hours whenever I went there, mostly SMB, Duck Hunt, Mc. Kids, SMB3 and Double Dragon 2. I would also stay at school even when the days were over because I wanted to play games like SAM, Cosmo and Doom. My friend also got a computer and an NES later on soe we did play a lot back then. Then I got my other cousin's NES, followed by my brother's Amiga 500 and finally my own PS that I bought used from a dude I found selling it on a newspaper's sell/buy pages.

Skipping forward to this day because I could go on for ages. I don't have much time to play games because of the shitty hours at work but I do try to cram in as much gaming as I can in my daily life. I just can't let go of it, it has become my hobby over the years.

[Kakariko Kid]

I'm still ultra nostalgic about the N64, since it was the first system I owned. I guess my age also makes more leery of any online connectivity or DLC, because I hate that in games. I really miss cartridges and floppy disks also for gaming, just because you didn't need a car, and could write codes right on the game!

I still remember my N64. I left it with my sister when I moved out. She later sold it in a yard sale along with both Zelda games I had. I also accidentally sold my player guides I had for them when they wound up in a box of comics I sold. I'll eventually buy the guides again simply because I want them. I downloaded several Zelda games on my daughter's Wii. I still have the ole noggin that remembers most of everything that I had in the guides.

[gamemaster1991]

Born the tail end of 91. I grew up mostly Nintendo (started out with the SNES and gameboy, whent to N64 and GBA, and than the Gamecube), but I did get a PS2 some time during Elementary school (2003) and an X-box sometime before High school (2007, which about a year latter is when I got a Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3). I grew up with Mario, but slowly lost interest in him when I found Sonic the Hedghog (granted 10 years after he came around) and all the other games that were a lot better than Mario. Ageing didn't really change my taste with games (I have way too many platformers), but it did show me more games that I would not have tried (FPSes, RPGs, and most resontly Turn Based Strategy). I most likly would have never picked up Kingdom Hearts if it wasn't for my changing taste in games.

---

I'm still ultra nostalgic about the N64, since it was the first system I owned. I guess my age also makes more leery of any online connectivity or DLC, because I hate that in games. I really miss cartridges and floppy disks also for gaming, just because you didn't need a car, and could write codes right on the game!

I'm the same way. I don't know why we can't have everything one one disc when it has been proven that it can. Cartridges were where they got it right but I do know that those things are really small and Discs do hold more data.

[Beware of Cuccos*]

eatona, this is a great question! I'm in your age group. Born in 1985. My first experience I remember was the original Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. on NES. My grandparents had one and my grandpa would let my younger brother and I mash buttons with him. We eventually got into Duck Hunt, Caveman Games, and many, many others. And, yes, I enjoy Zelda II.

I remember having a Super Nintendo and getting all the Zelda and Mario games for that as well, among others. My favorite console of all, though, is the Nintendo 64. In my opinion, that's a real as game graphics need to be. Not to mention all the exploration in the new games! It was groundbreaking. I still love that console more than any other that has ever come out.

I fell away from gaming for many years. At least 12-15 would be my guess. I got back in a few years ago. I got a Wii for Christmas when they came out. I despise motion control controllers, but, god damn, I love me some Zelda. I also have the Green Day Rock Band (or is it Guitar Hero?) game. Because, god dam, I love me some Green Day. (Fun Fact: I'm listening to a live recording of them from 2000 in it's entirety right now on Sirius XM Lithium)

There seems to be an entire generation of kids that hate old games. Whether the excuse be 'graphics', 'side scrolling' or 'too hard', I will never understand. There was just so much more satisfaction when you found a secret on your own than Googling it on your smartphone to figure it out.

I think the systems today try and do too much. TV, internet, Netflix, blah blah blah. Just let me play my damn game!

---

As far as your actual question goes, i'm old school and hate change.

I guess I could have answered that right off the bat haha.

---

OH! I almost forgot! When computers started happening and internet became a thing, I got the very first The Sims right when it came out and have been hooked ever since :)

[Psychospacecow]

Personally, I'm from '95. Yeah, make your 90's kids jokes but that only increases my modem speed!

Anyway, I started more or less at my aunt's house. She had an old windows computer with Raptor and some Mouse maze set of games. We also had a plug in kind of system with duck hunt and one of the old mario games. I don't remember that too well minus how annoying that dog was.
I guess our first real console was the Playstation 1. I remember Final Fantasy 9, the twisted metal toy game, Legend of Dragoon, Crash Bandicoot's racing game, and Chrono Cross very well.
About a year after the PS2 came out, we got one for Christmas. It had Kingdom Hearts 1 with it, and I never actually played it. There was that sibling hierarchy, and not knowing how to read very well at the time did not help. My first handheld was the Gameboy Color. I got it around 2000. It had some Gradius type game, the Dinosaurs movie game, some tank game, and Pokemon Yellow. I eventually got Pokemon Gold with it as well and Mario Tennis. The PS2 eventually became mine when my brother became more of a PC Gamer. I remember very distinctly watching him play these wonderful games with his keyboard. This would have been around 2006. We had since played Devil May Cry 3, Final Fantasy 10, 10-2, and 12, Dragon Quest 8, Gladius, Every single DBZ game with Budokai in the name, Kingdom Hearts 2, Destroy All Humans 2, Soul Calibur 3, and the second Star Wars Battlefront, all the Tekken games from 3-5. My neighbor had a gamecube and I would stop by every other day and we would play Smash Brother Melee, or Kirby Air Ride, Shadow The Hedgehog, etc.
What's funny is, I had been playing Starcraft Brood War since around the time we got the PS2 as well. My brother would always beat me, but I loved the map editor. The same story repeats with Warcraft 3, Empire Earth, and Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds. (will continue later)

(Continuing now)
The PS2 became mine around 2008. It still is functioning, until the PS1. We got the xbox 360 around 2009, and then another one around 2011. The things just don't last. Halo 3, Reach, 4, Gears of War 2 and 3, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Forza 3 and 4, COD MW2 and BOPS, Fable 2, Soul Calibur 5 (huge disappointment btw), Tekken 6, etc.
I'd been a PC gamer off and on without much dedication until late 2011. I now have a lot of games I could have never afforded then, and I probably haven't played half of them because the reality of school and occasional work opportunity that comes up.
I've glazed over my DS games, early PC games (mostly Sims, Strategy games, demos, and Halo PC anyway), most of the library for my games I've played in general, and after typing this up, its really made me think of just how fortunate my life has been.

[Kakariko Kid]

This is all so interesting. Video games have been a big part of my entire life. Like I said, with a family, I don't have a much time as I once did. But, things like the LoZ:MM - Excitebike connection I found is one of those things that remind me of where I came from (btw, it's the latest Trivia added to Majora's Mask). Also, my wife got me some neato phone covers. One is a NES controller, the other is the original Gameboy. I tried to attach a picture of them, but my phone is being stupid.

[BumblebeeCody*]

I'm a lot more critical as a person which then effects the way I think about games. I have the nostalgia factor but generally don't let that get in the way. When I was younger I didn't quite understand what a game/form of media was saying or the deeper connections it made to the audience but then when you get older and smarter, you appreciate what they were saying.

Example being:
The Matrix, Majoras Mask, Cowboy Bebop and a few others. Never understood them when I was younger, but rewatching/playing them now makes you appreciate what really went into them. It's a different case with games like Sonic Adventure which was awesome back then(2003) but is incredibly bad by todays standard or has aged terribly(no nostalgia allowed).

I thought Majoras Mask was a fun game until you look at the finer details of that as opposed to the entire series.

I guess I look at mostly everything objectively now which has affected my thoughts on gaming.

[Kakariko Kid]

I'm a lot more critical as a person which then effects the way I think about games. I have the nostalgia factor but generally don't let that get in the way. When I was younger I didn't quite understand what a game/form of media was saying or the deeper connections it made to the audience but then when you get older and smarter, you appreciate what they were saying.

Example being:
The Matrix, Majoras Mask, Cowboy Bebop and a few others. Never understood them when I was younger, but rewatching/playing them now makes you appreciate what really went into them. It's a different case with games like Sonic Adventure which was awesome back then(2003) but is incredibly bad by todays standard or has aged terribly(no nostalgia allowed).

I thought Majoras Mask was a fun game until you look at the finer details of that as opposed to the entire series.

I guess I look at mostly everything objectively now which has affected my thoughts on gaming.

I love Majora's Mask. There was something about affecting the flow of time, results and how it stood away from OoT with the time thing. And now the 5 stages of dying. Mind blown. That's what makes it my 2nd favorite Zelda.

[gamemaster1991]

I'm a lot more critical as a person which then effects the way I think about games. I have the nostalgia factor but generally don't let that get in the way. When I was younger I didn't quite understand what a game/form of media was saying or the deeper connections it made to the audience but then when you get older and smarter, you appreciate what they were saying.

Example being:
The Matrix, Majoras Mask, Cowboy Bebop and a few others. Never understood them when I was younger, but rewatching/playing them now makes you appreciate what really went into them. It's a different case with games like Sonic Adventure which was awesome back then(2003) but is incredibly bad by todays standard or has aged terribly(no nostalgia allowed).

I thought Majoras Mask was a fun game until you look at the finer details of that as opposed to the entire series.

I guess I look at mostly everything objectively now which has affected my thoughts on gaming.

I love Majora's Mask. There was something about affecting the flow of time, results and how it stood away from OoT with the time thing. And now the 5 stages of dying. Mind blown. That's what makes it my 2nd favorite Zelda.

2ND? I'm sorry. We can't be friends any more.

Just kidding. MM is my personal favorite Zelda, with Twilight Princess being my 2nd and A Link to the Past being my 3rd. The game is one of those that makes you think if you look into the background. It's the first game to try a dark fantasy type and treats the player like an adult. It's too bad that it's so short, which is the only reason why I want a remake, but with real graphics.

Someone told me to pick up a PS2 game called Ephemeral Fantasia becuse it plays like MM. I have yet to find a copy of the game, so maybe someone who has played it could tell me if I need to play it or not.

[Hexadecimal*]

I was born in 1989 and my first gaming experience was the Sega Game Gear; my mom didn't want to buy me a Game Boy since it "wasn't in color". When I was seven I lived in an apartment building and made friends with a boy across the hall who owned a Super Nintendo.

I got one a year later but my mom ended up selling it on me when she got me an N64. For a little while I stuck to Nintendo systems but then I realized the PS2 matched my tastes so much more with their weirder titles. I loved the SMT series, Persona, Space Channel 5, Katamari Damacy, Gitaroo Man, Mr. Mosquito, and so on. They had the exclusives that wouldn't be on any other system and the backwards compatibility was a huge plus.

Nowadays... My game library becomes smaller and smaller with each new system. There's nothing I care about and all the stupid bells and whistles they make me pay for that I don't use are infuriating.

[Kakariko Kid]

I'm a lot more critical as a person which then effects the way I think about games. I have the nostalgia factor but generally don't let that get in the way. When I was younger I didn't quite understand what a game/form of media was saying or the deeper connections it made to the audience but then when you get older and smarter, you appreciate what they were saying.

Example being:
The Matrix, Majoras Mask, Cowboy Bebop and a few others. Never understood them when I was younger, but rewatching/playing them now makes you appreciate what really went into them. It's a different case with games like Sonic Adventure which was awesome back then(2003) but is incredibly bad by todays standard or has aged terribly(no nostalgia allowed).

I thought Majoras Mask was a fun game until you look at the finer details of that as opposed to the entire series.

I guess I look at mostly everything objectively now which has affected my thoughts on gaming.

I love Majora's Mask. There was something about affecting the flow of time, results and how it stood away from OoT with the time thing. And now the 5 stages of dying. Mind blown. That's what makes it my 2nd favorite Zelda.

2ND? I'm sorry. We can't be friends any more.

Just kidding. MM is my personal favorite Zelda, with Twilight Princess being my 2nd and A Link to the Past being my 3rd. The game is one of those that makes you think if you look into the background. It's the first game to try a dark fantasy type and treats the player like an adult. It's too bad that it's so short, which is the only reason why I want a remake, but with real graphics.

Someone told me to pick up a PS2 game called Ephemeral Fantasia becuse it plays like MM. I have yet to find a copy of the game, so maybe someone who has played it could tell me if I need to play it or not.

MM is about to replace ALttP I think as #1. A Link to the Past has been my long time fave, but I find myself replaying MM more. And I would love a remake for it. I don't have a 3DS but I liked OoT in the remake from what I played. And #3 for me is Windwaker. It's just so different.

---

I'm a lot more critical as a person which then effects the way I think about games. I have the nostalgia factor but generally don't let that get in the way. When I was younger I didn't quite understand what a game/form of media was saying or the deeper connections it made to the audience but then when you get older and smarter, you appreciate what they were saying.

Example being:
The Matrix, Majoras Mask, Cowboy Bebop and a few others. Never understood them when I was younger, but rewatching/playing them now makes you appreciate what really went into them. It's a different case with games like Sonic Adventure which was awesome back then(2003) but is incredibly bad by todays standard or has aged terribly(no nostalgia allowed).

I thought Majoras Mask was a fun game until you look at the finer details of that as opposed to the entire series.

I guess I look at mostly everything objectively now which has affected my thoughts on gaming.

I love Majora's Mask. There was something about affecting the flow of time, results and how it stood away from OoT with the time thing. And now the 5 stages of dying. Mind blown. That's what makes it my 2nd favorite Zelda.

2ND? I'm sorry. We can't be friends any more.

Just kidding. MM is my personal favorite Zelda, with Twilight Princess being my 2nd and A Link to the Past being my 3rd. The game is one of those that makes you think if you look into the background. It's the first game to try a dark fantasy type and treats the player like an adult. It's too bad that it's so short, which is the only reason why I want a remake, but with real graphics.

Someone told me to pick up a PS2 game called Ephemeral Fantasia becuse it plays like MM. I have yet to find a copy of the game, so maybe someone who has played it could tell me if I need to play it or not.

MM is about to replace ALttP I think as #1. A Link to the Past has been my long time fave, but I find myself replaying MM more. And I would love a remake for it. I don't have a 3DS but I liked OoT in the remake from what I played. And #3 for me is Windwaker. It's just so different.

---

I was born in 1989 and my first gaming experience was the Sega Game Gear; my mom didn't want to buy me a Game Boy since it "wasn't in color". When I was seven I lived in an apartment building and made friends with a boy across the hall who owned a Super Nintendo.

I got one a year later but my mom ended up selling it on me when she got me an N64. For a little while I stuck to Nintendo systems but then I realized the PS2 matched my tastes so much more with their weirder titles. I loved the SMT series, Persona, Space Channel 5, Katamari Damacy, Gitaroo Man, Mr. Mosquito, and so on. They had the exclusives that wouldn't be on any other system and the backwards compatibility was a huge plus.

Nowadays... My game library becomes smaller and smaller with each new system. There's nothing I care about and all the stupid bells and whistles they make me pay for that I don't use are infuriating.

Mine does, too. It's crazy that I bought a NES and SNES with two controllers for each and a total of 42 (I can't remember, maybe 34) from someone for less than half of what I paid for a 360 with a Kinect and one controller.