Chp 362. Of Adulthood and Online gaming

HAHAHAAA!!! I still can’t stop laughing at The Oatmeal’s latest update – A comic strip of what it’s like to play online games as a grownup. I can sooo relate to this, and you really have to check it out!

[Click on pic to view complete comic strip]


Lolz. So true!

Even till today I just can’t get over gaming. I love gaming – computer gaming, mobile gaming, online gaming, you name it. But I did stop describing myself as a “hardcore gamer” because these days, any schmuck with an iPhone playing “Angry Birds” describes himself as a hardcore gamer too.

A few years ago, I was a part of a historic team that dominated a major World of the popular browser MMORPG TribalWars. We battled out day in and night out, regrouping whenever it was necessary and counter attacking with merciless destruction. Within our tribe, we all had our ranks & roles & duties to perform, and we played them out to perfection. But at our private discussion forum, guess who stood out?



Lolz. Yeah, I know how I look like to many of you. Don’t say the P word! Haha.

When it comes to games like AOE, Warcraft, Command & Conquer etc, I actually used to go 2-3 straight days without even sleeping because I couldn’t do anything else until I had completed the entire built-in campaign!

And now it’s the age of mobile phone gaming. Contract Killer, Inotia3, Zenonia3, My Country, Free Townsmen 6, Myth Defense, these are just some of the many games I am currently hooked to. And most of these games are MMORPG! Gone are the days when you interact and play with different players across the globe using a bulky computer and modem connection. Now you can easily do all that from your mobile phone even while sitting in the loo. And with mobile phones coming out with dual core processors and more features, the future is extremely bright for us gaming enthusiasts.

Taking all these into consideration, when exactly is someone “too old to play online games”?

In my defense, let me just tell you that we never had online games when I was a kid. We didn’t even know what internet meant back then. So there is no question of outgrowing online gaming, because we basically never had them while growing up!

Over here in India, during the late 80s, gaming meant playing Space Invaders, Pac Man and Pong on my Atari console.



Then during the early 90s, gaming was about playing 8-bit games like Contra, Super Mario bros, Donkey Kong, Double Dragon, etc. Do you remember any of these?



I don’t know about the rest of the world, but here in India it was Sega who came out with the first 16 bit console, and I literally cried in sheer joy when my dad bought me one even though I already had an Atari and Nintendo system. Yeah, I was really pampered then, lolz.



Ah ohhhh let’s not forget about the ADAPTER! Lolz. A device that lets you play Nintendo cartridges on a Sega console, and Sega cartridges on a Nintendo console! My dad’s friend in Cal managed to get one for me, and I was one of the few kids in Mizoram who had it back then, and the news spread like wildfire and many young boys of my age who I didn’t even know used to come to my house everyday to check out this amazing “technological wonder”!

The late 90s saw computer games taking over, and we were hooked to Dave, Prince of Persia, Doom etc. Those were the days when hard disk drives were 2GB and carrying a large 8 inch floppy disk was considered hip!



…until the 3½ inch version overtook the market later



Then the computer games revolution happened and I will not talk about those games because there are just too damn many to mention!!

What I want to say is, even though I’ve been playing games all my life, online games where you interact with real people across the globe are different. It brings in a new level of gaming experience whether you’ve been playing games right from childhood or not. You can now do things that were once deemed impossible.

Hence, once again, this is something that just cannot be outgrown because it is an entirely new phenomenon! To outgrow something, you need to be doing it for quite some time first. Therefore it is practically not possible to outgrow online gaming. There, I’ve said it. I rest my case.

And oh, one last parting shot – The average age of online gamers is 34.