Mumsnet Talk

As a thread hijack, has anyone played The Old Republic? It's free to play soon, would love a MN guild on there!

I did for a while, yep. Stopped after hitting max level as the storyline, which had been awesome up til then, really hit a wall.

So I do own it. Would totally play again if there were a group going.

Yes, you lead a sheltered life. All the men in their forties that I know play online games. Some of them have jobs, some of them have kids, some of them are married, all of them have responsibilities and lives, and all of them like to unwind with a bit of mindless shooting people.

If anything's a bit juvenile, it's thinking less of people for how they choose to spend their leisure time when it's all perfectly legal and not hurting anyone.

It's definitely more fun to play as a group, I've been teaming up with DH. Looks pretty replayable too! I suspect I'll max out my Sith Inquisitor and then move onto a Jedi Consular for a bit of contrast.

Just looked at their site, it's free to play now

Does look like you need to subscribe to be in a guild, but we could always just add as friends and then group when we see each other online?

My dad's 58. He's got the biggest collection of PS3 games outside of amazon.co.uk!

I've played wow on and off since it was first out and I most definately have a life!
There are lots of interesting people playing wow that I've met, the manager of a London wagamamas and the model son of a famous bassist, plenty of european students too! We used to meet up quite often across Europe, we've been to Dublin and had people over from NL.

I played SWToR for a bit too (and rift ha!) then MoP came out and I was lured back to wow

Scrap my last message, we can join guilds. Will have to look into whether we can start guilds.

Come back over to the dark side RugBugs!!

YABU, I'm in my 60s and play World of Warcraft (WoW) and have friends in the game aged from 19 to 73. Because I'm disabled going out is difficult and I would much rather be playing WoW, laughing and chatting with friends than slumped in front of the TV.

Some of my RL friends are convinced that anyone I meet online is bound to be an axe murderer ha ha.

I did quite like SWToR but I joined later than all my wow guildies (who were on beta and got the week before launch to lvl) so got stuck on another server which sucked.
I still can't work out how to create characters on more than the three EN RP/PVE/PVP servers it comes up with or I'd readily join a MN guild!

YABU and a bit of a twit!

Actually, one of our biggest social get togethers of the year is when we meet up with our old gaming guild (I don't tend to play multiplayer anymore and DH's job means he has less time now too, but we still keep up with the people/social side of gaming).

It always amazes me what a broad cross-section of people we are who just happen to have a shared interest in games. It also amazes me how well we all get on with each other, despite (in some cases) massive life differences. It's a great community.

Just goes to show how stupid the gaming stereotypes are, really.

Is this a zombie thread? Clearly the OP was posted in the late 90's.

YABU.

Perhaps if you got a hobby of your own,you would be less bothered by other people's?

Some of the most balanced, responsible people I know are into gaming.

The average age of gamers is like 30years old make of that what you will

Sorry current average is 37

http://www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp

The average gamer is 30 years old and has been playing for 12 years. Sixty-eight percent of gamers are 18 years of age or older.

Forty-seven percent of all players are women, and women over 18 years of age are one of the industry's fastest growing demographics.

Today, adult women represent a greater portion of the game-playing population (30 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (18 percent).

Sixty-two percent of gamers play games with others, either in-person or online. Seventy-eight percent of these gamers play with others at least one hour per week.

Thirty-three percent of gamers play social games.

Gamers play on-the-go: 33 percent play games on their smartphones, and 25 percent play on their handheld device.

Ninety percent of the time parents are present when games are purchased or rented. Ninety-eight percent of parents feel the Entertainment Software Rating Board rating system is helpful in choosing games for their children. Seventy-three percent of parents believe that the parental controls available in all new video game consoles are useful.

Parents also see several benefits of entertainment software, with 52 percent saying video games are a positive part of their child’s life. Sixty-six percent of parents believe that game play provides mental stimulation or education, 61 percent believe games encourage their family to spend to time together, and 59 percent believe that game play helps their children connect with their friends.

My dp is 32 and plays his games (fifa or cod) from 7pm when kids go to bed until 3am ish non-stop. Tbh i find it pretty sad and yes it does have an impact on our relationship as he's coming to bed as i'm about to get up (at 6) so no quality time together. Some days it bothers me more than others but i'm pretty used to it now and just watch tv in bed/read.
What bugs me the most is he's got these noise cancelling headphones so he could not hear me shouting if there was an emergency.

I just asked dh if my gaming habits damaged our relationship. DH: "no, but I do think if you watched non-stop soap operas every evening that would damage our relationship."

DH is 40. He plays on his Xbox from time to time, mostly fantasy/adventure or racing games rather than killing games. He also goes to work, watches films and TV, reads books, designs websites, sees friends and plays sports. As part of a healthy balanced life, I see nothing wrong with it.

"My dp is 32 and plays his games (fifa or cod) from 7pm when kids go to bed until 3am ish non-stop. Tbh i find it pretty sad and yes it does have an impact on our relationship as he's coming to bed as i'm about to get up"

I suspect in that case if it wasn't games it'd be something else unfortunately.


Gaming doesn't create selfish people, it's just one outlet for the selfishness.

<yawn>

Zelda that is a different situation IMO. He is behaving selfishly, incredibly so. Doesn't he have work to get up for in the mornings? When do you spend any time together?

These threads pop up occasionally and always make me

My mother is in her forties and has been gaming for over twenty years. We've always played together! My dad is 60 and plays shooters occasionally when he's not playing golf

Gaming is as legitimate a hobby as watching tv/reading etc. But it hasn't quite shaken that stereotype of all gamers being immature people who can't get a date or function in the real world.
Then again, I think passively watching TV instead of being involved with your entertainment is a bit weird, so what do I know?