"Expert" on the today show says playing video games in your 30s is not normal

[RASK1904]

It might not have been, but it is now.

[DigitalSpace]

I think at this point it's an outmoded view that deserves neither anger nor attention.

Quoted for truth.

[Oobgarm]

I think at this point it's an outmoded view that deserves neither anger nor attention.

Someone get this man a hot dog.

[Robocop2]

30 year old gamer game = not normal
Unhealthy obession with The Royal couple and other nonsensical fluff = normal

[djshok]

I think if you're in your 30s or 40s and still have time to play video games and cash to collect them then you've planned out your life really well.

Most people are too busy working themselves to death or dealing with screaming children and working themselves to death. So if you reach that stage in life and can still have time to enjoy yourself then congratulations.

[cgreg]

Not sure I've ever seen an "expert" on the Today show. I know whoever brought Kathie Lee in wasn't one. Glad I sleep until the Today show is over. Gonna go watch cartoons.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

I just revised the first post to better reflect what I was thinking about when I originally posted.

[Graham Mitchell]

I think if you're in your 30s or 40s and still have time to play video games and cash to collect them then you've planned out your life really well.

Most people are too busy working themselves to death or dealing with screaming children and working themselves to death. So if you reach that stage in life and can still have time to enjoy yourself then congratulations.

Qft. I'm 32. I got married last week but no kids yet. Most of my peers in this age group who have 2 kids and no time for themselves are miserable.

Everybody needs a hobby. My dad is obsessed with golf. Every day off he gets hes on the golf course. Nobody pokes fun at him. Maybe your thing is music, transcendential meditation, art projects, whatever. It doesn't matter what it is as long as it's relaxing for you, you enjoy it, and it serves as a brief escape. (as long as it's not interfering with your occupational obligations).

Having hobbies build character. It's good to be passionate about something. People who don't have a reasonable means of soothing themselves end up miserable, and many go to drugs, alcohol, sex or whatever for escape. I think my wife would prefer me in the house obsessing over my pc engine collection than snorting coke off the toilet seat at Skybar. Just sayin.

[goatdan]

I still attribute it to a generation gap.

Ding ding ding!

Yup. It happens every generation. There is *something* that is going to kill everyone or make them all stupid mindless morons, and the older generation fears it because they don't understand it.

Movies were supposed to destroy the world.
Radio was supposed to destroy the world.
Comic books. TV. Video games. The Internet. Now, it's social media. All going to destroy the world.

So they don't play video games. So what? They use it as a way to make fun of people who do because they are scared of the fact they don't understand the generation gap. To me, it just means they aren't smart enough to embrace change, and honestly, most people aren't. They just don't usually put it out there so publicly.

[TonyTheTiger]

Agreed.

I think it's a pretty common issue with people not feeling any particular personal attachment to the newfangled technology. It's happened before and it'll happen again. There's a story that back when radio was new, lots of people were similarly critical of it because they were afraid widespread misinformation and unregulated content (comparatively speaking) would be harmful to society. Sound familiar?

I'm sure many of us right here in this thread could someday end up in the same situation if some new medium/tech gets picked up by the "kids" when we're in our 40s and 50s. Shit, it sort of happens right now on a small scale. How many members of this site look down upon "social gaming" like Farmville and wildly different interface schemes like motion controls?

There's no "cure" for it because I don't think it's an ailment. It's just normal. Radio was the devil. Comic books were the devil. Rock and Roll was the devil. Video games are the devil. I can only imagine what's next to be the devil but it'll be something. It might be Facebook right now.

The "cure" is for all the middle aged adults who "don't get it" to reach retirement age and back out of the spotlight whereby the new middle aged adults in power are the ones who grew up with the tech.

I actually think this kind of cycle is a good thing, believe it or not. Because I think it accomplishes two things. First, it's sort of a hazing process or boot camp whereby stuff that does survive it proves itself "worthy" of widespread adoption. It officially earns it's place as part of modern culture through trial by fire.

Second, it keeps new stuff honest when, in it's infancy, it is most vulnerable to something going wrong, whatever that may be. I think, despite the critics sometimes being ass-backwards stupid, the fact that there's criticism at all is valuable since it can act as a catalyst for personal responsibility and standards of care. The ESRB, for instance, is a good thing and was birthed through criticism from "old people." Likewise with whatever privacy concerns pop up in social media.

[j_factor]

You know what's not normal? Women in their late 50s with fake blonde hair and several rounds of plastic surgery. Just saying.

It's one of the only examples I can think of where a specific music genre was all of a sudden targeted. It didn't just die out naturally or go out of style. When I read the wikipedia article about it, I'm floored.

Some people say disco renamed itself "dance music" for the 1980's, but that stuff sounds different to me.

"Dance music" is a broader category. Even during disco's peak, not all dance music was disco. Disco became "italo" (think Giorgio Moroder), "hi-NRG" (Weather Girls, Sylvester, Dead or Alive, etc.), and ultimately "house" (Underworld, Felix da Housecat, etc.). Sure, it's not the same, but disco was evolving even before it lost that moniker, and these genres were just further evolutions. Disco also had a pretty heavy influence on 80s synthpop and cheesy 90s dance music -- I don't know of a proper name for the latter, but by that I mean groups like C+C Music Factory, Snap!, Technotronic, etc.

[eskobar]

I agree that playing in your 30's and 40's is NOT NORMAL ....

Not that I'll stop playing but I acknowledge that with a full-time job, wife/girlfriend and social life is quite hard to have one or two hours a day to waste ...

Even if gaming is now a social activity like going out for a drink, movie or watching a sports game; it still far from those activities.

[retroman]

have they seen what the average age of todays gamer is..they are idiots..its all just a opionion

[camarotuner]

So in a thread about people talking about stereotypes of gamers and how talk show hosts using those tired arguments/statements is a bad thing I read a few comments on the IQ of nascar fans.... um, pot this is the kettle?

Anyways, priorities guys. As an adult everyone gets to assign their own. This is (to me) the very essence of adulthood. You're now an adult. Pick and choose what you want to do and what emphasis you are going to put on it. Since everyone does this, we all get very "attached" to our way of prioritizing. Then someone else comes along, completely different set of priorities, and those people are just SO not normal. GF/Wife, Kids, house, fancy car, career, the gym, gaming, movies, list every freaking thing in the world here folks it's all a matter of how much or how little (or none at all of course) emphasis you put on it. You're a career guy. No kids, they get in the way, gf/wife maybe but only if she doesn't interfer with your goals of being a CEO or something. Other guy works at mcdonalds and has a wife and 2 kids. Both are happy as shit. Both think the other guy isn't normal. It's just the way the world works. The less people you are likely to find with your priorities the more people are going to view you as not normal. We're in a minority. Lots of people think we are pathetic losers living in our parents basement playing halo till our fingers bleed and never leave the house. That stigma should go away about the same time dumb blonde jokes go away. Get over it.

[Greg2600]

I was about to take this serious until the video loaded up with Kathie Lee Gifford.

[hairdbeezt8]

What makes this Donny guy an expert anyway? What is normal for one person might not be normal for another person? What makes this guy "normal" anyway? Oh it's because he cheated. I wonder what other things are on his mind? Maybe he means Kathie Lee Gifford. Okay I'm being judgmental just like you Mr. Donny.

[Drixxel]

So in a thread about people talking about stereotypes of gamers and how talk show hosts using those tired arguments/statements is a bad thing I read a few comments on the IQ of nascar fans.... um, pot this is the kettle?

You mean this?

Could you imagine this show bringing someone on to talk in the same manner about NASCAR?

NASCAR fans wouldn't even know they were being insulted.

I'm pretty sure Zing was just offering an example of a "normal" hobby that would generate some kind of outcry if its fans were criticised in the same throwaway style as gamers were on this Kathie Lee Gifford segment. Anyhow, note the tongue-in-cheekiness of the reply. No one's being a hypocrite here.

The idea that people regard each other as abnormal if their priorities don't sync up, that's more an example of intolerance than it is a healthy part of being an adult. It's ignorant to stereotype based on something like a hobby and that behaviour as seen in the video in question is as annoying as anything about it.

[jupitersj]

This guy has been a sensationalist for years it seems; it's all about ratings and money. Most networks do not care about opinions opposite their agendas.

I believe I found this on sega-16

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=5179663

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

This guy has been a sensationalist for years it seems; it's all about ratings and money. Most networks do not care about opinions opposite their agendas.

I believe I found this on sega-16

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=5179663

Thanks for the link. I didn't know the guy had a history of video game bashing.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

Agreed.

There's no "cure" for it because I don't think it's an ailment. It's just normal. Radio was the devil. Comic books were the devil. Rock and Roll was the devil. Video games are the devil. I can only imagine what's next to be the devil but it'll be something. It might be Facebook right now.

The "cure" is for all the middle aged adults who "don't get it" to reach retirement age and back out of the spotlight whereby the new middle aged adults in power are the ones who grew up with the tech.

While I don't think there's a "cure" either, I don't think the process is as linear as you describe. People do get into new things as they age. I'm sure some older people adopted TV and radio after an initial period of rejection. Maybe it was because they took time to sample one at a mall.

Believe it or not, there are people in nursing homes enjoying the Wii. Although the staff probably made them try it out in the exercise room.

Then there's the example I have in the original post about my sister playing games for the first time in her 40s. People's attitudes are crystallized with what they grew up with, but those attitudes are not unbreakable, and I bet companies like Nintendo drool at the prospects of cracking the "much older" audience.