Pachter: Old Gamers Are "Doomed"

NG writes:

"Pachter stated that multiplayer videogames are full of "smack talk[ing]… 13 year-old boys" and conceded that for older gamers: "we're doomed".

The involvement of young people in videogames has been a constant feature of the industry with Pachter likening it to extreme sports in having "young… and idealistic" people as the type who play games, suggesting that there's no room for the old and cynical. Pachter himself admitted that his "reflexes are too slow to be competitive" in some multiplayer games."

[tunaks1]

we are all doomed until this guy shuts up

[wardrox]

I quite like what he has to say most of the time. Esp with interviews like the one this article's based on, he seems like a great guy.

[nycredude]

Speak for yourself Pachter. I am 35 and I have 700 trophies and I own little kiddies!

[heroicjanitor]

You don't own them, you just abducted them

[-Alpha]

Just wondering. What does he do for a living? I'm pretty sure he just doesn't get paid saying stuff like this. He can't.

Gaming may be full of kids but that doesn't mean older gamers are doomed. Come on Patcher it doesn't take a genius to figure it out.

Take LBP for example. Little kids hate it because it makes them feel little. Kids want to be older gamers. They want to play the blood and gore, they want the Gears, they want the Call of Duty.

Older gamers aren't doomed. Older gamers is what kids want to be.

[Maddens Raiders]

I totally agree. Pachter talking as if he's the mouthpiece for "all" older gamers makes about as much sense as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson speaking for "all" black people lol. I wish both sets of these people & the crap they push would just go away.

[Christopher]

Why? Because the games I love are still being developed because us old gamers never stopped buying them. Most games out there appeal to us older gamers because we've set the standards for the genre with our wallets in the past.

Now, perhaps multiplayer games are rampant with idiots, but that doesn't mean the games are ruined for us, just that we get to use our mute buttons more often. And, sad as it is, a lot of those "13 year-olds" are actually later 20s and above men who just never learned to grow up.

[bacon13]

This article basically boils down to Pachter saying he is an old fart with cramped hands. Anyone who knows the ins and outs of the game and is a seasoned pro will have no problem keeping up with the 13 year old whiners and cry babies plaguing XBL and PSN.

[boodybandit]

Really and enough already with this pompous D-bag.

I myself have been gaming for over 30+ years and I do quite well online. Please do the gaming industry a favor and stick to numbers Pachter. Leave gaming to the gamers, which you are not.

BTW Pach
Mics and most online games have mute features.
If you (or I) don't want to hear someone running their mouth it takes 2 seconds to make them disappear.

[PoSTedUP]

there will always be older gamers.... the young eventually get old... i think that's how it goes...? no?

my dads a 50+ gamer, he playes MGS4, RE5 and now army of two the 40th day. we bought two copys so we could play online co-op. hes not into the cod or socom though... socom is my field.

[SuperStrokey1123]

hes right, its simply a fact of getting older.

Hes not meaning 35 year old guys, but rather the much older ones like him. Hes in his mid 40s or maybe early 40s when age starts to have its impact.

Games are trending more and mroe towards the young and their inability to continue connected to a game for more than 6 or so hours, just look at mw2...

[reaferfore20]

Pachter is an R-TARD... anyone with a little bit of common sense should realize that older gamers are the one's with jobs and the ones that can afford to buy the games that the younger ones have to beg their parents for. Just because he's a n00b at multiplayer games doesn't mean everyone else his age shares that inadequecy.

I'm 23 years old and I know for a fact there are plenty of 30-40+ year old people that could kick my @ss in certain games. It all really comes down to how often you play and how long you've been playing. Some older gamers haven't been playing games very long, and others have been playing since the 70's.

[Christopher]

I'd say look at Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2, Grant Theft Auto 4, Red Dead Redemption, Demons' Souls, Mafia 2, and tons of games that tend to require a lot of time, effort, and devotion to the storyline that are either highly praised or set to be highly praised as they are released in the future.

It's easy to stereotype youngsters as being ADD kids who can't spend more than a few hours on a single game, but it's just not true as a standard and the games above prove it. Don't let the idiotic actions and inability to stay committed to a game of some kids give you the thought that they represent their generation as a whole. I know more than a handful of kids who have invested more hours into a single game than I have in most games today.

[A Cupcake for Gabe]

I don't have these issues, because I play online on PS3 only. Where the ratio is 20 adults to one kid, unlike the 360 where it's 50:1 child under 16.

[TheDudeAbides]

as he said in one Bonus Round episode, he doesn't play games, that's why he sucks at games.

[Highlife]

I wish you had to put in you age when you sign up for psn. use your ss# or something. I would love for there to be rooms for 21 and over only. Maybe there would be less lone wolves, less crap talk just an overall more mature experience. Let the little kids run a muck with themselves

[poindat]

Pachter actually PLAYS games? Seriously, considering how 90% of N4G could come up with better analyses and predictions than him, I am surprised that he has ever even touched a gaming system.

0_o

[SuperStrokey1123]

@Codongo

I could make a list of games that are incredibly short as well, im not going to. Sure there are ltos of games that are super long, but the general trend, proven in sales and in game development, is that the games are getting shorter and designed more for pick up and play type gaming.

There is a reason that the wii/ds/MW2 appeal to so many people. They can play for 20-30 minutes, or less even, and then go do something else. If you look at a case of the hardcore gamer, sure lots still love the long games, you and me included, but the mass population simply dont care. Another supporting fact could be GTA4 DLC, it sold very poorly (well not very but you know what i mean). This could be attributed to the fact that most people never even finished the game so why would they want the DLC?

Like it or not hes right on multiple levels. Games that the older crowd grew up on are slowly fadding away, and the older gamers themselves are also fading away as things like reaction time start to drop. It doesnt mean they will totally disappear as obviously the next batch will go through the same thing but your ability to compete drops with age, this is true of nearly everything lol.

[dgroundwater]

I completely disagree. He is telling it like it is on so many topics. In this article, or on any given Bonus Round on GT he has totally savvy and realistic opinions.

He loves games like Heavy Rain and has disdain for the mouth breathers on COD. Isn't that the ideal whine from gamers?

http://www.gametrailers.com...

[Lacarious]

looks like M$ is so damn desperate that they are trying to cater to kids because kids are clueless when it comes to games and what games are good or not.

kids are easy to frustrate and get in their head when gaming. they can talk all the smack they want but they are the first to quit 100% of the time.

[creeping judas]

That's why you find a community of like minded people

Xbox Canadian Live
League Of Amateur Gamers
Geezer Gamers
Canadian Online Gamers Network (launching soon)

there's ton of them out there, that are full of older adult gamers. and once you make some friends you never really play with the public and the annoying people on there.

It's not that hard??

[tdrules]

just because XBL has a bad reputation doesnt mean online gaming as a whole does.
Any steam game online I'm on there is never a bad word said about each other.
its all about choosing the right servers, an aspect restricted to most

[lordgodalming]

For dudes like me who only play single-player games, Pachter might be right. Not because of reflexes, but because SP games are becoming less and less the focus of the industry. The only game I play online is Demon's Souls. :)

[DlocDaBudSmoka]

im 28, have 4 kids and still manage to have over 2100 trophies. so idk where he got his info from, must be them 13yr olds.

for the non-believers my psn is the same as here. stop by and say high sometime. lol.

[BX81]

You're missing the point. He's not talking about some crappy trophies. He's talking about the times so to speak are changing. Think about it like this Shaq is a good center but he is not as agile or quick as Dwight Howard. He's saying that the younger these kids are the quicker there reflexes are and they are simply coming out with new slang that older adults are not in tune with. I know my boys 7yr old son and he puts cats to shame on MW2. Redic. reflexes. It's funny because he'll play one on one with his dad and completely wreck him and then looks at his dad and says dad you have to focus, you're not focusing. It's pretty funny to watch. It's not about the trophies it's about the reflexes and as you get older they tend to slow and if they don't it doesn't matter because a 15yr old kid will always have quicker reflexes.

[TheoreticalParticle]

If that is literally all he's alluding to, then:

1) Duh. It's common bloody sense that older people have slower reflexes.
2) Who pays people to make such blatantly obvious observations, and are they hiring?

But, I have a feeling he's trying to say that the industry's going to go towards catering to the foul-mouthed ADD generation, and the games that include the older gamers are going to die off.

Either that, or he's just stupid, and doesn't realize that only a fraction of the big games in the year have a major multiplayer component.

[SuperStrokey1123]

@ particle,

He means both of those things. Its not hard to understand what hes saying unless you are a moron (not saying you are but people in general).

[ButterToast]

you know this is from an interview right? It's not like he is going out of his way and making public statments like this. someone asked him a question and he answers it.

If you want to b*tch about what he's saying at least read the whole interview before hand so you actually know what he's saying.

Here is part of the interview:
----------------------------- ------
Phil: Games with extensive multiplayer elements are a challenge for me. I don’t have the time to commit to becoming good at them and I can’t be bothered with all of the nonsense that seems to go along with those communities anymore. What are your thoughts on the aged and competitive multiplayer games? Are we doomed to be fodder for 12 year-olds with virtual sniper rifles?

Michael: I am not a multiplayer guy at all, primarily because my reflexes are too slow to be competitive, and the smack talk of 13 year-old boys is annoying. Yes, we’re doomed.
----------------------------- ------

I love how the internet likes to take quotes out of context and mishmash them together into an article and then b*tch about it. It's pretty obvious that it wasn't an overly serious comment and that Negative Gamer set up some of the questions in the interview so they could write this piece of sh*t and get hits. god knows the internet isn't smart enough to read past the headline and of the few that do even less are going to read the interview.

Gaming journalism at it's best. /rant

[MajesticBeast]

My father is 51 and im 21 and he still loves playing games like uncharted 2,killzone 2 and soon to be heavy rain and wkc. What pachter says is bullsh!t.

[bjornbear]

it depends.

Young have reaction and speed

old have experience.

an experienced gamer >>>>>> kids

even if those kids binge game 8 hours a day

some things in gaming you learn over years of gaming.

[iceman2885]

But I do wish those darn kids would turn down their music ;-)

Also stop cussing so much.

[lukeb4dunk]

I'm 35 and I fair alright online. Not the best, but not the worst. What I do hate however, are the kids the put their mics next to their speakers so everyone and anyone could hear their damn music. Drives me insane.

And the cussing...oh the cussing and insults. Oh the irony of a kid insulting my sexuality, when they themselves sound nothing more than a pre-teen girl.

[Double Toasted]

...older guys talking more sh*t than little kids.

[lukeb4dunk]

I'm not sure what games you're playing, but I always hear quite the opposite.

[weazel]

Being an 'elder' gamer myself, I can't really appreciate the sentiment.
It's very much like sport (soccer and rugby myself), where to balance the energy levels / muscle memory quick reactions of the teens/twentysomethings, we've had to rely more upon experience, smarts, and the unalloyed ability to be spiteful,ruthless bast*rds.

(The older gamers that i've ever heard smack talk, always do it with a major dose of sarcasm!)

[TheoreticalParticle]

I kind of agree with the original poster. I hear a pretty good mix of the loudmouthed little kids, and the older dudes trying to hit on every female voice that happens to come into the room.

I don't think it's necessarily a generational thing. The courteous people are going to be courteous at any age, the d-bags are going to be d-bags at any age.

[Baka-akaB]

Why does he say "we" ?

More than his dubious analyses , this is what i dislike about him .

he's not a gamer , he's not a part of the community , he knows next to nothing about games , at least not beyond what he sees when invited by gt tv and others .

There is no "we" here , he has only recently attempted to include himself in the gaming mix , because now he got his own show .

But he's absolutely not a gamer

[Gen0ne]

Well said.

[bigjclassic]

I call myself a hardcore traditional gamer, because I balance retro consoles (SNES, NES, 64, Dreamcast) with current gen consoles (Wii, PS3) and find that game quality as suffered tremendously.

Look at RE4 and compare to RE5.
Compare Timesplitters Future Perfect to MW2
Compare FFIX to FFXIII
Compare SFA3 to SFIV

Games in general have been dumbed down a lot from previous gens, to make a quick buck off of the new generation of ADD gamers. That's why I personally tend to buy very few HD-era and Wii games, and continue playing SNES, DC and PSX/2 era games.

[va_bank]

I'm 25 years into gaming and I don't think the games have been "dumbed down". There's a reason that 20 years ago videogames were considered a kids toy - pushing one button over and over to make the plumber jump on top of mushrooms? I wouldn't call that smart. But we loved it anyway.

Nowdays, games have a story, great sound and test much more then just reflexes. I love what games have become. Except first person shooters - it's still all Wolfenstein 3D with HD graphics.

The only complaint I have about modern games is they became to easy, possibly to please "ADD gamers" as you call them. My solution now is to start (almost) every game on the hardest difficulty. I just finished Darksiders on hardest difficulty. It was my first playthrough and I do believe I would have enjoyed it less if I started on easier settings.

[Baka-akaB]

I can't really agree here . There are more accessible games now and obviously there would be more easy and simplified ones ...
Plus one important thing imo ... arcade has evolved and compared to its old self it's inexistants . As a consequence you dont have the usual adaptation of arcade games on home consoles .
The type of games purposely driving you nuts , so you'd loose all your coins and money on the arcade booth .

But you dont have to go into any nostalgia retreat to find suitable games . I still play my older consoles , but because i'll never let go of games i love , hardly out of necessity .

And i dont necessarily agree with some of your examples anyway

-FFIX to FFXIII ? How would you even know if it's dumbed down ? Ok there are report of stuff like town missing , but asides from opinions , or unless you import it and read jap like some of us , it's mere conjecture (half of them based on some weird premise anyway : "why dont we have choices and why isnt it open like usual wrpgs ?") .
PLus ffix was hardly challenging nor are most FF usually . For that you got other franchises and/or more obscure rpgs .

-SFA3 to SFIV . I really dont get that one either . Seems to be more a case of preferences than Sf4 lacking quality . Plus there is still tatsunoko anyway from Capcom , and i'd hardly call it dumbed down either .

-Timesplitters Future Perfect to MW2 .
A bit too easy here . you compare an actual polished fps with a rushed piece of garbage . Plus both games are hardly on the same spectrum sales wise .
Why not try Killzone 2 vs Timesplitters then ? Or mag , or battlefield bad company (even the first) , or even Halo 3 ( and maybe odst) ?

[keysy420]

i think videogames can help with desease and things that go bad with the brain with old age because of the constant learning of the games

[Orange]

when i was in engineering school i changed my tactics my sophomore year and i'd stop studying a few days before exams and just play video games. my grades shot through the roof. i'd go into exams not burned out on the subjects and my neurons would be firing like crazy.

couldn't do it in law school. there're no shortcuts around reading 100 pages of case law every single day.

[Gen0ne]

... my 100% completion of Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 and Bayonetta suggests otherwise. Beat that ya little whipper snappers.

[BigKev45]

I'm 32 years old & still play games online almost everyday. I don't think people 30 & older are doomed. Give it up, Pachter.

[ian72]

I'm 37 and been playing games since the ZX80, Spectrum and Commodore years. I am enjoying gaming more the older I get. It does get annoying online when younger ones start swearing and name calling but you can mute them. It mainly happens when young teens are playing games they're not really old enough to play, for eg: Modern Warfare 2 is rated 18 here in UK but most of the time you hear kids a lot younger than 18 doing the swearing etc.

[Akagi]

Kiddies who play games like CoD are, from my experience, generally not good. They always try to go solo, complain excessively about how they got killed and how it "was not fair, omg! haxxxxxxxxxxx" and don't understand tactics and teamwork.

Anyway, pay no heed to Pachter, he probably can't get past the Press Start screen in a game.

[thief]

There is no smack talk on PSN and the more popular games (KZ2, SOCOM, Warhawk, UC2, MAG soon) need a lot of teamwork and tactics as opposed to teenage reflexes.

After using PSN for many months, I have seen barely 1-2 occassions where someone was swearin. Whoever has a mic behaves with utmost courtesy and politeness.

Also, having a mic has no correlation with teamwork in my experience - especially UC2 coop and KZ2 online. In both case, I have worked with players with no mics but perfect teamwork (especially in UC2 coop, a good 3-team is a joy to be in) and on the other hand, I have had UC2 coop teams with 3 mics and both other players running all over the map, we barely reach level 4 and I would spend the match running all over the map revinving each player in turn.

[ButterToast]

the only games I've found a lot of annoying smack talking people on Warhawk and COD. Killzone 2 I ran into a few when the game was first released but since then I only get the occasional person playing music through their mic. I'd agree most people i've run across that use mics on PSN are fairly well mannered.

[robotnik]

You can always replay your favourite games... I'm playing SMW right now. I know elder dudes and ladies like playing old amstrad games.

[Treyb3yond]

Why doesn't Pachter or whatever his name is, get on with counting his beans and stop making himself look silly by attempting to talk about stuff he clearly has no clue about.

[Handhelds_FTW]

magical feature, some option, that would allow me to silence the kiddies from speaking there stupid on to us all, a "mute" setting perhaps.

Alas, Mr.Pachter you have yet again spoken your words of wisdom onto the world and proven that such an idea is out of reach of mere mortal comprehension, and must for evermore be under kiddie verbal tyranny.

Such is the world, Mr.Pachter has spoken, forever hold your peace.

/S

[bunfighterii]

smack talking kids suck. the people who get really high scores in multiplayer games are the ones who play smart and use tactics-

distract you and flank you, a nicely placed grenade, actually completing objectives etc etc.

[KYU2130]

i plan to game for a long time. I am 35 and have been gaming since i was in high school. i stay current on all the games even though i don't purchase as many as i used to. I have refined my taste in games so i only buy what i know or expect to enjoy. I definitely plan to continue gaming with my 9 yr old niece, who enjoys racing games and sports games.. and i don't mean Wii. We only play on the PS3. so i can really see myself gaming till my 50s.