Guild Wars 2

34 years young here.

I am seated in middle-age.
I remember playing Pong and seeing the original Star Wars at the cinema.
I remember playing Space Invaders as an arcade game.
I remember using an Apple Microbee at school because computers were a new thing back then.
I remember in high school using an Apple ][c and sometimes being blessed enough to use a ][e with the colour monitor. Where In The World Is Carmen SanDiego and Raster Blaster never looked so good.
I remember the VZ-200 ‘computer’ with orange rubber keys that beeped when you hit them, and doing my first BASIC programming when I was 7.
I remember my C64 booting up and having 38,911 basic bytes free. Such epicly good games were played on that console, and the Datasette (because we were too cheap to go for a floppy disk) loading up the games with the epilepsy-inducing horizontal coloured lines.
I remember the Atari 2600 and having over 100 games. PacMan and Frogger were among my best friends.
I remember the Sega MegaDrive (16bit console) and playing awesome games like Golden Axe 2 and Revenge of Shinobi.
I remember building my first PC in November of 1992. It was a 386 DX33with 2Mb RAM (70 nanosecond), 20Mb HDD, a SoundBlaster 16-bit card, a 14" monitor, 640×480 resolution was the order of the day, Windows 3 and the bonus Entertainment Pack, and most DOS versions up to when they stopped releasing them at 6.22.
I remember always having a penchant for single player games, involving either cars or platforms.
I remember having my 2 year old nephew sitting on my lap playing Carmageddon and driving the car straighter than I could. He wasn’t allowed to hit pedestrians. :P
I remember playing Guild Wars and thinking how epic the storytelling and lore was, and my then-14 year old nephew playing it with me. I wasn’t much for RPG’s before this.

I forget sometimes, that those were the golden days.

I’m 63, and just delighted to see so many other older players. I was a ‘spectator’ of my sons’ computer games all the way back to the days of the C64, but didn’t play until they dragged me into World of Warcraft in my mid-50s. I’ve now quit that game ( got tired of the gear tread-mill) and I’m having loads of fun in GW2.

Like several others, I do struggle with anything involving a lot of jumping, and rely on mesmer portals from friends far too much.

Something that might be related to this topic – I have been very impressed with the GW2 community, both on the forums & in-game. As a new player, I have found almost everyone kind & patient, and it is much appreciated.

I dont age.. I level up!

Currently level 37 xD

MeanPi.6025:

Jia, you’re old. Fidonet. 300 baud or 1200 baud for the rich. Local BBS’ in your area code.

True confession: I didn’t break up with my boyfriend in high school, because he was loaning me his 2400 baud modem and I didn’t want to go back to 1200.

zoejo.2317
This is an inspiring thread.
Nice to see some particular references like games running off of audio cassetes and Phantasy Star. Zork, anyone?

Leather Goddesses of Phobos.

bluestocking.6148:

MeanPi.6025:

Jia, you’re old. Fidonet. 300 baud or 1200 baud for the rich. Local BBS’ in your area code.

True confession: I didn’t break up with my boyfriend in high school, because he was loaning me his 2400 baud modem and I didn’t want to go back to 1200.

zoejo.2317
This is an inspiring thread.
Nice to see some particular references like games running off of audio cassetes and Phantasy Star. Zork, anyone?

Leather Goddesses of Phobos.

Doesn’t that have images? Too mainstream. Get older!

The memories reading these posts brings back.

I’m 68, retired from IT, and can remember punched cards from the ’60s and ’70s. The big turn around for me was getting my PC in the mid to late ’80s – an Amiga. I was so excited about it I decided that my mainframe programming job was boring, that technology was passing me by so took a C class to try to change my career and ended up in wide area networking in the ’90 and unix system administration.

My first RPG game was Garrison (Gauntlet clone) on the Amiga. Two people could play so my young son and I did (my husband, now X, was never interested in computer games). I googled and found a you tube video. Just listening to the opening music reminded me how excited we’d get waiting for the program to load so we could play.

Next game milestone was Diablo. One of my coworkers introduced me to it. I set up an ethernet in my home so my son and I could play it together without the lag back then of the online game. My coworker would bring over his desktop so he could play with us too.

Although I played some single player strategy games my son also played on-line games – Everquest, Wow and others. When I retired I decided to get an IMac to replace my old windows desktop. At the time the store had only 2 games for it so I got Sims 3. I love building houses and setting up towns with it.

In the summer of ‘12 me and my sister and my son and his wife were playing Diablo 3 using Ventrillo, since we’re scattered all over the place, when he told us about a beta version of a game he was playing. That Sept he bought my sister and I each a copy of GW 2. We’ve been playing ever since. My son and his wife have gone back to Wow since she doesn’t like GW2. My sister and I play GW2 almost every day and every once in awhile my son will join us. This past Christmas they bought us both WoW and have paid for subscriptions for us so we play it most Saturdays mostly to socialize with them. We’ve got characters at about level 65 or 66 it just doesn’t seem like fun after playing GW2.

Lazuli.2098:

my husband, now X, was never interested in computer games

Love this bit.

One of the wonderful things about GW2 is that it can be so family oriented (despite all the hack and slash). There’s a mother and daughter team in our guild. The mother recently gave birth to another child. I hope she intends to raise him up to be a(n) (im)proper member of our guild.

I’m 49 and I have been playing games for quite sometime and guess what, my guild name is “The Older Gamers”.It’s never too old to play games.

Just turned 40 this year.

Over fifty and having a blast, the Mrs’s get irritated at times but oh well.. it’s a good way to wind down at the end of the day.

LOL…. Just turned 58, glad to see I’m not the only oldie.

A woman can give her age if she wants to. 46 here, and not tired of it yet.

I just turned 50 this year.
I’ve been fighting cancer for 3 years now, so I haven’t been able to work. What else is there for me to do other than play video games?

Over 35 here. According to recent statistics….the average gamer age is now 31 and more people 40 and over are playing games than they did 10 years.

The demographic has changed because times have changed.

jia li ng.8415:

not to say I’m old but I remember key punch operators working endlessly to build files for the 1401 or the later 360, if that don’t date me. I remember playing chess via modem on what was to become known as “the internet” back in 1975. Pong was the first video game I played and I won’t even venture to guess how many different games I have played or at least sampled since then, I stumbled upon Guild Wars in February 2005, open beta and bought the Collector’s Edition after the experience … I crunch numbers, build and test everything … between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, I collectively have 95 characters, 65 on the former and 30 on the later, I know lore and weapons, stats and various builds as well as any of the youngsters, but I think the main reason I love Guild Wars 2 is the fluidity of the game as it grows with you, and the friendly community of players that you meet along the path.

In my first year at University we were programming with punched cards, but we got a 360 the second year and could actually type it in

My gaming started back when I was about 12 and I used to design my own boardgames, make up my own wargame rules with model soldiers, and made my own dice cricket game (a la Owzat) using 2 dice.

Widebody.5071:

Over fifty and having a blast, the Mrs’s get irritated at times but oh well.. it’s a good way to wind down at the end of the day.

I am fortunate that I have a wife who enjoys GW2 even more than I do. I started playing a couple months before she did, and she already has one more 80 than I do, and numerous alts that are much higher level than mine.

And I just love it when I am sitting in front of the tv, watching a basketball or baseball game and she wanders into the living room and says, “aren’t you going to play the game tonight?”……lol

Again, great to have a wife that loves this style of gaming as much as I do…..very nice always having someone to play GW2 with.

First movie I remember seeing, and it was in a DRIVE IN, was Star Wars Episode IV. I had an Atari 2600 as my first game system. I guess that makes me old at 40? I try to only hang out with people in my bracket, one can only stand so many 19 year old pimply fan boys trolling for what they think are girls in chat…

Dsybok.1405:

First movie I remember seeing, and it was in a DRIVE IN, was Star Wars Episode IV. I had an Atari 2600 as my first game system. I guess that makes me old at 40? I try to only hang out with people in my bracket, one can only stand so many 19 year old pimply fan boys trolling for what they think are girls in chat…

In the end of the month I’ll be 30 and my 1st console was also an Atari 2600 (which is still working), Frostbite and Key Stone Keeper was my favorite games.

My family had a Pong console, then a tank combat game, and then an Atari 2600 — and we hooked them up to our black and white TV. Eventually we upgraded to color… but when I got a Commodore 64 (best Christmas ever!) I had to hook it up to that same old black and white TV from the 70s…

Morrigan.2809:

We took her for a run on original Dungeon Siege the other day

Now that’s something I hadn’t thought of! Excellent idea – thanks for popping that in; I now know what to do when we’re at a boredom impasse!

zoejo.2317:

bluestocking.6148:

zoejo.2317
This is an inspiring thread.
Nice to see some particular references like games running off of audio cassetes and Phantasy Star. Zork, anyone?

Leather Goddesses of Phobos.

Doesn’t that have images? Too mainstream. Get older!

Naw, it was a pure text adventure. Unless there’s a later version I don’t know about.

When you load it up the first time, it asks for your age because it had some …adult content that didn’t appear if you were under 18. I lied about my age, of course, but I was actually terrified that the computer would somehow know I was lying.

Another one of “The Older Gamers” here. Two kids over twenty and three grandkids.

I’ve been playing MMOs since EQ2 (I got into MMOs late). Used to drool over the Pong and Atari systems at the stores. My first game was programmed by hand into a TI calculator. My friend down the street had a Timex/Sinclair ZX80 and could save games onto audio tape. Boy was I jealous.

Okay, I’m not as old as some in the thread but maybe folks will enjoy some of these memories.

I was born in England in the same year as the car I passed my test in: a 1976 Vauxhall Viva HC. 1300cc was considered a reasonable sized engine back then! Fernando by Abba was No.1 that week (though I was too early to remember it!).

I remember my father’s car at the time, a Ford Cortina III. Grandad had one too. They both crashed them in the same week! So my dad got a Volkswagen Type 3 Fastback. It went 86mph, which was pretty swift for a regular car in those days.

I still have my Atari 2600, Sinclair ZX81 with 16k RAM pack, Toshiba HX-10 and 2 Spectrums (48k and 128 +2). The hit computer games back then were River Raid, Pitfall, Super Breakout, Manic Miner, Donkey Kong and Saboteur. My first ’RPG’s were The Hobbit and Tir Nan Og on the Spectrum.

Our only music ‘downloads’ came from the radio. My sister used to be poised over the pause button near the end of a song to stop the tape the moment the DJ started speaking. In the early days, we didn’t have twin cassette decks, so music was copied using 2 players, one with record, and a very quiet room. We listened to Duran Duran, The Teardrop Explodes, Bananarama, Kajagoogoo, The Smiths and my sister liked Siouxsie Sioux. I, meanwhile, loved Kate Garner from Haysi Fantayzee and was a huge fan of Adam And The Ants.

We were the first people in our street to have a CD player. Many of the first albums were compilations, to start the market, I still have a 1982 copy of ‘A Classic Case Of Funk’. After we got it, we went to dine at Wimpy’s, a pretty deluxe chain at the time. McDonalds didn’t have as high a status.

Every kid has their favourite toy. Mine was the generation 1 Transformer named ‘Huffer’. He was only a little one, but a surprise gift from my parents when their finances were at their lowest ebb. Noone got much cash for free from the government in 1984. I remember that Christmas, my only xmas present was ‘Prowl’. I wanted ‘Jazz’ but Argos didn’t have him in. Since then I always loved the Datsun ZX240

Other toy lines were MASK, Visionaries, He-Man, and I used to watch Pole Position, Ulysses 2031 and Jayce & The Wheeled Warriors on TV. My older sister like Bananama and Dangermouse more. Saturday morning TV was shows like Tiswas, Saturday Morning Swap Shop, and ‘Why Don’t You?’. Televisions and VHS recorders were too expensive to buy for us, so we rented from Rumbelows.

Please share some of your own memories!

Ok, I feel a little better… I’m 30, thought I was one of the older ones

I’m now 30, but I still feel like that wide-eyed 16 year old girl at times. I think most of us grew up gamers and branched off into mmos, so that’s what makes up most of the populations.

Loved the C64..cassette tape anyone? XD

Oh yeah, when I was at computer college we ran on IBM 486 SX33s, then 50s, then 66s. They really splashed out and got a 90 with a hand roller scanner.

We did NVQ3 on WordPerfect 5.1or Word 6, Aldus Pagemaker, Excel andd DBase IV.

Great thread – 52 here and have been playing games since the 80s..first one was Dungeon Master on the Amiga 500 – first MMO was Asheron’s Call

My brother plays (2 years younger than me) and…my dad plays, yup yup!

JCROY.5730:

Loved the C64..cassette tape anyone? XD

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I remember being terribly excited when I got that 1541 floppy drive for Christmas the year after I got my C64. It was like having a hard drive! 170k disks were huge! And those big EA games loaded in under an hour! Heh.

Arguably one of the best threads i’ve seen since the release of the game. Very nice stories in here and good people.

Wish I had a cool grandmother or grandfather to play this game with lol

Mac.3872:

I dont age.. I level up!

Currently level 37 xD

When I complain about an overly challenging day at work, one of my friends reminds me:
When life gets harder you just leveled up.

JCROY.5730:

Loved the C64..cassette tape anyone? XD

We didn’t have the tape deck, but we had one of those floppy drives that would overheat if you didn’t have a fan DIRECTLY on it at all times. In fact, I may still have a C64 in a box in my garage. I wonder if it still works? I don’t like the emulator I got to play Mail Order Monsters.

41 and very much enjoying this thread. GG

My wife and I play and we are in our forties. We have a friend from GW1 who plays and is deep into her sixties.

I’m 46 and still stay up until 3am!!! at times.

Trouble is I cannot get up in a morning either lol. Still a teenager inside. Nice to see there are plenty of other ‘older’ players.

34 and feeling all young again. =P

Sneaking up on 50 (next year), so I possibly qualify as an older player. But as I like to say, you don’t stop playing because you get old. You get old because you stop playing.

34 here and I plan on playing videogames for as long as I can form coherent thoughts. Funny enough, I’m already shaking my proverbial cane at “whippersnappers” whom call Guild Wars 2 a grind.

I’m 50+ myself. I love threads like this too. I remember when i was playing lotro the guild i was in had a few players 60+. I remember one woman in the guild who helped me lvl by doing all the quest in a zone. She was higher lvl than i was. We had teamspeak and found out she was 67 and her husband was in the guild to. I loved teaming up with them they really were wonderful people young at heart and amazing players. I won’t ever forget them. I would love to find a guild full of players like this.

53 and recently returned

in gw1 our guild was made up of laid back people from 12 to around 50
and it worked realy wel.

just need to find the right guild now .

60 + here and i will be playing until my fingers don’t work no more.

JCROY.5730:

Loved the C64..cassette tape anyone? XD

Had a cassette drive but on my VIC-20. I would come home from school, start loading the game via the drive, go watch TV for about an hour and if I was lucky it loaded. About 6 times out of 10 it didn’t. People complain about 30 second loading screens in GW2 LOL.

I was that kid that went to Radio Shack in the mall, back when they were a thing and going to the mall was a thing, and programed my name in BASIC to scroll on the display computer they had. I played Zork, all text and imagination.

Without disclosing my age I think that dates me enough.

MikeE.8267:

I’m 46 and still stay up until 3am!!! at times.

Trouble is I cannot get up in a morning either lol. Still a teenager inside. Nice to see there are plenty of other ‘older’ players.

Don’t worry. You aren’t the only one. I usually end up gaming until at least 2am most nights (partly started that habit because the earlier part of the evening was family time, midnight to 2 was the only time I had to myself ). 3am or later is not uncommon on the weekends.

Pah. And they call me old.

I just hit 30 in February, but this thread is making me feel like a baby still haha— Thank you! And I have about 2K hours in GW2 so far, love it.

Only 21, but it’s so wonderful to hear that there are people from the older generations who appreciate MMOs and what they have to offer. It’s wonderful to hear that people understand, that not everyone is out waving sticks and yelling that people on the internet aren’t real.

Thanks for making my day, guys. <3

I am about to ding 23 so I don’t really fit this category I think. I just want to say that I’ve seen many, many “older” players in this game. I think it’s quite cool that everyone gets along: different ages and nationalities and in a way everyone is quite similar. Internet does wonders.

Cool to see that there are more older ppl playing games,
43 years here and still enjoying the game.

Howdy! Love this thread so thank you OPer for putting it up!! My first experience with MMOs was World of Warcraft (when it was ‘vanilla’) at the age of 40. I played it with my husband for about 5 years then moved on to Aion, Rift, World of Warcraft Cataclysm (favourite bit was the underwater map, the rest, meh) and SWTOR. 9 years and 2 kids later, I’m currently in my 2nd year of Guild Wars 2 which I’ve played since the beta.

I know what people mean about those flippin jumping puzzles and eye, hand, mouse co-ordination. My fingers regularly have a mind of their own with the over tapping of my thumb on the space bar or the taking an extra step forward when I totally didn’t mean to. I’m seriously considering getting my 6 year old on to do them for me. I watched him do some jumping puzzles in Mine Craft…he makes it look easy. Just have to get him used to the 16-button gamer mouse my hubby thought I should have and bought me for Mothering Sunday in March. I had a 3-button mouse originally. Who said old dogs couldn’t learn new tricks?

There is quite a lot I enjoy about GW2 – as one poster pointed out – that we don’t have to compete for loot, nodes, trees or plants is one fantastic aspect. I remember well my days of circling maps in WoW trying to get to metal nodes before some other farmer did. The hours I wasted…never want to back to that again.

Mob thievery isn’t such a problem in this game either so even in real busy areas, so long as that one hit just before a mob died did enough damage, you’d also get the credit and maybe even a drop. Not needing the ‘Holy Trinity’ is another big bonus.

Another huge plus for me is that it is a great game to dip in and out of without punishment. Meaning, that you don’t fall behind gear wise so if you get busy and can’t make it on regularly or you go on a couple of weeks holiday, you can pick right up where you left off without penalty. Your guildmates won’t have sprinted ahead gear wise so you’re never left behind.

So yeah, gaming as a person rocketing towards the half century has been a fabulous experience in many, many ways. I look forward to many more years I hope, of MMO fun!