Reflections of a grumpy, middle-aged gamer

[rwenstrup]

Vintage Dude,
I think you stole my games!!! I think I have every one of those!

[Vintage Dude]

Vintage Dude,
I think you stole my games!!! I think I have every one of those!

I am glad to hear that. That's about 25% of my collection. For years my wife has been after me to get rid of them. She claims that nobody else would be stupid enough to hang on to all of those games. Now I can tell her that at least one other person is like me. Thanks for helping me out.

[Tripoli]

VntageDude: I have most of the games in your collection.  I don't have the first edition of Bismark that you have (I have the 1977 version), but I'm old enough to recognize it by the corner of the box you photographed.  However, I did own the orignal (not AH) version of Dauntless, so that makes us tied  ;-)

Edit: I just realized, that is a 1st edition of Anzio.  I have the 1975 version.  You win. :)

[Vintage Dude]

We both win because we enjoyed them in their day and still have them to help bring back the memories. I attached a picture of a few more. As you can see, they are dusty and haven't been played in decades. My son got the wargaming bug from me but he only goes back as far as AOE II and Rise of Nations.

[Sir Slash]

I'm so old that when I started gaming we didn't have dice. We had to roll rocks instead. And, 'Opportunity Fire' was something you came across burning to cook Mastodon on.  :o

[Vintage Dude]

Now that is REALLY old.

[rwenstrup]

Vintage Dude,
You clearly are my brother from another mother! I have a couple of shelves in the basement that look just like that! I guess I can come out of hiding ... thought I might be put away for harboring ancient games!

[Phantom]

Gosh - I could have written Toonces OP.
I mentioned on another thread how I managed to access some older games - Age of Rifles & Tanks. I found myself instantly drawn into the easier gaming style - I didn't look at the manuals - you can figure 90% of it out with some knowledge of the combat hardware & the history and just start playing - great!.
As with all other posters, up until recently I'd found myself drawn into a (misguided) desire for more complexity which I've recently abandoned. For example I have many AGEOD/Paradox games, but some of the recent iterations of Rome/Europa Universalis or Crusader kings, whilst adding another level of complexity, don't for me add anything else, and as mentioned by Toonces actually create a barrier to starting a game.
So my new motto is K.I.S.S.

[Tripoli]

Gosh - I could have written Toonces OP.
I mentioned on another thread how I managed to access some older games - Age of Rifles & Tanks. I found myself instantly drawn into the easier gaming style - I didn't look at the manuals - you can figure 90% of it out with some knowledge of the combat hardware & the history and just start playing - great!.
As with all other posters, up until recently I'd found myself drawn into a (misguided) desire for more complexity which I've recently abandoned. For example I have many AGEOD/Paradox games, but some of the recent iterations of Rome/Europa Universalis or Crusader kings, whilst adding another level of complexity, don't for me add anything else, and as mentioned by Toonces actually create a barrier to starting a game.
So my new motto is K.I.S.S.

While I agree that K.I.S.S is probably my preferred "go to" theory of gaming right now (actually, I don't even have time to do much gaming right now), let me make one observation to the older folks here: Unless you actively try to stretch your mind, you tend to atrophy, especially as you get older.  So, while the K.I.S.S system may be good, you may want to consider trying to get into something new and/or more complicated that stretches your mental abilities.  That doesn't necessarily mean all your games have to be complex monstrosities, but possibly you pick one game on a topic that interests you and is more complex (or simply different in terms of mechanics) and spend the time digging into it. 

[Vintage Dude]

Vintage Dude,
You clearly are my brother from another mother! I have a couple of shelves in the basement that look just like that! I guess I can come out of hiding ... thought I might be put away for harboring ancient games!

Stay strong my friend. It's good to know that I am not alone, as my wife would have me believe. Don't let anyone convince you that those games are junk and should be tossed out.

[mbar]

I agree with much of this thread. My expectations of gaming as it was evolving was to see more immersive interactions with the game world and the AI. For example way back Counter-Strike Condition Zero introduced this Turtle AI that you could basically import any custom map and it would create a pathing layer for the AI bots. But fast forward to 2020 and most gaming is geared toward online play with other people. Easier to create a sandbox for multiple people and more lucrative. I'm am getting purchasing fatigue. What is this new game? What is the business model? What kind of DRM does this game have? Just how many DLC is this game planning to milk the customer? Not that I have not been buying games but I feel I spend more time researching and purchasing than actual gaming.

[MengJiao]

Now that is REALLY old.

  I dunno.  I'm 64 and I've been playing war games since I was 10, starting with Bismarck of course.  I generally have some kind of trouble learning anything, but my basic solution is just to keep at it and if necessary modify the thing or at least limit my exposure to pure frustration.  So I'm having trouble finding a good game about the Spanish Armada and I think the basic problem is not accepting the necessity of a doomed Spanish onslaught while not neglecting the
constraints that were present leading up to August 1588.  I'm also having trouble learning machine learning so why not combine those?  I'm trying to write some machine learning stuff to "parse" the data on the 132 ships of the armada and the hundreds (including the Dutch after all) that hindered them.  So far I can "predict" the tonnage/culverin relation for the English ships but not much else.    Okay so...you could develop some models that over time will yield different configurations for the "Enterprise of England" so -- less frustration and more programming and maybe I'll get the game working in C# in UNITY or something and Kickstart it or something.

  So..sure...learning can be frustrating but you can sort of game that and overcome multiple problems by letting them sort of bounce off each other, making progress on an uneven set of imperfectly interrelated fronts.

[smittyohio]

Vintage Dude,
You clearly are my brother from another mother! I have a couple of shelves in the basement that look just like that! I guess I can come out of hiding ... thought I might be put away for harboring ancient games!

Stay strong my friend. It's good to know that I am not alone, as my wife would have me believe. Don't let anyone convince you that those games are junk and should be tossed out.

My wife has put up with my 300+ item board game collection so far... I'm terrified of what will become of it should anything happen to me.   

[Vintage Dude]

Now that is REALLY old.

  I dunno.  I'm 64 and I've been playing war games since I was 10, starting with Bismarck of course.  I generally have some kind of trouble learning anything, but my basic solution is just to keep at it and if necessary modify the thing or at least limit my exposure to pure frustration.  So I'm having trouble finding a good game about the Spanish Armada and I think the basic problem is not accepting the necessity of a doomed Spanish onslaught while not neglecting the
constraints that were present leading up to August 1588.  I'm also having trouble learning machine learning so why not combine those?  I'm trying to write some machine learning stuff to "parse" the data on the 132 ships of the armada and the hundreds (including the Dutch after all) that hindered them.  So far I can "predict" the tonnage/culverin relation for the English ships but not much else.    Okay so...you could develop some models that over time will yield different configurations for the "Enterprise of England" so -- less frustration and more programming and maybe I'll get the game working in C# in UNITY or something and Kickstart it or something.

 
I am also 64 and my first game was "Bismarck" followed by "Guadalcanal" and other Avalon Hill games. I started at about 12 years of age. I was an early modder as I would make my own die-cut counters to use with the ones that came with the game. When everything went digitalmy modding ended, except for the Steam Workshop.

[Vintage Dude]

smittyohio

I know what will happen to my boardgames if something happens to me:
GONE