Getting older and response times

Not sure about you guys but me. Growing up I remember swiftly handing anyone their ass in any Atari game. Years later I was the "the man" at Doom 2 Multiplayer. Fast forward and you hit the mid/late 30's. Things change, at least for me.

Last week my niece asked me to challenger her in a game of Mario cart on the Wii. I’ve played it a bit, plus I played the original. I was sweating bullets in full concentration mode and she destroyed me so bad she would pull in front of me and slam on the breaks to troll me, and she’s 12 hahahaha. I’m at least a proud uncle.

Recently returning to MMO’s after a long break I struggle with response time and multitasking. Something I’ve never had trouble with before. A friend of mine I typically duo games with is almost the same age and he too suffers now from age caching up. We duo'd arena and could only do 1490 (ouch).


Perhaps Karma for kicking my father’s ass in Atari games growing up. The torch has been passed and it’s my turn to lay down and take the punishment.

I look at a lot of PVP videos and content alike, I used to be able to do that! Now, when I’m lucky and the coffee ratio is dialed in to perfection good things happen.

Anyone else suffer due to the years starting to take its toll or is there just something a little extra in the water in these parts?

Yeah I am right there with you.

I used to Juggle a lot when I was younger. I was fairly good, being able to manage 5 balls well.
Now I can barely start the 5 ball cascade let alone keep it going for long.

I have never really been a bid twitch gamer, so can't really say if that dexterity ability has diminished much.

I wont even get started on all the body aches I have now compared to 25 years ago.

I don't know if age is tied to reflexes/response time. My take on it is that as you get older you start giving less fucks about competition/start practising less compared to the younger generation who sleeps on the consoles/computer. Not to mention that they grew up with it, whereas the majority of us in their 30s/40s only discovered the computer/console at a somewhat later age. On top of that I believe nowadays videogames/controllers are far more complex than those from the 80s/90s, meaning that the young ones just got better training at the age where you learn most.

Why I believe reflexes/response time doesn't go downhill at age 30/40? I used to play foosball (table soccer), competing on an international level (before you think it's just a bar game, there are many tournaments each year that have a much bigger price pool than e.g. blizzcon). Back in the day a good amount of the top players where in their late 30s, 40s. A decade later, many of them are still active and ranking high. Foosball is a game that requires insane reflexes, hand/eye coordination and response times. These guys are nowadays often past 50, heck one dude got a heart transplantation 2 years ago and is back at the top right now ... Their reflexes are still there, there speed and hand/eye coordination is still there ... but they still play pretty much every day at the top level. And that is what makes imo the biggest difference ... once you start getting a serious girlfriend/job/own house/kids/whatnot you most likely spend less time behind your computer playing games.

I can still whup my 20yo nephews in most games. They don't seem to know how to play without cheat codes.

I'm 36 and I am a lot slower than I use to be, and now need glasses to boot.. I still feel 20 though so it's all good ;p

I'm glad to see i'm not the only one, I feel better lol.

Zenga, I like your thought process. There's a lot there that has some wealth, makes sense.