Aren't all computer games the same?

[SirDice]

See. Second verse. Same as the first.

It's more like an interactive zombie movie. Infected and players are not the same. Infected are never friendly, they're down right dangerous, you'll want to avoid them, certainly at first. Players you meet may or may not be friendly, or act friendly then stab you in the back and steel your stuff (gosh, it's almost like the real world).

You basically start in your underwear, hungry and cold. First order of business is finding food and something to drink, avoid all infected and other players. Plenty of times I died of starvation before getting some marginally good gear. The map is huge (25km2), no vehicles (there are some now, but not when the game was first released), resources are scarce, firearms definitely are. You may find a hunting rifle in some farm house but no ammo. Ammo is scarce too. So you often can't even use it. There is some better stuff in various police stations or army bases, but those attract other players too. For the same reason you are there. And honestly you don't want to use a firearm, sound travels far. It'll attract more infected and other players will be aware of your location too. It's much more like a cat and mouse game, with you being the mouse, trying to hide as much as possible. I've had great fun playing this with my buddy. There have been many times where I thought I'd die laughing in real life because of some stupid situation we got ourselves into.

That said, I can understand this type of game (or any other shooters) might not be your forte. But there are plenty of other genres, role-playing game perhaps (think D&D)? Turn-based strategy? Management games (football manager, baseball manager, etc)? Not all movies are the same either, with different genres catering to different groups of people. I like certain movie genres more than others. Same with games. And it's been half mentioned before, they can actually be beneficial for older people (yeah, including you old fart!). They keep your brain flexible, cognition improves, coordination, a lot of good things.

 

[drhowarddrfine]

Management games (football manager, baseball manager, etc)

Growing up, we used to play Strat-O-Matic baseball and football. Kind of like a pre-computer real statistics based game where the games were based on real players and their stats. You rolled the dice to see what the player would do on the field. It was rather amazing how close game statistics would match what happened to them in real life over the course of a season.

I used to work at one place where the engineers and one salesman--the man to beat--would play chess at lunch time. I was definitely at beginner level at first but there came the day when I finally beat that salesman.

I'm interested in 'go' but have no one to play with and I don't think I'm interested in playing online. I'll have to find the time to get into it.

I guess the thing is that I've always been a physical player--played baseball to where I was scouted once and football. When it comes to mental things, I dedicate that to business, electronics and software.

 

[SirDice]

Growing up, we used to play Strat-O-Matic baseball and football. Kind of like a pre-computer real statistics based game where the games were based on real players and their stats. You rolled the dice to see what the player would do on the field. It was rather amazing how close game statistics would match what happened to them in real life over the course of a season.

Exactly. Now those same games are digital.

I used to work at one place where the engineers and one salesman--the man to beat--would play chess at lunch time. I was definitely at beginner level at first but there came the day when I finally beat that salesman.

There you go. Have some colleagues at $DAYJOB I've been playing chess with too, we've even set up a smallish chess group. Chess is basically a turn-based strategy game. Maybe try X-com (also one of my favorites), or the heavily X-com inspired open source version games/ufoai perhaps? Those are more or less chess on steroids, with a bit of RPG thrown in.

Having said that, those same colleagues I play chess with also play online (not chess) games. So they've roped me into playing Fortnite. I'm very much into first person shooters ever since the original QuakeWorld. So I felt right at home, definitely a bit rusty and a bit overwhelmed at first, but I'm keeping up quite nicely.

I'm interested in 'go' but have no one to play with and I don't think I'm interested in playing online.

I'm sure there's a go game where you can play against a computer opponent. Although I can't think of one right now.

 

[lost_in_c]

By the same token, though, aren't all ball sports basically the same?

Carry ball through field, avoid or neutralize enemies, negociate field and ball in conjunction with teammates, prevent enemies from doing the same.

My only complaint with computer games is this: don't call it "gaming." Call it playing video games.