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Since most players I encounter seem to be between 15-25 I was wondering how many people here started gaming when Reagan was still president 
The general consensus seems to be that your micro gets worse with age but Whitera is a great example of a 30+ player who still owns the top ranks and wins tournaments.
So I'm quite curious what your ranking/playstyles so far are as well, do we still have what it takes?
I'm 36 myself, platinum solo. Won, and lost , 100+ zerg solo so far and kind of an achievement junky with 2500 points.
Due to a lot of improvements which make it a much more macro friendly game (like for example multiple building selection, allowing for a lot less clicking) it actually feels like I'm doing better than I ever did in BW and WC3.
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I'm 29, rank 6 platinum solo zerg at the moment. I do appreciate some of the interface improvements, but it seems like zerg is still a major APM sink.
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I agree. its way easier to get used to; compared to BW or WC3. 1a2a3a is easier than 1a2a3a4a5a6a7a
wait. whats the point in this thread? to compare diff blizzard games?
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I don't think age really makes you worse per se, just the fact younglings like me have very few responsibilities, thus can play SC2 more.
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On August 18 2010 16:58 superbabosheki wrote:
I don't think age really makes you worse per se, just the fact younglings like me have very few responsibilities, thus can play SC2 more.
What he said. Maybe after 40-50 you can't compete with younger players but 30ish or your 36 shoulldn't be such a problem. By this definition I'm "only" 24 but I have a lot of repsonsibilities so that's eating in my time to play, which is probably the biggest problem I have now. That I just can't play as much as I want
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wait. whats the point in this thread? to compare diff blizzard games?
No not at all.
I guess I just want to learn about / get to know some age 30+ like me who still actively play starcraft2.
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What he said. Maybe after 40-50 you can't compete with younger players
Well, my mother of 65 is main healer in a raidguild so I still got my hopes up 
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Im 25. I work and study at the same time. Beside that I play on drums in a rock band and my girlfriend eats rest of my spare time.. Yet I happend to get to diamond recently. But I guess it has to be my W3 experience.. I think that as long as you dont take the game too seriously, age doesnt really matter.. Im actually very glad Im able to catch on SC2 and Diablo 3 - those will be probably my 2 last games I'm be able to spend time on. Its way better for me to play 2-3 hours of Starcraf 2 a day than stare at Tv after work is done..
edit: In RTS age matters even less.. In games like Quakelive, its very age-limited. But as for Starcraft 2, you can own kids all day long and than take care of your own kids.. :-)
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i dont think age matter anymore. all these good players are around 20+ look at white-ra
baller 
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often the age thing only applied to koreans too who were at such a high level, slowing down a little could drastically affect gameplay.. but also boxer said something like as you get older it's mostly the upcoming responsibilities that take a lot of time and adds to stress. Also consider that white-ra is a a slower player standing around 200 or so apm in bw, but his knowledge and intelligence helped to allowed him to compete against koreans.
that's my opinion tho
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27 year old shoutcaster here....
=D
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I am 35 and have played all the old school RTS including Dune 2, Warcraft 1-2, Age of Empires etc.
I was much faster when I was younger but I am still doing ok (550+ Diamond) even though I am slow as hell (my APM is around 40)
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I and most of the people I knew who were playing sc1 in 1998 were mostly late teens/college students (roughly the same age as most of the people on this site!). Sadly the vast majority of them eventually moved away from starcraft over the years. I know of only 2 other people from those days that are playing sc2 now, but they aren't very competitive, playing mostly the campaign and custom maps.
Life does get in the way of practice time when you're older, that's for sure. In my younger years I was capable of playing for 6 hours straight every day with no problem. Nowadays I play 30-60 minutes at most a day, a bit more on weekends. I'm currently in mid gold as protoss (placement matches were a biatch), and due to the low frequency of games I play it's taking me a while to move up. I'm hoping I'm much better than gold, because I actually reached Diamond during the final phase of beta after 50+ games.
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I'm 35, rank 40 diamond (452 points) solo Protoss. APM wise I can't compete at all anymore Still having fun though since AMM works so well (really the only good thing b.net 0.2 has to offer).
Biggest problem for me is definitely execution, I just don't have the APM to do what I want. I would need way more practice time to get it anywhere near the required amount to compete higher up the ladder. Since beta it has gone up a lot though, I started in bronze phase 1 and worked my way up to high gold, didn't play phase 2.
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I am 43 and do not own the game. The beta clearly showed me that I could never really compete, but I dont really care about that either. The sad fact is that you can only play this "for fun" with a bunch of friends and most of mine do not have the time or desire to play. So watching replays is a nice "plan B" for enjoying good Starcraft, although I can still remember the joy of nuking 8 Overlords full of Hydralisks with one single nuke in BW.
With the desire to turn Starcraft 2 into a worldwide eSport I really think there will be some "victims" of this scheme among the professional players when they turn 30 or so and the next generation with faster reflexes runs over them. When I think of people like IdrA - who devote all of their life to playing the game - and think about his "tech switch in this game called life" after the end of his career, I can only come up with two future jobs:
1. McDonalds opens up a restaurant in the middle of Seoul and you get served there by all the former pro players.
2. Morning talkshows or small amusement parks around the country, where you can "play against IdrA for 5$".
None of those are very dignified, but for people who devote all their attention to one thing it will be hard to get rid of that addiction and be focused enough to do something else very well. The match fixing scandal clearly showed that the players are aware of the issue IMO, but many of the kids who aspire to become professional gamers do not realize the danger. Unlike basketball pro players there is no "Starcraft teacher" at school, so there is no clear "followup" to the "Starcraft pro gamer tech" in life and pro gamers do not earn enough to have sufficient funds for the rest of their life as top sports stars do.
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Hi, i am turning 37 in a couple of weeks and play random (my P>T>Z) at around 500 diamond with an apm of around 100. So, i guess I am doing ok for a grandpa :-p. I think playing BW (on and off for 10 years) is helping my apm (even though it should be higher), but I notice that I am already getting sloppy (u just dont need that high apm compared to BW).
Unfortunately, due to work, family, friends, sports etc. i can only play a few games per week which does not help regarding my "stability" leading to a lot of catastrophic losses.
To be honest I am quite certain that right now the strategic development of the game is really low still and if you watch closely u can see tons of mistakes even at the highest level. So, I am quite sure given the time even at our age it would easily be possible to get 900+ diamond with available gaming time being the main obstacle.
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Sometimes I read all those late 20/30+ posts ''I am slow as hell'', ''I cant compete with younger players'' and feel like Im approaching the end of my days  Im 22
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Well seeing quite a lot of 35+ diamond players here I guess you still got plenty of days left
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I'm so glad this thread is there. I'm 28 and seeing younger kids play makes me think if I should be losing it. In fact I seem to be gaining more of it! I love playing Starcraft 2 and interacting with the community. RESPECT to the original gamers.
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I'm 39, didn't manage to make the Beta go despite having a key, and I placed into Gold league recently. My problem isn't APM, despite it being fairly low, (perhaps 50-ish or so, but it depends how long the game is - longer == bigger, which was the opposite of my pattern in BW). So far, I've only met one player, my final placement opponent, who was faster than me. Instead, I've got to fully grok the tech tree, what-counters-what and what to look for when scouting the other guy's base, etc. Also make less silly decisions.
Unlike basketball pro players there is no "Starcraft teacher" at school
Well there was that Alex Feng at Berkeley University, who delivered a course in Starcraft (though mostly for fun), and Incontrol seems to be having a go at making money out of teaching people to play (he wasn't the first to try it, but his effort is more professional-looking than most), so maybe those sorts of ancilliary careers come with time.
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Well the problem is that the passion for the game is extremly blinding. Of course, if you are 15 you can make Starcraft 2 prior to other things.. But as your age rises, you should see far behind a video game. I can tell you right now that I wont be able to compete at the top level, because Im not willing to give away whole period of my life.. Its also a big question wheter your family supports your way of thinking or not.. I belive there are lots of gamers out there that their parents dont have a clue.. Just look what happened to Morrow vs Huk last tournament, kinda funny.. :-)
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I also feel like I'm doing allot better in SC2 (Plat T in all leagues) Macro is so much easier and it free's up resources to focus on micro and strategy. It's made me realize that the original BW required so much skill and speed because it's control functions and interface where so limited and outdated.
But also because the unit AI is much smarter, the nightmare in BW of pushing out with vultures/tanks and not to make any mis-micro mistakes or messing around with 5-6 control groups of marines in TvZ >_<
Noob friendly SC2 may be but it also allows 100-150 apm players to play to their potential without being hindered by all the technical mechanics in BW. Also no longer goddamn stuck scvs!!!
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I think for most of us (I'm 29) we aren't going to suffer too much in games as we age.
It's only at the top echelon that the 1-5% difference age makes, really hurts. At most of our levels, experience will outweigh any neuro physical disadvantages.
The main disadvantage comes from the fact most of us have to work, have girlfriends/wives and or children The inability to play 8 hours a day really hurts vs a 16 yr old
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On August 18 2010 17:09 Zandar wrote:Well, my mother of 65 is main healer in a raidguild so I still got my hopes up
youre kidding right?
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I think the reason there are less "older" players and more younger ones is because once you get past your early 20s you have a lot of responsibilities which eat into your practice time. I am now 26 and have a daughter which doesn't leave me much practice time (I've played less than 50 games probably, including beta), so I'm high Platinum. If I were 15 or 16 like I was when I started playing the original game, I'm certain I'd be upper Diamond for sure. Finding time around family work (and study for some of us as well) is actually pretty hard. They key for players that don't have the time they need is to not take things too seriously and that way you can still have a blast (and still own all of your mates )
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26 atm, gamer for 16 at least I guess. Planning to keep on rocking and pass my passion to my kids
Respect for all the 30/40/50+ gamers out there
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And they say youth is wasted on the young, yet the old play starcraft tehehe
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I'm 28 and have played all the first installments of all the popular RTS-series but I try to avoid sequels with the exception of AoE, SC and WC. I never was any good at SC1 but got placed platinum in SC2 and I've managed to keep my position. I don't have a ton of time to play though so I improvement is slow.
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On August 18 2010 17:38 Jakalo wrote:Sometimes I read all those late 20/30+ posts ''I am slow as hell'', ''I cant compete with younger players'' and feel like Im approaching the end of my days Im 22
I know what you mean, it's kinda creepy. And by that measure I have already surpassed the end of my days (mid-thirties) and am left wondering why I'm not walking on a stick yet :D
About the skill thing, I like to think that my personal limits, especially concerning speed, are not so much due to age directly, but more to the fact that I was already over 20 when I first played Broodwar. (When I was a kid, there was ping pong. Then donkey kong and pac man and so on.) I mean, if you start playing the piano at age 6, you can become a maestro, if you start at 20, you can forget about that. BUT you can still develop decent, presentable skill and have lots of fun playing. Similar with RTS.
Edit:
I belive there are lots of gamers out there that their parents dont have a clue.. Just look what happened to Morrow vs Huk last tournament, kinda funny.. :-)
What happened? o_O
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I remember why sataNik quit bw. because he was getting older and his back started to hurt after playing mass games! tho he was playing insane vs Kors on iccup, pretty competitive play. I hope he starts sc2 tho since its easier to macro.
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On August 18 2010 17:51 sCuMBaG wrote:Show nested quote +On August 18 2010 17:09 Zandar wrote:Well, my mother of 65 is main healer in a raidguild so I still got my hopes up youre kidding right?
Nope, my brother and I game since the 80s and she always looked over our shoulder and liked it. Soon she tried some simple games too and enjoyed it. She even played some RTS, Dune, AOE, WC1 and 2, and even WC3 a bit, solo, but online was too fast for her.
Once we started to play EQ, WOW and EQ2 she really liked that a lot more than RTS because she could play it in her own pace and she sticked with it.
She loves questing and still has the reflexes to keep the raid alive, even at her age.
And she isn't even the oldest, they have a 70 year old sorc in that guild too who does fine
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If you see age as a barrier you wont progress. I say just don't even think about it and enjoy the game. I'm only 21 so i'm not an older gamer but i can see myself in 10 years time still gaming and being competitive in whatever way i can.
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I'm 39, not a fantastic player but I can certainly promise you it's not reaction time that's holding me back. Maybe at the VERY top levels that's an issue, but the truth is that having the focus and interest to push for improvement is something that comes more easily with age, not less so.
To the poster up above who's concerned about job prospects for pro SC2 players, I think in the United States it won't be so much an issue, because there's already a lot of tolerance for career shifts, particularly in one's 20s and 30s but often later as well. In Korea, probably it's a much bigger problem, and I noticed that Blizzard committed something like $500,000 to a fund to help pro Korean gamers complete their educations.
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On August 18 2010 17:31 Rabiator wrote:
I am 43 and do not own the game. The beta clearly showed me that I could never really compete, but I dont really care about that either. The sad fact is that you can only play this "for fun" with a bunch of friends and most of mine do not have the time or desire to play. So watching replays is a nice "plan B" for enjoying good Starcraft, although I can still remember the joy of nuking 8 Overlords full of Hydralisks with one single nuke in BW.
With the desire to turn Starcraft 2 into a worldwide eSport I really think there will be some "victims" of this scheme among the professional players when they turn 30 or so and the next generation with faster reflexes runs over them. When I think of people like IdrA - who devote all of their life to playing the game - and think about his "tech switch in this game called life" after the end of his career, I can only come up with two future jobs:
1. McDonalds opens up a restaurant in the middle of Seoul and you get served there by all the former pro players.
2. Morning talkshows or small amusement parks around the country, where you can "play against IdrA for 5$".
None of those are very dignified, but for people who devote all their attention to one thing it will be hard to get rid of that addiction and be focused enough to do something else very well. The match fixing scandal clearly showed that the players are aware of the issue IMO, but many of the kids who aspire to become professional gamers do not realize the danger. Unlike basketball pro players there is no "Starcraft teacher" at school, so there is no clear "followup" to the "Starcraft pro gamer tech" in life and pro gamers do not earn enough to have sufficient funds for the rest of their life as top sports stars do.
Why are people so black or white about pro gaming? People career switch at some point in their life if they are no longer interested in what they were doing before. The end result isn't always mcdonalds or some other rubbish thing cause suddenly you become some total loser after moving on from pro gaming. Grrrrr is a successful poker pro after being the only foreigner to win a star league.
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On August 18 2010 17:51 sCuMBaG wrote:Show nested quote +On August 18 2010 17:09 Zandar wrote:What he said. Maybe after 40-50 you can't compete with younger players Well, my mother of 65 is main healer in a raidguild so I still got my hopes up youre kidding right?
I hope not. His 65-year-old mom is healing for WoW raids? That's bad-ass. Tell her to rock on!
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On August 18 2010 16:58 superbabosheki wrote:
I don't think age really makes you worse per se, just the fact younglings like me have very few responsibilities, thus can play SC2 more.
This is definitely it. I doubt you 30 year olds really move your hands noticeable slower than me, but being 17 with no job for the summer pretty much means minimum 6 hours a day of starcraft if i want to.
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32 and I have played games since Commodore 64.
Real life taking too much time, but I enjoy this game. Never going to be better than platinum I think. Playing style is taking some matches more serious and macro oriented, other times just doing something stupid.
I think that older players usually don't have the passion/dedication/time to be "pro" in gaming, and that is the main reason why the best players are around 16-25 years.
I also have one bad habit. When I have free time, I like to take couple of beers to relax. After few drinks my SC2 performance really plummets for some strange reason.. -)
Also sometimes play Counter-Strike against kids for fun.
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27 here. Attorney. GF.
1004 points in Diamond. Ranked #32 on NA by Blizzard.
Played significant amounts of BW, COH, and DOW2 during high school, college, and law school.
I do feel that my age does make me slightly slower (lower APM), but SC2 isn't as APM intensive as BW, and I can still hold my own against the famous sc2 players like qxc, nony, slush, incontrol, silver, etc. Having a ton of RTS experience definitely allows me to improve extremely rapidly in SC2 with much less practice time.
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The age comparison between players is actually quite irrelevant.
It's not like you are 30 years old placed in silver league today but the 10 year old younger version of yourself would have placed top diamond.
The question in all of these kinds of "age" threads is: how much better would you play because of age if you were X years younger?
Most of the "old" players would in their "young" ages not be top diamond or pro players anyways so I don't believe that age is the biggest factor of your skill level.
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If you look at other sports where reaction speed is important late 30s is where people start to struggle.
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I'm 30 and around 700 diamond atm, playing Zerg.
It's really not that bad if you've been keeping your reflexes sharp (I play ping pong on the side lol).
The game is also a lot "easier" to play now from the psychological warfare standpoint. It seems people are easier to "read".
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36 toss player. ti is like finally the games reached a state where mind games come into play and not the execution aspect is the sole basement for a victory. remember things and you will adapt of doing them fast - fast enough to execute a plan.
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hey more power to you guys who are old and still playing..i used to play WoW with a retired guy and he was awesome to play with..i say the longer you play games the better..of course be active and have a social life but games really keep you in touch with your inner child and there is always an amazement with games..:D
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I will be 30 next year.
I have found my patience, understanding and acceptance of loses has really improved these last three year I have come back to SC-->SC2.
I've been playing PC games for 20 odd years and my mouse accuracy still sucks, so I guess I will never be a pro, but I am up in Diamond at the mo. and that makes me happy
I think the harderest thing for the older gamer is job/wife/kids(soon eeek!)
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I'm 31, but i'm currently unranked in 1v1. Trying to practice more before I take the plunge into ladder. I'm wanting to main zerg, but I'm still undecided on race.
My micro/macro sucks, but I think it's due to my A.D.D.
It's really hard to concentrate on so many different things at once when my brain get's distracted so easily. Really flippin' annoying at times.
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I'm 26 and I feel too little time to practice has always been and always will be my greatest limitation. I've never been a natural talent with the keyboard/hotkeys and it took some effort to learn at least part of the left side of the keyboard back in BW - I very rarely go beyond control group 4. I regularly hit G instead of F and I regularly hit V instead of B and viceversa, I sometimes even have to look at the keyboard prior to an attack, to make sure I'm pressing T for storm and not Y or R. but that's always been the case.
I'm not sure if this qualifies as "low APM" since I'm comforatble with the mouse and I can keep up with multitasking decently. I was a C- protoss; I'm now a low-mid diamond random and improving steadily and I've never felt better!
I think maybe with the exception of pro players age is only a limitation because of the little time spent practicing, and because you are less likely to give up everything in your life to play a game 10 hours a day. 15 year olds are much more willing to become obsessed with something (replace with passionate about something if you want a more positive tone), while at 25 years you probably already have a range of interests you are not willing to give up on.
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I'm 31, and before my tilt-session yesterday I was 600+ platinum and was hoping for a diamond advance. But now I'm down to 500+ :S
APM is increasing slowly the more games I play. In the beginning I was around 30-40, now I'm around 70-75 in average. There is a multitask trainer map I tried out during beta downtime, that helped me in my APM, I suggest you try that.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=124983
And as for competition, I think we 30+ have a lot more other responsibilities that keeps us out of the pro-scene, work, wifes, kids (or as in my case, excessive training). I think it is just the time invested in StarCraft that makes all the difference..
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On August 18 2010 18:19 Baarn wrote:Show nested quote +On August 18 2010 17:31 Rabiator wrote:
I am 43 and do not own the game. The beta clearly showed me that I could never really compete, but I dont really care about that either. The sad fact is that you can only play this "for fun" with a bunch of friends and most of mine do not have the time or desire to play. So watching replays is a nice "plan B" for enjoying good Starcraft, although I can still remember the joy of nuking 8 Overlords full of Hydralisks with one single nuke in BW.
With the desire to turn Starcraft 2 into a worldwide eSport I really think there will be some "victims" of this scheme among the professional players when they turn 30 or so and the next generation with faster reflexes runs over them. When I think of people like IdrA - who devote all of their life to playing the game - and think about his "tech switch in this game called life" after the end of his career, I can only come up with two future jobs:
1. McDonalds opens up a restaurant in the middle of Seoul and you get served there by all the former pro players.
2. Morning talkshows or small amusement parks around the country, where you can "play against IdrA for 5$".
None of those are very dignified, but for people who devote all their attention to one thing it will be hard to get rid of that addiction and be focused enough to do something else very well. The match fixing scandal clearly showed that the players are aware of the issue IMO, but many of the kids who aspire to become professional gamers do not realize the danger. Unlike basketball pro players there is no "Starcraft teacher" at school, so there is no clear "followup" to the "Starcraft pro gamer tech" in life and pro gamers do not earn enough to have sufficient funds for the rest of their life as top sports stars do. Why are people so black or white about pro gaming? People career switch at some point in their life if they are no longer interested in what they were doing before. The end result isn't always mcdonalds or some other rubbish thing cause suddenly you become some total loser after moving on from pro gaming. Grrrrr is a successful poker pro after being the only foreigner to win a star league.
First of all I assume you arent that old yet or you might have noticed the following yourself. There is this old saying that you can't teach new tricks to an old dog. This is true and if kids are spending their major focus on playing games during the age of 10-26 they waste the one chance they have to learn things easily. Sure you can learn new stuff when you are older, but it will be much harder than in those early years. The problem with gaming is also that it doesnt work as a basis for anything other than the gaming industry and if you stop playing yourself your know-how will be outdated pretty fast, so the knowledge is more or less useless. You can learn the management and strategic planning skills associated with an RTS from watching streams regularly and that is probably the only useful skill involved with it.
The thing is that the most successful pro gamers will probably have no problem doing something new (like Poker), but those arent the real issue. The real problem are those people who invest the time to try and make it work and fail or barely succeed at it. They are not well know, have probably no team support and so on. Since they invested the time - and maybe a lot of daddys money to keep them and their dream alive - they practically wasted the time on something that will not help them in any profession out there. They might be too old to go to university and their school grades might already have suffered because of playing too much computer games. You cant "redo" school for better grades and if you botch that youre screwed.
Another thing about gaming at a very early age is that you can easily damage yourself FOR LIFE. Just look at Day[9] and his carpal tunnel syndrome - I have something similar and it isnt fun - and I think I heard at least one other prominent gamer mentioning the same problem. Does it really make sense to ruin your ability to use a computer properly by being an ill informed child who likes to play too much computer games? There are a ton of professions where you need to be able to use the computer - I am working with it as well -, but it isnt really fun when your wrist hurts all the time. Personally I had to switch to a WACOM tablet instead of a mouse, just because it forces me to hold my hand differently, but not everyone can afford those 350€ ... I know there are cheaper tablets out there, but they dont offer the same amount of options a WACOM has.
Oh and another thing: Stopping to play is hard and games like WoW are an addiction. I know, because I quit WoW (and several other games wayy before the friends that were playing the game as well) and after you have done it you sometimes feel really really empty and do not know what to do with your time. As a kid you NEED TO learn social skills of being able to communicate with others and to solve problems in a relationship. In our society these skills are rare as hell already to cheer for yet another "escape from real life" method.
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Is APM really related to age? I think APM is correlated much more with past gaming experience and skill level than age. If you played BW then your APM should be higher than some kid who only just got into RTS gaming, even if you're old enough to be his father. Perhaps finger speed slows a little bit as you get older but you're not gonna suddenly drop from 120 to 50 overnight =/
Also, it seems that you don't need a very high APM to make it into mid-Diamond anyway. I constantly lose to guys with half my APM...
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38 here
was a war3 player (i made my way in FFA, badass experience help here^^), didn't play SC1
here a quote which slap me back in the face after my first SC2 games : "the older i get the faster i was"
and as someone said : i don't care ladder anymore,
i know other folks like me, we are creating a gang of old-boy to have fun with our 10apm xD
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Are most of Starcraft 2 players 20+? I'm under 20, way under. :0
14 and in platinum, rank 34.
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I'm 31. rank 2 in plat and soon diamond. too bad Diablo 3 will end my awesome SC2 career:D
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37 and I agree real life time constraints are what holds a man back the older you get. 40+ hours of work. Time with the wife and kids. Other family and friends. Yeah, I often get like an hour or two a night... and that's really not enough to even warm up.
My main and alt usually got into upper diamond pretty quickly in the beta and the same seems to be true for retail. So no, I don't think age isn't slowing anybody down really. But even so, I long for the days of college when I had all the time in the world.
--- cant even finish a post!
Summary: if you are old, play play play dont give up.
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Well, at 45 years old, I've been playing computer games longer than many of you who consider yourselves "older" have been alive.
When I was playing WoW, I was a member of a PvP guild and used to have a blast beating "kids" in the arena that were 1/3 my age. :p I've been a long time member of a group called The Older Gamers where the minimum age limit to join is 25. Most of the gamers there play FPS games.
I guess I've slowed a little over the years. My typing words per minute has recently dropped below 90 for the first time since college.
I would agree that having a wife, kids, job, etc. makes it harder to find time to play / practice. So I've gone back to my high school basketball days and remembered when my coach used to say "Practice does NOT make perfect. PERFECT practice makes perfect. If you practice the wrong thing over and over again, the only result will be to be really good at doing the wrong things."
I think the difference that I bring as an older person playing is a willingness to study, research, and understand what I'm doing. Because I can't play as much, I'll find little bits of time (like right now when I'm waiting for a server to reboot) to learn as much as I can. I figure if I can't be faster than my opponent, then I darn well better be smarter.
I believe that us "oldtimers" do have a chance to at least climb the ladders, if not place well in some of the tournaments. It's a matter of commitment, approach and time. It may not be realistic to think that at 45 I can go to Korea and give those kids their cumuppance, but that isn't really my goal or my reason for playing.
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It's pretty great to see so many 30+ doing so well
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with my 28yrs age i consider myself one of the older players (no offence to all you 30+) because i alrdy played sc1 in 98/99 and stopped around the time bw came.
i was a decent player back then (played some national tournaments, best result being halffinalist), but had to stop because i totally drained my parents bankaccount due to continuous gaming on our isdn connecting. i stopped gaming in general for a while.
i tried to make a comeback several times during the 00's (2002/2004/2006) but soon realized the overall lvl of play had drastically increased while mine had decreased significantly.
when sc2 beta came out, i decided to pick up gaming once again. and i've been reasonably succesful. i worked my way up to lowlvl diamond and am very happy about it since i had to overcome a lot of challenges to get there. my apm is nothing special, but i now manage to keep it close to 100 average without spamming. (my zerg is a lot higher)
i do feel i was a better player when i was younger. mainly caus i was still naive and didnt realize just what made me stand out as much as i now realize how much i am doing wrong. also my concern is with becoming a better, more creative, mature and overall skillfull and smart player, while the younger version of me just wanted to win .
i feel like this is both an advantage as a disadvantage. for instance, as a rule i don't cheese. my focus is on reaching the endgame, controlling the map and slowly getting ahead of my opponent with strategic planning. another thing is i don't have a solid build. i always try to rely on my game sense, multitasking, micro and macro to get on top, but i lose a lot to that early midgame timing pushes that are kinda all-in-ish. thats mostly just inexperience and stubborness on my part. i just don't want to stick to one solid build. also i play random. and i don't scout enough. at least not in early game.
still a lot to improve on, but i do not feel like age is an issue. it just so that the pros and cons of my playstyle have shifted with age.
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I am 36 and started gaming in Atari/Intellivision era and haven´t stoped since. I have played all kind of console and PC games.
I have never played any RTS in a competitive way, just for fun with friends and I have followed BW Korean Pro scene since 2005 (That National Geograghic docummentary awoke my hunger for Strarcraft again). I love BW but when I realized I couldn´t catch up with most players to really compete on ladders I just gave up and just enjoyed watching replays, VODS and streams.
Now I own SC2 and I love it. I am taking my sweet time since I spend a lot of time watching streams, Day9 dailys etc..and playing a bit of campaign and actually finishing my last beginner league matches.
I will never be a top player but my plan with SC2 is play a lot more on ladders to become a good/solid player.
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I'm 27 and feel old compared to a lot of SC2 players I know. Being married and working really cuts down on the practice time! I'm lucky enough to have a great wife that understands my love of the game though so I've still got a chance... heh.
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On August 18 2010 22:36 ToxicSEA wrote:
Are most of Starcraft 2 players 20+? I'm under 20, way under. :0
14 and in platinum, rank 34.
It's a pretty even spread between 17 and 24. The "bell curve peak" has shifted in the past 6 years though from like 14-21 to the current 17-24.
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i`m 32 and i`m 600+ diamond zerg player ...but with real difficulties vs terr ... and sometimes zvz
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Being older, it's not about the mental aspect, or reflexes,it's about having just a few hours a week to practice. That's the determining factor. I'm platinum 500 player, but can't practice enough to get anywhere else basically on a couple hours of week practice.
Love the game though.
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I agree that age has it's impact on performing well in Starcraft 2, but I think people are making it a larger deal than necessary :b
I really respect ''older'' people for playing Starcraft and Starcraft 2, hell, even the entire E-sports scene, I think it's cool to meet mature people who still games.
I am 15 atm, I am kinda surprised to see myself at half the age of most people here :b
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I'm in my late 20's, which I guess makes me old for SC2. My APM is not as high as it used to be, but I think the main problem with age is that you gain responsibilities and lose practice time.
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I guess 26 isn't that old, but I have definitely slowed down as far as APM goes from my WC3 peak way back before they screwed the ladder system. I used to average about 160 APM, my current average in SC2 is less than half that.
However, perhaps because of that prior RTS knowledge, it's taken me a much shorter time to go from horrible to decent in SC2 than it did in WC3, and I suspect the jump from decent to good will be similarly shortened. So age does have some benefits as far as grasping the overall game goes, even if it does cause micro to suffer.
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I feel that reflex is not the issue with getting older. I think the reason young people tend to dominate anything is that the body can no longer handle the physical stress of the extreme practice that young people can put in. In video games, it's carpal tunnel for sure. I started travelling around to tournaments when I was 13 and could play constantly. Now that I'm 23, I still go to tournaments all the time, but I need to take breaks between rounds/casuals because my wrists start to kill me if I push them too long/hard.
Back to the subject of reflexes, I really don't believe you slow down for a VERY long time as long as you keep in practice. Some of the people I continue to play with continue to place at the top of tournaments and have absurd reaction times. When we all do those reaction-time testers, I average around 160-170 ms. These 35 year old players I play with make me look like the old man because they pull 140-150ms. Unbelievably fast, and their hard work and practice and experience continues to allow them to stay at or near the top.
In conclusion, I don't think that young people have any sort of real advantage over older players. I believe that older players really just need to adapt their practice/gameplay to their strengths and physical limitations, without trying to do everything the same as they did when they were 16. All of this "I'm in my mid 20's, I can't compete anymore" is complete BS and makes no sense. I really believe you have to be at least in your 40's to really start to notice any sort of decline.
EDIT: Also just wanted to add that in most games, reflex is overrated anyway. Experience, game sense/knowledge, and mechanics (usually more timing based than reflex based) are vastly more important than reflex.
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As long as you're coordinated, you have to be pretty dang old for age to have a noticeable difference in game performance. White-ra is 30 and has been doing quite nicely for himself.
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As many people have mentioned, practice time is the biggest limiting factor for players that are knee deep into "real life".
I am 32, I was a pro age series player, and was undeafeated in AOM for a few months until I retired. I had to stop completely because I started "real life" and could only play here and there, which caused my play to suffer.
Speed is not an issue, I am as fast as I need to be for SC2, and I get faster as I learn the game more and get my "system" of hotkeys down. Its really things like work, fiance, social life, etc that eat into my time to watch records and practice. I am 600+ diamond at this time and strive to be one of the best, but I understand this will not happen. Being very good will just have to suffice.
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Baseball players can connect a bat to a 95 mph fastball well into their 30s but some guys in their 20s believe their reflexes have fallen to the point that it's noticeably affecting their ability to play Starcraft? Seriously doubt that.
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Kyrgyz Republic1462 Posts
I am 26 and see no problems with aging. I am neither worse nor better (at SC and Quake) than I used to be 7-8 years earlier, and so are my friends, some of whom are 30.
The only thing that I don't understand is why I suck so much at Counter-Strike these days, I used to be decent in 2003 or so
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I am 31 and the biggest problem,like most people mentioned, is getting sufficient playtime.
Its usually around an hour a day at best which just leaves time for laddering a bit. There is not sufficient time to practice BOs, watch replays etc. Real games are practice . This is where the new macro mechanics help out since you need not have the amount of practice you needed in BW to get solid openings.
Still have managed to be placed in a diamond league with ~440 ELO.
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I am 33 and am enjoying my time with SC2 so far. It is true though, it's the lack of time that is the #1 inhibitor to getting better. Job/wife/kids take a lot of your time.
Best part about being an older gamer though? You get to enjoy your hobby quite a bit more! I love being able to buy whatever games, hardware, etc I want when they come out. Well... up to what my budget allows of course, but with a job and all, it's not as restricting as it used to be.
So yeah... my advice to the younger gamers, focus on getting a good job now first and foremost. Then you can have a good income stream (economy!) that allows you to really enjoy gaming even more. i.e. do an economy based build order for your life vs an aggressive quick attack one
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Define old. The guys I play SC2 with were playing games during the Carter administration. Most of us are over 40.
If you're under 30 you're not old, sorry.
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Eye sight would be the main thing that i think would start to physically inhabit game play with age. I am only 22, and after a day of programming at work, it is difficult to play any pc game let alone sc2.
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I'm 31, played BW in college, and find SCII to be quite approachable.
Its a lot harder for me to generate APM, but my feeling is that I have an edge in game sense, quick analysis, study and parsing and applying strategic concepts that let me make the most of my limited playtime and weaker tactical execution. As people approach middle age they may not learn new skills as easily, but the rate at which they process information speeds way up.
The real trick is that being married with a fulltime job and a child on the way cuts my ability to spend the kind of time practicing that I'd really like to.
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I'm 29, and don't have any problems with micro. I have been a heavy gamer my whole life though, so pushing buttons quickly is second nature to me. My APM is only around 50 though, but it's probably more due to the face that I don't really spam actions at all. I'm #2 Platinum leaguer, and really beat most low Diamonds I play against. Only the very top tier players really make me feel like I'm at a disadvantage.
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i'm curious if the apm difference between the younger and older (30+) players has more to do with hand speed decline or inability to develop the same type of muscle memory.
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36 here, Plat but have only 7 ladder games so far due to RL etc.(5 being placement to plat) I feel I belong in plat from the games I have played so far, my apm ave is probably around 60-90 or so, mainly just because I don't have the played time to learn all the hotkeys yet I think is my biggest draw back. Having a wife, 2 children and one full time and one part time job makes time for me rather difficult
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28.
My hands aren't as fast as they used to be, I don't care as much anymore though. SC2 is not the end all be all in life now, it is just a fun hobby for me.
Life is good.
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about the micro gets worst with age, thing, i highly doubt that, i mean korea got swept off their feets by a video game called starcraft, so yes of course they will try to make it seem more complex by making up some BS shit about losing micro with age. lol duh its always been a fraud thing that koreans just like to say since they think they know it all when it comes to sc. Hence they made that shit up just to make sc more sportish, i mean only sports athletes have expiration dates, not video gamers.
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You'll definitely slow down if you get arthritis or carpal tunnel, though the former doesn't happen until you're in your 50s or 60s for most people and the latter is preventable. So I'm not sure your hands are gonna slow down with age. Your brain might!
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31 here.
Not new to RTS but new to the online side of it. I just didn't have time and didn't really care all those years ago. Online with friends beating up on the computer is all I bothered to do.
Now I'm average APM of 50 and increasing but I spike up to 150+ when needed. I attribute my high spikes to all my years of competitive FPS gaming.
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I'm only 27 but I already feel like it's impossible to compete at the same level I used to. Just having a wife and a job limits my play time to an hour or two a day, and often weekends with very little play time. Compare that to my SC1 days when I was in High School and could play non stop when not in school, and I'm a shadow of my formerly skilled self. If there were leagues in SC1 I'd have been high ranked Diamond easy, but now I'm middle of the pack Platinum and don't really see myself going any further than that. It's sad to know I'll never be that good again, but at least the game is still fun
Ah to be young again, sigh.
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On August 19 2010 03:33 Terranist wrote:
i'm curious if the apm difference between the younger and older (30+) players has more to do with hand speed decline or inability to develop the same type of muscle memory.
It has nothing to do with that and everything to do with time spent practicing. My hands are just as fast as they were 20 years ago when I was in college (actually they're much faster now). The problem is I don't have an entire summer to dick around playing video games like I used to.
I suppose in that sense, yes, you don't get the same muscle memory but it's a time commitment issue and not an age one. If I had 80+ hours a week to dedicate to this game I'm sure I could be pretty damn good (I'm sure most people could).
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I'm 28. Still dominate, holding steady climbing platinum. I have a much better game sense than the youngins, and much more strategical skill and gaming expereince.
Average apm is like 50-60, but definitely spikes up 150-200+. That's just game sense and tempered, & explicit action making.
Look at old rockstars that can rip out guitar solo's like nothin. Age doesn't impede you, it teaches you.
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I'll be 25 next weak and I am MUCH faster now then I was when I was 15-20. Males don't start seeing a loss in testosterone, reflexes, hand eye coordination, ect until around the age of 30. And even then it's a slow decline(about 1% a year), plus if you take hormone replacement therapy (HGH or steroids which can be totally safe if taken properly and should not be illegal or banned) you can further slow the decline.
I think the biggest advantage young players have is they can learn the game properly without any bad habits. RTS in general are pretty mapped out now, even if the particular details in games like SC2 are not. So young players can learn how to properly use hotkeys and scout and the importance or APM early, and ingrain it into their mental wiring, where as a lot of the old school players learn that shit later and have to make a conscience effort to change. Also since the games them selves change, it's normal to see a changing over the guard pretty quickly. When Boxer was on top, micro was king, now it's macro.
Also one must not overestimate the effect of getting burnt out. I don't think the human body was made to do anything 16 hours a day every day for more than a few a years before they crash. Eventually age will always take its toll but I always thought that it's effects on a game of like SC where highly over rated. I just doubt that a game like SC would have an insanely higher premium on age than a intense physical sport like boxing or football. Just look at Bernard Hopkins. I refuse to believe that RTS's are more demanding then boxing. And even if you do get ravished by age, no way should you being losing to bronze or silver players, even in the old folks home. The day I lose to a bronze player is the day I say goodbye to may family drift out to sea.
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32, zerg. I was better at Brood Wars, but that's not saying much. I'm not as good at scouting and countering in SC2. 120ish APM, but super casual infrequent player, and faster than the local kids I play with
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I am 28 and in some games I really feel like an old fossil (for example in WoW or shooters). But in SC2 I have the feeling the average age is higher than in other games.
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I'm 27 in diamond and I don't look at age being a barrier. Keep in mind video games haven't been around that long. So you wont be finding gamers in their sixties too often. The nes generation could still compete with the young guns of today.
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I think it really depends on the person more than the age. By the time you're 25 - 40 you have a lot more responsibilities and a lot more important thoughts on your mind so it's tough to put that effort and attention to Starcraft. I remember when i was in middle school, I thought of nothing but video games, not a care in the world, so I would literally be able to mass game from Sun up to Sun down when school wasn't in session.
But now its different, I play for a few hours, I look at the clock, start thinking about what I need to do for tomorrow, how early I'll have to get up for work...etc etc. And plus it's not easy to sit down to play such a mentally exhausting game after a rough day at work.
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Most likely you just feel you are doing better because there is no real ladder, just stupid divisions. Thats blizzards goal, make people feel better about themselves with lesser results.
On WC3 ladder or iccup style ladder, you would be #352462 or so, but on Bnet2 you are #100 in some random platinum division.. What looks better?
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I'm 24 and I don't think the age is a real impediment to be a top player, for example 3 years ago I was at 40-50 APM (in BW), and now I'm at average of 125 (at least blizzard says that) ..
However as everyone stated before the real problem is all the responsibilities and gameplay time that you have..
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Its not micro, and its not just RTS games.
Chess is dominated by the young these days. Top chess champions tend become rarer and rarer as they get older than 30, and older than 40 is getting to be very rare.
The mind slows down the older you get. In most areas, you can make up for this with experience. But for games of pure physical or mental ability, experience only takes you so far.
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I'm 25, ranked 7th in my diamond division. Protoss player like 92-70 700+ pts. I feel like I'm going faster than ever now, I played SC1 for like 9-10 years and got up to C+ with an apm of like 185-200. I guess my age hasn't really hit me yet... no arthritis (yet), no carpel tunnel (yet) and I've been feeling pretty good.
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26 and faster than ever ... struggling a bit in diamond 500ish atm. i find that i have more patience when i played sc1 a while ago though.
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I'm 31, 21st Diamond 500 pts or so and climbing. I've always felt slower than other gamers, so it's not an age thing for me. I've played BW since it came out and my APM has gradually increased with age. Went from around 60 apm when I could first measure it to around 110 towards the end of BW. I would say that SC2 is definitely firendlier to low APM players though with MBS.
I don't have a wife or kids, so I still find time to grind out a 5-6 hour session here and there. No Carpel tunnel, though when I was playing BW a couple years ago my wrist started hurting and I had to change my posture to prevent it. Feelin great now though.
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I feel old playing this game at 27, but it's nice to see that I'm not alone. Like many here I remember playing Sc1 in high school and having no responsibilities. Not so much the case any more. I'd like to dedicate more time to having fun playing this game, but a job, house and girlfriend take up all that "extra" time I once had.
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You guys are kidding right. SC2 is not like football or basketball, where you need to be in physically great shape to be competitive (look at Day9!). I'm 34 and I play better now then when I played BW.
I remember SC1 and BW when I was in college and that game brings alot of fond memories.
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game mechanics of sc2 is casual-friendly, which is why more people are doing significantly better than how they did in bw.
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Age puts caps on people. In terms of just making you slower or less something, the difference is probably much less than the gain from years on years of practice (a retired soldier will likely make a short of work of a young gang member) but there are caps on what you can do.
However, there may be other reasons why we don't see 30+ year olds in pro tournaments (correct me, anybody, if you know of any such person). One would probably have to work in a gaming company to be allowed to skip work to attend tournaments, let alone practice. Marriage and children on top of bread winning don't leave one that much time etc. etc. Also, if you don't exercise or lead an otherwise active life, you're going to be less resilient in terms of all-nighters and gaming marathons at 30 than at school. I could keep playing for 40 hours around age 20. I doubt I could now. However, soldiers who are older than 30 can stay up for 3 nights in a row and be effective. Again, this is somewhere between training and natural limitations. It's hard to formulate a rule.
On the other hand, perhaps we may yet see people in flexible jobs or people who don't need to work playing as pro gamers. I could pull that off if I had the skill, as I dictate my work hours, don't have a wife or kids and could cover my bills by working 40 hours a month, not to mention any form of publicity would help my job as a freelance translator, let alone from the point of view of gaming translation contract. Therefore it would be a great option if only I had the skill. Might even try to pull that off if I stay unmarried but I'm not sure I'd be psychically able to limit myself to 1 title for several years.
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Hey guys, never seen this thread before the bump. I am 30, married, kid, and I cannot wait to get my son into StarCraft. =)
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On August 27 2011 20:09 NewbieOne wrote:
Age puts caps on people. In terms of just making you slower or less something, the difference is probably much less than the gain from years on years of practice (a retired soldier will likely make a short of work of a young gang member) but there are caps on what you can do.
However, there may be other reasons why we don't see 30+ year olds in pro tournaments (correct me, anybody, if you know of any such person). One would probably have to work in a gaming company to be allowed to skip work to attend tournaments, let alone practice. Marriage and children on top of bread winning don't leave one that much time etc. etc. Also, if you don't exercise or lead an otherwise active life, you're going to be less resilient in terms of all-nighters and gaming marathons at 30 than at school. I could keep playing for 40 hours around age 20. I doubt I could now. However, soldiers who are older than 30 can stay up for 3 nights in a row and be effective. Again, this is somewhere between training and natural limitations. It's hard to formulate a rule.
On the other hand, perhaps we may yet see people in flexible jobs or people who don't need to work playing as pro gamers. I could pull that off if I had the skill, as I dictate my work hours, don't have a wife or kids and could cover my bills by working 40 hours a month, not to mention any form of publicity would help my job as a freelance translator, let alone from the point of view of gaming translation contract. Therefore it would be a great option if only I had the skill. Might even try to pull that off if I stay unmarried but I'm not sure I'd be psychically able to limit myself to 1 title for several years.
White ra is 30 right ?
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On August 27 2011 20:14 Brunaland wrote:Show nested quote +On August 27 2011 20:09 NewbieOne wrote:
Age puts caps on people. In terms of just making you slower or less something, the difference is probably much less than the gain from years on years of practice (a retired soldier will likely make a short of work of a young gang member) but there are caps on what you can do.
However, there may be other reasons why we don't see 30+ year olds in pro tournaments (correct me, anybody, if you know of any such person). One would probably have to work in a gaming company to be allowed to skip work to attend tournaments, let alone practice. Marriage and children on top of bread winning don't leave one that much time etc. etc. Also, if you don't exercise or lead an otherwise active life, you're going to be less resilient in terms of all-nighters and gaming marathons at 30 than at school. I could keep playing for 40 hours around age 20. I doubt I could now. However, soldiers who are older than 30 can stay up for 3 nights in a row and be effective. Again, this is somewhere between training and natural limitations. It's hard to formulate a rule.
On the other hand, perhaps we may yet see people in flexible jobs or people who don't need to work playing as pro gamers. I could pull that off if I had the skill, as I dictate my work hours, don't have a wife or kids and could cover my bills by working 40 hours a month, not to mention any form of publicity would help my job as a freelance translator, let alone from the point of view of gaming translation contract. Therefore it would be a great option if only I had the skill. Might even try to pull that off if I stay unmarried but I'm not sure I'd be psychically able to limit myself to 1 title for several years. White ra is 30 right ?
Yeah, so is Boxer I thought.
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i think nestea is ~30, too. in chess there are a lot of very good players ~40. so with eased ui we might see some top gamers 30..40
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IF an "older" person is not able to compete with youngsters, I don't think it is doe to the age itself like beeing slower or whatever, but rather he has not as much free time because of job, family and adult stuff while kids that for example go to school have more time to play. So if a 50 year old person spends as much time practising, I don't see any reason why he would be worse that a younger one.
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On August 19 2010 07:08 Nearsite00 wrote:
You guys are kidding right. SC2 is not like football or basketball, where you need to be in physically great shape to be competitive (look at Day9!). I'm 34 and I play better now then when I played BW.
I remember SC1 and BW when I was in college and that game brings alot of fond memories.
Of course you are going to play SC2 better for several frigging reasons. You probably had very little to no concept of how to actually play BW back then. Lots of the guys I met who said they played Starcraft: Brood War really didn't play it at all, let along bothered with the U.I.
Let's face it the interface is more user friendly in SC2 and not as demanding. Soon enough, it will be as players continue to polish their skills.
On August 27 2011 20:32 Aquila- wrote:
IF an "older" person is not able to compete with youngsters, I don't think it is doe to the age itself like beeing slower or whatever, but rather he has not as much free time because of job, family and adult stuff while kids that for example go to school have more time to play. So if a 50 year old person spends as much time practising, I don't see any reason why he would be worse that a younger one.
We have too few examples of this. RTS does take dexterity, mental health, quick reactions, intuition, etc. Lots of the guys moved on considering the pastures are greener elsewhere. We have what? White-ra and not much else.
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We have what? White-ra and not much else.
Not much else, like Boxer and Nestea?
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I heard them. Hence the not much else. White-ra makes it more personable.
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"In game, nobody old."
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On August 27 2011 22:20 Perfi wrote:"In game, nobody old."
We're all raging, bad mannered kids? o-O I thought I posted in this thread before ages ago, but it turns out this was another thread on the topic. Seems like it pops up quite a bit.
I might be old, but I'm young at heart :D
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Micro/APM doesn't go down with age, it goes down without practice, and most older gamers simply don't have the time to practice. There is a mistaken idea that 30s are "old" but many people are in their physical prime in their late twenties/early thirties.
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Age influences enthusiasm due to having more responsibilities and worries. That and maybe players have a mental block thinking that their skill 'should' be deteriorating with age. The confidence and mindset is almost as important as the actual skill itself.
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I'm 29 and I don't play much (220 games since the game went live) but I play at high platinum and diamond level (depends what season you look at). Currently mid diamond. Love the game but have just enough time for cassual play :S
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On August 27 2011 22:29 SnuggleZhenya wrote:
... it goes down without practice, and most older gamers simply don't have the time to practice. There is a mistaken idea that 30s are "old" but many people are in their physical prime in their late twenties/early thirties.
I wish I could say that for Brood War, but it doesn't apply. The mandatory military service that all Koreans have to do is somewhat of a valid argument, but supposedly they're getting in even better physical shape and there is a select few who do manage to get in Air Force Ace team, so they get to practice a fraction of what the other pro's do. Once they're released from their duties it's very hard for them to get back into Pro Gaming. So yeah, it doesn't necessarily apply to every game.
I definitely think a lot of the players haven't plateaued yet. As SC2 gets more refined we'll have to wait and see how the rest keep up.
There are too few pro's in our age group. Let's wait until the number rises to see what happens to the industry. Looks like a lot of us are casuals considering we have other priorities.
Cheers!
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28, married w/ fulltime job and Masters here.
Age reduces reaction time and dexterity but I doubt its substantial until 40+. What is substantial is the loss of free time that typically occurs with aging. In fact I bet a retired person with a passion for SC would out-perform your average 20 something who has too many responsibilities
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I just made 29, master league zerg player, i have been around a long time, ive played even warcraft 1 lol, old school.
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27, Diamond Terran. I only started playing RTS games in SC2 beta, so I think I've come a decent way since then. Still my biggest problem is lack of time.
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Time is the biggest factor more than anything else.
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It doesn't really matter what age you are to play Starcraft but I personally just think that younger people learn faster (that's what my parents tell me, at least). My dad plays Starcraft too and he's like 50 although he doesn't focus on improving a lot, he just mostly plays because he likes it(he has been in bronze for the last year almost, mostly because he does the same thing every game no matter what and has slower reaction although more aware of the minimal than me). Me, being 13, also play Starcraft because I love Starcraft and also want to improve as well as having more time to play it because I don't have my exams yet. I'm only in gold though but I hope to change that very soon :D
Basically what I'm trying to say is that age doesn't really matter as long as you love what you are playing.
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On August 27 2011 20:32 Aquila- wrote:
IF an "older" person is not able to compete with youngsters, I don't think it is doe to the age itself like beeing slower or whatever, but rather he has not as much free time because of job, family and adult stuff while kids that for example go to school have more time to play. So if a 50 year old person spends as much time practising, I don't see any reason why he would be worse that a younger one.
I don't want to say that's not true but can we imagine a 50 year old player showing up with 300 APM and pwning everybody with his multidrops and marine splitting?
@Iphimedeia: Wishing you and your dad a long gaming career.
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Im 37, #4 Diamond T (470pts) and my APM is around 40. Never seen it crack 50 by the end of a game. I am beating Masters regularlyish.
Im living proof that APM means little. If I could raise my consistency a bit more Id be Masters, perhaps this season. Im definitely getting better by each season.
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26 - Masters P, over 800 points this season - top 15 in my division.
My average apm is 170. I've learned the art of finding a flow in my games, increasing my ability to multi task between macro with my base/tech and micro with my army.
I think anyone of any age can learn how to play this game. You just have to push yourself to becoming faster with your hands/mind, and and push yourself to learn strats/timings.
GL fellow older tlers.
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I just turned 26 last weekend. I can see myself gaming for years and years to come. I have a full time job and a wife, so I don't get much time to play but I am in diamond with 400 points and my APM according to sc2gears on average is 132. I was laying in bed on my birthday thinking that I hope I can still compete as I get older. I don't get to play often but I focus hard on getting better and overcoming my mistakes, I can't imagine myself not having the same focus as I get older.
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I believe this is relevant
“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.” -Mark Twain
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I'm 23, soon to be 24 ( January, so soonish) and I'm masters terran, 1700 last season, currently 750 in the few games this season with apm about 150-180 average over any game length. I used to be at about 110 average, so just semi constant focused game play trying to achieve harasses while pushing and macroing has raised my APM just thru natural play.
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Well well, to old hey (: I am 52 & play league when ever i get the chance. I have made Gold in 1v1, trying to get back there now, time to play is the issue. And Gold / Plat in 2v2 & 3v3. Trying to get into Gold in 4v4, hard to find regular team mates. So to old to compete, I say NEVER NEVER say to OLD for anything!!!!. I know I probably wont get to Diamond but it wont be for the want of trying . So i challenge anyone who says if your past 30 your past SC2, I say BRING IT ON
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28 years old, Masters; Protoss, APM 150+. Don't think the age per say has anything to do with things, unless you are actually old (talking 60+ here), it's more like how healthy you are.
PS: Being over 30 years old is imo still not old, Look at White-Ra. It's just more common to see young people below 20 being on the top competitive level, because they simply have more time to practice, due to less obligations in their lives.
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On February 15 2013 20:04 PapaCool wrote:Well well, to old hey (: I am 52 & play league when ever i get the chance. I have made Gold in 1v1, trying to get back there now, time to play is the issue. And Gold / Plat in 2v2 & 3v3. Trying to get into Gold in 4v4, hard to find regular team mates. So to old to compete, I say NEVER NEVER say to OLD for anything!!!!. I know I probably wont get to Diamond but it wont be for the want of trying . So i challenge anyone who says if your past 30 your past SC2, I say BRING IT ON
There are no old people on the internet!
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If you revive an old thread this is exactly how you should do it. It's awesome to hear that someone like you plays Starcraft 2.
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Woohoo! I'm 25 years old, that puts me in the young player club apparently =P
But anyways, I kind of feel awkward telling people that I like starcraft. None of my friends really understand it.
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haha, new account just to bump :D Cool post tho. I've got a few friends in the upper 20s, lower 30s that play (myself included).
edit: funny related story, when selecting my dob on tl I accidentally selected the wrong decade and still wasn't a teen!
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High master na, 30 years old ♥
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Masters Terran player since the beginning. 31 years old, Brood War for 11 years. and I'm getting better and better at this game
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28, High-Masters on NA.
The biggest difference with being older, imo, is just that the responsibilities just keep piling on so you have less time for gaming. When I was younger I could spend 8-10 hours playing Age of Empires no problem. Nowadays I try to sneak in an hour here or there and will occasionally spoil myself on a weekend with a ladder-fest.
Speed-wise I haven't noticed much of a difference since, imo, speed is mainly dependent on focused repetition. At some age I'm sure physical limitations set in but I don't think that'd be any time before 35 unless you have arthritis or something fun like that.
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32, Dia EU Zerg
played Broodwar in 1999, 2000 competitiv with a Team (mostly P)... quit 2003. Between 2008 and 2010 a handful of BW games, forgot everything, every hotkey except things like depots/pylons/turrets/cannons (those emergency keys).
Now I use Grid, I am slow as fuck but the competitions still thrills me.
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What exactly would make older players worse, anyway?
If it's micro, then there wouldn't be any old piano players. Decision making gains from experience, so that should improve if anything. Reaction time might be something that deteriorates, but training might compensate for that.
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I think the effect of age on SC2 skill is somewhat inconclusive.
I would argue that speed and reflexes slow down as one ages, but there are old musicians that are still very fast.
As some people have said, practice and repetition can compensate for decreased neural efficiency to some extent.
Altogether, I think more than speed and reflexes, the responsibilities and priorities of older people discourage investing the time and effort necessary to excel at a professional level.
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I am 29 years old. I started to play Starcraft when I was 16.
I believe I had more "potential" when I was young, but I was too immature and not focused enough to practice properly.
Today, at 29, I am smarter and I can learn the strategy elements of SC2 more efficiently (which is partly attributed to internet resources that simply did not exist at the time Starcraft was launched).
However, I simply don't have the time or desire to practice enough to become really good. Once the games are no longer fun, I know I am finished for the day.
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Nestea turned 30 last year, so if that is the skill-cap for people past their teens I am perfectly fine with that.
Moreover, Vitali Klitschko, age 41, is the regining WBC heavyweight box champion and Holyfield was about to challenge him at the age of 49. Now which sport do you think is more age affected, box or starcraft ?
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I am 27, Plat EU Terran, Diamond NA Terran. Usually I play with some friends. Some of them are older then me - 28, 28, 30, 32. Some from the group we play together are younger - 21, 24, 24, 26. There are actually really a lot of players enjoying StarCraft and not being super young. Hell, my dad, he is 54, plays from time to time
I agree though that being not super young affects skill. And, BTW, Nestea is a great example (as is White-Ra). The more complicated StarCraft becomes, the more strategies are developed, the less he is achieving. The older we get, the less we are willing to learn or accept. But this is just my opinion.
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It's funny that there are obviously much more dedicated sc players around who are even older than me (I'm 26 still ) than I would've imagined looking at the current pro scene. I am even finding myself in a spot from time to time where it 's quite hard for me to acknowledge the skill level of certain youngsters, because I just can't look up to them due to their inferior age... :/
Btw I'm top plat Terran on EU trying hard to reach dia in Wings before HotS is released
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On February 15 2013 23:39 crow_mw wrote:
Nestea turned 30 last year, so if that is the skill-cap for people past their teens I am perfectly fine with that.
Moreover, Vitali Klitschko, age 41, is the regining WBC heavyweight box champion and Holyfield was about to challenge him at the age of 49. Now which sport do you think is more age affected, box or starcraft ?
If Teemu Selänne (42) is still playing hockey at the top level I'd agree with others that it's more a matter of time to dedicate that an older player usually doesn't have.
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31 Plat Terran here. If it weren't for all those other things going on in life, work, masters degree, house hunting, working on my car, I don't see how age would limit me.
Well, you know, other than how under powered Terran is.
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when youre 40 you can still learn a new language. when you are 15 it is easier though..
when you are 40 you can still learn how to play sc2 at a high level, but you hade to be prepared to put in more time than someone younger than you. if you want to be better than the players putting down 10-11 hours a day you have to play 40-50 hours a day. and also sleep and keep in physical and mental shape
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23 and I am diamond all races :D
I guess what is limiting me right now is my focus to be honest, I find it really frustrating to play a 10 mins macro into 12 mins win/lose games PvZ/PvT and I often just feel like the time was wasted.
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29 master here, though stopped laddering until around october until HOTS.
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28 Diamond Terran. Free time is the only limiting factor for me right now but I never intend to go pro anyways, so it really doesn't matter.
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I am 34. Playing between 1 and 5 games a day on ladder. High diamond Zerg. My goal is just to reach master.
Played BW since it came out too. Mostly against AI and with friends though.
I watch more than I play. Even went to Korea twice. Had a picture with Jaedong and Flash in 2010.
Got my BW copy signed by Jaedong.
Pretty stoked about this!
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On February 15 2013 22:19 kldfg wrote:
What exactly would make older players worse, anyway?
If it's micro, then there wouldn't be any old piano players. Decision making gains from experience, so that should improve if anything. Reaction time might be something that deteriorates, but training might compensate for that.
Reactions slow down. Creative thinking slows down. The ability to learn is worse as you are older.... probably a few more too. Also you have an actual life to live
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Music has nothing to do with reaction. Everything is anticipated (even when you improvise).
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33 and not playing SC atm. When I did I was rank 1 in my diamond division.
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I am 34. I mostly play 3s and 4s. I languished in Platinum as Protoss for a long time. I then bought a new account, played Zerg and went straight to #1 Diamond.
I think for older players Zerg is the stronger race. The key to playing Zerg is to not get flustered and just keep the macro and injects going. For older players this comes more easily. Protoss is heavily micro and casting focused and reacting super fast with Force Fields is so important that it plays away from older player's strengths and more towards their weaknesses.
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I think as you get older, your time just becomes eaten up by too many things. When I was in undergrad even with the school load I could play games a lot. Once I hit grad school that was a pipe dream, and now I can only muster up a few hours a week. For a game like Starcraft, you can only get so good without dedicated practice.
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32, mid-high masters... You get older you get more responsibilities and are severely limited in the time you can devote to practicing SC2... I've been playing video games since I was 8 so lack of practice doesn't affect me too much
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I'm another early 30's guy with a wife and kid. If I can a) get on the ladder every day for a week, and b) get more than 5-10 games in a session, it's a bona fide gaming binge in my world. More often, I sneak in a fairly distracted (wife wants to talk, TV on in the background, baby wakes up, etc.) handful of games when I can, then I might not get to play for a few days or a week or a month because of work and travel and so on... I still have the desire to sink whole days into marathon gaming sessions, but it's not feasible to do that and still live up to the responsibilities in my life. Or at least not without being a selfish asshole with fucked up priorities.
There's no difference between my inherent ceiling 10-15 years ago and today, aside from the direct correlation with how hard I can practice then and now. If I were back in undergrad and could bang out multi-hour focused, uninterrupted ladder sessions, I'm sure my mechanics and game sense would be much be much sharper. Just like my body fat % would be lower if I could still go to the gym an hour a day and my jump shot would be better if I could play pickup games a few times per week.
My apm is high enough -- in fact I'm probably sharper mentally now than I was as an undergrad since I've moved on to get an advanced science degree and quit smoking/getting high/drinking every day -- but there's that little internal delay that comes with having to think about things rather than just doing them. The only way around that is enough good practice to commit mechanics to muscle memory and hone your in-game senses.
The way I see, the proper path to improvement is to play a lot of games and get as much as you can out of them. For one thing, I don't analyze my play as carefully as I should -- I don't generally want to spend what little time I have to game reviewing replays when I could queue up another match. So I don't tend to wring that little bit of extra improvement out of each loss. Furthermore, I tend to need a handful of games to warm up and get past the "start up haze" that hovers over you before you get into the zone. Thus, if I only get to play a handful of games, I might not ever get into that zone, and that's where the effective practice happens.
It's not about physical or mental limitations, at least not for me and at least not yet. It's about where a game that requires time and focused effort to improve at fits into your life when you're 16, 20, 25, or 35. Wives tend to be less understanding of videogame addictions once you're past 30. Work never gives a shit about your desire to game. Kids, especially very young kids, not only supersede gaming on a thorough and fundamental level, but also tend to require the sort of care and attention the precludes maintaining a productive playing-to-improve schedule.
tl;dr -- until you're probably into your 40s for most people, it's changes in your life rather than your physical/mental ability that have the biggest impact on your gaming. You never have to outgrow gaming, but most people end up having to outgrow gaming like they did when they were 20.
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I'm a youngster myself.
But, age and e-sports are interesting. As most people have pointed out the issue with age is mainly pressure on having achieved certain goals, such as job, marriage, etc. Hard to play a lot with job and family, and taking the gamble of playing full-time is quite unnerving. But, have you seen the old martial arts masters? Their speed and flexibility can be quite impressive. I don't think there are physical limitations on older people, or at least not most, or if properly training.
When you get older, you most often want or need to do certain things, studying, working, etc. But, I don't think there are mental or physical limitations, neccesarily. In the future, we might see more old pro-gamers.
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WOW, I never thought that kicking this thread off again would get so much interest. I definitely am slower than I used be 10yrs ago at 42, but what I do have I my favour now is "Controlled Aggression " muahahahahaha.
Good to see so many players over 25, but is there any other players out there over 45 or 50 ? Come on guys show yourselves
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33. I thought it would be really funny and fun to start a clan in HoTS for the over 30 crowd. And I'm pretty much a life-long gamer.
As far as speed goes, it's difficult to tell. I'm always heads and tails above my non-gamer friends even at things like Super Mario Bros. In Starcraft, my APM (at least with a bugged out HoTS) sometimes hits 300. But I think in WoL it goes upwards of 200 even.
Oh, Diamond. Top 25 to top 8 in wol (depending on how intoxicated or tired I am). High Diamond in HoTS!
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On February 16 2013 07:03 PapaCool wrote:WOW, I never thought that kicking this thread off again would get so much interest. I definitely am slower than I used be 10yrs ago at 42, but what I do have I my favour now is "Controlled Aggression " muahahahahaha. Good to see so many players over 25, but is there any other players out there over 45 or 50 ? Come on guys show yourselves
I turn 46 next week. Platinum terran in WoL, SIlver in beta HotS (for now at least).
My 16yo son is Masters level and the age differences are easy to spot. Not just APM, but my visual awareness and ability to react to new information on screen is significantly slower/poorer. You can make a certain amount of it up by trying to stay ahead on focus and strategy, but it'll be limited.
I'm still learning, though, so maybe if hellbats stay imba for a bit in HotS and I can get mech compositions to work against all races, it's remotely possible I'll crack Diamond someday.
Maybe not though, for many of the reasons stated above about just trying to find enough time to practice (full-time job, 4 kids). But also because playing in the evening after work means I'm frequently not at my sharpest anyway. Also, I generally have a glass of wine or a beer by the keyboard when I play. Trying to climbing the ladder would probably mean playing less for fun in order to focus on playing at my best mental state. That's not too likely to happen since gaming is a distraction/relaxation for me.
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Yes DrLemur I agree with you totally and one does definitely get slower as they get older. I am fit (Gym 5 days a week) so it's really just a simple case of slowing as you get older. So I only really play 1v1 when I'm feeling at my best, otherwise I get owned. Team league is also easier than 1v1, I believe 1v1 is the hardest by far. I also play ACM (Aliens Colonial Marines) with my 19yr old son & he carries me no doubt. And kudos to you for making Platinum at 46 that’s awesome work
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We have white-ra representing toss and nestea representing zerg as the top, 30+, progamers. Boxer would be terran but he is coaching now, is there another terran?
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On February 16 2013 10:19 Prplppleatr wrote:
We have white-ra representing toss and nestea representing zerg as the top, 30+, progamers. Boxer would be terran but he is coaching now, is there another terran?
Terran destroys wrists. They stop playing before they can get there with broken, shattered wrists.
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On August 18 2010 17:48 Everlong wrote:
Well the problem is that the passion for the game is extremly blinding. Of course, if you are 15 you can make Starcraft 2 prior to other things.. But as your age rises, you should see far behind a video game. I can tell you right now that I wont be able to compete at the top level, because Im not willing to give away whole period of my life.. Its also a big question wheter your family supports your way of thinking or not.. I belive there are lots of gamers out there that their parents dont have a clue.. Just look what happened to Morrow vs Huk last tournament, kinda funny.. :-)
totally offtopic, but what happend? :>
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a while ago a 55 (ish, i'm guessing) hired me to teach him some sc2 stuff. he had played broodwar and didntk now any of the units and things int he new game (said he didnt have time to learn from experience just wanted to know the basic ideas and have fun) i see him at church all the time, he is a forever bronze :D
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30 year old diamond zerg. I've been playing since the days of Warcraft 1. Still loving every moment of it.
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I think it has mostly to do with how healthy you are... obviously when you get older, you get more health issues. Like back issues and such, which really limits your practice and play time. If you compare to physical sports, there are people who are in their 30s+ that can still win championships. So yeah, I think if you excercise and balance that with practice, then I think you can win tournaments. I also think that people in their prime have more advantage though, just because it's SC2 and it's more multi-tasking and microing compared to physical sports.
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On February 16 2013 11:22 c0sm0naut wrote:
a while ago a 55 (ish, i'm guessing) hired me to teach him some sc2 stuff. he had played broodwar and didntk now any of the units and things int he new game (said he didnt have time to learn from experience just wanted to know the basic ideas and have fun) i see him at church all the time, he is a forever bronze :D
I just want to hug that dude for not quitting being a gamer at his age,
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I'm 41 and I maintain a spot as a Zerg in Platinum. I've been plat since the game was released, my apm is around 100 or so and I have time for maybe half a dozen games a week. I do try to watch the GSL when I can and I find it more enjoyable to watch rather than play anyways. Though I do get a better appreciation for the skill required for this game by playing it.
I have to say that the game is really just a 'time-waster' for me as my wife would put it, but she puts up with it because she knows she married a long time gamer (been playing games since intellivision-atari-colecovision).
Although I do play the game and enjoy it, I don't really have any aspiration to get to a higher rank or really get better at the game than I already am. I think in my younger years when I was more competitive at games it would have mattered to me but this perspective changes as you grow older and your overall priorities change. Games become less of an endeavor and more of an outlet for relaxation. The young gamer in me 'dies hard' however and I still enjoy competing when I can and probably still will in another 20 years.
I just have one piece of advice for you younger gamers out there... treat your gaming as a part-time hobby and nothing more. Don't sacrifice your social skills and real-life friends for any game... get out there and make sure you are enjoying the other aspects of life. I know from first-hand that gaming can suck you in and become everything in your life... the male brain succumbs easily to such obsessions. At some point you will look back and wonder if you shouldn't have spent a few more hours with friends/family/girlfriend, whatever. Yes its true, your relationships with other human beings trump all else in this life, and will be most rewarding if you put effort into it.
OK I'm off my little soap box now. Go back to your regular scheduled SC2 programming :p
PS: Any of you older gamers my age reading this? PM me and we can play a few games sometime. It would be a rare pleasure to play with people of my age.
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On February 15 2013 21:23 ShamW0W wrote:28, High-Masters on NA. The biggest difference with being older, imo, is just that the responsibilities just keep piling on so you have less time for gaming. When I was younger I could spend 8-10 hours playing Age of Empires no problem. Nowadays I try to sneak in an hour here or there and will occasionally spoil myself on a weekend with a ladder-fest. Speed-wise I haven't noticed much of a difference since, imo, speed is mainly dependent on focused repetition. At some age I'm sure physical limitations set in but I don't think that'd be any time before 35 unless you have arthritis or something fun like that.
As a person who is getting his masters degree and is still living with his dad at age 25... I basically get to spoil myself 5 days a week xD
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31 turning 32 this year. Upper plat but that's just because I'm trying to cheese my way to 1k wins before HotS is out right now  , mid/low gold at best if playing "proper"
I do feel young whippersnappers have an edge, not just because they generally have less responsibilites and can play more: People around 20 seem much quicker to grasp the necessities to spend your apm on, and have better apm as well. I have no facts to base this on, just observing a few fellow players.
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On August 18 2010 17:31 Rabiator wrote:
I am 43 and do not own the game. The beta clearly showed me that I could never really compete, but I dont really care about that either. The sad fact is that you can only play this "for fun" with a bunch of friends and most of mine do not have the time or desire to play. So watching replays is a nice "plan B" for enjoying good Starcraft, although I can still remember the joy of nuking 8 Overlords full of Hydralisks with one single nuke in BW.
With the desire to turn Starcraft 2 into a worldwide eSport I really think there will be some "victims" of this scheme among the professional players when they turn 30 or so and the next generation with faster reflexes runs over them. When I think of people like IdrA - who devote all of their life to playing the game - and think about his "tech switch in this game called life" after the end of his career, I can only come up with two future jobs:
1. McDonalds opens up a restaurant in the middle of Seoul and you get served there by all the former pro players.
2. Morning talkshows or small amusement parks around the country, where you can "play against IdrA for 5$".
None of those are very dignified, but for people who devote all their attention to one thing it will be hard to get rid of that addiction and be focused enough to do something else very well. The match fixing scandal clearly showed that the players are aware of the issue IMO, but many of the kids who aspire to become professional gamers do not realize the danger. Unlike basketball pro players there is no "Starcraft teacher" at school, so there is no clear "followup" to the "Starcraft pro gamer tech" in life and pro gamers do not earn enough to have sufficient funds for the rest of their life as top sports stars do.
Completely disagree. There is an entire industry revolving around games. If it weren't so, then Blizzard and a whole host of developers wouldn't be making money. As it stands, Starcraft alone teaches many things aside from just playing. If you have a decent mind at "positioning" in a game, you will soon come to realise that SC2 isn't the be all and end all of games, and since the ethos of the community seems to be "always improving", it seems to me that people who play SC2 always seem to hold decent jobs, are good at something else other than SC2, and have a voracious appetite for information. Because of that, and if they are passionate, they are usually in fairly good positions. Half the people I know who play are investment bankers! (No, it's not because I'm one myself, I met them at barcraft). A good portion of ex proam gamers i know are now active in organising tournaments and promoting games for blizzard and other developers. I, for one, sell ad space to such publishers, and other companies that hope to tap into TV's "lost generation". And guess what - a huge population of young males reside in gaming - watching, playing, streaming. And if there are advertisers, there are jobs!
Oh I'm 32, don't play much, bronze (lol). I watch more, because my micro and macro sux, just practicing that these days. And since everyone is watching the damn gsl, everyone's gotten so good at executing timings and not missing supply depots... there always seems to be a 100 food army knocking at my door at 10 mins when I lose...
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On February 20 2013 15:01 ke_ivan wrote:Show nested quote +On August 18 2010 17:31 Rabiator wrote:
I am 43 and do not own the game. The beta clearly showed me that I could never really compete, but I dont really care about that either. The sad fact is that you can only play this "for fun" with a bunch of friends and most of mine do not have the time or desire to play. So watching replays is a nice "plan B" for enjoying good Starcraft, although I can still remember the joy of nuking 8 Overlords full of Hydralisks with one single nuke in BW.
With the desire to turn Starcraft 2 into a worldwide eSport I really think there will be some "victims" of this scheme among the professional players when they turn 30 or so and the next generation with faster reflexes runs over them. When I think of people like IdrA - who devote all of their life to playing the game - and think about his "tech switch in this game called life" after the end of his career, I can only come up with two future jobs:
1. McDonalds opens up a restaurant in the middle of Seoul and you get served there by all the former pro players.
2. Morning talkshows or small amusement parks around the country, where you can "play against IdrA for 5$".
None of those are very dignified, but for people who devote all their attention to one thing it will be hard to get rid of that addiction and be focused enough to do something else very well. The match fixing scandal clearly showed that the players are aware of the issue IMO, but many of the kids who aspire to become professional gamers do not realize the danger. Unlike basketball pro players there is no "Starcraft teacher" at school, so there is no clear "followup" to the "Starcraft pro gamer tech" in life and pro gamers do not earn enough to have sufficient funds for the rest of their life as top sports stars do. Completely disagree. There is an entire industry revolving around games. If it weren't so, then Blizzard and a whole host of developers wouldn't be making money. As it stands, Starcraft alone teaches many things aside from just playing. If you have a decent mind at "positioning" in a game, you will soon come to realise that SC2 isn't the be all and end all of games, and since the ethos of the community seems to be "always improving", it seems to me that people who play SC2 always seem to hold decent jobs, are good at something else other than SC2, and have a voracious appetite for information. Because of that, and if they are passionate, they are usually in fairly good positions. Half the people I know who play are investment bankers! (No, it's not because I'm one myself, I met them at barcraft). A good portion of ex proam gamers i know are now active in organising tournaments and promoting games for blizzard and other developers. I, for one, sell ad space to such publishers, and other companies that hope to tap into TV's "lost generation". And guess what - a huge population of young males reside in gaming - watching, playing, streaming. And if there are advertisers, there are jobs! Oh I'm 32, don't play much, bronze (lol). I watch more, because my micro and macro sux, just practicing that these days. And since everyone is watching the damn gsl, everyone's gotten so good at executing timings and not missing supply depots... there always seems to be a 100 food army knocking at my door at 10 mins when I lose...
Hey guys I'm 52, have been Gold in 1v1 (trying to get back, am silver currently) Gold in 2v2, Platinum in 3v3.
Age does have an impact as does time to play/practice. The 1 thing that really gets me angry is farmers, the main reason why I’m in silver for 1v1 & 4v4 is farmers, it’s not my skill level holding me back. Battlenet / Blizzard are on the road of fixing this issue thank god !. So being 52 I still believe I am a competitive player. I know I will never be at the top end, but hey to be where I am at 52 I think says a lot
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There is no reason at all you can't have ~60 effective apm at any age when you are healthy, which is more than enough for master level of play.
Like said before, it's more about not having the time to practice.
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One observation:
In Broodwar, I was not a very knowledgeable player. I did not research proper build orders and timings. Despite that, I played significantly faster. I also had much better micro. This amazes me since, at least in theory, micro in Broodwar should have been harder (smaller control groups, bad AI and pathing).
Today, ~10 years later, I struggle with even basic micro concepts like splitting, stutter-step, etc. The problem is aggravated by having a larger army. Fortunately, micro is not as important in SC2, but I definitely attribute this inability to age. My gaming setup is better now than it was for Broodwar (better mouse, keyboard, desk, monitor, chair, etc.). The design of SC2 should only help me control my units but I find the problem is an inability to click fast enough, group, box, etc all while having better gaming equipment.
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I´m 31 and I´m in a gang of guys ranging from 30 to 36, we are plat to dia depending on race, league and if we take our medicine in large doses ;-D
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35, First system was Atari and first PC was a Apple Macintosh . I suck , I'm still in bronze and been playing on and off for a year 1/2 . I just start getting into SC2 esports and like that more then playing.
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On February 16 2013 19:59 lonelyPotato wrote:Show nested quote +On February 15 2013 21:23 ShamW0W wrote:28, High-Masters on NA. The biggest difference with being older, imo, is just that the responsibilities just keep piling on so you have less time for gaming. When I was younger I could spend 8-10 hours playing Age of Empires no problem. Nowadays I try to sneak in an hour here or there and will occasionally spoil myself on a weekend with a ladder-fest. Speed-wise I haven't noticed much of a difference since, imo, speed is mainly dependent on focused repetition. At some age I'm sure physical limitations set in but I don't think that'd be any time before 35 unless you have arthritis or something fun like that. As a person who is getting his masters degree and is still living with his dad at age 25... I basically get to spoil myself 5 days a week xD
Heh, at 28 I've been at my career and married for 6+ years. Funny the different paths we gamers take.
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NESTEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
NesTea is the Kobe of Starcraft.
NESTEA FIGHTING!!!
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28 Diamond Toss. Never can play as much as I want thanks to the kids =p
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I'm late twentys too, have a fulltime job, a regular sport i follow, and in gold league. I'm very sure i could be high plat at least, if i would spent more time into play, as i know if i would be more strict at my openings and increase my useful apm by ~10, i could stand plat as the knowledge is there, but it can't be delivered into to game.
It's all about priorities
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Hey guys, in light of this thread, would anyone be interested in joining a 30 or over clan for sc2. It would just be nice to hang out with gamers in similar stations in life on b.net. if I get enough interest, will start a clan and new thread on here for recruitment. Feel free to PM me.
Edit: or maybe 28?
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Guys stop making excuses about age and responsibilities. If you want to be a progamer and yo uare 35 and you really want like really really want it. You will make time, just like anything in life.
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On March 12 2013 11:13 elctrc_wzrd wrote:
Guys stop making excuses about age and responsibilities. If you want to be a progamer and yo uare 35 and you really want like really really want it. You will make time, just like anything in life.
Did you even read through this thread?
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I remember playing Infocom's Zork I, II, III, Starcross; Original Castle Wolfenstein, Ultma, Exodus Ultima II when they were all new... and yes, Reagan was president.
I played the original SC1 when it was new and remember being excited for Brood War.
Yeah, I'm old.
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On March 12 2013 12:23 gnomeinbrain wrote:
I remember playing Infocom's Zork I, II, III, Starcross; Original Castle Wolfenstein, Ultma, Exodus Ultima II when they were all new... and yes, Reagan was president.
I played the original SC1 when it was new and remember being excited for Brood War.
Yeah, I'm old.
Dude, we're all old...
But Zork I? Holy hell! I was born in the month and year that Reagan was elected for his first term.
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On March 08 2013 07:53 KaiserKieran wrote:
NESTEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
NesTea is the Kobe of Starcraft.
NESTEA FIGHTING!!!
more like shaq
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32. been playing since kali. if you know what that means...thats old.
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35 (36 next sat) got GM on LA ladder then it got merged with NA, where I ranked Master. Switched to EU, also ranked Master.
For WCS Mexico got into top 16 (which is not really a big deal since our country doesn't have a competitive scene), and my best moment on SC2 was when I meet (and got my Zerg T signed by) MVP, DRG, Naniwa, Sheth and (my fav player) Nestea at Blizzcon 2011.
Took a break from the game 2 months ago (mostly because I was moving to USA), but I plan to come back for HotS (tomorrow).
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The first games I can remember playing are probably around Atari 5200 ('82) time frame. Or maybe it was the C64 game (can't remember the name of it) that was on cassette tape (no floppy drive) - a side-scrolling jet fighter game. Back in the time of "If you want a game, you better know how to program in BASIC or at least load it from command prompt". Early to mid Reagan.
I'm 36, and in Gold. My APM has gone up from WoL beta (~36) to (~70), going by SC2Gears. (Blizzard tells me I have 140 APM. Lolz.) Biggest thing holding back? Time. Tough to play 8 hours a day AND get sleep, do what needs to be done at home, and work to pay for everything. I could probably try to make a neurological argument about older brains being resistant to retraining (keep in mind, I learned RTS on WarCraft and StarCraft 1 - things have changed a bit since then). But in reality, I think playing these kinds of games helps to maintain the mind as age increases as well as (in moderation) helping the hand/eye coordination stay sharp.
Heh. I'm 8 months older than the original "heavy sixer" Atari 2600.
Edited to add the following:
Also, I should note that you can get arthritis at anytime (I and a friend both have rheumatoid arthritis, and she's younger than I am by about 4 years) although it's more likely to develop later in life. I've also got a degeneration in my C4-C5 spinal column (in the neck) and my lower back is acting up now. (Can't sit and play for too long, I need to get a better computer chair.) My wrists are relatively decent (except for the day after I go bowling). But yeah... as far as physical issues go, they can happen at any point in life. And MVP plays better than any of us with worse neck/wrist issues than I ever want to have. So I think really, the time is the key. Time and dedication. But if you look - even among professional gamers, you don't see a lot of top level competitors over 30.
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I'm 30 years old and I'm a diamond zerg.
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I thought it's about players like Whitera and Grubby. This thread makes me look young. haha
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Not sure how I missed this thread before now. 40 Years young here, and been playing video games since my parents Pong in the 70's. Still love playing SC2(and other games) almost daily. Mechanics will probably never let me get past gold as the carpel from 20 years of masonry and heavy gaming really slows/hinders me at times. Doesn't matter though as I just have a ton of fun playing and enjoy the recreation of it. I also try to be as big a supporter of e-sports as I can and enjoy watching almost as much as playing.
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On August 19 2010 05:41 awesomoecalypse wrote:
Its not micro, and its not just RTS games.
Chess is dominated by the young these days. Top chess champions tend become rarer and rarer as they get older than 30, and older than 40 is getting to be very rare.
The mind slows down the older you get. In most areas, you can make up for this with experience. But for games of pure physical or mental ability, experience only takes you so far.
Chess might be a weird example because you have a bit of time to think. Blitz chess might me a more accurate comparison.
It's true that there are a ton of young talented chess players these days, but I don't think the reason behind top champions becoming rarer and rarer as they get older is because they *can't*. I just think by that time, they're burned out and would rather live a quiet life studying chess and teaching the next generation. Chess tournaments are a ruthless and exhausting event.
It'd be the equivalent of a 50 year old being able to beat top GMs in SC2, but doesn't go to tournaments or put in marathon laddering sessions because of the physical and mental stress.
So you might argue that you have a point, and that the physical and mental stress is part of being a champion, but I'd argue that it's simplifying a little bit.
Josh Waitzkin spoke a little of this indirectly in his book The Art of Learning. He talked about the difference of play levels between masters and GMs. Some of the GMs he referenced, including the ones he studied under, were older gentlemen and still had a grasp of the game on a completely different level.
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Don't remember if I posted here before and too lazy to look. 39 years old, and video games hit me hard back when I got to play space invaders at my friend's house for free (no quarters at the arcade??? you can play as long as you want and get better without spending your allowance for the next decade???). My mom had to pull me pretty much kicking and screaming from the Atari 2600. Guess what we got for Christmas that year? =]
Played SC1 beta and played pretty heavily till hacks got to be common, then just played casually. Nothing more gross than hackers ruining a game. I was in my second degree at college back then so still had a lot of spare time.
Slower mind? Slower hands? At 40??? 60 even??? No way, I don't believe it. It's just lack of time or energy. When I pair up against and beat GM players despite having very little time to play I am fairly confident that age is not screwing me over... but I do have a wife, job, and two kids so I'll never be ultra competitive... it's OK, I have the ladder to have fun on. I sometimes go for weeks without playing, then I'll have a heavy weekend where I play 20 hours or something.
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The QQ Review’s Gentleman Crew is a clan for dedicated 1v1 players. We’re here to improve and have fun - not to be QQers or douchebags.
*Must be ranked in 1v1 - Plat and higher
*No whiners, complainers, or defeatists - we don’t want to hear your bitching.
*Zero tolerance for racism, sexism, BM or all around bigotry.
*Looking for a number of high-level players for 1v1 coaching and clan wars.
*Other interests encouraged - books, music, movies, relationships, family, life stuff, beer.
starcraft://clan/1/54644
If you're interested you can PM us here on TL or find us Bnet:
starcraft://clan/1/49112
Wundertunge #1850 (same name on TL)
NateDizzy #635 (awwnuts07 on TL)
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On March 23 2013 01:15 awwnuts07 wrote:Are you an older gamer who's passionate about Starcraft? Come join The QQ Review's Gentleman's Crew, where we have to worry about timing attacks AND the mortgage. *27 and older please *No whiners, complainers, or defeatists are welcome *Zero tolerance for racism, sexism, BM or all around bigotry *Other interests are encouraged - books, music, movies, relationships, family, life stuff, beer. *Casuals and hardcores are welcome. Players serious about improving their 1v1 is a requisite, though. If you're interested you can PM us here on TL or find us Bnet: starcraft://clan/1/49112Wundertunge #1850 (same name on TL) NateDizzy #635 (awwnuts07 on TL)
Funny you say zero tolerance for "racism, sexism, BM, or all around bigotry" but apparently ageism is okay =D.
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On March 23 2013 01:23 FromShouri wrote:Show nested quote +On March 23 2013 01:15 awwnuts07 wrote:Are you an older gamer who's passionate about Starcraft? Come join The QQ Review's Gentleman's Crew, where we have to worry about timing attacks AND the mortgage. *27 and older please *No whiners, complainers, or defeatists are welcome *Zero tolerance for racism, sexism, BM or all around bigotry *Other interests are encouraged - books, music, movies, relationships, family, life stuff, beer. *Casuals and hardcores are welcome. Players serious about improving their 1v1 is a requisite, though. If you're interested you can PM us here on TL or find us Bnet: starcraft://clan/1/49112Wundertunge #1850 (same name on TL) NateDizzy #635 (awwnuts07 on TL) Funny you say zero tolerance for "racism, sexism, BM, or all around bigotry" but apparently ageism is okay =D.
It's called "a double standard", bro
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On March 12 2013 14:42 Phanekim wrote:
32. been playing since kali. if you know what that means...thats old.
OMG I watched my older brother play on Kali. I am 35 he is 39.
The world best platers were there
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I am 53 and I don't ladder much but I have over 60% win rate. I expect to make plat shortly (assuming I get on the ladder).
It is cool to see I am not the only old one around.
I have no desire to be "pro" even if it were feasible but I do want to give my opponents a good game.
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Turning 30 in a month. Former GM on NA ladder (when I was laid off from my job and was underemployed for a year).
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Just turned 29, Diamond Terran. Only factor I have noticed that has become weaker is my reactions. Just a bit slower to react to things these days, is quite n important aspect in gaming though.
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I'm 27, mostly play 3v3 / 4v4, because i haven't got the time to keep up my skill, I dropped a few leagues.
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yep, started my gaming with Intellivision, if you remember that game console with the number pad??
some of you may remember Colecovision as well?? it also had a number pad. and of course Atari. I was born in 1976, acquired my first gaming console when I was about 9 years old (Regan era)
today my interest in gaming isn't from a players stand point per se... but instead its from being involved with the community. I was into playing sports, loved baseball, racketball, tennis, but with how old I am now, the opportunity for me to play those sports is becoming less and less. the outlet for my competitive juices goes to my involvement in this gaming community as a whole. and am greatful for it.
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On March 23 2013 01:15 awwnuts07 wrote:Are you an older gamer who's passionate about Starcraft? Come join The QQ Review's Gentleman's Crew, where we have to worry about timing attacks AND the mortgage. *27 and older please *No whiners, complainers, or defeatists are welcome *Zero tolerance for racism, sexism, BM or all around bigotry *Other interests are encouraged - books, music, movies, relationships, family, life stuff, beer. *Casuals and hardcores are welcome. Players serious about improving their 1v1 is a requisite, though. If you're interested you can PM us here on TL or find us Bnet: starcraft://clan/1/49112Wundertunge #1850 (same name on TL) NateDizzy #635 (awwnuts07 on TL)
You can't join if you don't play 1v1 and you have to be at least Platinum in 1v1 and be "serious about improving" your 1v1.... why? Why can't you just join and group up with other guys your age and play some 3v3 or 4v4? Why do you have to play 1v1? Maybe that's why there are only 4 members online. Also, the description here doesn't match the description in SC2:
*Must be ranked in 1v1 - plat and higher
*No whiners, complainers, or defeatists - this clan is about fun and improvement.
*Zero tolerance for racism, sexism, BM or all around bigotry.
*Looking for a number of high-level players for 1v1 coaching and clan wars.
*Other interests are encouraged - books, music, movies, relationships, family, life stuff, beer.
Clan wars seems a long ways from the original thread.
Anyway, kinda a complaint so I guess I'm disqualified, plus I don't play 1v1 anymore.
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38 Terran. Silver in WoL and Hots. Get to play maybe 4 matches a week.
Started gaming on my Moms 300 baud acoustically coupled modem and dumb terminal playing Rogue.
http://www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/rogue.html
Then on to the Atari 2600.
Am completely hopeless in TvZ currently.
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Canada343 Posts
Yeah, I think age has something to do with it, but mainly because there are other things going in your life as you get older, as opposed to a noticeable slowing-down effect.
I'm just turning 27, and maintain Master league Protoss. I barely play compared to the rest of the ladder junkies, but I feel like I'm smarter than I used to be, and more efficient in terms of my gameplay, which makes up for any rust that develops from long layoffs.
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damn now I feel young again. I'm 28, master zerg, diamond protoss.
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I'm 26 years old Diamond Terran player with decent APM, not really slow. However reading this thread is scaring me or it's giving me a quick dose of reality. I refuse to believe age gap will restrict you to compete, especially since Starcraft and esports in general is still fairly young and so much to explorer regarding age. Gotta keep playing, like Artosis said one time, he'll keep playing Starcraft until he's an old man.
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36, grew up on shooters, competitive QW, Q1, Q2 and Q3, but SC2 is the first multiplayer RTS I put any time into, when I get time to play it's mostly 1v1 ladder, currently in gold and loving it 
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On March 23 2013 01:15 awwnuts07 wrote:Are you an older gamer who's passionate about Starcraft? Come join The QQ Review's Gentleman's Crew, where we have to worry about timing attacks AND the mortgage. *27 and older please *No whiners, complainers, or defeatists are welcome *Zero tolerance for racism, sexism, BM or all around bigotry *Other interests are encouraged - books, music, movies, relationships, family, life stuff, beer. *Casuals and hardcores are welcome. Players serious about improving their 1v1 is a requisite, though. If you're interested you can PM us here on TL or find us Bnet: starcraft://clan/1/49112Wundertunge #1850 (same name on TL) NateDizzy #635 (awwnuts07 on TL)
Love the irony. You made this post exactly ON my 30th birthday. I guess I need to come look you up. Diamond Zerg here.
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Are you an older gamer who's passionate about Starcraft? Come join The QQ Review's Gentleman's Crew, where we have to worry about timing attacks AND the mortgage. *27 and older please *No whiners, complainers, or defeatists are welcome *Zero tolerance for racism, sexism, BM or all around bigotry *Other interests are encouraged - books, music, movies, relationships, family, life stuff, beer. *Casuals and hardcores are welcome. Players serious about improving their 1v1 is a requisite, though. If you're interested you can PM us here on TL or find us Bnet: starcraft://clan/1/49112Wundertunge #1850 (same name on TL) NateDizzy #635 (awwnuts07 on TL)
why did the qualifications for the group change? I got excited when I saw a group of gamers with a similar experience to mine. I don't meet the plat or higher that's listed on bnet when I find the group. Good luck guys.
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32 masters terran and have a relatively high apm and reaction time...I only play maybe 5-10 games a week. Great job, married a beautiful wife, moving to new state this month, planning kids soon, and perhaps a splash into the esports market in the next year or so...good times.
If you wanna know more about my life (because you're bored, have nothing better to do, are a stalker, or whatever) then feel free to read my latest semi-autobiographical blog here...also, I talk about old school shoot 'em up games and that's always fun ^_^
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Just turned 34, I'm Platinum protoss on the EU server. Aiming for Masters.
Played just about all the RTS's since Dune.
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On April 07 2013 13:39 Thorantham wrote:Show nested quote +On March 23 2013 01:15 awwnuts07 wrote:Are you an older gamer who's passionate about Starcraft? Come join The QQ Review's Gentleman's Crew, where we have to worry about timing attacks AND the mortgage. *27 and older please *No whiners, complainers, or defeatists are welcome *Zero tolerance for racism, sexism, BM or all around bigotry *Other interests are encouraged - books, music, movies, relationships, family, life stuff, beer. *Casuals and hardcores are welcome. Players serious about improving their 1v1 is a requisite, though. If you're interested you can PM us here on TL or find us Bnet: starcraft://clan/1/49112Wundertunge #1850 (same name on TL) NateDizzy #635 (awwnuts07 on TL) You can't join if you don't play 1v1 and you have to be at least Platinum in 1v1 and be "serious about improving" your 1v1.... why? Why can't you just join and group up with other guys your age and play some 3v3 or 4v4? Why do you have to play 1v1? Maybe that's why there are only 4 members online. Also, the description here doesn't match the description in SC2: *Must be ranked in 1v1 - plat and higher *No whiners, complainers, or defeatists - this clan is about fun and improvement. *Zero tolerance for racism, sexism, BM or all around bigotry. *Looking for a number of high-level players for 1v1 coaching and clan wars. *Other interests are encouraged - books, music, movies, relationships, family, life stuff, beer. Clan wars seems a long ways from the original thread. Anyway, kinda a complaint so I guess I'm disqualified, plus I don't play 1v1 anymore.
Yeah we got rid of the older dudes thing and are just a 1v1 practice clan now. So old and young allowed in. We've been evolving our mission and now have 25 members and are growing.
Here that old guys, you don't HAVE to be old to be in our clan.
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On April 08 2013 07:16 Danzo wrote:
I refuse to believe age gap will restrict you to compete, especially since Starcraft and esports in general is still fairly young and so much to explorer regarding age.
Age has nothing to do with the ability to perform the technical part of Starcraft 2. There are piano players well above 40 years old (and violinists and guitarists and so on) that can improvise pieces at a much, much more difficult mechanical level than ever needed in SC2.
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This is very refreshing to see that not everyone in the community is 16 (as it sometimes feels)
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On August 18 2010 17:38 Jakalo wrote:Sometimes I read all those late 20/30+ posts ''I am slow as hell'', ''I cant compete with younger players'' and feel like Im approaching the end of my days Im 22
This exactly haha
I'm turning 23 in a few months and this is something I actually worry about. It's ridiculous, though. I'm 30-40 apm faster than I was a year ago, mid masters and climbing. Life is good. Also, being out of college, I think I actually play more starcraft. Now I'm looking at teaching English in Korea and getting some real ladder practice in my free time
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i feel young with 27, i have some allys who not play that often but are 40+ ^_^ thats old for me
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43, almost 44 here. Low Platinum Terran player on NA. Started playing computer games when they first came out - I was a dab hand at Space Invaders, back in the day. Also a crack shot in Quake/Quake 2. I'm not so good at SC2, seems that I can keep up with everything up to a point, then suddenly my minerals suddenly build up and spiral out of control (even though I always macro hard and build 8 or so barracks, plus other production buildings). APM is about 120... Maybe I'll crack it one day!
Happy Gaming.
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35 and a Masters Zerg, currently top 50 but with enough bonus pool accumulated to hit top 25 if I can burn it all before the season ends. I don't think you have to slow down with age. I have faster reflexes than people half my age and better decision making to boot. I never look at a replay or a professional match and think, "There's no way I can play that fast." It's all just muscle memory, determination, and having enough time to actually nail it down.
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This thread is refreshing. Even though i'm not that old (24), I always feel like the gaming community is just full of teenagers.
I think if you keep generally healthy and don't get anything such as carpel tunnel you should be able to game until old age.
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Almost 25, mid/high master playing random. My mechanics are fine (thanks to Brood War), but my gamesens is shitty.
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Are there still some older sc2 gamers here? I m 40, playing zerg dia. Would be nice to find some people from my generation here.
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37 year old. Master Terran
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36 Diamond Terran
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Hi guys .
If you like, just add me sGLA#2926
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We're all quite a bit older than when this thread was made.
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@Solar424 - the interesting question is, if all these older people are still here/part of the community/active players...
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Age only matters for time available to practice and not needing stable income for a family.
As I get older, I find myself watching more WCS and GSL, usually as spoiler-free VODs on SC2links, because I don’t have time to play enough to be good, and work gets in the way of watching events live.
I actually play with higher APM now than 5 years ago because I got a bit better at the game. APM is just a reflection of muscle memory and knowing builds and proper reactions, not how fast you can click.
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i am 42 and still enjoying SC2. i play BW since 99. apm is around 130.
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im 29 now and i feel old as fuck. i can't believe i played this game for the first time was I was 9-10.. hilarious and defining
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41, still here. Hovering around plat1-dia3, and my only ambition is to still enjoy the games I play.
I'm teaching my kids how to play. So I'm guessing we've come full circle
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On February 25 2019 06:39 _fool wrote:41, still here. Hovering around plat1-dia3, and my only ambition is to still enjoy the games I play. I'm teaching my kids how to play. So I'm guessing we've come full circle
one thing that i look forward to when i am a father some day is introducing my children to this beautiful game <3
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I am 29, definitely can feel I am just reacting slower.
I can blame my worse play on lack of practice but the reaction time is just slower.
Still in diamond as zerg though. My other two races are stuck with hots build order and I simply haven't learnt the lotv builds
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51 Plat Terran. Made Diamond once. My 20 year old son has 2.5 times my APM. I Mech vs Z and T and Bio vs Toss. I still ladder regularly, a few hours per week, with the biggest restriction from work and family. My youngest son is almost 5 and I’m looking forward to him gaining the skills to play with me. We just started Diablo 3 together on Xbox. I still watch some of Maru, TY, Inno, etc.
SC2 is a great game and way better than chess. Thanks to all the Terrans in the community Max, Ketroc, Crank, whom I follow.
Thanks for the OP
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45 here. Started playing terran shortly after SC came out, before the Broodwar expansion.
Now platinum in all three races in SC2, with almost no time to play, but still loving it (and still sucking at it, but this is not age-related).
I cannot believe I am the oldest, come on guys. Climb the age ladder.
Edit:
51 Plat Terran.
Thanks bro
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31 or 32 cant remember, cannot get passed halfway between diamond1 and masters3. I probably average around 207 apm with terran and 260 as zerg.
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On February 25 2019 08:48 Telon Petrides wrote:
51 Plat Terran. Made Diamond once. My 20 year old son has 2.5 times my APM. I Mech vs Z and T and Bio vs Toss. I still ladder regularly, a few hours per week, with the biggest restriction from work and family. My youngest son is almost 5 and I’m looking forward to him gaining the skills to play with me. We just started Diablo 3 together on Xbox. I still watch some of Maru, TY, Inno, etc.
SC2 is a great game and way better than chess. Thanks to all the Terrans in the community Max, Ketroc, Crank, whom I follow.
Thanks for the OP
i hope to one day create a family off of this model
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Bisutopia19237 Posts
On February 25 2019 08:11 ETisME wrote:
I am 29, definitely can feel I am just reacting slower.
I can blame my worse play on lack of practice but the reaction time is just slower.
Still in diamond as zerg though. My other two races are stuck with hots build order and I simply haven't learnt the lotv builds
I'm 31, started playing in 98 (11 y/o), and I think I'm better then I have ever been at the game. My critical thinking far exceeds the ability to spam buttons at this age. I've also always been slow to mature. I think I am five years until the prime of my Starcraft life
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Holy necro !
i'm 34 (i think....)
On February 25 2019 08:48 Telon Petrides wrote:
51 Plat Terran. Made Diamond once. My 20 year old son has 2.5 times my APM. I Mech vs Z and T and Bio vs Toss. I still ladder regularly, a few hours per week, with the biggest restriction from work and family. My youngest son is almost 5 and I’m looking forward to him gaining the skills to play with me. We just started Diablo 3 together on Xbox. I still watch some of Maru, TY, Inno, etc.
SC2 is a great game and way better than chess. Thanks to all the Terrans in the community Max, Ketroc, Crank, whom I follow.
Thanks for the OP
Honest question since i have a newborn son (3month). You are playing D3 with a 5yo while it's a PEGI 16 (18?) game. Why ? (real honest question. 'cause D3 as a lot of disgusting / Weird thing.).
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About to turn 28; Still trying to go pro lol
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29 and personally feel I've never been better at SC2. Masters 1 / occasionally GM when I have the time to put in. Just hard to find the time with career, relationships, social life, bills, and so on. Starcraft tends to be the first thing I have to cut out when stuff gets hectic.
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31 over here, but still going strong 
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I'm 47 yo, diamond terran, my first son (16yo) is a gm zerg, my second son (13yo) is master terran, my doughter (7yo) play with Barbie 😋.
All in my family love sc2
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...and my wife is a noob at Sc2
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Im 40. platin 1 and hoping to reach diamond 3 soon. protoss around 160apm so it`s not bad
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On February 25 2019 16:41 Squall1 wrote:
...and my wife is a noob at Sc2
It's not too late.
To get a new wife.
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31 here, playing terran in D1.
I've always been slower than my opponents, right now I'm at 120-130 APM on average (which is the fastest I've ever been).
I'm still trying to break into masters, maybe I'll get there someday, maybe not. I'm enjoying the game, so I don't really care :-)
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On February 25 2019 17:37 Jealous wrote:It's not too late. To get a new wife.
lol
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Just started playing solo ranked again. Last time I played solo was years 3 ago or sth. Since then I dabbled a bit in 2v2 and 3v3 games. APM is around 120 most games. Late game missclicks are a thing ^^'
Played 20 games so far, Plat is ezpz. Diamond here I come
Oh and I'm 31
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Thank you for all the answers I feel connected now!
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33 years old, I play protoss diamond 2 in solo et Master 3 in 2/2. I definately play slower compare to other players and what I used to be. But I try to catch up with different strategy and gamestyle. (None micro based strat). And indeed with wife, child and work I got a lot less time to practice.
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On February 25 2019 16:22 LHK wrote:
29 and personally feel I've never been better at SC2. Masters 1 / occasionally GM when I have the time to put in. Just hard to find the time with career, relationships, social life, bills, and so on. Starcraft tends to be the first thing I have to cut out when stuff gets hectic.
I feel exactly the same. The age doesn't really matter that much imo, it's mostly about beeing able to afford the time and motivation after hard working days for me.
My peak was masters 1 some years ago (maybe higher before they showed mmr but never GM on EU), I play sometimes for like 1-2 weeks now and reach masters 2 quite easy even with 31 years old, so I would imagine playing for a longer period would achieve masters 1 again. APM didn't change at all (depending on race 200-250 ingame, not sure about epm). What changed is mostly the motivation to "work" on something hard like StarCraft after working all day, this part was so much easier back in the day.
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38, i wouldnt say im bad or things are getting worse but i care a lot less now. Im still getting the average 300 apm but my issue is always scouting and minimap, things are coming at me which i dont see or dont work out in time, because as ive said, back in the day 3 early gates meant one thing! Even tho ive played thousands of hots and lotv games i still eye brow raise when i see adepts in my base.
I dont think you get slower i just think you start to accept the mistake and think about it for the next game . . . but totally ignore it!
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33. I haven't played in months (last game ~ June 2018). I started playing casually when I was 27, reached Diamond 2 once.
I had such a long break before and coming back was frustrating as heck - I couldn't keep up in Diamond, but when I tried playing another race or random, I rolled over everyone until low Plat. It reminds me why MMR decay was created a couple of years back.
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28 here and i've been casually competitive since early HoTS. it's the quality of your practice that matters. yes, we all decline with age, but if you're not at the top of the talent curve it doesn't matter whether you're 15, 20, 25, 30 or 35, you can still get better by increasing your mental engagement with the game
i've peaked at top dia (4.4-4.5k) and never got higher because i don't train properly or learn from my mistakes. i play the way i want, do stupid builds, have poor concentration, tunnel vision, turn my brain off and micro, etc. occasionally i "tryhard" and i get better results, but it doesn't make the game that much more fun for me, so i just keep playing my forever diamond style. i enjoy spending my time hiding spawning pools off creep in my main more than i enjoy practicing cannon rush defense, so this is the league where i belong
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On August 18 2010 17:31 Rabiator wrote:
I am 43 and do not own the game. The beta clearly showed me that I could never really compete, but I dont really care about that either. The sad fact is that you can only play this "for fun" with a bunch of friends and most of mine do not have the time or desire to play. So watching replays is a nice "plan B" for enjoying good Starcraft, although I can still remember the joy of nuking 8 Overlords full of Hydralisks with one single nuke in BW.
With the desire to turn Starcraft 2 into a worldwide eSport I really think there will be some "victims" of this scheme among the professional players when they turn 30 or so and the next generation with faster reflexes runs over them. When I think of people like IdrA - who devote all of their life to playing the game - and think about his "tech switch in this game called life" after the end of his career, I can only come up with two future jobs:
1. McDonalds opens up a restaurant in the middle of Seoul and you get served there by all the former pro players.
2. Morning talkshows or small amusement parks around the country, where you can "play against IdrA for 5$".
None of those are very dignified, but for people who devote all their attention to one thing it will be hard to get rid of that addiction and be focused enough to do something else very well. The match fixing scandal clearly showed that the players are aware of the issue IMO, but many of the kids who aspire to become professional gamers do not realize the danger. Unlike basketball pro players there is no "Starcraft teacher" at school, so there is no clear "followup" to the "Starcraft pro gamer tech" in life and pro gamers do not earn enough to have sufficient funds for the rest of their life as top sports stars do.
Idra is a bad example. What he did, he did for passion for Broodwar. He then stayed with Sc2 because he was making very good money. When he quit he did uni and I assume got a job as a professional.
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33 small business owner here. I now take breaks of weeks to months when life/work is busy. I am suprised at how little difference it makes to my skill. I play against a few people who I know play like 5-6 days a week and after a break of a month or 2 I come back and am basically at the same level. I hit rank 1 diamond after maybe 6 months of playing WOL(when that was the very highest anyone could achieve!) and have been in diamond for the last ten years. Somewhere along the line I accepted I am not going to improve dramatically, but that made me much less likely to be angry with losses etc.
These days I am also able to have glass of red wine after work and play a few games of SC2 and not stress that it is killing my macro. Acceptance of mediocrity is a nice thing sometimes!
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38 here w/ one baby and another one coming.
Diamond 3 leagues...really messing around once in a while.
Highest i went was reaching D1 a few months ago.
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I am old enough to have played Way of the Exploding Fist on C64. I have played every major RTS since Dune II.
I used to be much faster, now I play Terran with 85 APM in Diamond often against opponents with 2 or 2.5 times my APM.
I am getting by on macro and decision making, my micro, multitasking and reaction speed have declined a lot.
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Im 30, Highmaster when i was active. Now i just get mad when i play ( im terran and terran suck) so i basically quit!
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im now 29 but i feel my speed hasn't tapered off too much and my ability to look at the big picture and avoid tunnel vision has improved. though i don't move as fast i've learned how to prioritize my attention so losing a couple dozen apm pales in comparison to the higher level decisions that are made correctly. i think bw is a great study in how people age and approach a highly menial and competitive task haha
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Northern Ireland25283 Posts
One thing that I don't think I've particularly seen mentioned much is, the gaming market and trends have shifted as well.
Where is the next competitive RTS coming from that gains any traction? Arena FPS games are largely dead outside Quake Champions, which is still nowhere near as big as I thought it would be.
In those particularly genres, or in games involving similar skillsets, us old folks kind of have an advantage even now over any new entrant who's an RTS virgin, one that will presumably grow more and more over time as the genre grows less mainstream.
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On February 25 2019 17:37 Jealous wrote:It's not too late. To get a new wife.
Savage. :O
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EPT
