"How has ageing affected your gaming?" Topic

How has ageing – or age-related illness and disability – affected your gaming? I'm thinking of all forms of gaming (miniature, board game, role-play, video/PC) and all related activities (painting, modelling, rules etc.)

Realistic goals as to future projects, making disposal of unlikely projects easier to take.

much more relaxed and I don't care as much what I game. It is more important to game with friends I enjoy being with than being concerned that the game is in an historical period I really enjoy or historical at all. Also, I do Not want to deal with complicated rules. I just can't or don't care to try to learn complicated rules. Not worth the trouble and in the end I never gained "realism" anyway.

Hi

NO more grand Fletcher Pratt Navel game, My back cant take it anymore.

I can't setup a boardgame on the floor and play it any longer as my back can't take it.

No more 12+ hour game sessions, 4 to 6 is about the max.

No more gaming past 11pm, usually I game in the middle of the day.

Have to agree with rustymusket. I like rules that I can hold in my head, with minimal references to charts. When I go back and replay some of the old, highly complicated and therefore in my young mind, highly realistic rulesets that I loved playing in the day, I'm now struck by the fact I don't really like playing them anymore! Tedious as watching paint dry.

Although I still really enjoy painting, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to adequately focus on the tiny details. I've got a fair bit of 6mm armies in my painted collection, but I hadn't painted any in years. I thought I'd add to them, by painting up some 6mm GHQ figures the other day. It was depressingly startling when I discovered I couldn't see anything but the general shape of the figure. Hell, had some trouble even determining where the front of the figure was!

I don't game as much as I used to because some days I can't face going out and seeing people. Not age related but that is what happens when you have to live with depression. An invisible illness which is difficult to explain to anyone who has not suffered from it. Think of those days when you just don't want to do anything, but force yourself to get on with life, to me that is a good day.

Vigilant. I know exactly what you're going through. Exactly. Everything is grey and lifeless.

Seek professional help. I went through a number of years of what you describe, and sadly I'll never get those years back. I finally sought medical help, was prescribed pills, saw a therapist, and now I'm happy – yes, happy – to say that life is a million times better now. I don't see anybody, or take anything pills now either.

I know it seems like a lot of effort, when it is everything you can summon just to get out of bed, but please trust me. Do it.

Still in my 40s but becoming much more focussed on a few periods and concentrating more on building the collection while my eyesight is holding-up. This has worsened notably in the last decade. The aim is to get to retirement having just about all I'll ever need already done. Then I can concentrate more on playing games and writing.

I'm with Winston--not exactly the most positive of thoughts, but it's much easier to focus on specific interests, and avoid getting side-tracked.

A little less endurance but still up for an all-day game when the situation warrants. Main change is going from evenings to days, which wasn't my choice but the "younger" set. I've gotten rid of some collections as a result of moves coupled with not using them for years and years.

Still playing the same complex systems, still buying, still painting, still expanding my ranges.

My aging has not affected my gaming so much as other people's aging has. It's getting very hard to find opponents.

Retirement had a big impact. (A) I could get more games in, and (B) finally getting everything under one roof made it obvious how much I'd overbought.

On the tabletop, the scales are as small as ever, but I'm getting fussier about visual clues to tell the armies apart, and more and more preferring short rules and multiple short games to long rules and marathon sessions. Note that this may be experience rather than aging as such. I've been doing wargames since LBJ was President, and miniature warfare since Nixon's first term. I'd like to think I've learned something, and it pretty clearly isn't tactics.

Moving to larger scales due to eyesight. Recently, work has made it hard to game as much as I'd like, but I expect to change that when I retire on Wednesday!

Painting was always a "necessary evil" to me. Now my eyes have deteriorated enough that I'm moving to larger scales and I now have an excuse to hire painters instead of doing it myself.

I find that there are a lot fewer "Ooh Shiny!" moments than there used to be.
If I like the rules and figures I'm using I don't bother looking around for the newest iteration or fad.

And like John said, its getting easier to clear out the dead-lead that I'll never use.

The only thing that distracts me now is having Kings Mountain pushed back by Whiskey Rebellion. (I just need some blue/red Dragoons and Continentals/Federales.)
The last thing to push back KM was Moore's Creek Bridge.
I'm not distracted any more by The Glorious 5th of June or Guadalcanal or Leonardo by GASLIGHT. Just a different AWI battle I already have 87.6% of the figures already painted.

The nice thing about these side excursions is that it sets up future games using the rushed figures. I now have a solid base of Highlanders for Prestonpans or Falkirk. And the Dragoons are really Pulaski's Legion. Mounted militia for WR will of course be suitable for Kings Mountain.

So, I'm finding my "distractions" are more focused and useful.

After I retired I realized that I had way too much to paint & too many 1/2 finished projects so I'm divesting myself of a lot of stuff via Marketplace, flea markets etc. No w I feel I can complete those things I want to & not be overshadowed by the "lead/plastic pile".

Tony S thanks for the advice. Am working on it – got as much medical help as I can and am taking the tablets. Finishing work and becoming a pensioner has helped. Just got to take each day as it comes and try not to let things get to me that I can do nothing about.

Realistic goals as to future projects, making disposal of unlikely projects easier to take.

I am working to get to this point. I've found that unrealistic goals are adversely affecting my enjoyment. It's not like I'm *being paid* to do this, but it still ends up feeling like a job sometimes.

But as far as actual AGING, I don't suppose anything has changed. Just trying to develop "mature expectations".

I have more troops than I can handle, couldn't play on a floor if I wanted to, its not gettimg down its getting back up.

Gaming all day doesn't have the appeal it once did. I now know that complicated does not mean "better" or "more realistic."

I cannot be bothered arguing with rule lawyers any more, I just pack up my figures and walk away.

Last year my lovely wife bought me an Ott light with magnifier to help me manage my worsening eyesight. I'm learning to adjust my expectations with the figures I paint. It's more important to me to get the figures painted and on the table, enjoying them, then it is trying to maintain a standard I no longer can.
A dozen or so years ago I started becoming symptomatic of an aural disorder that makes functioning in large crowded venues like conventions extremely difficult. I haven't been to a show in quite sometime.
In addition, lower back and knee problems contribute problems of their own.
Since retiring a couple years ago I've started to sell off parts of my collection. I'm concentrating on a couple favorite periods and slowly deciding on what to let go.
Getting old's not for wimps.

For me it the value of friends and doing projects with them. I'm blessed with a decent sized local group with fairly consistent tastes so I work much more to common goals then I did before.

I have discovered my core periods (Napoleonics and Dark Ages) will likely always be ny favourites but I am still having fun with some old ones I thought I was done with (17th century)

I find it hard to paint miniatures any more due to my eye sight, despite having new glasses :-(

Smaller space available so glad I kept to 15mm and below!

Nude Minis look better than the real.

Maybe I haven't aged enough to see its effects.

I have been painting only 25mm/28mm figures for more than 10 years, and that I attribute to being able to see them better than smaller figures. Still, I have quite bit of 15mm and 6mm stuff in my lead mountain.

I did get a table lamp with a big magnifying glass, and, later, an optivisor.

I still don't have enough time to play, but also not enough money to retire, so that's not going to change soon.

You know guys, the problem I can see coming is the combination of diminished space coupled with deteriorating eyesight. I'm confident I can deal with either one, but the combination is a bear. The best I've come up with so fat is 1/72 castings, often individually mounted, on a 3'x3' table. The castings are relatively large and very forgiving when dropped, and individual removal of casualties makes for a relatively "fine-grained" battle, where you can get a decent fight out of fewer than 200 castings per side. A 4'x4' board lets me get up to 28mm, but that's almost twice the table area, and a much more serious storage problem.

Has anyone a better notion?

Yes in the sense that I tend to play more skirmish/rpg than full battles now. No patience to paint up armies, though I do have the time.

Arthritis in my hands make painting tougher and longer. I am on here to break from painting. Hands are tired.

The long gaming sessions have gone away except for the occasional convention. Better focus and less purchases as well. Eyesight is definitely getting worse so I upgraded all my painting and reading lamps and paint for shorter sessions.

Vigilant, Tony S. Earning enough money to keep paying my rent gets me out of bed every day. It's a good motivator.

Age? I'm over 40 but I never age. I hike 10km out into the bush to wargame 1/6 scale toys the other day and I kept going from 8AM until it was too dark. I have more enthusiasm than ever. I plan to make an entire USMC battalion in 20mm one day.

some great comments from the above that i can relate to:

1) less distraction by new periods/styles/genres
2) less tolerance for BS from rules lawyers
3) complexity does not mean a better game or experience
4) more realistic gaming goals

a couple of my own as i have aged:

no tolerance for companies who screw you with rulesets that support you having to buy the newest and greatest to compete in a game (you know who you are). I quit acting like a dumb teenager who let the girl keep walking over him time after time.

enjoying painting more than playing. i used to play with hoards of unpainted stuff, now i mostly paint and really enjoy seeing games with all painted stuff and good terrain.

i also spend way less time gaming, and more of my time with my wife and kids. I will eventually (5 years or so) be empty nesters with the wife, and be able to spend more time, but it will look different than it did 20 years ago.

Pretty much in line with what's been noted above in many posts. I only paint what I think I have genuine need for. I buy less. I have very little lead pile. I've streamlined how I paint, base etc

I have realistic targets and now paint about 1/4 of what I used to get through in a year. I have had serious problems with my hands which took two years to recover, even now I can tell when they start to hurt that I have to ease off painting for a few days to give them time to recover and not get worse.

I genuinely feel that I don't want a whole lot more stuff but I reserve the right to change my mind on that. I'm probably more interested in quality terrain than ever before.

I think I know how to enjoy myself within the hobby better then before which always seemed to be based around I want to buy x, y or z.

When we finaly wrote our own rules we got a set that has undergone only minor changes and enhancements over the last 10 yeras. We now concentrate on being commanders not trying to resolve very obvious flaws in the rules that spoil the game. The discussions now become much more esoteric and interesting.

The big change is almost no lead pile its now print as you want. Bad news is that being able to play properly we keep running out of terrain as we get to the stage where terrain actually works so realistic representations become vital.

Worse still they made me Chairman of the Club, age has its penalties!

Need money to pay for my hobby but can't work enough hours because of my age. Too tired. Oh well

I have abandoned historical armies for ImagiNations, so I don't need numerous uniform references any more. No matter if the latest research proves the --th Foot wore something entirely unlike what I had imagined for years.
I focus on one period – vaguely late 18th century/Napoleonic/to 1830s – and resist temptation to embark on other eras.
I pay someone else to paint my armies – he does it better and quicker than I ever could.
I avoid rules that are over 12 pages long, are written in 'Barkerese'/legalistic terms, employ special packs of cards and use several different kinds of dice or lots of dice, preferring simpler, 'toy soldier' style games.
I've stopped worrying about 'historical accuracy' or 'realism' – I play games, not simulations.

Less ability to tolerate certain habit or knowledge arrogance when they do not have the training, background or research training to learn the nuts and bolts of a topic. Not just knowing the facts.

I rarely paint anymore. I have bucket list projects I want to move along, so I outsource my painting,to more than one painter. My eyesight is just not what it use to be. Plus the hours I use to spend hunched over a table to paint started affecting my back and posture.

I still enjoy a marathon game once or twice a year. But most of the time it is down to 4 to 6 hours.

The guys I game with are all retired and they game two or three times a week. They like to stick to 2 or 3 hours per game. I still work but retirement is coming up fast.

These guys are sticking to some complicated rules. I on the other hand want simple, simple rules. I am in the hobby for the love of history as I am to play. But playing is still fun.

Is it just me or is this a depressing topic.