I feel like having a whinge dammit.

Man of Honour
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I clicked on this thread, wondering what it was about and gradually realised that it was about PlayStation games, which goes sailing right over my head.
I WhatsApped my younger son and asked if his son, (18), was into PlayStation, he said “Yes, he plays with a bunch of kids from all over Europe.”
I said, “What about you, you into it?”
He said, “Are you kidding, what am I, 13?”

I'm 63 and two months ago I bought my first games console since I had a Mattel Intellivision in the early 80s.
I've bought a PS5 with PS Virtual Reality and I'm having a lot of fun but I have no interest in playing games online with others because I'd get flattened within seconds.
 
Soldato
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Mate is taking the pee and having you all babysit for him - you need to gauge how the rest of the group feels and if the same, a quiet word with the dad. No pussyfooting around, you aren't babysitters or his dad and Friday nights are chance to let off steam, which you feel you can't do.

It isn't the kids fault - the problem is with the dad.
 
Soldato
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Not really babysitting is it? He's 16 ffs! He just wants to play. You either have the space for the kid to play or don't and let his dad know that. The fact he's out with his new woman and not spending time with you guys is not here or there really. If you don't feel comfortable with the kid being there, say something. Would you feel happy the kid being there if his dad was there? If yes, I don't see the issue? You are most certainly not babysitting a 16yr old, Christ.
 
Soldato
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I clicked on this thread, wondering what it was about and gradually realised that it was about PlayStation games, which goes sailing right over my head.
I WhatsApped my younger son and asked if his son, (18), was into PlayStation, he said “Yes, he plays with a bunch of kids from all over Europe.”
I said, “What about you, you into it?”
He said, “Are you kidding, what am I, 13?”

Sounds like your son has got it right - PlayStation... Pfft, all about the PC gaming master race :D
 
Soldato
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Have you spoken to any of the other adults about it? You might find it easier to just make a small group with those who don't want to play games with a kid, if the dad in question says anything then the obvious answer was that you wanted to play with adults.
 
Man of Honour
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I'm 63 and two months ago I bought my first games console since I had a Mattel Intellivision in the early 80s.
I've bought a PS5 with PS Virtual Reality and I'm having a lot of fun but I have no interest in playing games online with others because I'd get flattened within seconds.

Same here. I was talking about games with some coworkers during lunch and they asked why I don't play the big name online games like Call of Duty. Simple - I can't compete against adolescents and young adults. There are some things in which a ~50 year old person can compete on an equal footing with a ~15 year old person, but fast-moving FPS games aren't one of them. I'm not greatly slower than I was 40 years ago, but I am a bit slower and that bit's enough in that context to make plenty of difference. Then there's the simple matter of numbers. The more people who play a game the more likely it is that I'm not going to be competitive. It's like putting a decent sunday league football team into the premier division. It's not going to be fun for anyone involved.
 
Associate
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Same here. I was talking about games with some coworkers during lunch and they asked why I don't play the big name online games like Call of Duty. Simple - I can't compete against adolescents and young adults. There are some things in which a ~50 year old person can compete on an equal footing with a ~15 year old person, but fast-moving FPS games aren't one of them. I'm not greatly slower than I was 40 years ago, but I am a bit slower and that bit's enough in that context to make plenty of difference. Then there's the simple matter of numbers. The more people who play a game the more likely it is that I'm not going to be competitive. It's like putting a decent sunday league football team into the premier division. It's not going to be fun for anyone involved.

I find the same - started in my 30's really. In really fast FPS games, just a few miliseconds difference in reaction times is all it takes. You can probably counter that with lots of practice, to a degree, but at that point it starts to feel like a chore rather than fun. These days I mostly play board games where reactions don't matter and it's all about who can out-think their opponents.
 
Caporegime
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Same here. I was talking about games with some coworkers during lunch and they asked why I don't play the big name online games like Call of Duty. Simple - I can't compete against adolescents and young adults. There are some things in which a ~50 year old person can compete on an equal footing with a ~15 year old person, but fast-moving FPS games aren't one of them. I'm not greatly slower than I was 40 years ago, but I am a bit slower and that bit's enough in that context to make plenty of difference. Then there's the simple matter of numbers. The more people who play a game the more likely it is that I'm not going to be competitive. It's like putting a decent sunday league football team into the premier division. It's not going to be fun for anyone involved.

We play Destiny for this very reason, because co-op is great fun and we end up smack-talking each other instead of getting our arses handed to us all the time. Don't get me wrong, we love PvP in Destiny too, but this is always a mixed bag of wins and losses. The thing with Destiny is it's a very forgiving game, and has many issues, so our utter flops are often diluted by technical problems, most notably lag :p

Basically we can suck and then blame the game and actually get away with it :D

We still enjoy CoD but again it's a game in which we only play with teams, never solo because it makes us want to embed our controllers in the nearest wall. We also do loads of private matches against each other which is hilarious.

We've got members touching 70 who we all know are a bit slower than they once were, including themselves, but we always make sure everyone has a good time and doesn't feel bad if they drag the team down a bit. Dave has been a staple of our community for longer than most and still cracks skulls like the best of us :)
 
Caporegime
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@Diddums , your 'mate' doesn't want to be part of this anymore. Read the room.

It sounds like his loss though :)

He turned up last night, haven't seen him online in ages and suddenly after this thread he pops up. I wonder if he's read this :D

Still, was nice to speak to him, he's obviously in the honeymoon period with his new lady and is loving it, I just wish he didn't dump his son on us every time he goes to dip his candle :/
 
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