I’m 40, but I play online with quite a few people who are my age or older. On the dating scene, I wouldn’t know because I’ve been married 19 years, but I’d guess that there is some reluctance from women (especially those who don’t also play) to have a partner who would fit the stereotypical “gamer ignoring his girlfriend” or dude who’s a misogynistic dick online who uses games as a way to flex his imaginary hyper masculinity.

My move has always been, and will always be, to prioritize people in the room, especially her, when I’m in the headset. If that means we lose, we lose. It’s just a game (though I love them and often get totally immersed). Most of my longtime gaming friends with families (I have two kids as well) completely understand, and I do the same when they have IRL interruptions.

As for if there’s a cutoff? HELL NO.

As for if there’s a generational gap? Hell yes…but I’d say you’re just at the bleeding edge. Keep doing you and looking for like minded people and you’ll just be the oldest of the “Old Man League Bball team, Videogames Edition”. My crew loves our version of that guy… and so does his long time partner. 🙂

Do what you want!

Assuming you aren't ignoring other obligations, gaming is completely acceptable.

Anything else is pretentious.

53 here, not playing online multiplayer anymore (frustrated with being unable to compete at the same level due to work stress, and time commitments in general), but I do have 4 digit hours of Civilization. Thinking back, almost 20 years ago I got anti-gaming vibes from my peer group. Fuck 'em, do what you want.

41 year old woman who games Playstation and PC. There is no age cutoff.

That said, it wasn't all that common to have a game system when I grew up. My grandmother had an Atari because of her Alzheimers and that's what made my family nerds but people from Gen X are a lot less likely to have gotten the habit young.

Maybe a younger woman will be more likelyto be into it. But you both don't have to like all the same things. Ask the women you date about their hobbies instead of talking about yours, maybe? There must be some common ground interests, or at least something on their side that could be considered a bit offbeat, geeky, or childish and you can bond over being on the receiving end of judgment. Maybe she's into Renfaire or Star Trek.

I'm a woman in my mid 30s, I play games. My partner also plays games. My closest friends all play games. All of them 30+ women. I definitely see this as a thing that becomes more common as you go into future generations, not as an age thing. Specially as more and more people grow up surrounded by video games, even if only on their phones.

I am a little older than you and video games are my main pass time. I think Gen-X'ers are in a bit of a wierd place in that we were the generation that grew up with home video games but it had not also hit main stream yet. It does not seem to be as big of a stigma with younger generations.

Anyway, I do not ever plan on giving up on them so one day I might be a 100 year old gamer I guess. lol

Edit: typos

My husband's grandmother played point and click games until a half a year or so before her passing at 93 or so. We suspect that it's one of the things that greatly helped keep her so sharp for so long, she was very lucid up until about two months before she passed and was actively doing yard work up until a year before.

enjoy your games man! i feel like ppl find it nerdy or look at it like it's a "no life" kinda hobby, which is pretty bs. there's far worse things you could be doing in your spare time. gaming has been my thing since i was like 5. im gonna be 31 this year and i don't intend to stop for anybody. i just don't think she can appreciate what it is and that's okay too. there's plenty of other gamer ladies out there. keep your chin up!

I am almost 40 also, and game alot. One thing to remember that our generation is the first to actually game their whole life, nes etc made gaming popular.

Older generations haven't had mainstream gaming, so it is wierd to think people born in 50-60 to game, because games didn't exist when they were young. We on the other hand have grown with the games.

So I think from ten year on, it will be normal to have LAN parties in your elderly home.

is it something to do with the progression of games into popular culture and people born after, say, 1986 will not see it as unacceptable?

I think that's exactly it. Gen X was the first generation to experienced playing video games for their entire lives. Video games, as with all new things, tended to be poo-poo'ed by the older generation and as such, many Gen Xers elected not to get in to video gaming.

I think if you were of any younger generation, you would find responses on dates to be quite different.

So the question, there must be some sort of cut off age at which video games are no longer an acceptable pastime.

When you no longer enjoy it

I think there are some people who get out of touch due to things like kids or work and it was just seen as something you grow out of. But I think people generally have more of a work/life balance now. And they also realize that you can play games with kids when they are old enough.

I know for me personally, what will most likely happen is that I will always love and cherish video games as an artform no matter what. What will change is the amount of time I have to play.

As long as you are still enjoying gaming. Keep going!

Yeah i'm in my 30s and still enjoy playing games, nice way to relax at the end of the day.

Related question though: any good Minecraft channels on youtube that aren't made for children? I'm just starting to get in to minecraft now and it's been super fun, but the youtube playthroughs I've been looking at have all been...seeming to not be catering to an audience my age, to put it politely.

I hope not. I'm almost 50. But I'm not in the dating pool. I feel for anyone trying to date at our age. Better to be who you are though.

There's definitely not an age cut off. In 60 years there's going to be 80 year olds teabagging people in VR Halo Bloodgulch.

200; It's pretty hard to play if you're dead

Anyone who thinks differently is not for you. People can do almost whatever they want for fun, as long as it's legal. Labeling someone childish because they like something is stupid; what am I going to do, drink all day, go to bars, hike, travel, play sports, do n'th paid activity, etc? Some people have the time, money or health that allows or disallows them to do these things, and some people do or don't have the interest. Tons of people enjoy watching tv shows. Are we supposed to grow out of that too? By that logic, we shouldn't enjoy anything we did as kids and just do things only relegated to adults.

Id say most people regardless of when they were born think like this unless they themselves play games. It's more socially acceptable amongst the younger generation right now (e.g. college graduates) and probably because they're still considered young. Kids have more free time than adults and the barrier to entry for them is low. Parents often see their kids playing games and in genral have a negative attitude towards them for consuming time. Id say as people go into their 30s and 40s its considered less acceptable because societal expectations are that people will work and get married and have kids by then, and they'd have less time for solo activities. Going to the bar while having young kids or other activities is less acceptable. As kids get older their parents have more time for fun, but playing games is seen as childish because they either see their kids playing or because its something from their own childhood and other ventures that cost money like travel are now available to them when they werent as kids

I'm in my fourties. I've fought clanwars in MoHAA with my now wife. We've spent an embarrasing amount of time raiding in WoW and by now we've had servers running for Ark, Valheim and Vrising with our daughter. She's more into Roblox though..