But who says there will be more gens, and if they'll be any good? It's generally agreed gen 3 to gen 6 were the awesomes, and then quality suddenly took a nosedive with gen 7. Gen 8 is barely any better and doesn't feel like it's even started yet. Mobile and f2p could be the future 10-20 years down the road, who knows. Then you'll miss the good ole days.

Also: the older people were born in a better generation than you. Millenials will have a harder time in real life, sorry for leaving such a big mess to you

Oh shit you just upped the stakes!! 

I agree, it has been a great ride so far. I wouldn't miss any of the gaming experiences of the past. Not only the games, but also the impressive technical progress of the first decades on arcade machines, home computers, home consoles and handheld devices. Also the genesis and evolution of game genres and new game mechanics and new input devices, the first mixing of game genres resulting in new game experiences and so on.

Gamers in their twenties who started gaming in the around the millennium haven't seen much progress/innovations in games or game genres in the last 15 years. The graphics got a lot prettier and the multiplayer component got more important, but besides that most games of 2016 play very similar to the games available when they started gaming. And when finally a new (and much more immersive) way to play video games is on the horizon with the potential of new experiences, they are very sceptical to try something new.

That depends.

If its a game that requires fast reaction times, younger gamers are generally better (not without exceptions).

If its strategy games, older ones are probably better.

But this is all generalisation. Truth is it varies from case to case.

At least in competitive play it's only natural that younger players are better that old ones

I think if you dedicate yourself the best times of your competitive play would be up to your mid 20s

"casual gaming" might be different, I'm 25 now and I can easily beat games that were a challenge to me when I was 13-16, so in a level where your reflexes are not pushed to the extreme you might get better because of experience

20 year old gamers are better, c'mon, 20 is the age where you likely game the most. 

If you're 50 and spending large chunks of your life gaming, you likely need to rethink your priorities in life.

So, you're basing the current average age of gamers, being 31, to future logic? The average age of gamers will steadily increase as years go by and stabilise in maybe 15-20 years.

Middle aged gamers are those who've grown up with video games, from the Pong era / early arcade machines... Above that, people maybe 50+ were never brought up on them, it was never their culture. In 20 years, you could potentially see a significant number of 70 year old gamers, something that seems totally ridiculous now. 20 years ago, 50 year old gamers would have looked quirky, not now though.

Every decade, the age of gamers has increased as gamers have got older. When I was a kid with a ZX Spectrum and an NES, it was very rare for anybody over 25 to be playing games, as they just weren't brought up on them, it wasn't their thing. Yes, older people played them if their younger brother or son had the relevant machine, or maybe they had an adventure game on their business computer, but it wasn't something that was part of their life.

When I did work experience years back before Uni, nobody apart from me and a couple of upstarts played games, now, I see 35-45 year olds happily discussing what games they're into, their PS4's, etc. That was so unheard of in the late nineties.

This is an interesting thread, not from a gaming point but from a technology point, I'm very grateful to have been born when I was, got to experience the Atari 2600 as a very young child, MegaDrive/SNES console wars while I was in Primary school, the PSone/N64 during the birth of the internet, experience what a gaming magazine (with a fucking demo with it Z O M G) Was at a time when it was the best thing ever, so many things are just lost now because of the internet and technology along with them being lost is the appreciation for the things which have gone past.

I remember my first Tape player, pocket with a couple of albums with it, spare AA batteries in my pocket which could be used in either the player or my Gameboy Colour, while it's possible to emulate older generation games... you can never truly emulate the past, even going back on games, when you see a game which was marveled for it's graphics when it launched... you can never experience that now in 2016 when people are getting out their magnifying glass and counting the pixels on screen and using a stop watch to count how long their on screen for....

TL:DR - I'd die happy sooner rather than be born now, I think you can't appreciate how far tech has come if you've never lived during a time when no one... and I mean no one had a mobile phone.

As a 27 year old gamer I can say you're wrong. Games back then didn't hold your hand. You may have more years of gaming left, but it's all on easy mode.

What should your priorities be in your fifties?

I would assume that when you're 20 you have better things to do than gaming, like studying, finding a good job, paying off study loans, good place to live, perhaps find a partner for life. Compared to 50, steady job, kids about to leave the house or already gone, plenty time for gaming.

20 is the age where you should game the least :p