Tess (also known online as “TessPhyreForge”) didn’t have a computer in 1997, the year Ultima Online was first introduced. She had little expertise with computers. However, she was dating a man who was intensely, intensely into Ultima Online at the time. “He created me as a character, sat me down, and told me what to do. I became addicted after two hours and have been playing ever since.
Tess ultimately bought her own computer after her ex-boyfriend introduced her to Ultima Online. Then another computer was added so she and her kid could play.
When he turned 14, there were a few pool halls and other places in the neighborhood where we lived where the kids would hang out, according to Tess. “But it was such a horrible environment for teens and drugs and whatnot that I told him that if he kept up his grades, went to school, and didn’t give me a hard time, I would rather pay the $10 monthly subscription to play the game…As a result, we truly had family fun together.
Tess is 59 years old, and she and other older adults in the online group Old Timers Guild (OTG) share a passion for gaming that has lasted their entire lives and helped them make friends from all over the world in addition to their family and romantic relationships. Tess joined OTG in 2007 when Lord of the Rings Online was released and has remained a member of the company ever since. She has experience with Ultima, Dark Age of Camelot, Atlas, and Star Wars: Galaxies. People from Japan, the UK, and Canada are her friends. She presently serves as a chapter head for OTG’s Elder Scrolls: Online community, where she regularly plays with hundreds of other OTG members. And many of them, according to her, are also retirees.
“Video games, I guess, kept me sane when I got hurt at work and decided to retire for a few years,” she tells IGN. “I just don’t like watching TV as much, so I wanted to do something. I enjoy a few performances, but I also enjoy talking to others, so we enter our chat system. We sit and just converse while using Discord. We occasionally discuss everyday issues but avoid discussing politics or religion. One of the topics we avoid discussing with our users in our Discord server is that. It’s always about the game, and occasionally about real life, like the grandkids or the kids, and what they’ve accomplished or are doing. Yes, it is only calming.
Statistics don’t really interest me. I only want to have fun.
OTG was established back in 2005, first for the Dungeons and Dragons Online alpha test. Through the early ’10s, it experienced a significant increase in membership, branching out into various other MMOs and at one point boasting several thousand members across a variety of titles. OTG has acquired a surprisingly high number of members who are now in their 50s, 60s, and even older despite not being specifically marketed as a guild for senior adults. This is partially because it advertises itself as a guild for “older, mature” gamers with a 25-year-old minimum age requirement. Its ambience of relative calm and rigorous “no drama” regulation could be another factor.
Another factor could be the guild’s longevity: many members who joined when they were middle-aged or younger people have remained and are now getting older.
Coharie, a 62-year-old OTG member who joined the guild quite early in its development, can attest to the fact that this is the case. When Coharie was 18 years old, he remembers playing Missile Command at a friend’s house and later using a flight simulator he had access to while serving in the Navy. After leaving the military, he developed an MMO addiction and constructed a computer to play EverQuest with his entire family.
Later, he switched to other MMOs including Dark Age of Camelot and D&D Online, and while playing Pirates of the Burning Sea, he joined OTG.
They are a really sizable guild, he claims. “But it’s simply the casualness, the teamwork, and everything else. The majority of the Wargaming players I play World of Tanks with are also around my age, but they won’t put up with the drama and other stuff. The most important thing is that and other items. And I simply enjoy them. I’ve been with them constantly. I suppose for this long.
While we’re playing, some of them talk about their grandchildren and other things. Additionally, when I’m wargaming, I frequently chat more than I really play. I’m not the greatest athlete. Because I’m older, I’m probably average or somewhat below average. Reflexes have slowed down and other such things. Statistics don’t really interest me. I just want to have fun.
Reflexive Reflection
Of course, as they become older, the OTG members face certain difficulties in trying to keep up with video games. The loss of Coharie’s twitch reflexes, which are essential for playing fast-paced games like online shooters, is one clear example. At the age of 54, one OTG member who requested to be identified only as “The Dude” admitted that he has recently struggled with this, but that older folks like him tend to choose MMOs for this reason. One benefit of MMOs, in his opinion, is that you may play at your own pace, whatever that may be. “And…I believe that as we age, we really gravitate toward community, and MMOs are a great way to have that,” she continued.
Coharie acknowledges the motor difficulties at play as well, but she thinks that playing games can actually keep reflexes sharp as we age. According to a study, persons my age and older who continue to play online games or games in general are less likely to get Alzheimer’s disease or lose the use of their hands and other bodily functions. Longer-lasting coordination is achieved. Additionally, I work in a healthcare facility where one of the patients plays Final Fantasy [14]. Mid-seventies woman playing Final Fantasy. She has performed every scenario a staggering number of times. However, she plays it, which keeps her mind and body active.
Tess points out that the technology used in gaming, particularly in terms of PC maintenance, is another problem that many members encounter. Many senior OTG members may install a game they wish to play, but if their computer is unable to run it immediately away, they will give up rather than try to identify the issue. Furthermore, increasingly expensive graphics cards and other components could not be available to seniors with lower means.
One of the residents at the healthcare center where I work plays FF [14]; it keeps her intellect and motor skills active.
OTG has experienced other technology difficulties as a guild rather than merely as individuals. OTG used a forum and the voice chat program Mumble for years, according to one 61-year-old user who goes under the name Mosselyn. However, the organization just switched to Discord, and while technically effective, many of the members “just didn’t make that transition.”
They had trouble understanding it, she claims. “We made a lot of effort to encourage and assist people in learning how to utilize it, but once we did so, website traffic dropped off considerably. It’s really too bad. In my opinion, it was detrimental to us as a community. The Discord is a reasonably active community. The same applies. It is the same group of folks who are at ease speaking and who have successfully transitioned to something new.
OTG still has sizable communities in games like World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy 14, Elder Scrolls Online, New World, and others, thus by no means is it dead. Many members also utilize the guild channels to discuss games they are playing alone, such as Starfield or Baldur’s Gate 3. Mosselyn adds that it also helps that the OTG community is incredibly giving and willing to go above and above to accommodate people of all backgrounds and circumstances.
“In our WoW Alliance chapter, we have a very relaxed, open rating group that anyone can attend. She continues, “God bless her, the woman who oversees that raid has been doing it for a while, and it’s quite similar to cat herding.”We have a fairly wide skill range, especially, and a lot of that is age-related. I don’t know how she hasn’t yanked out every one of her hairs and just told us all to, excuse my French, f*** off. You can find people with disabilities, but you can also find the 70-year-old woman who does not game as much as the 25-year-old.
Tess and Mosselyn both cite the case of Trustee, a 93-year-old guild member who only recently acquired a brand-new gaming computer for Starfield.
Tess tells me, “He is the loveliest guy. “Now, I recall one instance when I visited him, and I conducted this raid every Sunday. He prefers to play a healer class, so I replied, “We could really use a good healer.” ‘Oh, I don’t play on Sundays,’ he says. The Lord’s Day is today. We had to adjust the raid date for him because he didn’t play on Sundays.
Going Back to Gaming
Older OTG members like Tess and Mosselyn have noticed a change in perceptions on video games over time. The majority of the members I spoke with recalled how, when they were younger, their interests in video games were somewhat uncommon in their schools and jobs, which is in part why OTG has meant so much to them. But in recent years, they have seen that an increasing number of people in their “real lives” also play video games. While Mosselyn has spent the majority of her career working in software,At her workplaces and in her family, the general attitude toward gaming was “grownups don’t do that.” However, more young individuals who played video games growing up have entered her employment during the past ten years. She claims, “I don’t feel like such a weirdo anymore.”
Tess is also on a boat. She claims that because there aren’t many adult or children’s activities in her tiny town, she plays with and encourages her five grandchildren to play games to keep them out of mischief. And she has even changed her mother’s perspective on the matter.
“Years ago, [other adults] always thought [gaming] was childish,” she claims. I spent roughly a month living with my parents when I was going through a divorce. ‘Oh, you’re addicted to that game,’ [my mother] says. I was taking part in Ultima Online.I found that to be somewhat humorous. She owned a Gateway 2000 computer at the time, which had a huge monitor and could double as a TV. She would play FreeCell while listening to her soap opera in the background. ‘That’s a video game,’ I remarked. You’re here conversing and interacting with others, while you’re playing that card game, and as we talk about various topics, we both learn from one another.You’re constantly playing that card game on that computer as I enter the house through the front door. Is there a difference? Well, I guess not, she says.
My mum began enjoying MMOs when she was 76. She was awful at them, but she loved doing it.
Coharie, on the other hand, wishes to offer some guidance to young players who might have a tendency to take things too seriously. It’s only for fun, he says. “Younger people consider it to be a job. Additionally, they believe they shouldn’t ever die if they lose and die in the game. Then they become upset and such. But it’s all part of the fun. How can you tell if you can do something or not if you don’t try?
He talks to me about his experiences in LOTR Online, which he and his wife play every weekend. They play by creating new characters and leveling them up through the campaign repeatedly. He currently has three characters at the maximum level, while she only has two. “And we take our time with what we do. In fact, we investigate. In reality, we migrate. And yet, while knowing we can’t win, we nevertheless enter and attempt to complete some dungeons.Most of the time, we receive a terrible handout of our butts.
Mosselyn also wants to inspire adults to continue playing games as they age, or even give them a try if they’ve never done so before. She claims that despite her repeated requests, her mother refused to play with her because the games were “complicated.” Then again, she recalls being at home for Christmas a few years prior, just after her father had passed away. The evening before Mosselyn was scheduled to return home, her mother, who was 76 at the time, requested that she teach her how to play an MMO. Then something happened.
My mother began playing MMOs at the age of 76, she claims. She was awful at them, but she loved doing it. Until her death, we played together every Sunday. Yes, we used to play every Sunday for about three hours till she passed away a few years later at the age of 81. The games we played varied. We took part in World of Warcraft. She enjoyed the Lord of the Rings and Guild Wars games we played together. She was incredibly ineffective. Where are you? she can ask even if I’m standing directly in front of her. ‘I’m right here, Ma,’ I say. She found it fun. It was a fun way for her to pass the time.
She must have been quite bored after my dad passed away. You can age indefinitely.
She continues, “I think it’s beneficial for all of us that there are elderly people and younger people playing games. I’m retired and living the life of my dreams. Every day, I can game for hours.