Old gamers...

[Guest]

I've been worrying about carpel tunnel and arthritis. Is there a senior lurker around who can tell me how age affects their gaming abilities?

[DeeBye]

I've been worrying about carpel tunnel and arthritis. Is there a senior lurker around who can tell me how age affects their gaming abilities?

I haven't had any trouble with arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome, but I do have to take a break every few hours to change my Depends.

[Quark]

I never joke about anything, ever.

:ph34r:

[Bun-Bun]

No arthritis or carpal tunnel yet as I clamber through middle age. I think it has a minor degrading effect on my short-term memory. Also, I think it has a minor degrading effect on my short-term memory.

[LavCat]

no teeth

[LavCat]

I haven't had any trouble with arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome, but I do have to take a break every few hours to change my Depends.

As Quark said...I had my problem largely fixed a year and a half ago with a bit of surgery, but I still have a few extra pair for when you need them.

[Guest]

Seriously please...

[Munkay]

Please do remember that computer gaming is still very new. Although there may be people out there that have been avid typers their entire life, the day and age of MMORPG's or the type of 'twitch' or 'reflex' gaming that dominates most aspects of games has still been short.

As far as arthritis concerns, there are plenty of websites out there that you could google. Or better yet talk to your physician when you have a physical, if you're as young and spry as you seem, I'm sure you have one every year or so.

Best advice you'll probably find is 'be good to your body, take a break when you feel you need it, and don't overdue one motion too much in a limited time.'

Plus every human is built differently, including our joints. Just because our right arm and our left arm generally resemble eachother, whats inside can still be a bit screwy. My ring finger for example on my right hand has an issue with its joint, resembling arthritis, though at this point its just an aggrivating 'creak' and a slow movement of it.

It's your body, be good to it! And don't worry about the worst that could happen; deal with it as it comes, and as long as you treat your body well, you can't regret it. Whats ment to develope genetically and naturally will.

-Munk

[DeeBye]

Seriously please...

Urinary incontinence is a serious problem for us old folks! It puts a severe damper on extended multiplayer gaming sessions.

I once tried to forego a much-needed Depends changing during a D2LoD game. I was a part of a great group, and I really didn't want to go AFK for the 3 minutes it would have taken me to change my diaper. I pushed on, and I regretted it.

My diaper leaked in a big way. Urine was pooled up below my computer. My Depends wasn't so dependable at all.

I could deal with the urine. I am used to that. I always have a mop and bucket handy for such issues. The major problem was that I also lost control of my bowels during the game. This is a rare occurance for us old folks, but once in a while it does happen.

So I'm sitting in front of my computer with a large urine pool below me, and an ever-expanding liquid feces phenomenon occuring in my pants. I should have grabbed the mop and bucket and cleaned the mess up, but the party I was in was really questing it up. I couldn't drop out of the party I was in, because it was questing FAST. I gained like 5 levels in half an hour.

I spent like 3 hours cleaning up after that. My computer chair still stinks.

[LochnarITB]

Please do remember that computer gaming is still very new.  Although there may be people out there that have been avid typers their entire life, the day and age of MMORPG's or the type of 'twitch' or 'reflex' gaming that dominates most aspects of games has still been short.

Oh great! My nurse gets me all propped up in my wheelchair after giving me my sponge bath and changing my depends just so that I can read this forum and see this insult. I'm so worked up that she'll probably have to bathe me all over again - wait maybe that's what gets me worked up. I just don't remember. OK, now where was I...

Oh yeah! You young'uns these days. Sheesh. You and all your fancy graphics and big screen color displays and ergonomic joysticks and gamepads. In my day, we stared at tiny monochrome (with the fantastic choice of green, amber or b/w) screens until we ended up with glasses so thick you could use them to get your boy scout fire starting merit badge. We started out with knobs you twisted for a half an hour at which point your wrists were ready to fall off. If we had keyboards, the keys were so hard to press that an old Remington manual would have had more feel. For joysticks, we had a block the size and weight of a large brick with a thin stick that the California Gov. would have had troubles pushing into position. For gamepads, we had short little nubbins attached to 10 key pads with metal foil switches under the numbers that required both thumbs pushing down on one to get it to register through all the built up gunk inside. The games themselves were at least as exciting as those now, and probably more so. They were new experiences. We weren't jaded as players are now. We were lucky to have 16 colors. The best graphics were those in our imaginations. Walking down the line drawn hallway of Wizardry, tiltowait spell at the ready, imagining the smells and the sounds and the crumbling walls just out of sight of the light while tensing for the monsters about to strike, was far more immersive than experiencing someone else's imagination as you do in today's games.

Anyway, back to the question at hand - I've been gaming for (oh my!) 30+ years. I have experienced no physical problems, short of the extra pounds from the chips and M&M's and whatever consumed during marathon sessions. I think that gaming requires you to make several different movements. We pick things up and put them down. We move the mouse back and forth. We reach for keys instead of placing our hands in the proper touch typing position. My understanding is that problems such as carpal tunnel come two ways. One is from the vibration sent through the wrist by such things as a carpenter hammering all day. The other is from extended periods of limited movement repetitions such as the fingers moving around the keyboard with the wrists kept in a fairly fixed position.

I really don't think you have anything to worry about, even if you were to keep your gaming habit into old age like some of us here. Besides, by the time you become one of the senior members of the Lounge, they will probably have perfected mind implants for controlling all our gadgets. We will finally be to the point where we can let these oh so troublesome bodies atrophy away while our mind-sync robots do all our manual labor and we are left to the exclusive pursuit of pleasure.

[kandrathe]

You trade speed and agility for cunning and deception. If that doesn't work, you send them to thier rooms. :)

[FunkyfooKarate]

you serious, must of been one hell of a group

[ShadowHM]

You trade speed and agility for cunning and deception.  If that doesn't work, you send them to thier rooms.  :)

Old age and treachery will always beat youth and speed. :P

[AtomicKitKat]

With all due respect, I think the phrasing is "Old age and experience will always beat youth and cunning"

I'm still fast, I just can't do those 300+ rps button presses in games like Point Blank. My brother can though. But he lacks the multi-tasking ability to play RTS games effectively like I can. I blame the testosterone. ;p

[ShadowHM]

With all due respect, I think the phrasing is "Old age and experience will always beat youth and cunning"

You may well be right. :)

But my favourite uncle has had that saying on a sign in his workshop for as long as I can remember. And the older I get, the more I like it. :P

[Tal]

With all due respect, I think the phrasing is "Old age and experience will always beat youth and cunning"

I've always heard it as "Treachery and age will always overcome youthful enthusiam" or "Old age and treachery will always triumph over youth and cunning". Or at least that's what I tell the young black belts at my Dojo. :D

[AtomicKitKat]

Ahh well, whatever the saying, I should be getting a lot of wins if I only fight 5 year olds. ;)

[TaMeOlta]

Old age and treachery will always beat youth and speed.  :P

:lol: I am immune to treachery - I now have +20 to "Head in the Clouds" , and I have a permanent Aura of Vagueness (20 yd radius) - coupled w/ twin attacks of "Incoherent Babble" and "Ambiguity" ...... now everyone avoids me without looking me in the eyes ..... :blink:


The original topic ? A wrist rest / guard took all the pain away for me from overuse of mouse and keyboard ...... when it comes to Nintendo controllers though , I still suffer from "Nintendo-Itis" :(

[kandrathe]

... they just unlock the "secret level"...

Ok. Seriously. I only have had one incident since I started gaming in circa 1970. That was a few years ago, when my 1st son discovered the wonder of being carried everywhere. I was also playing 3 nights a week in a counterstrike league, another competitive kick boxing, doing some other games, working 20 hours per week on my house (pounding nails) and working furiously at work on some project that kept me typing all the time. I figure these strains eventually caused the original inflamation.

I ended up with a condition called frozen shoulder, where you are eventually are unable to move your shoulder through it's normal range and it required about a year of painful physical therapy to unfreeze it. I had to back off on the many things I was doing. So, listen to your body.

[Guest]

Thanks for taking me seriously Kandrathe..