What age are you forced to grow out of video games or anime?

[Mitters]

Ill probably never grow out of videogames. If I had to choose between either having my own family with no videogames or videogames with no family you're damn sure I will pick videogames.

[Deletedaccount1]

Admittedly "working culture" doesn't tend to be very acceptant of anything that doesn't produce value as a result of time spent in any country.

Generally speaking anime and games are a form of escape and people who are successful in life often don't need / have time to escape but I don't think that means you're less of a person if you need / enjoy it in your own life, for whatever reasons. Human society puts entirely way too much emphasis on being "productive" imho. After all, most people are just cogs in a machine at the end of the day and I think being a "good cog" only makes you more valuable if you see it that way.

Not necessarily. Most of my colleagues who are pretty much salarymen (I work at a university) all have hobbies that they do but they are generally more grounded in reality.

Gaming and watching Anime are looked down upon because they are forms of escapism and can stop productiveness. No I don't think humanity puts too much emphasis on productiveness because emphasizing anything else leads to awful results.

[Allatar]

if all your responsibilities are met, what you do in your free time is no-ones business. Those same people giving you crap will passively watch xfactor for hours on end. Ignore them.

This is so true: I used to work with a girl who said that I 'wasted my evening' when I was raiding in WoW and when I asked her what she did, she had sat in front of the TV for four hours watching soaps

[In Ogres We Trust]

Er, anime is only there because it's a hobby of mine in particular, but it can apply to animation as a whole. I love animation and video games and even write on them, but I'm 21 now. At an age that old, while I still do love my media, I have serious fears I'm not doing what adult men should. I don't do things like watch football, enjoy porn, smoke or drink alcohol at all. A friend called me out on this, claiming you're never too old for such hobbies but it's a deep rooted insecurity that I'm not a real man even at this age.

Edit: I should've wrote "expected" instead of "forced" in the title.

Grow Out Of Video Games: Never
Forced To Do Something Else: Often

- - - Updated - - -

isnt the average age of gamers 33 or something? and we all know how many kids play games so there must be a bunch of older people to balance that out.

By and large, the 30-35 bracket is the generation that grew up on the widespread development of games and gaming consoles. Hence, it's not surprising to see that statistic.

[Knslyr]

As for gaming, I guess it just depends on the person, rather than maturity level. My granddad is 76 years old and he's always loved to play PC Tomb Raider games. My dad also used to play older PC games when I was a kid (Decent, etc), and while he says he bought his current Xbox for the grandkids, I've seen him playing it by himself at night, lol.

Your dad and granddad have good tastes. ^^
Its pretty funny that Tomb Raider just got a reboot series as well, and a new Descent game is on early access on Steam. You should let them know if they don't already!

[Deleted]

Turning 40 tuesday, hasn´t happened yet.. Am in fact picking up my Battle Damaged Son Gohan Master Stars Piece today for the DBZ collection.

[Arganis]

Not necessarily. Most of my colleagues who are pretty much salarymen (I work at a university) all have hobbies that they do but they are generally more grounded in reality.

Gaming and watching Anime are looked down upon because they are forms of escapism and can stop productiveness. No I don't think humanity puts too much emphasis on productiveness because emphasizing anything else leads to awful results.

Well at least we seem to agree on why they're looked down upon. I'd be interested in knowing what are the "awful results" you have in mind when productivity isn't the only thing being promoted. And please don't go to extremes like poverty and drugs because those happen even among those whose lives solely revolve around trying to make ends meet.

My issue with "productiveness" is more often than not it implies that you're a more valuable member of society because you're part of the system but I'm not sure how someone who, for example, sits at a desk all day long selling his time is making the world a better place than somebody who isn't. That kind of thinking implies the more you generate the more you're worth and personally I don't think the richest among us are necessarily the best of what humanity has to offer, far from it actually. Inversely it also implies the less you generate, the less you're worth and that puts a vast majority of humanity in the category of human garbage.

[Morae]

It has been said already. You don't unless you do it yourself.

I intend to keep playing games and all these things as long as I live unless I just naturally grow out of it. I hope that never happens.

[Cæli]

Er, anime is only there because it's a hobby of mine in particular, but it can apply to animation as a whole. I love animation and video games and even write on them, but I'm 21 now. At an age that old, while I still do love my media, I have serious fears I'm not doing what adult men should. I don't do things like watch football, enjoy porn, smoke or drink alcohol at all. A friend called me out on this, claiming you're never too old for such hobbies but it's a deep rooted insecurity that I'm not a real man even at this age.

Edit: I should've wrote "expected" instead of "forced" in the title.

"Real men" do what they want and what they enjoy regarding their activities.

If I want to watch kawaii teen anime at age 59 I do it and I'm proud of it (I'm not doing this btw).
As for video game it's mainly an adult thing so there's no question to be asked.

Also, don't ever kill your inner child, because it's yourself, you don't kill yourself. Don't let anyone force you doing something you don't want.

[Mentia]

I think you grow to enjoy them with moderation. I am a married 30 year old with 2 daughters and in my man cave I still have some of my favorite childhood collectables hanging around.

[Rudkobing]

Its a trap.

[Serath]

Never, most definitely never. That's not to say your gaming habits won't change though. When I got married I played less, buying a house made me play even less. I'm 31, I don't play nearly as much as I'd like but I still game regularly. My dad's 52, he games regularly as well. We're both relatively responsible adults with family obligations and good jobs.

Being a grown-up isn't about not doing things you love. It's about managing your time between your obligations and your hobbies, whatever they may be.

[SodiumChloride]

Well at least we seem to agree on why they're looked down upon. I'd be interested in knowing what are the "awful results" you have in mind when productivity isn't the only thing being promoted. And please don't go to extremes like poverty and drugs because those happen even among those whose lives solely revolve around trying to make ends meet.

My issue with "productiveness" is more often than not it implies that you're a more valuable member of society because you're part of the system but I'm not sure how someone who, for example, sits at a desk all day long selling his time is making the world a better place than somebody who isn't. That kind of thinking implies the more you generate the more you're worth and personally I don't think the richest among us are necessarily the best of what humanity has to offer, far from it actually. Inversely it also implies the less you generate, the less you're worth and that puts a vast majority of humanity in the category of human garbage.

There probably nothing intrinsically wrong with watching anime.

It's just that people like to discriminate against people who are different. /shrug

[Ragnarocket]

You're never forced to grow out of any hobby...it's a matter of whether or not you get into new things or not or if you lose interest in the hobby. Personally, I grew out of playing Magic: The Gathering after college. That wasn't really due to a lack of interest in the game itself, but because I wasn't willing to put the extra effort into keeping that hobby going. In college it was easy to get together and just play with some friends. Nowadays? Much harder.

[Kurioxan]

You are never "forced" or "expected", generally as you mature and are exposed to the world you lose interest in those things.

Anime in particular as it focuses heavily in a demographic that is teen-young adult, as you age a lot of the questions and themes that anime contains have become obvious and "the past" thus no longer interest you, you start seeing it as childish.
Arguably, if you still enjoy a lot of those themes by say, 30, it means you have not really developed past an earlier mental age. If this is good or bad, up to discussion.

ofc, there are adult themed animes btw, which what I said earlier does not apply, after all its about the theme, not the medium, sadly people mistake both too many times.

This also applies to pretty much everything else. The same reason once you are a well adjusted adult in or having had good relationships you roll your eyes at most breakup songs and teen themed music. You can no longer relate, and with knowledge/experience you see most of those things as simple matters, not complex.

Video games is slightly different, will also depend on the theme, but they are more akin simple entertainment, but again, as people grow up we start to realise time is quite important and video games can be a waste of it, thus people judge those who do still play them, as a form of projection I guess?

That said, personally, do w/e you want, maybe you never grow out of it, maybe you do, but it has little to do with being forced out of it, more of a natural process, just as most people stop playing with toys at a certain age and not because of pressure, but because they start to find it dumb or have found better venues for entertainment.

Hope this helps, its not said as a judgement, i still watch some anime and play games, but still recognise I have lost interest in a lot of things due to maturing, but gained interesting a lot of new things as well.

Personally i think of Life as constant flux, constant change, if anything never changing is what would be strange.

[Medusa Cascade]

I watch/do whatever I find enjoyable. No one should be forced to stop doing what they legally enjoy

[Deleted]

I am in my thirties and still play games, never been into anime much though. I know people in their fifties that still play games, the idea that you can just grow out of something you have been doing for decades is a bit daft.

[Deleted]

'We do not quit playing because we grow old, we grow old because we quit playing.'
- Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894)

Words to live by.

[Shadowferal]

It's not the person's age that matter. It's how the game ages. (*shakes fist at WoW* I used to have fun you sonsofbitches!!!1)

[Arganis]

Arguably, if you still enjoy a lot of those themes by say, 30, it means you have not really developed past an earlier mental age. If this is good or bad, up to discussion.

Sometimes looking back is as much a source of appeal as trying to figure out the way forward. People enjoy different things for different reasons. If all adults only enjoyed adult things the world would be a very different place.