My first video game was the PONG (stay with me...) I remember looking at various box art and saying, "wow, maybe one day the games will look like that... Large square people jumping and slashing with smaller square swords or guns or bullets..... (point soon coming) You had to use your imagination. Then games like (do not kill me) Doom then Tomb Raider then Fall Out and you could actually imagine you were in the world as that character. My first Elder Scroll game was Oblivion. Morrowind...not sure how I missed it, but sounds like a heck of a game... Oblivion blew me out of the water. I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan. Been killing dragons and orcs since I was 6. Okay grew up on a farm and had to battle many dragons(trees) orc (smaller trees) and the like... Since an early age I have loved fantasy. The Oblivion. Yeah after playing ir for many, many hours it got to easy...repetitive. (point almost here...) But I never got tired of scouring the countryside for new locations. I actually check off all the places on a map.

Fact is I enjoyed printing off maps and discovering different locations. My favorite "find" was a farmer who had bears killing his sheep, so I helped him out and killed the bears, being the hero I was..


What I am looking forward to the most is the scope of the map in Skyrim. Seeing dragons fly over head. Hopefully having to run from them in the beginning because I do not have the strength to fight them, then later looking to pick a fight. Skyrim, though it will be flawed and have many things that bug me, has all the elements I am looking forward to in a more classical fantasy game. Killing dragons (never should be ridden) , adventure, the idea of the unknown, discovery, etc.. I am confiedent that it will be a good game considering what Bethesda has put out in the past full of small glitches, frame rate drops, etc..

(point found here)

I find my self being really critical of games (as well I should I paid for them!) but when I look back at the past of gaming I get a new perspective and able to enjoy them more.
Bugs and all. I am not sure if Skyrim will be epic (I still find more emersion in books than games) but it is looking like a great game.

Oh and by the way...I hope all the "we can go fishing" - "paper doll" - "travel in carts" - "harder to earn money" - "ememies that do not level up with you" - and the like are all in the game....It would be something...

I like the fact that you are 40 and love to play video games. I think I found my new hero!
lol, you mentioned Pong. Hahaha! People with square swords and bullets?!?!?
Bwhahaha!
I cant wait for Skyrim! there should totally be a "Boxy" pixelated version of Dovahkiin fighting off hordes of boxy goblins in a side scroller somewhere! Maybe a witch curses you for a bit? Awesome!!!

Edit: Finally caught that last bit.
You said you don't think Skyrim will be that epic, and you are critical about most games nowadays?! Come on dude!
I'm sorry about the Pong thing...can you play Skyrim with us for a little bit, please?! That just sounds so awesome!!!

yah I remember my first game, it was on Attari, where u drive a plan that needs to refuel all the time and shots squares at stuff, it had 16 colors I think

it was awesome

I got my PC after I had a Sega rig, sonic was fun and all but I wanted to move to the age of technology, so my first PC game was C7 but I accidentally lost the short cut and never found it again , then wolfstine then I discovered the good stuff like dark colony, C&C gold, blood, shadow warrior as I upgraded my PC the games got better and better (90s) total annihilation, avp, diablo, birth of the federation, my first ES however was MW and I worshiped it for 2 years

now like you I'm very critical of games, maybe we should remember that all we had back then was a joystick with one button

I'm 36 and love playing video games. My wife is also 36 and also loves playing video games,. (put any LEGO game on the 360 and I never get on it).

My first TES game was Morrowind, then Oblivion (can't believe I missed Arena and Daggerfall). I never really got into Morrowind. The combat system, and correct me if I'm wrong, relied on stats, so when I aim an arrow and fire, even though I feel I was dead on and missed would really wind me up. Oblivion was different though, I loved it and still do. I got it for the PC and then the XBox 360.

Oh and as for being 40 and loving video games. Thats nothing, My dad is 61 and plays video games. My father in law has just turned 59 and sat and watch me play Oblivion, he was fascinated.

Near 40 too.
And also critical of games.
For me this is due to it being difficult for a game to excite me if it offers the same game-play I've been exposed to for years.
& I agree, the most addicting element the Elderscrolls games have offered for me has been the temptation of exploration. That still works.
What I would love to see more of, gameplay-wise, are puzzles. Since they engage the player's mind directly, it doesn't matter what level the character is.

I don't know how you missed Daggerfall!!!!!! Kinda feel a bit sorry for ya. We can't go back and appreciate it as much now, due to the graphics being dated, but when it came out. Man it was the bomb and still the best TES by far

I'm half your age. My first game ever was Super Mario 64. My first TES game was Oblivion.

Good question, for which I have an answer.

I've been playing video games since I was 6 ('81). Everything to the good old fasioned 80's arcades, playing asteroids, defender and space invaders. Working my way through the 80s to the 90's, then I became interested in women, I'd reached my late teens and the only video games I would play would be on the coin ops in the local pubs in London whilst slightly drunk. Most of my late teens I was either working, drinking and chasing women (sometimes catching them) or nursing hangovers. I had a PC, not a good one. I guess when daggerfall was out, I was going through that phase. I got back into games seriously when I purchased Duke Nukem 3D in 96.

Truth is, I'm loving how in my lifetime, gaming is becomeing more advanced. In my grandparents day, it was the wireless, (as in radio, not Wifi) in my parents day, television and in my day, videogaming.

With Skyrim coming out, my RPG fantasy seems to be coming true (or a large part of it) so I'm glad to be alive when this happens to witness it

Yeah.. I am an OG! (original gamer) ... LOL

I would not classify my self as a gamer per se because I only play a few games per year. I have other things that I like more that gaming...fishing, kayaks, oceans, rivers, camping with my family...

BUT when I do play a game I want to be immersed in it. I guess that is because of all the books I read and really get into the characters, now that there is the technology to have that level of depth so I expect that.

I do not really want to just blow crap up…with out a purpose other than just blowing crap up. I really enjoy the characterization and the story. Oblivion, with all its flaws, provided that.

Skyrim will probably be even better. Yes, I will pre-order. Yes I will hope for a midnight release. Yes I will not be at work on 11.11.11….

Think about this you old dudes (no offense)…we have dragons. Dragons with their own intelligence flying around… If it happens any were close to the –I am walking down a road and out of nowhere a dragons swoops down on me and I turn and run for dear life…” --- Well…it will be cool and as get out.

Now if we can just get horse armor (could not resist :wink_smile: )

Truth is, I'm loving how in my lifetime, gaming is becomeing more advanced. In my grandparents day, it was the wireless, (as in radio, not Wifi) in my parents day, television and in my day, videogaming.

With Skyrim coming out, my RPG fantasy seems to be coming true (or a large part of it) so I'm glad to be alive when this happens to witness it

------------------------------

Could not agree more about gaming in my lifetime... I just hope I do not develope arthritus in my thumbs when I am 60....

Isn't the average age of gamers like 38 years old?

My first TES was Morrowind, I was seven or eight in 2002 when I played it, only staying in the cities, stealing petty things. I really never "did" the main quest until after I heard about Oblivion. Morrowind is my favorite game of all time, and nothing will replace it. Seeing how Arena came out in '94, I wasn't even born yet (almost ) I recently went played Arena and Daggerfall and must say they are simply amazing games.

I got into Daggerfall after Oblivion and Morrowind, so it's pretty hard to adapt to the graphics, but it's still a fun game.

I'm 22. My first videogame was on an N64, "Super Mario 64" it was called.

I'm amazed at how fast videogames had evolved. When I was ten, "Zelda: Ocarina of Time" was considered THE biggest thing ever graphic-wise. To think that now, it looks pathetic compared to Skyrim. The idea of a person that didn't look blocky in any way, a person that looked fluid, moved fluidy...it was unthinkable in 1998. Videogame developers would've thought you mad if you told them that.

I have heard this before but do not see how with all the 6-16 year olds owning game systems...

Still it would make sense that the 35-40 year olds would be a large number since console gaming started when this age group were kids...

@ OP: I know what you mean about Pong, I'll be 41 in a month, and still remember the days of Pong and Pac Man and Space Invaders. The graphics were horrible, but back then that was state of the art. We didn't necessarily have any plots in our games (Asteroids, Space Invaders, Combat, Pong, Where's the plot in that)...and yet today do find myself questioning the games we play, although being around the video game block a few times, I don't make as much of a deal about the things that some of the younger folks do.

I have hopes that Skyrim will improve in areas that have been lacking in previous games, yet do not wish to extensively re hash past games. Technology improves, and the developers want to take advantage of those advances that were not available in previous games; and there is nothing wrong with that...but there is and always will be a segment of the fan base that will not be pleased with the changes that were made and then cry foul: Hey! You can't do that, your breaking lore, or that's not canon because it's different than from previous games in this series. I've seen this time and time again.

As someone who's been around to witness the dawn the the video game era, I can say that without older folks like us that were willing to continue playing these games even though our friends and relatives laughed at us for being childish: the video game industry likely would've died a long time ago...and it nearly did, then there would be no Skyrim for us to look forward to...We'd all have to go outside and play :ahhh:

Yea I wouldn't consider myself an OG per say, but my first gaming system was the Intelevision circa 1982 ( Pitfall and Pong ) then the NES 1985 ( Mario and Zelda), Sega Genisis 1989 (Sonic), Super Nintendo 1992 (Zelda link to the past and super street fighter 2), Nintendo 64 1997 (Zelda ocarina of time), PS1 1998 (Resident Evil), Xbox 2001 (HALO), Xbox 360 2005 (ES4:oblivion and COD MW2) and finally PS3 2010 (ES4:oblivion and ES5:Skyrim)

Im 31 years old and I'll never quit gaming...the wife will go before the games do...lol...but yea im with the op on this because im very critical of my games as well.

I'm 19, my first game console was an NES at age 6 due to parental Poverty. Super Mario World 2, Super Street Fighter 2, and Shining Force were my bread and butter till I Got my N64 AND Ps1 when I was 10 Ps1

My first console was a Magnavox Odessey, then a Atari 2600. I didn't own another console after that until the original Playstation. Most of the time in between there I was either at a friend's place or in an arcade. I always loved hanging out at the arcade. Phoenix, Gauntlet, Elevator Action, Tempest, Mr. Do!, Spy Hunter and so many more great games. I could finish Black Tiger on one quarter, the owner must of hated me.

39-yr-old here. I did mess around with Pong in the 'coffee-table format' where it was a glass-top table, but my real first real exposure to video games was on the Atari 2600. I did get to try stuff out on other consoles of the time, and I was especially jealous of some of the titles that came out for my friend's Odyssey. Later my early gaming experiences continued with the C=64/128 and the Apple II computers, and graduated to the Atari 1040 ST before settling with PCs. I was a big fan of the original Bard's Tale trilogy, ACS, the old Ultima games (played 3-7 and both Underworld games) and loved many of the Sierra games, especially the Quest for Glory ones and the "Conquests" titles.

My favorite part of games is exploring environments that evoke an emotional response: dread, triumph, awe, mystery, retributive wrath, etc. I still remember the first time I was watching my friend play the last level of the second episode in the original release of Doom. He died 3 times without warning or even seeing the face of the thing that was rocketing him to death (the Cyberdemon). Sierra were the masters of this, QFG IV was buggy but so atmospheric I didn't really care.

The final part of Morrowind's main quest did a good job of this, every step seemed heavy with approaching culmination of destiny.

Another 40 here. First (home) games were Ultima 1, Wizardry 1, and Apple Panic

First TES game? Morrowind. And personally, I'm greatly looking forward to Skyrim. MW was great, Oblivion was great, FO3 was great.... Skyrim will be too.

I don’t even remember my first PC game, but then I have a good excuse - I was born in ’44. I’ve been through a lot of games - most of which I dumped - but then I found Dungeon Siege II way back and got into that, then I found Morrowind and played it for years until I bought Oblivion GOTY, then later Fallout 3 & FO3 GOTY. I went through 4 or 5 hundred dollars worth of other stuff, but dumped all those except for the numerous Fate games which my wife plays. The best of the bunch is Morrowind. I would like to see that game in an updated format - that would be amazing. Maybe Skyrim will be the one I remember best.

I love how video games have evolved over time. I'm 22 and I've been playing video games for as long as i can remember, i dont even remember what the first video game i played was but it was either donkey kong (the original arcade version) or the first mario video game, one of those two. My first console was a super nintendo (as buddy said before me, due to parental poverty) and that is still one of my all time favourite consoles still out. The super nintendo has some of the best games ive ever played, chrono trigger, zelda a link to the past(dont care what anyone says, this game blows ocarina of time out of the water) and shadowrun are 3 of the most influental video games out there (of course theres a lot of influental games out there). I've played lots of PC games back in the day my favourite ones being the police quest games, heroes quest games (quest for glory now), ultima IV, fallout, xcom apocalypse. Then i started getting into the newer games as they came out, Morrowind being my first ES game (ive played many hours for both the xbox and the PC version - pc is obviously superior).

Ive played all of these old school games and still love them, but i am now probably one of the most critical video gamers out there now. With new video games I always pay attention to small details, and i can tell when a developer actually spent time and effort in their video game and made the game because they wanted to make a good video game not because they want their next paycheque. Bethesda is one of these developers (one of the FEW). You can tell they put their blood, sweat and tears in their games and not just because it takes them 4 years to make a game but because they pay attention to the details.
Now a days they come out with crap video games and put a bunch of advertising and hype on it and it becomes a huge franchise that millions of [censored] drones buy not knowing what a good video game is.
Examples of these half assed video games are (in which the developers dont give a [censored] about their game and just want money): Assassins' creed (all of them), Mass Effect (number 2 and probably 3), Call of Duty (all of them), Infamous (all of them), God of war (all of them), Force Unleased (all of them), World of Warcraft, Dragon Age(all of em) Honestly i can go on for awhile.. But these games are responsible for dumbing down the gaming community and expectations of video games (lets say they 'lowered the bar for future video games'). Essentially they are the equivilant of the antichrist, but for the future of video gaming.

Now you take these [censored] new games and compare them to the new games that the developers actually CARE about their video games, for example: The Elder Scrolls (all of em), Condemned (1 and 2), Farcry (all of them), Crysis (havent played the second so not sure about that one), Mario (Yes, the 'core' mario games have a lot of effort and time put into them - which is why they take awhile to come out), Battlefield (all of em), Total War(all of em), Starcraft (both of em), Star Wars Knights of the old republic (1 and 2 not that MMO crap), Gran Turismo(all of em), Bioshock (1 and 2), Star wars battlefront (1 and 2), Fallout (all of them), Grand theft auto (all of them).

Play any given title from that first list and play any given title from the latter, wether or not you play those kinds of games you cant deny the fact that there is more effort and time put into the latter. Theres a reason why good games like grand theft auto take 4-5 years between games and [censored] games like call of duty or assassin's creed can be released 2 times within a year, or 4 times within 3 years.

Now im finished my rant, i just want to say most of us are more critical in judging video games because theres evidence of how far we've gone from games like pong and when a company releases a half assed (by today's standards) video game people get pissed, because theres a lot of game developers that come up with good games now a days and theres no reason not to, unless of course you charge WAAAY less for your game. (Sega is still making new Mega Man games, but they still take like 2 years for them to make AND they only charge 10 bucks for it, not like call of duty re releasing the same game with a storyline that took you 35 seconds to write and takes a normal person 2 and a half hours to beat and still they charge you 70 bucks for the game.)

True. It's funny how you can just miss an epic game like that. I'm 27 and had pretty average PC's until I was 18. Still out getting smashed and attempting to get laid but still managed to squeeze in Daggerfall. Me and the boys would get ripped then come back and play DF until the wee small hours. It was that good. It could entertain a few people at a time due to the size. Someone would go - " I wonder if you can do this", or " I wonder if this is in the game", and then everyone would gather round and watch. Awesome game.

Now I design games I feel excited by the industry and the direction it is taking. Long live the OG gamers!!
I'm proud to have been there from pretty early on. Been playing since I was 5. Commodore 64

Good to see so many young at heart arcade generation people still playing .I to started on pong and move on to space invaders and the like .Games have changed a ton my first 3d world was tomb raider been hooked since .Love the games that these guys are putting out now days skyrim wont be perfect for sure but it is gonna be SSsaawwwweeet.!!!!!!Im 40 now as well i play with my kids although my son is more into fps games than rpgs im gonna use skyrim to get him hooked :disco: .My middle daughter is already getting into OB.