As people get older, can people still play the same games?

With the input and response speed required for fighting games, the available data can be tracked. “I did notice that my reaction time might be slightly slower,” Wong said. Although he was quick to add that he is still above the level of most young players. “Even at the age of 35, I can still respond well to most things,” he added. “Even now people usually don’t want to test my reaction.”

Of course, modern game challenges are not just about reaction. As Westerholm realized, they also involve more complex systems, which can be a bigger obstacle for older players. Reimers explained that certain elements of cognition decay even faster than reactions—especially the “switching cost”, which is the increased reaction time of multitasking.In experiments where the subject must remember two ideas at the same time, such as saying at the same time whether the face that appears on the screen is male or female with Regardless of whether they are happy or sad, older people respond much slower than younger people than when they only need to determine one characteristic.

These results indicate that things like instant timing in competitive fighting games become more difficult with age. “When you have to make a decision and you have a lot of things to be on time, you have to decide which way to respond, your speed will take an extra blow,” Reimers said. He added: “It’s the same as distractions and things like that. You have to monitor two streams.” This is another thing that games usually want us to do-move and action.

If it sounds like you might have to hang up the controller before you are 30, let alone when you retire, that’s not all bad news. On the one hand, Reimers said, although certain aspects of cognition gradually slow down or decline faster with age, there is a third type that remains the same or even improves: the “crystalline intelligence” of general knowledge. . After all, more than 40 years of experience must make a difference.

Of course McGee believed it. “Primitive mechanical skills or reaction time are only a small part of a person’s high level of performance,” he said. Similar to some sports, he feels that age can make up for the speed and skill of youth. “Look at world champions like Randy Couture or George Foreman. They compete with younger, more explosive athletes and still win. Experience is a huge attribute and advantage.”

If it is suitable for fighting sports, why is it not suitable for fighting games? “Veteran players have a lot of old game skills that can be carried over into the tournament environment,” Wong said. “Think of it as a hat trick that is used once at a time. You can use a specific strategy against another player who may not have that much information.”

As Aim Lab’s data shows, there is always room for improvement. Although the exercise is not perfect, it will help. “For people between 18 and 20, the improvement will be faster,” McGee said. “However, even in the 41 to 50 age group, we still saw an 18% improvement a week later.” Reimers had similar findings. Although he questioned whether “brain training” exercises have an effect on improving overall skills, he pointed out that if someone repeats a task over and over, they will definitely do better on that specific task. This seems to be particularly relevant to games, and we often need to perform the same operations over and over again.

Well, one problem is that older players usually practice less time, but there are some ways to adapt to this. 55-year-old David Kelly (David Kelly) started with Ping pong, Space invaders, with Asteroid In the late 1970s. His taste is still old school-he prefers shooting games (shmups), arcade racing and multiplayer games chasing high scores.He even owns one Asteroid DX Arcade cabinet. “I was more focused when I was younger,” he said. “As I grow older and increase in responsibilities, I tend not to focus so much on games.” But this did not stop him from achieving “one credit completion” (1CC) in a slow and steady manner on the infamous bullet hell shmups . “Although I am not as fast as before, I play smarter and stick to one or two games at a time,” he said. “I have done things like Giga Wing In the past 12 months, I never thought of doing this when I was young. “