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Thread: Do any of you still hang out and socialize through gaming at each other's homes?

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    Do any of you still hang out and socialize through gaming at each other's homes?

    I actually tried to bring this topic up in my thread about the stigma of adults playing video games, but it also got lost in it. I was wondering if anybody still does this as adults, as least in their 20s. I can see how and why something like this would come to a complete stop in one's late 20s and 30s though. And most of the time, I don't often hear, read, or see any discussions about socializing and gaming among adults anyway, unless it's really far more uncommon than I thought. I've always figured one of the reasons why I was able to do something like this way into my mid 20s, was because I had a close friend I was into most of the same video games with, and he was 5 years younger than me. We used to regularly hang out that way until he turned 20. He really was like a younger brother to me, and still is, even though we grew apart. He's also still a gamer BTW.

    I also noticed that this seems to be mostly popular and done with the high school and under crowd. If it's done with college students, it seems to be done with in the first few years of college only. So anyway, I just thought of bringing this up, just like any other thread that discusses other forms of socializing. I can also say that it seems like once people graduate high school, they completely stop doing this, or at least once they're a few years into college.

    As for my actual question, this how I've originally meant to word it, if it was able to fit into the thread title. I'm also just curious as I often am. I noticed some people mentioning that they still do something like this, but obviously not as much as they used to as elementary school, middle school, and high school students.

    Do any of you still socialize and hang out by visiting each other's houses to play video games on weekends and vacations as adults that are 18+ or 21+, or just as adults in general?
    Last edited by Halo Infinity; 03-06-2014 at 09:13 PM.

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    Sometimes but mainly on old games from our childhood. I think me and my friends once spent an entire afternoon talking about the SNES/Genesis (Mega Drive) war. Good times. I'm sure Pokemon will come up soon as we're all watching Twitch Plays Pokemon.

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    My fiance and I hang out and game all the time, sometimes with our roommate, too. Since it's online gaming, we often play with friends and family, because YAY TECHNOLOGY we can spend time with people hundreds of miles away.
    As for going TO someone else's house to game, it doesn't happen as often, but we sometimes go to a friend's place for a kind of "BBQ and gaming" hangout, and sometimes friends come over here to game as well.
    We're "adults" enough, I'm 27, fiance and roommate are 28, friends and family we game with are of ages ranging from mid 20's to mid 30's. It really depends on if you're all really into gaming, which as the generation who grew up with home consoles ages, will be a normal thing for adults.

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    it's kind of hard now? because games never let you play with the person next to you. I remember I bought Dead Space 3, in spite of reluctance, because I wanted to play with my roomate, only to learn that couch co-op wasn't available. So...

    We all play Magic: The Gathering pretty extenisvely so theres that. And pokemon was revitalized recently with X/Y we'd been playing that but its tapered off quite a bit.

    When Mortal Kombat came out in 2011 I was playing that with a lot of people... somehow we never captured that community spirit with any other game. Everyone through in their efforts with MK so everyone was equally matched... that was probably a part of it. People play Injustice at my place sometimes... nobody plays it often enough to make it fun...

    Actually I feel like skill levels across a game are a thing. when i go to my buddies house, a couple of them are too good at Smash Bros. for some of us to hang. we love Smash Bros. but theres a skill discrepency that makes it unfun in those circumstances so we basically don't play it ever.

    Some friends and I also like to team up on Halo from time to time. That rarely takes place in the same physical place, and it has to be at a time when all three of us have a ustained interest in the game, which happens once every few years... or in proximity to a new release or map pack.

    My friend bought "South Park" yesterday, and we sat down to enjoy it together. It's very watchable. I take the same approach with "The Walking Dead" games and my wife. Those are watchable too, but she generally doesn't like to be present while I'm gaming...

    tl;dr Gaming with friends is still around, but its sort of dying. It's the fault of developers, diverse interest, and high prices.

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    I still do. Sometimes LAN parties are thrown with beer and weed and nothing but about 5 or 6 TVs being on and of course those on WOW. Fun times. But those parties are getting rarer and rarer as alot of my crew have kids and such.

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    I don't personally, but a few of my friends do. I was roommates with one of those guys (and in a band with a couple of the others) and we used to have four computers set up at all times. People would come over to hang out, and we'd eventually end up playing Warcraft III, Counterstrike, or if we were feeling ambitious, Age of Empires. We also had the occasional 14-person, weekend long LAN party.

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    most of my friends meatspace gaming occurs with board games and rule books... just as fun. However due to most peoples distance, we often just stick with Counterstrike: Go over this 'internet'.
    When we do get together, its usually the N64 that gets pulled out and Micro Machines 64 that goes in. Lets race dem cars.

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    I did this a lot when things like Guitar Hero and Rock Band were mainstream things to do, but since that's passed..... every now and then it's usually just Call of Duty, piss taking and some beer.

    People always gave things like Rock Band shit "oohhh if you want to play instruments why don't you just learn how to play some instead of being a poser"...

    That really wasn't why i played those games, i played them because they were highly social and actually fun.

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    you know, i don't now, but it's just me, mom and the mrs in this tiny town. when i was living in dallas, we would get together (me and the homeboys) if one of us got a new console or a hot new fighting game like Street Fighter Alpha Super Turbo Champion 3 or whatever the hell they are calling it these days.

    But this makes me think of another interesting point.
    I always assumed that video games would be something we did as kids, and then the next generation would follow suit.
    I'm 34, and people in my age group (give or take 5 years) are the video game generation...specifically the NES generation. And what blows my mind is that the games have FOLLOWED US, becoming ever more violent and adult.
    One thing that i thought was really neat was when my girlfriend's son got New Super Mario Brothers a year or two ago. Me and his mom were just as excited about the game as he was (he's 8.)
    I really feel like that's a trip.

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    I'm turning 33 in 2 days and yes I still do this with my friends. Fuck societal pressures.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Wretchedest View Post
    Actually I feel like skill levels across a game are a thing. when i go to my buddies house, a couple of them are too good at Smash Bros. for some of us to hang. we love Smash Bros. but theres a skill discrepency that makes it unfun in those circumstances so we basically don't play it ever.
    This is me and my sister. I'm the one with the higher skill level. It's really unfair, so what we like to do is turn on Team Battles or Coin Battles and go up against the AI. Co-op is so much more fun than competitive, anyway, because it means that no one loses.

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    At 40 I'm just that bit too old to have peers in a friendship circle into gaming, however my brother is 9 years younger than me so he does. He bought me an online headset and got me into Counterstrike Source. We both went into an empty map so he could explain it to me over the headset. He came to live with me for a few months at one point and I have fond memories of playing Doom 3 together. I'm hoping my kids are into gaming (or at least one of them) so it can be more social for me.

    When I was still at school and had a zx spectrum, I played a lot of adventure games and my mum and sister would watch and make maps for me

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    I'm close to thirty. When friends come over or I have a party the video games inevitably get played. I prefer playing with friends in the same room. I was never into online gaming; it just doesn't seem as fun if a friend isn't right there, and when you play randoms it seems like 95% of them have maturity issues. Also, co-op campaigns with a friend in the room is a blast. Whenever a good game with a co-op mode comes out my brother comes by and we play through it. My girlfriend and I play little android puzzle games together on our phones; I don't know if that counts or not.

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    Does anyone still have LAN parties?

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    It's actually still very nice to see that this is still done with people 18+ and even people 30+. However, I still see why it's sometimes hard to find even if you all like video games as you'd also have to like all, most, or at least some of the same exact systems and games. I also didn't realize it at first, and I know I've mentioned this before, but I've noticed a lot of people as young as 18-21 stopping that type of gaming altogether. I used to think that stopped at least around ages 25-27. (And regardless of age, I could see why online gaming would also make this sort of thing a thing of the past.)

    But aside from that, yeah, what Maury said.

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    yes. Four player Monopoly on the PS3, trivia stuff, Little Big Planet, etc. Not too much for PS4 yet, we've done some Rayman and also played the crap out of Tiny Brains (which was great fun.) It's a family thing and we'll probably still be doing it in our 60s. For me, it's no different than heading down to the basement and throwing darts or playing pool, or heading out somewhere and hitting a miniature golf course.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kris View Post
    It's actually still very nice to see that this is still done with people 18+ and even people 30+. However, I still see why it's sometimes hard to find even if you all like video games as you'd also have to like all, most, or at least some of the same exact systems and games. I also didn't realize it at first, and I know I've mentioned this before, but I've noticed a lot of people as young as 18-21 stopping that type of gaming altogether. I used to think that stopped at least around ages 25-27. (And regardless of age, I could see why online gaming would also make this sort of thing a thing of the past.)

    But aside from that, yeah, what Maury said.
    I understand the appeal of online gaming, but its really not my thing. To me nothing beats having some motherfuckers in the room with you, and you get to punch em' when they blue shell you in Mario Kart 8. Theres just something about that. Fuck any prude that looks down on that sort of thing. They have no soul.

    More games should have co-op, btw. That even makes mediocre games kind of better, if anything just to make fun of how mediocre they are while you play it. I actually dug playing Resident Evil 6 and Raccoon City on co-op. I tried to play Double Dragon Neon on one player and it bored me, but on co-op its a dumbass good time.
    Last edited by Millionaire; 07-21-2014 at 09:16 AM.

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    I'm 31 and get the chance to do this a few times a year at least. I have one friend I go visit and we'll blast through a co-op campaign in a weekend, Halo, Borderlands, etc. My friends that live closer don't really game besides the odd drunken night of Rock Band. Some of my favorite time spent gaming was in college when we would all play Halo in my frat house. Nothing like 20 guys spread out across the house screaming at each other.

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    Absolutely, especially when it involves any Super Smash Bros.

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    Overcooked is great fun for four players in one room. Requires cooperation. Highly recommended. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overcooked

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    As the 2010s come to a close and the 2020s are about to begin, I have definitely changed my mind a bit about this very topic. I also learned that this is also called couch co-op. I'll be repeating some points I've made before in this thread and The Friendship Thread, but with a different perspective in mind when compared to say, 3 to 5+ years ago.

    Being in my 30s now, even if I had all the time and money in the world to do so, I wouldn't do this a few times every month of even every couple of months or simply anywhere near the frequency I used to engross myself with this very hobby. I finally stopped being into it as much as I used to. I'll admit that it took me longer than most people to lose interest in doing this, especially when it came to sleepovers. I think the last sleepover I had ever was when I turned 21, and finally stopped losing interest in sleepovers when I was 25. I mentioned sleepovers, because sometimes couch co-op is ideal for sleepovers on weekends and vacations.

    Anyway, when I was a child, teenager and in most of my 20s, especially under 25, I used to do couch co-op almost every single weekend and vacation as I had friends my age and even a couple of years younger than me. At the vest least, I would do couch co-op a few times every month or every couple of months. By the time most of them finished high school, they moved on to traveling and actual parties. It turns out I was able to continue doing this until I was at least 25 because I had some friends and acquaintances that were a good 5 to 6 years younger than me, but once they graduated from high school or at least turned around 20 to 21 at the latest, they just lost interest in couch co-op entirely and also chose to spend their weekends and vacations partying and traveling. Looking back at this now, I can see what doing this even for just a few times every couple of months in one year can be too much. I also further realized that I prefer to have my bedroom all to myself now, and would rather only have couch co-op in the living room or foyer even if I was a somebody else's houses.

    These were just the other realizations I wanted to point out aside from people simply changing interests and growing out of it.

    Anyway, to answer my own question as I see it right now, as yet another decade is about begin, yes I would do this, but only on certain occasions where time allows it even if I wasn't very busy, and assuming that I even find people that would absolutely interested, which is already impossible most of the time as if not a matter of people being busy, it's just that they outgrew it. And as an adult, I'm realizing more and more that it's definitely too easy to see far too much of each other, even with close friends that you're absolutely cool with. I wouldn't even want to do it even just a few times in a span of a couple of months either, and would rather just have couch co-op in my living room. Privacy and reasons regarding personal space aside, I realized it actually gets kind of claustrophobic to have 3 other people in just one bedroom with me, even if were are playing Nintendo games that we all share the same love and enjoyment over, even if it was bedroom at another person's home. And looking back at it, the living room is always so much better and most likely always has the better of even the best TV in the house.

    All of this also finally helped me realize why most people even as young as 18-21 would rather travel and party, or just do multi-player on the Internet, should they still continue to be into gaming with other people they know, even in real life. Online multi-player has been taking over ever with couch co-op being actually phased out in some ways, and even South Park actually referenced the living room/couch co-op no longer being a thing and dying on the episode #HappyHolograms.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HappyHolograms

    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2cgvr7

    This always also hit home to me because I was always big on Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., F-Zero and Star Fox. Mario Party can be so-so or just go either way for me sometimes though, and it's also a reminder why Nintendo was often considered and deemed to be one of the ultimate party systems. And well, Nintendo was always my thing to start with.

    But yes, should I do this, I'd be up for it on occasions like birthday parties or just any weekend or vacation that gave enough time and chances for it to happen, but would no longer want to do couch co-op in the bedroom, just the living room, and definitely never a couple of times per month or couple of months in a year. I could even see why even a small amount such as 5 times in 1 year would be too much as an adult. (Which also including the seeing too much of each other thing, as I'm getting to like my own time/space when it comes to home more and more.)

    At the same time however, it's still one of my favorite ways to pass the time when I'm not alone and I just love seeing and hearing the reactions of friends playing side by side in the same actual room on the same TV, which is definitely still not the same as doing it on the Internet even with video chat or mere audio.

    These were some of the things that occurred to me beyond the usual/typical reasons of being an adult regarding college/studying, work/jobs/careers, marriage and child-rearing, which were always a given and just common sense, but I liked that I was finally able to discover and consider other different angles/positions to this very topic.
    Last edited by Halo Infinity; 03-10-2019 at 01:56 PM.

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    Not done this for some time. When i first moved out of home (17 i think) i house shared and we had an N64 with mario kart that was the go too, and i used to have gaming nights with a friend where we'd co-op Gears of War and others...then before we reached 30 all my friends partnered off and stopped playing games (and we all but stopped being friends for a variety of reasons) and i haven't done this since, mainly as i have nobody too do it with.

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    I used to play ps2 and ps3 games a lot with friends at my place. We also had lan-parties a few times, we bringed PCs and played Lineage, CS, Runescape and World of Warcraft at backyard and garage. I can't say it's not possible enough doing this today. Of course, everyone's busy now with jobs and kids, but we still manage to grab a beer and have fun in WoW. At least there is no need to bring heavy computer case and wires, veryone just brings laptops nowadays. We also use help from e2p site sometimes when leveling and raiding, marketplace is pretty handy too. What a shame we had no such things at in our college years.

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    Maybe once or twice a year we have sort of retro-party where everybody brings old consoles.

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    If that was possible for me, it would be mostly be on the Super Nintendo and the Nintendo 64. Perhaps even the Nintendo GameCube and the Nintendo Wii might count as well, considering how there's been more than enough time for even the 2000s to have become retro.

    And looking back, just doing it on certain occasions would be good enough for me, as previously mentioned. (As I used to have family and friends that would do that with me on almost every weekend and vacation, especially with sleepovers being a thing, but once college hit all of us, at least for them and I, it was over. The younger ones remained, until they too finished high school and started college. It was just such a big part of my life that I didn't want to let it go, even if most people my age stopped, my stay in couch co-op gaming was prolonged due to having people younger than me by a couple of years to continue couch co-op gaming.) But now I see how I pretty much ODed on couch co-op gaming in my childhood/teens and 20s. If only I knew/felt what I know/feel now, I would've probably spent my spare time on weekends and vacations a bit differently back in the 1990s and 2000s.

    On the other hand, I still feel like I might be a gamer for life, or so it seems. The itch to game is always there, but it also comes and goes sporadically. (I'm still stuck in Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 land.)

    I also feel like collecting older games and consoles that I missed and lost, as I'm not one to always chase latest releases, even if I were to have all the money to do just that.
    Last edited by Halo Infinity; 07-30-2019 at 07:15 PM.

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