Reliving the glory days - long winded and bloviating (Destiny)

by Revenant1988 , How do I forum?, Tuesday, January 20, 2015, 06:10 (3385 days ago) @ Fuertisimo

I've had a slowly dawning realization over the past couple of years. With age comes the atrophy of my video gaming skills. Currently I find myself sitting at thirty years of age, and I am now certain that my peak came long ago and I will never be near that level again.

The game that has beaten me over the head and worn me down into accepting this truth is League of Legends. Like a professional athlete that has lost a step, my focus and technical ability are on the downslope. It's a trend I don't see stopping. Real life obligations and pursuits prevent me from practicing like I did when I was a young dumb college student (I am now an old dumb college student, thanks in part to being a young dumb college student). While I maintain a respectable Gold rating, and have as recently as a year ago been in promos for platinum, I can not even imagine ever having the drive or the ability to make a push into platinum and towards diamond.

As I come to accept this, I am finding myself waxing nostalgic for my glory days when I was a fearsome competitor, when I was ruthless and bloodthirsty and headstrong and had the skill to back it up. I find myself recalling my most memorable moments, my greatest triumphs and my most bitter defeats.

There are only two games in my life that I can say without a trace of doubt that I was very, very good at. Well three really, if you're not going to lump Myth:TFL and Myth 2 together. Halo 2 was the other one.

My most memorable moment came in Halo 2 (and god I wish there were saved films back then because I had some doozies). This moment was not the single most skilled moment I ever had, but it was memorable thanks to my opposition.

The game was team deathmatch, the map was Midship. I found myself up near the sword spawn, but with shotgun in hand. 2 opposing players had come up the ramp in front of me and were closing down on me. So I charged. I used some subtle strafing to evade a good bit of their incoming fire and they did the sensible thing, they each strafed towards opposite sides of me. In a blur, I whirled to my left and plasma grenade stuck the leaping opponent on that side, and swung back to my right and at what must have been absolute maximum range 1 shotted his compatriot with the shotgun. It happened fast, but as the plasma grenade was getting ready to detonate, I could hear him screaming into his mic:

NO FUCKING WA*BOOM*

Glorious. And completely memorable thanks to whoever that was expressing his outrage and disbelief.

My most bitter defeat was probably the totality of my Myth career. I started playing Myth when I was just 13 years old, and by the time I was 14 I was already a well established player. It seems silly in retrospect, but at 14 years old Myth tournaments seemed like a really big deal.

Over the course of I would estimate a years time, I managed to finish 2nd place in the Myth:TFL Best of Myth Tournament (a smaller 1 on 1 affair, but with some notable competition, I lost 3-2 in the finals to My Modem Is on Fire, for any vets who remember those people).

In Myth 2, the biggest tournament close to the games launch was Trial by Combat. I managed to finish as a first alternate for the finals (7th place), barely missing the top 6 and entry to the final round.

I then proceeded to just barely miss the final round of the 7 phoenix rising (Bungie sponsored) tournament. I finished 2nd out of 6 in my semifinal bracket, just behind eventual tournament winner Voodoo. Only the winners of each of the 6 brackets moved to the finals.

My next chance was the Shogun tournament. A less prestigious affair but still containing some big name players, I managed to make the finals at last, but fell woefully short finishing 4th out of 6.

My Myth career was winding down at this point and I had one last shot at tournament glory, to atone for being so close so many times. In the Fields of Carnage tournament, I again made it to the final round, and once again fell short, this time finishing 3rd out of 6. Going into the final game, I still had a chance to take the win, but couldn't pull it out.

That was one of the last games of Myth I ever played.

It's hard to understand I'm sure, but for a 14/15 year old kid, these failures felt devastating. It felt like I'd blown game 7 of the world series, or been routed in the super bowl. Those losses stuck with me for a long time.

I was also a total asshole at that time in my life, like so many other young teenagers, so if anyone remembers me (How many former Mythers are even on here?) I apologize if I was ever a dick to you or anyone you know.

So, in conclusion... Are there any other "aging" (I hate to use the term at 30, but in competitive video game years that is ancient) Bungie gamers who also look back fondly towards their youth? Are there any others who recall devastating defeats that left bitter tastes in their mouths? Any particularly thrilling victories that sent your adrenaline surging?

It's not aging that is necessarily the problem, it's the whole "being an adult" thing that gets in the way.

I would say for most of us (not all, or course) our golden gaming days revolved around whatever we had available to us in High School and College, when we didn't have families and other obligations like work and bills blah blah blah.

The caliber of people you play'd with then vs who you can play with now has changed quite a bit too.

I had a lot of friends I gamed with in Halo 2-3 that I don't game with now. Different games just revolved around different crowds I suppose.

I think what makes me sad about getting older, as it relates to gaming is not necessarily my skills getting soft, but that I'll never be able to be immersed and involved in a game like I did in my late teens.

The countless hours spent dicking around in Perfect Dark, and the original Smash Bros and Halo 2- I'll NEVER be able to capture that again.

That's not to say I won't enjoy or love games, just that I quite literally do NOT have the free time and resources to make gaming my central pastime. So for me, that's why it's become incredibly important to have a regular group and time to game with.

Now, it's not so important to be "good" as it is just to play and have fun, period.