I'm New, and Old. I Need Gaming Friends

Gaming
1

Hello, everyone. I’ve been watching the Xbox Era podcasts for a while, but I’ve just recently joined the forum/discord here on the website.

I have a dilemma that’s been festering in the back of my mind for a while now.

I’m old. Not like, ancient, but in my early 40’s. I’ve been playing games for a long time now. And I had a pretty good group of gaming buds back when Xbox Live was the new hotness. But now we’re all getting old. And in the last 20 years we’ve all gone from kids fresh out of college to old farts with kids and jobs and all that shit. They have all moved on to other things, but I’m still here.

I don’t make friends easily, so my friend list has dwindled to practically nothing. I’m down to one of my o.g.'s and he travels for work during the week, so we only get together on the weekends, and he’s a tired old man as well so we only play casual co-op.

But I still like to play all the things. I have a Xbox Series X, a PS5, and a Switch. I rarely play multiplayer anymore because I don’t particularly enjoy playing with randoms.

I’m an old wolf looking for a pack, but I’m having a difficult time finding people that fit into the category of “willing to get together occasionally and shoot some shit” and not the “we treat our game night like a second job” if you know what I mean.

I used to like games like Battlefield and Call of Duty, but playing those games by yourself kinda sucks. I love games like Diablo and Elder Scrolls Online. I play racing games like Forza and Gran Turismo.

I like playing all those iffy mid-tier things like Strange Brigade, and Zombie Army 4, and older things people have moved on from like Diablo II and Vermintide, but getting what few people I know to join in on that is like pulling teeth.

If you like to play all the things, and if you’re over the age of “young and whiny” then let me know. I need peeps to play with. I’m tired of playing games meant for multiple people, by myself.

Hell, I’ll even get into some Street Fighter 6 if I find a good enough group. (I haven’t played SF against other people since I was standing in an arcade with my quarters leaning against the screen.)

11 Likes
2

Friend, you are in the 40s, I am too. Turning 41 this August. But I feel way younger. Just wanted to say that 40 is not old.

It really isn’t. :facepunch:t2:

3 Likes
3

your not old, more like battle tested and experienced

5 Likes
4

Im almost 50 and in the same boat. Got a teenager as well

4 Likes
5

I few years ago I used to game a lot with my early '40s friends and we used to play Fortnite every weekend but it got to be a little too much so we all stopped.

A ton of people wanted to play with us because we were so chill. It got to the point where we were encouraged to have our own channel called “Boomer Squad” because people claimed that it was so fun to play with us. I don’t think our videos really caught that vibe because they try to tell a story about each match instead of focusing on the dumb small things that make our matches entertaining.

So I have been looking to replicate that chill gaming environment and I was thinking about this for a while: why not have an Xbox Era “Boomer Squad” where us boomers play regularly in a chill and relaxed environment (anyone can play a really but the idea is to have a chill environment that isn’t ultra competitive). There are games that I haven’t played because I’d like to play them with a chill crowd. Things like State of Decay 2, Sea of Thieves, Grounded, etc.

And the reason why I didn’t post this idea was because my time isn’t guaranteed either. Sometimes I get insanely busy and sometimes I got time to game. I hate to suggest something but not organize it.

But say if there was an “Xbox Era Community Games Night” every Monday and Thursday night or something like that where it is a completely drop in thing where a person could join whenever they are available even if it’s just once every couple weeks, but considering the large volume of people interested you will always have a healthy number for each night. Where the mantra of “be chill, play with sincerity” is shared between players so that things remain friendly and supportive.

I was thinking that such and initiative could have predetermined games for each evening that are accessible via Gamepass. So we can try titles we usually don’t play and couldn’t play without others.

Would this interest you? How about everybody else does this sound something that sounds interesting?

5 Likes
6

I’d be interested in that, but I’m guessing you’re in the US somewhere. I’m in Australia, so the time zones would probably screw me over. I’m in my mid 50s but still game most nights. I’ve wanted to try sea of thieves, but it looks a bit tricky to play solo.

1 Like
7

I’m in Western Canada, MST. When I was brainstorming this I was thinking that it would be fairly open-ended so people on the west coast of North America would jump on as people on the east coast would be jumping off.

The I suppose the weekend would be better for including people in Europe as well as Australia. I imagine it’s easier to coordinate between Australia and the West Coast than with Europe.

1 Like
8

I’d be down for this. I wouldn’t want to limit it to ONLY game pass titles though. I get that it would be accessible to everyone, but there are some great games out there that aren’t in the service, unfortunately.

2 Likes
9

I certainly don’t feel like i’m in my 40’s. Which is why it’s such a shock to the system when I’m around kids and they’re talking and I’m thinking “I don’t understand a single word they’re saying.” :upside_down_face:

2 Likes
10

I wish someone would tell my body. I turned 40 in April. I put together a trampoline for my boys over the weekend and every part of me aches.

I’d be interested in a game night(s). I’m in Atlantic Canada though, so it doesn’t help the TZ issue (ADT).

1 Like
12

I’d like to join in. I think we just set a time and folks can drop in and out.

13

I’m trying to think of an easy way to organize something, and the only thing I can think of is by utilizing the Clubs feature in the Xbox dashboard.

Do they even really do clubs anymore? I used to play around with them for a while, but nobody ever really seemed to give a shit about them. It was just one of those things that Xbox never really did anything with after they implemented them. I don’t think they’ve evolved or had any new features added since.

I can take a look when I get home from work today and see about setting one up. It won’t do much good for games outside of Xbox, but at least we could put notices up there.

1 Like
14

Agreed. I just turned 56 last week. Old is a state of mind. :smile:

3 Likes
15

I did a little poking around on my laptop and it looks as if Microsoft is silently sweeping Clubs under the rug and pretending like it never existed. Not sure if it’s the way to go.

16

Are any of y’all on the Xboxera discord? Maybe we could coordinate through there?

17

I was hoping to not have to bring yet another app/service into the fold… but it does kinda seem like Xbox is slowly moving toward Discord anyway…

I created a Discord server called XBRA Game Night and will see about getting it set up properly.

For the record, I have no ****ing clue what I’m doing.

2 Likes
19

No need to create your own when the public Xbox Era Discord exists at the following location:

Initial announcement thread @ The Xbox Era Community Discord Server is live

1 Like
20

We’ll just do that then.

2 Likes
21

Hello fellow Western Canada MST friend.

1 Like
22

Are there any bots on the server that might help facilitate scheduling the events?

1 Like