About 18 months ago I talked about the impact my age has had on me regarding using the PS Vita. Although a relatively short time has passed for most people since I wrote that, I’m now in my mid-50s and I’m having to re-evaluate how I look at gaming in general, regardless of the format I play. Not only in terms of the games themselves, but where the PS Vita is concerned, the systems I’m using…
The Depressing Signs Of Ageing
There’s no getting away from it, growing old isn’t fun. While I might not feel it mentally and still feel like a big kid at heart, there are times – almost daily – where my body reminds me that I’m not as young as I used to be. While the greying hair and beard isn’t something that’s ever bothered me, it’s the rest that has had an impact on my gaming in recent years.
I talked last time about my eyesight having an effect on some of the games that I played on the Vita and – to a lesser extent – my Nintendo Switch Lite. Unless I undergo laser surgery, I’m not going to see any improvement there, just a need to get stronger glasses every couple of years. And looking at a small screen doesn’t get easier. My eyesight even too a turn for the worse late last year when one of our dogs accidentally scratched the cornea on of my eyes. It’s mostly healed but reading small screens isn’t as easy as it used to be!
Give That Man A Hand…
But it’s not just about looking at small screens. I mentioned in my previous article about the early signs of arthritis setting in – not only affecting comfort, but my grip as well. Over the last year year or so, this has progressed slowly, but it has raised other concerns. If I lose my grip too often, it’s not really a concern in terms of interrupting whatever I’m playing – it’s only a game, afterall – but more a worry for dropping the console itself.
The Vita may be tough – I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve dropped it over the years – but all it takes is for my grip to weaken at the wrong time and in the wrong place and it could be a total disaster. While it might be easy to pick up a fairly inexpensive replacement these days, if you’re like me and have a massive collection of PlayStation Mobile games that are linked to the Vita itself and not just my PlayStation account, losing the hardware could be catastrophic. And if anything happened to the Switch it would be even worse as they seem to be even more fragile…
Game On!
Looking across my entire gaming collection, it dates back almost five decades and I still actively play on games from the start of the 80s just as much as I play on games released in the last few months. But the most important factors I have to take into consideration these days are how comfortable they are to play and more importantly, how do they fit in with my lifestyle.
Controls are an essential part of this, and that’s probably one of the main reasons why I seldom use any of the Nintendo systems I own. I’ve been quite critical of their consoles over the years because of the comfort (or lack of it) with their controllers and despite being better than most, I haven’t even powered on my Switch Lite in over a year. Even if I had a regular Switch I don’t think it would have been used without an alternative controller.
Sadly, the PS Vita has suffered the same fate with my attention shifting towards the PlayStation TV instead. While the Vita is arguably the most comfortable handheld console I have ever used, the size and screen make it increasingly difficult to use for any length of time. But as I said, the hardware is only part of it as I’m still managing to get on well with using the PS4, PS5 and most of my retro systems… The games, however, are another thing altogether.
Ready Player One
You’d think that as you get older, you have more free time to enjoy life and your hobbies, gaming included. Usually that would be the case but modern life has affected a lot of people. When many people used to consider early retirement or taking things easier as they got older, the opposite is true these days as people are being expected to work longer hours and potentially into their late 60s. Gaming becomes less of a priority when your priority is just getting through daily life.
My own situation isn’t like most but time is still limited. I stopped working over 15 years ago when I lost my job unexpectedly. After a year spent doing voluntary work, I found myself facing significant health issues and shortly after those subsided my wife’s health started to decline and I’m now her full time carer. Combining that with running our four websites and YouTube channel and my gaming time is limited to short periods at best – so anything I can play in shorter gaming sessions is ideal.
From a handheld perspective, I don’t travel as much as I used to either. Since my parents passed away I don’t really travel any significant distance away from home. Apart from shopping trips and hospital appointments, there’s no need to take the Vita anywhere with me. I’ve got a holiday booked for later this year and truthfully that’s probably the first time the Vita will have travelled with me for over five years!
That’s A Wrap
All that being said, there’s still some mileage left for me as a PS Vita gamer and I’m not giving up on the system yet. I just think that relationship with handheld gaming might not continue for as long as I would like and if I want to carry on with my PS Vita fix then the PSTV will have to play a much bigger role in my gaming setup than it does right now.
At the moment I haven’t taken the plunge and modified my PSTV, but that may well have to be an option in the future as well (or buy a second one to do just that) so I can use games in my collection that are currently blocked from running on it so I can continue to enjoy Vita gaming for as long as I possibly can.
Photo by Kevin Malik
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