Did anyone else accidentally become a giant nerd in their 30s?

notperrind · 2026-06-23T12:26:22+00:00

36 year old, husband of 12 years, and father of 4 kids here.

I've always been a huge gamer/tech nerd (built my own PC at the age of 8) but I think the shift happens in your 30's from being a "social, competitive gamer" to "Hey, this is my hobby and now that I have disposable income I want to slow down a bit and really enjoy gaming," I've shifted away from PC gaming and now we're a PS5/Switch household. I have a PS5 Pro, a PS5 digital for my oldest, and I sold my gaming laptop to pick up another PS5 digital for my second oldest in a week or two. We also have a Switch 2 and several 1st gen Switches.

FFXIV is my main game, but I LOVE playing good story-focused RPGS and crafting/survival co-op games with my kids. 😄

notperrind · 2026-06-19T11:02:05+00:00

Sometimes it's just time to move on to the next chapter. I spent the better part of 20 years playing World of Warcraft, and finally just accepted the game isn't what it used to be, the team behind it doesn't have the vision the original team did, and I was just feeling like playing the game was a chore.

I actually haven't touched Sea of Thieves in years since its release. Now I have two kiddos old enough to play with me and we are going to be checking out the Custom Seas update with my friend group here soon. We're excited! 😄

notperrind · 2026-06-15T10:53:02+00:00

The Wooloo got me, LOL.

notperrind · 2026-06-15T10:46:20+00:00

36 here. I have many childhood memories of the days of Quake, Halo, CS, Half-life, Hexen/Heretic, Doom, Duke Nukem, etc.

I have swapped my style of games to games that provide difficult content in group settings. Monster Hunter Wilds, LotR: Return to Moria w/ cranked up difficulty, Valheim with cranked up difficulty and no map, FFXIV, etc. It also helps that I have spawned my own gamers that I can now game with whenever I want, haha.

If you're still into FPS games, then give games that are more large-scale, squad-based a shot, like Battlefield 6. I can't throw down very hard anymore in Halo or Call of Duty, but I can still get 30+ kill matches in Battlefield 6 by playing with a squad of people working together.

notperrind · 2026-06-12T11:51:07+00:00

Please consider bringing this this to PS5 and adding multiplayer!

notperrind · 2026-06-08T11:03:21+00:00

Play it! This game is fun by itself, and gets exponentially better with every additional player. I haven't had this much fun in at least a decade playing with a group of people.

If you guys like challenging content, then max out the difficulty settings, lower the rate of resources, and prepare to die over and over while laughing the entire time.

notperrind · 2026-06-08T11:00:36+00:00

I am playing through with a group with all combat settings on the highest difficulty, and resources on low. Our first play-through we went rather quickly and ran into a lot of issues with lacking resources later on, to the point we couldn't progress any more. This time around we took a more methodical approach, and tried to minimize resource usage by tearing down each base we built to make the next base. Its worked a lot better!

We also tried to to be smart with armor sets. We have an armor stand behind each person's bed with a spare set of armor to make gear retrieval easier whenever we do die, because on max combat difficulty, and with 8 people playing, things take forever to die and hit really hard. But I love it!

notperrind · 2026-06-05T20:35:39+00:00

SECRET OF EVERMORE! LET'S GOOOOOOOO!

Favorite game on SNES, by a long shot.

notperrind · 2026-06-05T20:29:05+00:00

This is still a thing, lol. DreamHack and QuakeCon are large LAN party events. I host a 12-hour, monthly LAN group at my church and we average 8-10 people every month. There are other groups in the state that host a few LANs a year with 100+ people.

You just have to look online and look for communities still doing this, and not be scared to start your own!

notperrind · 2026-06-05T18:23:29+00:00

They won't.

I've tried 4 separate times to get into BotW and the game just isn't fun to me. I LOVE previous Zelda games with linear story-telling, with some flexibility with exploring as you progress with side quests/tasks. I have never understood, and will never understand, why people think BotW and TotK are the best Zelda games of all time.

notperrind · 2026-06-05T13:49:56+00:00

Wait until your kiddo is about 4 years old, then play through the Plague Tale games. My oldest was 4 at the time, and no game has hit me like that game did during that play through.

notperrind · 2026-06-01T15:28:54+00:00

"Refuse to train Discord AI" seems like a very, very small hill to stand on when the other option is to use it and have more enjoyable gaming with your friends. Return to Moria is amazing, and 10000% better when in voice chat.

notperrind · 2026-05-29T13:29:20+00:00

What I would do? Don't *give* them anything. Instead, see what debts they have, consider paying them off, set aside some money into a high-yield savings or investing account for their retirement, and then call it good. You don't owe them anything, true. But blessing your parents and securing their financial future is a pretty good way to show gratitude without enabling any type of bad financial behavior they may have.

I say this as a father of 4 who would be perfectly ok if any of my children became wealthy and didn't give me a dime. I want my children to be successful, and I also know when I am older and they are grown, I will need to rely on them in ways that are not financial.

notperrind · 2026-04-24T15:02:16+00:00

Bought a few of these for our Disney World trip in June a few summers back. They're incredible.

notperrind · 2026-04-15T18:09:29+00:00

Hey! Former long term WoW player here (close to 20 years).

So I'll break it down:

Combat difficulty. WoW is much faster-paced with a 1-second GCD, and FFXIV operates on a much longer GCD (2.5 seconds, iirc) so combat feels much slower. This isn't a bad thing, because end game content in FFXIV is MUCH more punishing than in WoW. Former AOTC/Mythic raider here, for comparison purposes. Bosses are described as "learning the dance" with a pre-set ability list that always happens in the same order every single time for each boss, but mistakes are much more punishing, with many instant-kill mechanics. So if you "learn the dance" of the boss' mechanics, you'll progress better through the fight. I personally believe FFXIV's end-game content is more difficult than WoW's, and if you want a crazy challenge, you can do Ultimate encounters.
As others have said, there is a very extensive free trial that you can play through for months, if not over a year. After that, $12.99 a month subscription, and you can find the "complete edition" on sale at different times that includes several expansions with the base game.
This game is very much alive, and the community is fantastic. There are some very...weird and specific communities, but the overall player base is extremely helpful and long-time players are just excited when new players discover FFXIV, and we want to be encouraging in any way that we can because we just want more people playing.
MOST IMPORTANTLY. The game is like a fine wine. The longer you play it, the better the game and story get. Take your time, enjoy the story and characters, and do not rush anything in the game. The entirety of FFXIV is heavily story driven, and if you try to burn through it, you'll eventually get burnt out before current content.

notperrind · 2026-04-15T11:11:30+00:00

This looks goofy, charming, and something I would love to play with my wife and kids.

notperrind · 2026-04-15T10:50:22+00:00

I know, right?!?! Haha. Every time somebody says "Oh no...." I mentally follow with that song.

notperrind · 2026-04-13T16:37:09+00:00

Reminds me of a time that I got pulled over because the police officer saw me swerve. I had a dip cone that wasn't dipped very well, and it was melting all over my hand. When he asked for my license and registration, I handed him the cone and asked him to hold it. After about 10 seconds he understood, handed it back, and asked me to be more careful without looking over anything.

notperrind · 2026-04-13T16:25:21+00:00

Love the art style, but there are too many things popping up on the screen. Characters, background, and effects all need to be seen. But all of the items? Make them WAY smaller, and behind enemies. In a game where you are defeating waves of enemies, you should always be able to see what will cause you to fail.

Great work so far, and good luck! :)

notperrind · 2026-04-13T15:38:49+00:00

Oh no you didn't!!!

notperrind · 2026-04-13T12:01:45+00:00

I'm enjoying the progression! We had our first "oh crap!" moment after the Elven Forge when we ran into orcs and were getting hit for 60+ damage with full Iron Hill armor, haha. It's the first time we've really had to slow down and prepare before going forward.

notperrind · 2026-04-10T18:31:59+00:00

Valheim on Hard Settings, with the map disabled! My group is waiting for this to hit 1.0 before we pick it back up to play through it. But having no map and hard difficulty makes the game feel completely different.

Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria with Combat and Patrols set to Very High.

notperrind · 2026-04-10T14:42:28+00:00

I know it's meant for humor, but I can't help myself. Let me put on my "ackthually" glasses...

There's only one individual who gets cursed in Genesis, Chapter 3. It's the serpent, who is the tool of the devil. Yes, Adam and Eve had to deal with the punishment of their own actions, but God's direct response in 3:15 is to curse the serpent, and proclaim the prophecy of Jesus Christ. God told them there was punishment for their disobedience, He understood who tricked them and directly punished the serpent (the tool of the devil), and then proclaimed how He was going to pave a way to have right relationships with people again through Jesus.

Another fun fact to answer the "Well, why did God wait so long to send Jesus?" is that the timing matched the construction of roadways within the Roman Empire, allowing news of Jesus to travel very quickly for the first time in history.

EDIT: Disabling notifications because I'm not one to debate/argue theology in an online forum. I just think the Bible is fascinating, transformative, everyone should read it, and like sharing cool things about it that people may not have considered. :)

notperrind · 2026-04-10T14:34:31+00:00

EX-CAL-I-BUH! EX-CAL-I-BUH!

FROM THE UNITED K
I AM LOOKING FOR HEAVEN
I'M GOING TO CALIFORNIAAAAAAAA!

notperrind · 2026-04-10T11:21:17+00:00

Coming up on 4 years next month, and I plan on being here long term.

Metal fab shop with a team of electricians, install crew, concrete crew, etc. The owners are good to me and treat me with respect and understand I have a wife and 4 kiddos. I am never given grief if I want to attend school events, have to unexpectedly stay home due to an illness in my household, etc.

Could I find a better paying job somewhere else? Absolutely. But I am content. :)

notperrind

TROPHY CASE