An Interview with a 70 Year Old FPS Gamer

We brought you the story of Akira, a 78-year-old Japanese gamer who was in love with first person shooters. Today we exclusively bring you an interview with Stanley Thompson, a 70-year-old British gamer with a taste for online shooters.

No he’s not as old as Akira, but you could say his hobby goes that one step further. He’s got a penchant for competing online in video games as recently released as Call of Duty: World at War, and he's even a prominent member of an online clan. We bring you Stanley Thompson.

Gamezine: Hello Stanley. Can you tell us a bit about your background and what you did for a living?

Stanley: I was born on the 18 June 1938 in a village called Earl Shilton in Leicestershire where I lived with my mother and my grandparents for the next ten years (My father died in a prison camp in Siam during the war).

I started working at weekends on my Uncle’s farm when I was eight years old and continued to do so until I left school at the age of fifteen when I went to work full time for a local farmer.

I worked on the farm for ten years and then left to drive a builders lorry and from then onwards I spent most of my working life as a driver. I have driven all sorts of vehicles from Mini's to 100-ton low loaders, and I spent two years working on the M69 construction for McAlpine driving huge 80-ton dump trucks. I have been a taxi driver and a self employed courier with my own 5-ton van.

Gamezine: When did you become a fan of video games?

Stanley: I had my first PC in 1983, a Sinclair ZX 81 with 1.5kb of ram, from that I went to an Amstrad C64 and that was when I first started playing games on the PC.

I would buy books with games in them and sit for hours copying the games into my PC and then hours more de-bugging them when they did not work. Needless to say I quickly learned to program in basic language. I gave my Amstrad to my granddaughter and then gave up on computers for a while.

I did not have another PC until 1993 when I bought one for my courier business, it was not long before I started playing games on it, albeit only small arcade games.

My business kept me busy most of the time and I only used the internet for research. It was not until the year 2000 that I started playing games online after I purchased a new tower PC.

Gamezine: What was the very first video game you played?

Stanley: The first game I ever played online was Monster Truck Madness. I then played another driving game called Insane and that was my favourite. Indeed I would still play it now but it won’t play with XP or Vista.

Gamezine: What got you hooked on video games?

Stanley: I was in Curry's one day with my grandson and he asked if I would buy him a shooting game. It was Delta Force 2 and we both started playing online; that was when I was hooked. I was playing online one day when one of my team asked if I played Black Hawk Down and when I said “no,” he said get it, it's a great game.

I bought the game and really enjoyed it. Indeed I enjoyed it so much that I joined a clan (*TBE* The British Empire, thebritishempire.org) played it all the time. I got my *TBE* tags and I am still a member now, although we have moved on from BHD through Joint Operations, Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, Call Of Duty 4 and at the moment Call Of Duty WAW.

A lot of the clan members play Eve Online but that type of game does not appeal to me: I like first person shooter games. I play single player probably more than online these days as my reactions have slowed down and I find it hard to keep pace with younger players.

I play Joint Operations online in co-op mode and also COD WAW in Co-op, but for single-player I play Battlefield 2, COD4, COD WAW, and Medal of Honour Airborne. MOH Airborne does not have a very good Multiplayer side in my opinion.

Gamezine: What's the latest video game you played?

Stanley: I have just completed COD WAW single player at all difficulty levels and the last level was hard for me.

Gamezine: Are your family and friends supportive of your hobby?

Stanley: My family, I think they approve because it stops me hanging around on street corners and getting into mischief, LOL. My grandson comes around here to play COD4 and COD WAW as he is a member of a different clan, so he definitely approves.

When I tell people that I play FPS games online, they say, “what at your age?” So I tell them it keeps my mind sharp and gives me something to do other than watching TV all day.

Gamezine: What upcoming games are you looking forward to?

Stanley: I am quite looking forward to the new Operation Flashpoint-Dragon Rising when it comes out next year, as I have the original Operation Flashpoint-Cold War Crisis and that is a good game.

Gamezine: And finally, do you know any other elderly gamers?

Stanley: I don't know any other elderly gamers, although I have met a few online playing Joint Operations co-op games, but so far none older than me. Most of the young ones don’t believe me when I tell them how old I am, but generally I get a lot of respect from them.

And Stanley gets a lot of respect from us. Thanks for the interview! You should be able to find Stanley at his clan's website, thebritishempire.org, where his nicknames are IraAten, IraAten*TBE* and Maybe70uk, all of which came from the 1970's when he used to be in a Western Club and do shows at local clubs and carnivals.

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