Yesterday, after finishing a writing project (and thus beating a deadline), I decided to reward myself with a little casual web-surfing. Since the much-anticipated game, The Sims 3 is coming out next week and I am unembarrassed to admit that I’m a die-hard Simmer, I ended-up scanning a series of video game previews of the game on YouTube. A friend of mine walked into the coffee house where I happened to be and caught me watching the video. From the look on his face, you’d think he’d caught me watching porn instead of what many non-Simming folk consider to be a kid’s game.
This encounter sparked a long, conversation about video games. Even though my friend was no fan of the Sims, like me he was a lifelong gamer. It got me thinking about how important video games have become in our culture — no longer just in the United States, but all over the world.
If you are an adult gamer in your 30s or 40s, video games are more likely than not a part of your personal narrative, kind of the way rock n’ roll and television factored into the baby boom generation’s history. I remember the first time I played PONG like it was yesterday: 1974, Wildwood, NJ in an arcade on the boardwalk.
My friend, who’ll turn 40 in a couple of months had similar memories. We talked about PONG and Asteroids, Atari 2600 and how far game consoles have come. We talked about handheld games and argued about who had the best game controllers. We also argued about whether the Playstation 3 was better than the XBox 360 (even though he said “360″ and the Nintendo Wii seems to be kicking ass in sales these days, my money’s still on the PS3). We also chatted about those ancient Text Adventure games that usher in the PC Gaming era. It was a fun trip down memory lane.
