(no subject)
"In 1961 the minds at MIT unvieled a groundbreaking diagnostic programfor the PDP-1 mainframe.Instead of churinging out mathmaticalsoloutions as evidence of a properly functioning processer, the programallowed the user to verify functionality by dogfighting an opponent inspace. It was SpaceWar, and it was the first video game ever created.
Afull fourty five years later, video gaming has grown into a ten billiondollar a year industry. The technology has grown exponentially, we’rein the fifith generation of consoles, and usage is prevalent among thegeneral population. So why, after all of these years, am I stillhesitant to admit in mixed company that I’m a gamer?
Fifteenyears ago such an admission would be unthinkable. Videogames were theexclusive domain of adolescent males and social degenerates. To admitas an adult that you were spent eight hours on Saturday night makingyour final run at Hilter (Die, Allied Schweinhund!) in Wolfenstein 3Dwould have been a social debacle. Images would flow through the mind ofyour confidant. Images of you sitting in your mothers basement withyour only company being the pale glow emmited by 16 frames per secondof VGA graphics, images of your inevitable fate of being a 30 year oldvirgin, images of a person unclean. You, sir, would be a nerd.
Today,even though an estimated 43% of gamers are adults, this stigma stilllives on. To admit that you’re a gamer, to some, is to admit that youwaste valuable time on an unproductive, childish hobby. Yet, for someunexplainable reason, not an eye is batted if you spend your evening infront of the television in the throes of prime time ecstasy. It is morechic to passively wonder who America’s next Idol will be than toinvolve yourself in a stimulating, interactive, and - more often thannot - cognitive video game experience.
In an age wherevideogames have overshadowed the film and television industry asentertainment king, we gamers are still, for the most part, a sadlypersecuted lot. We contend with the eye rolling of mothers, the sighsof girlfriends, and the disparaging comments from elders. We have beenmocked and ridiculed and deprived of our rightful place in the geneticpool for far too long.
We game because we love it, and we almost represent the majority.
I think it’s high time we come out of the basement."
Afull fourty five years later, video gaming has grown into a ten billiondollar a year industry. The technology has grown exponentially, we’rein the fifith generation of consoles, and usage is prevalent among thegeneral population. So why, after all of these years, am I stillhesitant to admit in mixed company that I’m a gamer?
Fifteenyears ago such an admission would be unthinkable. Videogames were theexclusive domain of adolescent males and social degenerates. To admitas an adult that you were spent eight hours on Saturday night makingyour final run at Hilter (Die, Allied Schweinhund!) in Wolfenstein 3Dwould have been a social debacle. Images would flow through the mind ofyour confidant. Images of you sitting in your mothers basement withyour only company being the pale glow emmited by 16 frames per secondof VGA graphics, images of your inevitable fate of being a 30 year oldvirgin, images of a person unclean. You, sir, would be a nerd.
Today,even though an estimated 43% of gamers are adults, this stigma stilllives on. To admit that you’re a gamer, to some, is to admit that youwaste valuable time on an unproductive, childish hobby. Yet, for someunexplainable reason, not an eye is batted if you spend your evening infront of the television in the throes of prime time ecstasy. It is morechic to passively wonder who America’s next Idol will be than toinvolve yourself in a stimulating, interactive, and - more often thannot - cognitive video game experience.
In an age wherevideogames have overshadowed the film and television industry asentertainment king, we gamers are still, for the most part, a sadlypersecuted lot. We contend with the eye rolling of mothers, the sighsof girlfriends, and the disparaging comments from elders. We have beenmocked and ridiculed and deprived of our rightful place in the geneticpool for far too long.
We game because we love it, and we almost represent the majority.
I think it’s high time we come out of the basement."