Too Old For Gaming?

As far back as I can remember I have been playing video games, or games in general really. Sure, I went outside and rode bikes with friends, played kick ball in the yard and stayed outside some nights until the street lamp came on. But I always had a thing for video games. My parent's had an Odyssey 2000 (original PONG system, it took D batteries to run) and a Studio II. Eventually we moved on to an Atari 2600 (I loved me some River Raid and Space Invaders), and on my 7th birthday, in 1987 my Dad went up into the attic and pulled out an enormous Nintendo box.

When we first got the NES my Dad and my sister would play games together, like Gyromite. One player was the scientist (I assume, he looked like a pixelated Albert Einstein) and the other would open the gates and smoosh enemies. I would play Duck Hunt, Mario Brothers, and the other classic games. Sometimes my father would look on and give me advice like "step away from the screen with the zapper and try and shoot the ducks" as I scraped the gun across the screen and essentially cheated. Eventually my parent's treated my fascination as a childish hobby as I grew older.

Growing up sometimes I would neglect school work or spend an entire weekend inside playing games. I would invite friends over and we'd play together (Battletoads was fun co-op) all weekend. I eventually moved on to computer games and continually branched out to try new games and systems. I never failed a class, or was ever held back in school, I just didn't make high grades, and I honestly didn't care. Whether games were a proponent to that, or just a product of my disinterest in school is to be decided but clearly my parent's thought my interest was silly and childish.

Sometimes I would be in my room listening to music, and playing a game. I remember one instance, when I was playing Final Fantasy III as my Dad walked by. He looked in my room and asked "don't you ever get tired of that?" as he scoffed and walked off to go vegetate in front of the TV for the rest of the night. It seemed almost that my parent's enabled my gaming hobby, yet turned their noses up at the idea. As I went into high school and reputations are created, I never told anyone of my gaming hobby. It's just something I did, yet didn't talk a lot about, a closet nerd I suppose. I would see the guys that would openly talk about games and they fit the "nerd" or "loser" image. I would always smirk walking past when they would be talking about a game I'm just as passionate about, yet completely refuse to discuss. It just seemed as though video games = girl repellant and I wasn't about to ruin my chances of ever getting a girlfriend. Outside of my world, it seemed like the media and adults saw gaming as a childish past time, along the lines of cartoons and comic books.

Now it seems that video games are becoming part of the mainstream while some diehards still claim that gaming is a childish, nonproductive activity that is just a waste of time. I think this a big problem for mature/adult gamers who enjoy the hobby, yet deal with the negativity. This is a two-fold problem as parents who aren't game-savvy allow their children to buy whatever games they want, not considering the possibility of mature content. So online, the people who have etiquette, consideration for others and maturity are tossed into an anonymous world where anything can be said without repercussions. I cannot count the number of times I've heard a child who obviously has not hit puberty curse like a sailor online to feel tough or make themselves sound more mature. It's essentially chest beating in a community where if you're loud and aggressive you tend to be heard, regardless of age or wisdom since that is thrown out the window. (on a side rant: instead of reducing mature content in M rated games, why not enforce the rating to keep children from playing them? It's sort of like watering down alcohol because children are getting it.. it doesn't make sense.)