sgGamers

(* For the uninitiated, Q2DM1 was one of the most popular Quake 2 Deathmatch maps, featuring nice wide open space for some Railgun love)

As i approach my 27th birthday, I inevitably start to wonder, how old is too old before gaming becomes nothing more than a faded memory in the annals of my life? Whenever I let slip that I really, really enjoy gaming, I often get less-than-complimentary glances from other people. It’s as if they’re all thinking “So old and still playing computer games? Get a life!”

However, what these people don’t understand, is that the target demographic for most games out there, is no longer the preschool and kiddy group, but the adult group. Several examples come to mind immediately. When I first played Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father, I felt that the story was way too “adult” in nature for the younger crowd to understand it. If anything, Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within only served to reinforce that notion.

Even in MMORPGs, the age divide becomes painfully apparent why trying to group with other players. You can always recognise the student because he’ll be the one running around naked in the East Commons shouting “LAMMYS/SSOY/PH4T L3WT5 FOR SALE SEND TELLZ PLZ”, while it’s not as easy to spot the nice mature gamer who bothers to actually talk while grouping and knows his stuff well. This has not changed in my MMORPG experience, from UO, to EQ, to SWG, and to FFXI.

I guess from an outsider’s point of view, gaming is probably viewed as a frivolous pasttime, something that can be and should be foregone in favour of more “exciting” things, like clubbing, or wakeboarding, or whatever it is that you “cool dudes” and “cool dudettes” do these days. But gaming opens up a whole new world of imagination that was previously only available in novels, and nobody ever slammed anyone for reading too much. Where else can you trek to the farthest reachests of Syberia, or travel in parallel worlds with April, or drive around in a stolen car running people down willy nilly? Where else can you command an army of orcs, or win 5 consecutive Champions League titles with Manchester United, or beat Michael Schumacher at his own game?

Gaming gives us a chance to be someone else who leads an infinitely more exciting life than that of a 9-5 worker drone. Gaming transcends reality, and offers an experience like none other. And most of all, gaming, in its very essence, is pure, unadulterated, harmless fun (Please ignore any stupid references to Columbine). Because when that computer is switched off, the real world is still the real world, and life still goes on.

I don’t think I’ll ever give up gaming. Not a chance. I want to be gaming with my kids. I want to be gaming with my grandkids. I want to be gaming till I die. And most of all, I want my grandkids to be able to brag that their grandad was once a pretty kickass Quake 2 player.

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