Videogames - No Longer For Nerds! But.....

This just popped into my head exactly a few seconds ago. Remember back in the day when the stereotype of the guy who plays videogames all day and night was that he was a nerdy, singly, virgin, loser? Those days have perished and been buried long ago. Today, it seems the majority of young men, and a good number of young women, play videogames on a regular basis. It can be said that it is a good thing that the image of the single nerdy guy as the gamer has disappeared. I can even remember some very interesting times with ex's while I was playing games, but that's not for mentioning here. ; ) The point is that our culture has finally said that it is ok and even normal to be a gamer. And indeed it is ok. If you like a videogame, then play it.

Next comes the negative aspect to this however. The key word being moderation. As games offer such an easy escape from realities which can sometime be difficult or not go the way we want, and with a culture more accepting of gaming, it becomes easier and easier to get sucked into the game world and never come out. I feel there are too many people who wait and wait and wait for that new game to come out, thinking about just that thing daily until it does get released. Then comes a period of playing it nonstop and repeating the process with another new game. Again, I did say if you like playing a game, then of course you should be allowed to play without judgement. But... I would like to make this compassion: If you enjoy eating food, will you eat and eat and eat until you pop? Or stop when you are full and it becomes bad for you to continue? It seems obvious that we would stop. But if gaming is the food and playing is the action, it seems much harder to know when to put down that fork. (Speaking from experience... on both!)

How about the positives? There are some of course. Gaming is a good way to pass time when you are bored, want to relax, and do something entertaining and easy. Gaming is even more awesome when you have been drinking all night with a group of friends and decide to play Mario Party with an extra stipulation of shots for the loser of each mini-game. Some people even manage to make groups of online friends and build online communities from gaming as well. 

So as with everything in life... balance and moderation is important. :)