Yes, I waited outside a shopping mall at midnight a year ago to get a football game, but that was more about my football addiction (separate counselor, separate bill) than it was about being hooked on video games.
Still, there was a time growing up when I assumed I would have to eventually stop playing video games. Because there are certain things you just don’t do when you become a grown-up. You stop cutting the corners off your bread, you stop kissing girls on the playground (my wife specifically included that in our vows) and you certainly don’t lounge around trying to help Mario find the secret tunnel unless Mario is your neighbor and he owes the Mob a lot of money.
And so, I was prepared for the day when my wife would ask me to pack the video game system away or, gulp, send it the way of so many ugly shirts I once loved.
But something funny happened along the way.
We were at a child’s birthday party a month or so ago. After everyone finished eating and watching the kids open presents, the adults (not the kids) turned on the Nintendo Wii.
And several times, the kids were fought off (with mosquito repellant) so the adults could continue to play.
It got me thinking that this was the time where adults used to pull out the board game like Monopoly or Life. But instead everyone was glued to the TV.
This is the new family pastime.
My suspicions that my video game days had not passed me by but instead transcended to the masses were further peaked when my 56-year-old father-in-law got a PS2 for his recent birthday.
I started charting it.
That means I can at least play video games until I’m 56.
Then my mom tells me that the seniors at the adult recreation center where she works also have a Wii.
70-, 80-year-old gamers?
This means, hypothetically, I could be playing video games until the day I die. My dying breath could be punctuated by a groan that Zelda couldn’t find the magic sword.
Despite my worries that my video game days were numbered, it would make sense that technology we use today will carry with us. It’s absurd to think when somebody hits 60, their microwave and cordless phone are confiscated and replaced with a coal pit and a rotary phone.
Still, it’s interesting to see that technology, even computers, has already jumped a few generations ahead.
Maybe when I get older, I won’t be so enamored with the idea of technology passing through the generations. I might just clamor for a simpler time of outhouses and ice cellars.
But for now?
Hands off the video game system, honey.
It’s here to stay.
