Growing Older and Still Playing Videogames

I'm of that age where videogames have been around almost as long as I have. I don't remember Pong as such, but I don't believe there were many units shipped to the UK, where I grew up. I do remember Space Invaders, I recall being wowed by Galaxians, and I remember the craze that surround Pac-man. To me, the most fun part of the annual vacation with the family was you could head off to the amusement arcades, clutching a fistful of 10ps, and spend a long afternoon feeding them into the latest machines.

I wasn't safe at home, either. We had an Atari VCS when they came out, which was upgraded at the age of about 10 to a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. 16 colours! 48K memory! And the best bit, the programs came on ordinary cassette tapes, so suddenly the kid who had a double-deck ghetto blaster was king of school.

I've never been away from videogames. I feel no urge to stop playing them. I met my wife on a MUD, the text equivalent of an MMORPG. I might as well be hardwired into the Internet. For that reason, I'm not quite sure why this particular topic has come up... Are we supposed to give up videogames when we grow up? If so, growing up is overrated, something I've always suspected anyhow. Are we supposed to give up TV, or books, or our musical tastes as we grow up? I'd say not. Our tastes might grow more refined and sophisticated, we might be more selective in what we choose to pass the time with, but I suspect I'll still be playing videogames (or whatever the hyperrealistic VR total immersion version of videogames is by then) until I'm 90.