For Those About to Game...

Ever since the explosion of Pong in the early 70s, video games have become increasingly popular in the average North American's lifestyle. It has become a multi-billion dollar industry, commanding the attention of countless gamers around the world. Video game 'cult classics' continue to be produced and often bleed over into other markets as a result of their enormous popularity. The stereotypical video game programmer is found by his computer working late into the night guzzling coffee and sweet tarts, obsessing over a sprite design and struggling with a deficiency of vitamin D after not seeing anything except virtual sunlight for weeks . Why do these programmers (and countless gamers) subject themselves to these sorts of conditions? Is it the appeal of a virtual world, an escape from reality into a new environment? Taking part in activities not legitimately possible in the real world like drive by shootings, stealing cars or battling fantastic other-worldly creatures? Is everything else just really really boring?

Whatever the reason, video games have become as much an integral part of our culture as movies, television and music. The demographics associated with gaming suggest some interesting trends. Consider these gaming statistics collected by the Entertainment Software Association:

1) The average age of a gamer is 33
2) The majority of gamers (almost 50%) are between 18 and 49
3) Females are playing games almost as much as males (girls make up 38% of gamers, and there are more females over 18 gaming than there are males under 17)
4) Gamers spend triple the amount of time exercising, playing sports, or volunteering for the community than they do playing video games (23.4 hrs vs 6.8 hrs weekly)

Other cool gaming stats from the ESA


Why is this important? Well, it means that a large portion of the North American adult community is and has been actively involved in gaming for many years. I myself have been playing Nintendo consoles since the earliest days of NES (I still get nostalgic every time I think about Double Dragon or Blades of Steel). In fact, many of the people I know have been gaming as far back as I can remember. A good portion of my Christmas mornings as a pajama-clad youngster were spent calling all my friends to talk about which games or new consoles Santa brought us, and whose house we were going to spend the next two weeks of vacation glued to a television, controllers in hand.

Clearly these video games have been and continue to be a significant part of our culture, and they don't seem to be on their way out anytime soon. So for all of you gaming nerds, for all the university and college escapists, the up and coming programmers and game designers, couch loving stoners, late night media addicts, and to anybody else that finds themselves coming back to the controllers again and again, I salute you. Game on!