It seems like only yesterday that if you played videogames and were past the age of 13, you were a dork and the minority. Telling people you played games was usually followed by rolling eyes and, “shouldn’t you grow up?” I have long said that games were growing up with us, and that if people gave it a try, they would get hooked, too.
I was right, and boy, am I loving it. XBox, Playstation and Wii are household names and has everyone playing. Systems are in every college dorm room andmany households that aren’t occupied by children. In fact, a large amount of games today are M rated titles. Even my girlfriend loves videogames, as is noted by her addiction to Assassin’s Creed.
Honestly, what is not to like? If you like a good story, or a good movie, then games give you all of the excitement, plus the ability to control what is happening. They’ve changed so much now that they are these big production experiences that just beg to be played. It was inevitable that the mainstream would catch on and notice just how serious gaming can be.
When I think of what showed me, personally, that games were mainstream, I think of back to when I was in a business meeting with my boss and a new client of ours. He was an insurance agent in his early 40s, and was showing us some things on his laptop in regards to a project we were working on for him. When I looked at his desktop I noticed a shortcut for Halo. At first, I thought it was for his kid, but to be sure, I made a comment on it and he went on about how he loves the game and beat it many times. You can bet that put a big smile on my face. It just showed me that even an independant insurance agent starting a business can find time to play games and enjoy them, without feeling “unprofessional”. Even my boss at that time played games. Now I ask you, when did you realize that games are mainstream?
as usual, very insightful post, Hans.
But, I think the real question is, since when do you have a girlfriend?
I kid, I kid. I noticed gaming was going mainstream (or at least more mainstream) just recently. I saw an ad – and blogged about it here – for the xbox 360 that was actually geared toward non-gamers or casual gamers. Prior to that, I thought only Nintendo was playing that game. Seeing Microsoft acknowledge that, yes, there is a market out there beyond lifelong gamers was very cool. I think Sony will eventually do the same… especially when it comes time to launch “Home.”
Mainstream indeed. I figured out it was mainstream when games started getting bands that people know about into games. Tony Hawk is always the example I use. Sometimes I just played it to hear a catchy song or 2. EA uses new music in all of their sports games as another example. Then take into consideration that a game like Rainbow 6 Vegas had an entire arsenal of Dodge vehicles. If it wasn’t mainstream they wouldn’t be marketing so hard in video games.
I think that it’s a generational thing with video games though. When we were younger there was a cutoff age where it wasn’t looked upon favorably to play video games. I will say from personal experience that Hans and Steve played entirely too much though. I found myself slowing down when it came to video games around the age of 18. The booty was just too fun to chase. Well, now I’ll get in trouble chasing tail and I’ve been back on the scene for the past few years now. I love my video games so much that I’m redoing my basement to accommodate a new TV and stereo for them. Pwn.