by Will Koz

Created on: January 10, 2007   Last Updated: February 07, 2012

Video games are fun and will never get old. Honestly. The big question is: Should I be ashamed of this? I'm going to assume that if you are reading this, you are also a video game fan. Should you be ashamed of getting older and still enjoying video games? The answer to both these questions is: No.

Seriously. I don't know about what you used to play, but from the time I was ten, I was playing Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, Gradius, Dragon Warrior, and Crystalis on NES. They were so basic...yet so fun. I graduated from NES onto the SNES a year after it came out.

Man, Super Mario World was the coolest game I had ever seen. If you remember when the SNES was released, you know exactly what I mean. SNES games I loved: Mega Man X, Super Metroid, and Street Fighter II. Classics.

Video game fans were awed by the PlayStation when it was released. Some systems that promised to be great flopped. RIP: Jaguar, Sega CD, and Sega Saturn. Oh, and Virtual Boy in it's crimson wonder.

I think we all remember the release of Dreamcast (ah...poor Sega), and Nintendo 64. We all know the current systems, PlayStation II and III, Gamecube and Wii, XBox and Xbox 360. Games have come a long way since we older game geeks started playing...but the classics will never die!

Anyway, back to the original question. Should we be ashamed that we, as older men and women, still love to play video games? Definitely not. Here's the thing: The only reason to be ashamed would be that video games are thought of as a children's pastime and not a proper adult activity. Why is this? Because the generations before us didn't have many video games as a kid. Sure, they had Atari and some arcade games, but what percentage of American households had systems compared to the percentage today? I mean, pretty much every household with kids has a video game system, today. We see commercials for video games on TV and stores dedicated to video games. These things weren't around when the generations ahead of us were kids. They didn't grow up with video games the way we did. So, as adults, they saw these games that were new as kid's games. We never saw grown ups playing games (because that's not what that generation was used to) so we got used to seeing video games as a kids hobby. Our generation is changing that, though.

Another interesting point is how games have developed. What I mean is, back in the day there were really no games designed for adults. The most mature game out there was Mortal Kombat. Many grown ups didn't find much entertainment is simple games like Mega Man or Sonic. Now, however, we have games like Madden, Splinter Cell, and GTA. These games are more adult oriented.

Anyway, I love video games and will always love video games. If you read this article all the way through, I know you do too. There's nothing for us to be ashamed of.

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