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You know you're addicted to video games when you're stopped by the police and the only thing you can think to say is "You can't give me a ticket - I'm a level seventy druid!" Well, OK, so it's unlikely that would happen, but you get the idea. After decades of worrying about public obsession with the Beatles, alcohol, drugs, weird cults and Furby collecting, the possibility of addiction to games has made it to the fore and is a subject much in discussion.

Many folks talk about gaming negatively, focussing on the bad things that can happen when people re-prioritise going to work slightly lower than killing the final boss in a dungeon, or sleep below the importance of earning another million in whatever gaming currency applies. Rest assured, there's a good side to games, too. They're like caffeine for the imagination, they can help the socially inept to better themselves and they can also provide a temporary escape from the drab, dull existence so many of us have.

Why all the bad press? Well, back in the halcyon days of pen and paper games, when small groups of friends would gather to roll dice, argue about treasure distribution and consume gallons of soda, the pastime was labelled "satanic". Whether this was because pizza (the standard fare of a gaming session) is a sacred food and should not be consumed in such quantities or because the predominant game of the period - the legendary Dungeons & Dragons - tended to focus more on demon-slaying with each release, it's hard to say. What is certain is that the vast majority of gamers were not secretly worshipping Old Nick in their spare time: they were generally quite normal people who enjoyed imagining themselves as robed wizards, armoured knights or sneaky thieves and spent some quality time with their friends, sharing a lot of fun and laughs in their shared enthusiasm for being a part of the story.

As video games, consoles and computers became cheaper and more powerful, many of these same people moved from playing real-world games - be they role-playing, sports, running around pretending to be Batman, card games or something else - into the digital world. From there it was a small step to the online community. With each new generation, the step is shorter and easier.

For now, let's take a step backwards, to the basic idea of gaming rather than dealing with a specific genre. A game is something fun, an entertainment, whether shared or enjoyed individually. Video games have often pitted players against one another,

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