by Matt Bird

Created on: March 31, 2009

At four, five and six I played video games.

By age 15 I was living and breathing in the digital zone. And I stayed that way for several years.

Now, at 25, I'm back to playing. And I think I like it this way.

To many video games are a way of life. You get up in the morning, you play a video game. You get on the bus to go to a job or to school and you pull out a hand held for another round. Once you get home you plop down in front of the TV and get back to work, and play until the lights have dimmed and the moon is shining through the windows.

Wash, rinse, repeat. Day after day.

That used to be me. Any moment not spent in front of a gaming machine was a wasted moment. What good were friends when I couldn't beat that damn boss? Leveling seemed more important. Luckily my attitude towards games is no longer so extreme, and I'll take a social outing over on-screen fun any day.

I think that's a product of aging. Those who continue to enjoy video games into their twilight years (which admittedly I'm not even close to entering, but I'm still a fair bit older than the average gamer) learn to moderate their play time. It's a balancing act played with the rest of your life: bills need to be paid, work needs to be done, dinner needs to be prepared, dependants need to be attended to. Games, not yielding any practical value beyond entertainment - and perhaps improved hand-eye coordination - come before other considerations.

And part of spending less time glued to a gaming system probably comes from increased finesse. Aged gamers have sampled a little bit of everything, and thus are jacks-of-all-trades. Games are just plain easier and thus don't require the same amount of time to complete. I find in general that I can start up a brand new game and nevertheless zip right through without much effort as I've played so much - something younger, less experienced gamers can't match, as they lack similar levels of exposure.

Yet with age also come physical restrictions. I can't stand to stare at the screen for quite so long. I don't like to stay up until all times of the night with my fingers pressed firmly against a controller. Nor do I have the same concentration as I used to: I need to take breaks, as games get kinda boring after a while. Years of switching from one activity to another keep me from overplaying, and I suppose in the long run that's a good thing.

Don't want to get carpal tunnel syndrome, after all.

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