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The computer gaming industry has been increasing in size globally for the last decade. The games sold and exported in the UK alone contribute 1bn to the economy (source: www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ne wsbysector/mediatechnologyandt elecoms/4592845/Computer-games -industry-faces-brain-drain-cr isis.html)

So how do young people affect this industry? And, more importantly, what affect does the industry have on today's youth?

I use the term 'today's youth' loosely. I myself (only recently hitting adulthood) consider myself very much a child of the gaming generation. Retrospectively though, I have mixed views about the relationship I had with computer gaming. Many of my earliest memories can be in some way traced to computer games; I aged six and my sister, eight, finally completing sonic 2 was a monumental achievement. Numerous friends were only met though out mutual interest in gaming, and many of them still remain both close friends and fellow gamers.

Can I then consider all those countless hours spent in front of a TV or PC screen as time well spent? Part of me always says 'no,' and insists that the time could have been better spent. Yet I strongly suspect this voice has been indoctrinated into me by my Dad, who insisted this on a daily basis. Yet I then think about what I could have been doing instead. Gaming was only something when other options (football or playing outside generally) were not available. So other than gaming I'd most likely be watching TV, and I am still of the opinion that computer games require some form of input, giving stimulation, or at least more so than sat watching TV.

I've often found that many fellow gamers share similar interests, interests I have pursued to great lengths: Music and reading being the two main ones. Coming to the end of an English degree that requires me to read two to three novels a week, I still find time to play my guitar, discover new music and still game socially. Many of my friends are in a similar position.

So I consider myself a success story from a gaming background. But what of today's younger children? I have also seen the affects of a much more powerful and widespread gaming industry up close on a couple of my younger relatives. My 11 year old brother is obsessed with football and if he is not playing outside then he'll be playing Fifa '09 on his Xbox360. I keep in touch with two of my close cousins, aged 14 and 16 through online gaming and that is in between their cricket practices and music

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