"It's saving humanity!" "It's just like reading a book!" "It's just like partying!" These and many other excuses can be found in Suzy Hansen's amusing article on gaming and relationships, a connection that I suspect goes far deeper than anyone cares to admit.
Posted by DrMabuse at December 16, 2004 10:11 AMThere was a time, back when I myself was beset with "Pac-Man Fever", when an article like this would be unthinkable. Because, back then, video gamers didn't have girlfriends to abandon. Then the Playstation came along, with its hip ad campaigns, seducing useful members of society into a deadly electronic web.
I was recovering from my own Nintendo addiction at the time. I had discovered a world of friends, women, and excessive drinking. Just when I shed my love of videogames, gaming became "cool".
God I feel old.
Posted by: rasputin at December 16, 2004 01:05 PMRasp: I think it was before the PlayStation. The NES seized the boys-bonding-around-a-console idea established with the Atari 2600 and took it one step further. It offered stuff like Duck Hunt, Zelda and Super Mario Brothers to broaden the appeal. Video game consoles were about more than boys. And in fact the boyhood could be put in abeyance well into adulthood. Results? Overgrown boys and the women who love them.
Posted by: Ed at December 16, 2004 01:43 PM