I had a rather heated argument with my girlfriend the other day regarding my daily regimen of video games. She finds it very immature that I play them because I am a 32 year old guy, but I should also mention she is a bit older then myself so naturally we have never seen eye to eye on a great deal of subjects. What exactly makes someone mature is a question I have pondered many times throughout the years and when I think of maturity, I think of doing what needs to be done and handling conflict with patience, problems with purpose, while retaining a level of respect for others until such respect is lost.
Depending on where you live, how much time you have, your financial situation and sometimes even your general health you may find yourself with only so many choices of things you can do. As an adult, you are going to more than likely do one of the following things: go out to eat, have cook outs, see a movie, a concert, a show, an exhibit, go the beach, play a sport of some kind, go to a store, dance or chill at a club, ride a bike, go to a party, drink, screw, etc,but there are lots of games to play as well, so why should video games be naturally labeled immature? There was a time when you could find a Ms. Pac-Man in quite a few bars and although that is not the case as much anymore, you are finding gaming consoles much more powerful on larger screens in the confines of many homes.
Older gamers make up a large portion of the market and let’s face it, little kids aren’t paying for games themselves. There are some geezer gamers out there too because when video games first really became a sensation in the 70’s and 80’with children and adults alike, the older ones started pioneering the field and the kids grew up to further fund the evolution of gaming itself. The age of Atari is long gone and now the semblance of games to reality is quite uncanny. I think there is nothing wrong with playing games as an activity because it is stimulating in its own right. The whole point is to meet a goal or accomplish something and that takes focus and skill to do so and with current games it sometimes takes more thinking and micro-management as well as politics. The idea that “grown ups” don’t play games is archaic as the titles being produced this day and age are engaging and viable entertainment.
It’s not only nerds that play games, but jocks and any other generalization of person you could imagine because the video game industry makes billions and it doesn’t do that by only appealing to a small group of outcasts. My point is that someone can be a responsible business owner, family man, established professional or any other title of prestige one can adopt as they make their way into adulthood and still play video games on the side. I myself am 32 years old and play video games quite a bit as you well know already, but I also play a lot of pool, I love to play poker and golf, I use to bowl on a league and when I was younger I enjoyed a good game of front yard football. Games to me are a source of stimulation and they allow me to put all my focus on something and lose myself in it, unlike the never ending arise of conflict that pulls my mind one way and then the other. Whatever one can find to help them relax or enjoy their time is a good thing by any means, whether it be wine and cheese parties with the neighbors or killing zombies as John F.Kennedy with a machine gun in the White House on your high definition television.
Fact is, we live in a society of bursting technology and all around us people are designing things to appeal to our need for enjoyment so we work our asses off to give our money to them. It’s not a bad system and a game is really a good investment for the money if you do enjoy playing them. I know whenever I go out for drinks or play pool, I can easily drop a 1/3 of what I would on a game and get a lot less total time of enjoyment. Of course, the experience may not be the same comparably, but when money is tight and you want to be frugal, a good video game is a mega bang for your buck. You can’t go out every night of the week either, not at least if you work a decent amount of hours or you live in a town that doesn’t have much of a night life and television doesn’t always have a lotto offer, so why not enjoy yet another form of technological entertainment instead of labeling it strictly for children. Think of the movie Shrek, how both adults and children can watch it and both laugh, but often times the adults are picking up on different elements of the movie because they understand the references. I believe this same concept applies to video games and I think there are many people that are denying themselves another one of life’s simple pleasures by clinging to these negative preconceptions that playing video games is childish.
As with anything, there are no absolutes and there are definitely games that are specifically geared towards children, but a bulk of the ones marketed are for ages 8-45 respectively. You don’t have to be a kid to take a step out into fantasy and there is nothing wrong with a little video gaming to improve hand eye coordination and concentration, as well as a little escape from the reality we all know too well. Maturity should be more about living effectively than simply the sum of one’s activities and interests.
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