The cultural winds of video games seem to be changing. The days off video games as a "kid’s toy" seem to be slowly drifting away. Developers have shifted to a more mature market. Kids who grew up on video games have now matured and continue their gaming hobby. I am one of those kids, but somehow I feel anxious that with my turning of age I should be less in love with video games.
Should I feel guilty about loving and playing video games? I am a young guy, twenty-seven to be exact. I hold a corporate position in a global engineering firm as one of their advisors. I have to be professional, and deal with many clients. After meetings, audits, or other less desirable work related items, I love to go home and play video games for a couple of hours. I am very private about my love for games at work. Being a younger worker, and in a workplace where the average age seems to be mid 40's, I can't relate my hobby with many people even if I wanted to.
My friends do not love video games like I do. The days of Nintendo 64, as well as Super Nintendo, all my friends played video games. Even the Xbox 360 era all my friends played online games such as; Halo, Call of Duty, or NHL. It was a blast to have multiple Xbox consoles hooked up under one roof and play online matches for hours. Now that we are all in our late twenty's, I am the only one out of the group to have a next generation console.
Getting married and having kids, can video games fit the picture? Quite a few of my friends are now married and have started to have children. This can understandably be a reason while majority of them have faded out of the fantasy world of video games and turn focus to reality. Many people I talk to while playing World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV seems to all be family men and women with younger children, older children, and children that have moved out. Even hearing stories like theirs I still feel anxiety as if my video games must come to an end. Is it normal for me to want to play video games when I am thirty and beyond?
Relationships Vs. Video games. I have been in a relationship for quite some time. My girlfriend does not share any love for video games, and unfortunately does not really support it. The juggling act of work, travelling, and happy wife happy life really prevents me from having a healthy video game life. Can a video game life be healthy? At this age? I battle all the time with myself. Do I let work, life, wife win? Then say goodbye to video games? Or do I accept this as a form of a healthy hobby? Can I hold video games on the same hobby pedestal as tinkering with cars, riding a motorcycle or building puzzles?
What are your thoughts? Are video games fully accepted in your house hold? Or did you give them up and now have to resort to reading articles and watching videos? I want to know!