Lets start with who I am, as this will assist with the understanding of where I'm coming from with this topic. I'm 29 years old (born in good old 1980) and so I'm sort of right at the last of the real first generation of gamers.... if you're born after 1985, no doubt you have some nostalgic knowledge, but you're too young to really appreciate where gaming really came from in the very early days. At least from a historical when-you-were-born point of view.... please, if you were born after then and you have a great gaming knowledge, I've not said that to insult you at all, it's just a case of when you were born, and if you were there, if you get my meaning.... in other words, an expert who studies something as historically important as say, the assassination of JFK, would benefit far more in their understanding of the incident, if they were old enough to be there, and not so young that they have only studied the incident and not actually seen it. With me so far? Good(!)

Infact, even I'm just a little wet behind the ears to really see where gaming started, with the glut of proper first home systems being around from about 1977 - 1982 (when the first video game "crash" came from poor games like E.T. on the Atari... but I digress). Most of us who have been around since the dawn of it all are typically kids of the late 60's, 70's and very early 80's - I actually find that the guys born in the late 60's and 70's have vast gaming knowledge, as they were in their teens and early twenties and able to properly appreciate the early games, whereas I was still very young when I first played things like Pong and Space Invaders and only saw the flashing colours and zip-zap sound effects. It's like when you watched a film when you were little - you enjoyed it, and you remember it, but then you watch it as an adult and it's oh-so different because you can appreciate it in so many more ways...

I find it fascinating as I age now, that, even 30+ years on since the industry started, we are still not seeing gaming knowledge given any true value outside of the circle of gamers that understand it's value. For instance - you read 30 books (fictional, or factual - whatever you like) and instantly, educated types and most of the known world will recognise this as something that an educated, well balanced indivudal is going to do, to better themselves. Even films now, having been around just about 100+ years, can be broken down and studied in the literary sense, with some extremely well educated and respected people affording their appreciation of knowledge on this subject - even approaching the levels that studying books is valued as.

So I find it extraordinary that by now, with 30+ years of industry under our belts and hundreds of thousands of stories and experiences out there for gamers, that the same educated types (always non-gamers of course) offer no sense of value to the knowledge gained by, say, having completed Super Mario World hundreds of times and knowing every little secret area, nuance of the story etc etc. Why is that? Is it simply the passage of time that hasn't been enough yet, and if so, at what point will this value suddenly become apparent to non-gamers?

Games are villified as time wasters by educated non-gamers, but this is only because they themselves choose not to play games and then ridicule those that do.... it's the power of their educated voice(s) that then lends credence to influencing other non-gamers who perhaps aren't as well educated, into also believing this complete and utter nonsense. The way I see it, is knowledge gained is knowledge gained. Full stop (or Period if you're from the other side of the Atlantic!). The subject matter has no bearing on whether or not some knowledge or experience of value has been gained from doing whatever activity it was.

I find it incredibly frustrating, because there are so many people out there that think this archaic way of viewing games is still valid. They will often use that belief to shape how and what games they will give their offspring access to (if at all!) and I for one think that this can be very damaging. Now of course, if your son or daughter is playing NOTHING but video games, then yes, this is still a concern... but it's what they gain from that - the experience, the story - this is what is being downplayed and undervalued. Put another way - if your son or daughter spent several days reading a fictional book, and then they proceeded to sit and tell you about the story and the wonderful characters, all the things they remembered from it - the literary and educated crowd of parents would be dancing for joy as their child has seemingly picked up some real valuable knowledge from the book, so much so that they can spout lines and examples from it at will. However, if that same child began to remember lines and examples from a video game story - those same literary types would simply scoff at this, turn off their selective hearing and start to tell their kids that they're playing too many games(!) Do you see the imbalance here!?

There have been a lot of people blogging about the emotion that Quantic's recent release, Heavy Rain, has suddenly brought to the table. There will likely be the odd spoiler in here, so if you've not played it, don't read this next part....

Heavy Rain is essentially more of an adult themed, cleverly written and thought provoking game than any before it. It's theme explores whether or not you, acting as a father of two children, would be willing to let your second son die, having already lost your first son. It's an incredibly powerful story and for the first time is one that I think may be able to punch through this unfair wall of massive undervalue I see in gaming knowledge. I would dare to hope that possible, but from my own experiences growing up and seeing how games and gamers are treated, I'm not exactly holding my breath.

So what do you all think? Are you too sick of non-gamers laughing at you, because you're sat talking with another gamer about the story in a game you played recently? You know they would have nothing to say if they thought you were discussing a book, so why do they pass the sudden judgment, the moment they know a control pad is involved? Do any of you think we will reach this Nirvana and it be widely accepted that playing games does give us all something of value?

I'd like to think that eventually, when I'm about 70-80 years old, this sort of subject will finally be recognised properly... if you're into books and other literature, the study of English (literature and language) at College or University would be a logical step. If you love music, you could go on to study the instrument(s) of your choice... if you're into films, then the recently evolved subject of Media Studies will allow you to follow your passion and appreciate films in the literary sense.

But what about if you're a gamer? I'd like to hope that there will be an old timer like me, a child of the late 60's, 70's or early 80's - now an old person, teaching the subject Games History in schools/colleges... and that will only happen if the rest of the educated world finally unbunches it's panties and sees that games have a lot more to offer, than just to waste people's time.