As I've grown up, I've seen the people around me slowly give up gaming. Some of these people were once serious gamers, but now as they move on to college, get a job, perhaps find a special someone, they've decided that games just aren't for them. And they religiously carry out their decision. Game systems that once were used very much by them are sold;plans to buy a system in the future are scrapped;considerations for getting a new laptop do not include one that can play games (and even if they got one that could, none would be installed). As I said, some of these people were once serious gamers. But now I see how serious they really were.

It was telling the other day when I watched my brother replay the final boss of Metroid Prime 2. He lost to it miserably. He was once a great gamer, but, a couple years ago, became one of those that decides games are not for him (the last game he played was Twilight Princess for the Gamecube). At younger ages, I was the one who never finished games and got stuck at boss fights or hard levels all the time. Whereas my brother completed every game 100%. Now here he was, a once great gamer, a once mastermind of all the Metroid games, getting wiped out by a boss that he should have easily beat, and that once upon a time he did. But now he didn't even know what he was doing. Then something clicked inside him and he realized he was breaking his decision to not play games anymore, and so he quit, saying he was wasting his time. He handed the controller to me and went to his desk (he had no homework). I beat the boss easily. I had fun, too- I certainly didn't feel I was wasting time.

What I realized then was that I am the only one I know who still games. I do it because I enjoy it. The people around me would enjoy it too, but they see gaming as some attack on their 'new life' that began when they graduated from high school. Movies stay, music stays, books stay, TV stays-but games go. Why them, of all things? Perhaps they are falling for the school of thought that games ruin you, sort of like alcohol. For them, games became something to give up, something to be ashamed of. I don't feel that way at all.

After all these years where my brother and I and our friends have been gamers to the heart, I have become the last gamer standing. I don't plan on ever giving it up-just like I wouldn't give up movies or books. It's just something in my life. I also, like many, would like to get into the game industry. People around me scoff when I say this, but it's just what I'm interested in.

Maybe it's where I live. But I see this trend of giving up games and even avoiding them happening all around me. As for me, I still game.