jasonbutler42

I can barely remember a time when video games weren’t a part of my life. My family could barely afford a television, much less any gaming consoles, but I had lots of relatives who endured hours of me planted in front of their Nintendos. I’m approaching 30 in a few years and I recently realized that I’m still excited about some upcoming games (Spore, Wrath of the Lich King to name a few) and I asked myself if I’ll still be excited about video games when I’m 50. I mean, I don’t know anyone over 40 who is a “gamer” but I think that ’s because video games didn’t exist during the formative years for anyone over 30. Among my close circle of gamers, we all agreed that we’d still be excited, probably for the rest of our lives. I look at my grandpa who is a total gearhead; he’s still rebuilding cars in his late 60s. Video games have always been viewed as childish or immature, and now that games are become “mature” (GTA IV, Age of Conan) people (Jack Thompson) are horrified that we would take a child’s medium and pervert it for adult use.

But video games are not a children’s medium any more than animation is. I’ve tried to convince my wife that some of the most emotionally loaded films I have ever seen (Grave of the Fireflies, The Iron Giant, Jin-Roh) are animated, but she still views them as “cartoons.” One of these days I’m going to force myself to sit through Grave of the Fireflies with her and weep like a little girl just to hope it has the same impact on her. I mean, I’ll weep either way, I just hope the movie has the same effect on her.

I’m just glad to see that there are other people who are taking games seriously, even if they aren’t gamers, and that games are getting the critical attention they deserve. I would expect there to eventually be a form of Academy Awards for Games, probably when Gabe Newell retires. I think one of the keys to greater acceptance of gaming as a mainstream form of entertainment lies with the emerging social aspect of games. There was a time when I didn’t play World of Warcraft (oh those sweetly blissful days filled with ignorance of Azeroth’s wealth!) when my coworkers spoke in excited tones of conquest. They pushed the game harder than a crack dealer with kids to feed. “Have some candy little kid…” So I started playing, mostly casually, mostly on my own on a PVE server. And the game was fun, but it wasn’t the life altering methadone I’d been led to believe it was. Then I moved to a PVP server and began playing with some very close friends on a regular basis and the butterfly emerged from its chrysalis. My eyes were opened to the social dynamic of hanging out with friends. We were in a virtual environment, but getting together in meat space isn’t nearly as easy as meeting online.

Melody recently asked for memories of our favorite party. Aside from my wedding reception, my favorite parties have been the Rock Band parties that have been a regular occurrence in the last year. Rock Band is a great game in and of itself, but the game explodes with all manner of awesome when used in its intended manner – with a four piece rock band! The game is fun to watch as well as play. It’s the social aspect of team work and ribbing that takes place. I think, despite our reputation for solidarity, gamers need human contact too.

But the appeal of Rock Band extends to non-gamers as well! I’m hearing stories, and I’d love to see actual stats, that people are having Rock Band parties instead of bar hopping or trivia nights. I feel like I’ve arrived at a place where all my fantasies about what is cool are coming true. You can stop laughing, computers (and games) are cool now.