Ranting and Raving

This past weekend the wife and I went and hung out with a colleague of mine and her husband and cousin. We had a really good time, ate some yummy buffalo burgers and corn on the cob all made up on the grill. We drank god beer and wine and had some amaretto cheesecake form Stockbridge Cheesecake. Like I said, an all and all good time.

All three of them play World of Warcraft in the same guild I am in. So needless to say we talked some shop. They also attempted to convince the wife to start playing, and might have even peaked her interest a bit. 😉

I don’t know if she is going to start playing, but that is neither hear nor there. What is interesting is what she said after we got home. She said that she couldn’t believe so many adults actually play that game. And it is true, I personally know five or ten people my age (and older) that play that game. I group up with people of the same or similar age all the time. And when you have a subscriber base of nine million, that is going to be the case. Even though it doesn’t phase me one bit to play the game and not think it weird, the statement did get me thinking. Why do so many people in my age bracket (25-34) play?

And then it dawned on me. We are the first generation of adults that were exposed to the half hour toy commercial. We grew up on G.I. Joe, Transformers, He-Man, and such. We were the generation that saw Star Wars in the theater and then saw all the ‘action figures’ in the store. And many of us pestered our parents until we got them. In my case, they were used to bribe me to sit still while mom was shopping. We are the generation of Atari, Coleco, Nintendo, Sega, Playstation. We are the generation that has Robotech Mechs and action figures in our cubicles. We are the generation that goes to comic cons dressed like said characters. To us, playing video games IS normal. Many haven’t cut out sports or physical activity, but at the same time we do not think twice about firing up a game console or logging onto the PC to kill some krauts, quest some gold, or hunt some demons. It is ingrained in us that it is okay to do this. And the generations after us won’t even look at it as we do. It will be completely normal to them. As are cellphones and computers and the internet.

It’s a bit strange being in the generation that saw so much change. I wonder if this happens to every generation or only to certain ones?