In the 1950’s and 1960’s a gamer would be one who played board games such as Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, Cards and Dominoes. Or they would be someone who played games outside like, ‘Two Balls, Kingie, Kick- the- ball -against -the –wall and the tennis equivalent; not forgetting Hop-scotch or ‘Tiggy-It’. I remember skipping individually as well as in a long line. Leap Frog was also very popular as were hand stands or swinging from a bar. Going to the park playground and enjoying the swings, the slide and the roundabout with the best of all being the spider’s web! Try to hold onto that if you dare when it was swirling a full speed! Such excitement and thrills we had! Children also played on their bikes, roller skates as well as imaginary games based on famous TV shows and simple genres like school, house and shops. All of these activities were common place for youngsters but nowadays these activities seem tame and uninteresting to some of our young. We have come a long way from those days, what with compute games and play stations. There are so many computer games out there at the moment that my mind boggles. You can create your own virtual realms in Sims or create new buildings in the popular Mine Craft. You can race against each other in fast cars or ski at breathtaking speeds on mountain tops. You can collect artefacts to help you on your way and move through varying levels of difficulty and strategise battles between alien or fantasy creatures. I recently watched an episode of The Gadget Show, which took a look at the ‘Call of Duty’ franchise in America. WOW! How games have evolved! The ‘Call of Duty’ games are so popular now that they have their own convention; real life situations played out with fans dressing up, using paint ball guns and playing out scenes from the online game! Just looking at the number of people in the audience where the CEO of the company gave details of the new release game was staggering. Gaming conventions have hundreds of computers lined up in rows where people of different ages play against the game and each other. There are YouTube aficionados who make a living out of playing games online, whilst commentating on how they play a particular level; with people watching how they do it and learning from them. These people have become icons and only if you live in this world can you really appreciate the mega-stardom that they have achieved. Yes, we really have come a long way from the games of my youth and except for the solitary status of many of the games and the isolation that this can cause for our youngsters in particular, plus the lack of outdoor exercise that is lost; they are phenomenal pieces of entertainment, which are easily accessible to the public. I have to admit that they do fascinate me and I applaud anyone who can make sense of these games; maybe one of my New Year’s Resolutions will be to try one!! There is no doubt in my mind that I will be useless and with my special technological powers I could bring the system down! Gamers be afraid; be very afraid! LOL Thought for the day: You are never too old to set a new goal.
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