The Power of Us

Question of the Day: What Games Do You Play?

Posted by on Dec 9, 2008 in Games | 1 comment

The Pew Internet & American Life project released a new study today that said “More than half – 53% – of all American adults play video games of some kind, whether on a computer, on a gaming console, on a cell phone or other handheld device, on a portable gaming device, or online.”

I play video games, and have all my life. Growing up, I played Asteroids on my Commodore 64, mastered Super Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda, and Ice Hockey on a Nintendo NES, spent hours with Sonic the Hedgehog and John Madden Football on my Sega Genesis, and literally burned out multiple Gameboys.  Today, I bowl on my Wii, play air hockey on my iPhone, and stay sharp with Brain Age on my Nintendo DS.

My life playing video games is pretty straightforward.  I love gaming, but have never devoted the time or energy to it that true gamers do.  After all, there are millions of games to play and whole communities and sub-cultures connected to gaming.  I have visited them, lurked for a bit, but never joined.

So, the question of the day: What games do you play?

More importantly, have your game habits changed over time — and if so, how?  If you don’t play games, why not?  And whether you play or not, what do you think of games, and the role they play in our society (for better or worse)?

Let me hear it.

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Brian Reich

Brian Reich

Brian is Managing Director of little m media which provides strategic guidance and support to organizations around the use of the internet and technology to facilitate communications, engagement, education, and mobilization.

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  • http://www.wemedia.com Andrew Nachison

    I’m not a huge gamer, never have been. As a kid I had an Atari console with pong and I still remember fondly how we hooked it up to the TV with some sort of dongle attached to the antenna inputs. I was in high school when Space Invaders was the rage, and Pac Man, but I never wanted to dump my quarters into the arcades. I always loved Pole Position, a driving game.

    Now – my kids lead the charge with our Wii, which followed GameCube. Guitar Hero and Rock Band are favorites right now, and the internal campaign has launched to move on to Guitar Hero World Tour. An endless variety of Marios show up. The graphics in Mario Galaxy are spectacular, but I can’t stand the music. Just writing that sent the blasted tune into my head. Wii Fit is a blast – and I like the basic bowling, golf and tennis.

    The next horizon is Spore – my 7-year-old has amassed an army of nearly 200 creatures with Spore Creator.