From the time I was old enough to start playing any kind of video games, way back in the 1970s to be exact, I was keenly aware of the joy that gaming brought me.  Even the very primitive (by today’s standards) Pong, a game that had a sort of deck accessory that had to be connected to a television set and played using paddles, delighted me to no end.  Back then of course I could not have seen what lay ahead in the world of gaming, how advanced modern consoles would become.  

Even the simple games that I have on my iPhone an iPad are leagues greater than the games of those early years.  Back then, even Paper Toss would have been a work of technological wizardry  – and now we have App Store games from great companies like Zynga and the makers of Infinity Blade.  Speaking of which, Infinity Blade 2 veritably rocks on the iPhone 4S, just in case you haven’t checked it out.  The graphics are stunning, and game play very smooth.  I can’t believe sometimes what we can now do with our small, portable devices.

Hand held gaming is just as popular today as console gaming — and fewer people each year are sticking to the old geeky format of PC gaming.  I have to admit, I still have a soft spot in my heart for a game that I can run on my Macbook Pro, using all the various keys instead of a game controller to make things happen on screen.  I think there are probably a lot of people who share my sentiments on that point, but we are, admittedly, an increasingly endangered species of gamer.

My latest foray into PC gaming has been the Dragon Age series with its many add-ons, incredible graphics, and engaging storyline.  Game design theorists spend countless hours researching the importance of plot in RPGs.  To me, a game with a plot that changes based on my choices is far more intriguing than a game that plays the same old way for any bloke who plays it start to finish.  As an RPG fan, I really enjoy the feedback I get from seeing results of my actions and choices in game.  It makes my character more three dimensional and keeps me wanting to return.

Without gaming, I just don’t know where I’d be.  It helps me in so many ways to be able to flee for a few hours a week to some other world.  What do you think?