Will games ever be considered a "legitimate" pastime?

The other day I was skimming through one of my game forum watering holes, and I was struck by a post that was titled something along the lines of "Do you think you will still be gaming in 10 years?"

Wondering if this was a post about the death of all games or the coming of the end of the world in 2012, Mayan style, I clicked on it to find out.

It turned out to be a post about gaming when you "grow up".
The poster was a college kid and he was writing how he could not see himself still playing games in 10 years.
It just didn't seem "appropriate" to him that a 30 year old, probably with a family and job, would be playing video games.

This is still the kind of image that pops into many peoples head when they hear the words "video game"

This got me thinking about video games and their place in the culture of our modern day society (Because my brain likes to over think things like that).

Video games today are around 35-40 years old as a mainstream thing that people play in their homes.
It's old enough that we have at least one or two generations that have grown up with video games being a part of pop culture and are old enough to have kids of their own.
This means that a large chunk of the population should have at least a vague idea about what video games are, and that there is more to video games than Doom or Mario.

The video game industry has become extremely large and now brings in more revenue than the movie or music industry.
So by sheer economical weight you could also argue that video games should be taken at least as serious as music or a movie.

Both these points should mean that video games could take its place as accepted media, and as acceptable for adults to spend time on, as watching a movie or listening to an album.

But posts such as the one I found in this popular game forum seem to indicate that there is still a considerable issue with the image of games as something that is okay for adult people to spend time on.

This makes me wonder, if video games are bound for an eternal life of derision by non-gamers, who will likely always make up the majority of the population.
The simple fact that video games require actual user interaction limits the appeal it is going to have, as there are always going to be a lot of people that simply do not wish to spend time engaging with a medium, but prefer the passive consumption that is provided by books, movies, music and so on.

Perhaps video games will end up being lumped into the "childish" pile that it seems comic books are also trapped in.
While the modern comic book has been around for pretty much as long as movies, it is still considered very much a "kids" or "nerd" interest and not really accepted as a medium that can be used for telling "mature" stories as well as stories for younger audiences.

My hope is that the proliferation of games in our society, which we see in the success of Facebook games and games for smart phones, will gradually open the eyes of the general public and make them realize that gaming can be fun, no matter what age you are.
And that there are as many different types of games as there are types of music or movies, and some are more deep and well thought out than others.

Perhaps more "artistic" games such as Flower and Journey will also help non-gamers see that games also exist that are not about killing monsters or earning the biggest high score.

We can only hope that this is the way that the public opinion is moving.
But no matter what, I know for certain that as I pass onto the other side of the big three-zero, I will continue to game as enthusiastically as ever and I don't think I'll ever stop being a Gamer.




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