Ever since I was but a wee lad, my parents have been saying the same thing about my gaming habit : "it's just a phase, it will pass".

I've been playing games for nine years now (got a late start by financing my own Snes when I was twelve) and I've never stopped or even slowed down. Why not? Videogames are just like any other toy, aren't they? Well... yes and no. But we went over that yesterday.

Why do I think I'll still be playing games in thirty years time? Well, as I've grown up (I'm 21 now) the games I play have grown up as well, and are starting to rival books and films for depth and complexity. And I think they'll continue to do so.

Of course, when I've reached that fabled state of "having settled down" in my life, I'll have to cut down on my solitary gaming, at least. But by the time that situation comes around, the games industry will have found ways to make playing an RPG with two or more players just as rewarding as watching a film.

Sir Farren, hopeful for the future.

Do I see myself gaming in 20 or 30 years? Yes.

What I don't see myself doing is playing RPGs. Even now, I play more Quake than Final Fantasy. It's a sad state of affairs, but it all comes down to the reason that's been cited over and over and OVER again in this column: time. Specifically, the lack of it.

Twenty years from now, if all goes according to plan, I'll have even less time than I do now. Really long, involved games with plots that can't even stand against airport literature dime novels just won't be that high a priority. Now, if an RPG comes out that borders on art, that is mature and well-written and interesting, I may consider it.

But until then, action games loaded with eye candy are going to be more and more common fare. When I'm 40 with a wife, 3.2 kids and a dog named Spot, even a half hour of blowing people into little bloody gibblets in Quake 27 is going to be hard to fit in edgewise.

-Eightball, thanking God for summer vacation and the time it gives him to play RPGs

I think that anybody with enough interest to visit The GIA will still be playing games to some degree in 20 years. We're just attracted to them, and to imagine the progression over that period, I'd be scared if I wasn't at least a tiny bit interested. (Think, in the past twenty years, we jumped from Pong to MGS 2, and now the world is even more in the technology mindset as a whole.) Even if it is just fifteen minutes with the kids before soccer practice, we'll all still play. We're just carrying the torch on to the next generation.

But the thing I'd most like to see would be how the so-called "hardcore" gamers turn out. Nobody can say for sure, but I bet it'll be a lot like Steve-O's realization about anarchy in the end of SLC Punk. Sure, that lifestyle can be fun and seem like the only right choice to you, but, eventually, you have to move on and do something with your life. It happens to everybody, and I doubt that it'd pass by them. Yup.

- Water Buffalo

-If anything,
Blackmoxa

And you can bet your clenching rosebud anus I will be playing games. I can only dream of the kind of consoles that might well exist by then, or what interfaces.

Games are absolutely wonderful, and their potential is infinite. Gaming is as valid a lifestyle as any other, whatever the monkeys out their may imagine important, or ridiculous. What matters in the scoring of life is not what is done, but how much one loves what one does do. I will be doing games....and maybe in 2031, they will be doing me right back. It will be....glorious!

Jennifer Diane Reitz
Otakuworld.com

Is it just me, or is it that a lot of us gamers have more fond memories of the consoles of our youth because . . . they lasted longer?

Let me elaborate. When I was in eighth grade, I got a Sega Master System. However, a couple years later I got a Sega Genesis. Now, most of my videogaming memories are of . . . the Genesis. Why? When I run up the tally in my head, I had that console, and nothing else, for about SEVEN years. BTW I'm a one-console kinda guy. Couldn't afford bunches and bunches of consoles, nor the games to play on them.

Now that's seven years of playing, maybe not every day, and not marathon sessions every time I pick the controller up, but enough to say I played and beat probably between fifty and sixty games, including a BUNCH of RPGs. When I finally took in my stash of Genesis/Sega CD games into GameFellas at Barton Creek Mall, I got enough store credit that it only cost me $20 to buy a used Saturn and two games -- a used copy of Nights and a brand-spankin'-new copy of Shining the Holy Ark (which had only been out a week or two). That's GAMES. Not hardware. I kept it to play Lunar and Lunar 2 (although said hardware was later stolen, never to be heard from again).

Seven years of Genesis. Now, the Playstation is five years old (I've had mine for three) and I'm looking at PS2. It's not that I'm unhappy with my games as they are today (I'm nearly obsessive over Medal of Honor), but today I can't imagine how I owned a Genesis and never thought of it as "outdated", "inadequate," or "too old." I burn (well, smoulder maybe) with envy at my friends who had the cash to preorder PS2s and games, and now talk about Twisted Metal Black, SSX, and the like. Meanwhile, I scheme for the day I too will have one of my own. With Red Faction, Cookies and Cream, and whatever the heck they call the US release of Devil and I.

Sorry this post is so long. Hope I didn't strain your eyes too hard.

Lucas

I don't anticipate spending very much time playing videogames as I age. The time I spend will dwindle as the years pass until it reaches a minimum (but perhaps non-zero) point. I might play a round of Crazy Taxi 17 or a little Metal Gear Solid 10 for fun, but I don't think I'll be playing the Final Fantasy available at the time. I'm not sure why, but this doesn't bother me in the least. It's probably because I know that in 30 years I'll have a lot more to do with my time. Videogames have, and always will be, just a hobby for me, not life itself. I know that I CAN comfortably retire videogames to mere memory without great injury to my general life. Life is, after all, a set of all possibilities out of which we somehow choose a few and experience them in a certain path. It makes sense to eliminate some choices, but I think that as time progresses I'll realize that there are many possibilities that need to be explored. Maybe I'll finally have the time to scratch off those pesky little items on my "To do" list like learn guitar, purchase all those Lego Blacktron sets, visit every major roller coaster in the US, have something published...If not that, at least I'll spend more time interacting with people who matter to me when I'm 49 rather than interacting with the next Squaresoft hero or heroine. Chances are, though, I'll still read this column.

-Gizmo

Well now, what sorts of gaming habits will I have in 20-30 years? That's an interesting question. I think I should start with some of my gaming habits now as I'm about to turn 29 (it's legit - this is the first time I'm turning 29 I swear! ^_^) and may exhibit some of the habits others are wondering about. I'm married, have a 3 year old and we're expecting another baby in about a month. And I still find time to play games.

Fortunately, my wife is tolerant of my hobby and occasionally joins in. We're currently waging quite the war over Klonoa 2 to see who can get through it first, who can collect all 150 gems on a level first and other assorted skirmishes. She enjoys helping me through the latest Square RPG and her Puzzle Fighter skills are not to be looked down on. (Although my DDR skills far surpass her rhythmically challenged attempts.)

So gaming is a family affair. My daughter is curious to know what exactly is happening to Klonoa 2 (I can't convince her his name is just Klonoa) and she wants to know why Lolo is sad. We also occasionally let her do a little kart racing with Crash and friends. I tend to not play a lot unless something comes out that just grips us and doesn't let go. The aforementioned Klonoa game has done that. My wife has taken to playing it while our daughter naps and I play in the evenings with my family there enjoying each new bit (or mocking my terrible boarding skills). We occasionally share tricks and tips - but not too much lest the war is lost. FF IX took a long time to go through because it just didn't catch our interest that fast (and the strategy guide sucked), but it was an enjoyable experience nonetheless. FF VII is making a comeback though after watching the FF movie...

Games like the upcoming Silent Hill 2 and MGS2 will be played either late at night (in the case of MGS2) when our daughters are asleep, or while my wife finds something else for them to do (in the case of Silent Hill 2 - she hated the first one and from what we've seen of the second one...)

So, that's gaming in the late 20's and the 30's. What about the 50's and 60's? I suspect I'll still be at it, or maybe getting back into it as more time frees itself. I think I'll even be dancing around on the latest rhythm game. The kids will be grown up and hopefully out on their own, so the time will belong much more to my wife and I. I think some of our old rivalries will fire up again. Puzzle Fighter (or its latest equivalent) will come back into its own as we once again trash talk the other. There will be a few periods in between now and then where our time for gaming will wane, but the prospect of something special will occasionally find its way into our free time. (I don't care if I have a newborn, I'm getting Ico!)

So, what will change? Not much in my opinion. I'll still enjoy gaming, and while I won't try to get every new release, the few titles that really appeal to us will still occupy our time.

Drew