"Videogames are for kids!"

Hey, gamers.
I'm sure if you had a dollar for every time someone insinuated (or blatantly throws at you) that videogames are childish or just bad in some way, you'd probably have enough money to buy a PS4 or Xbox One.

There are many ways people can try to make videogames seem bad. Usually people who are trying to find something to blame for society's disfunctionalities. Games like GTA will make you go on a killing spree just as much as watching the movie Casino will make you go plant a bomb at a car. It's truly sad to know that there are places where some content has been censored or even entire games banned.

Gamers are becoming more common each day. Maybe there was a time when it was reasonable to assume that most videogame players would be young. Not because they were childish (you don't need a certain age to get addicted to old games like Pac-Man, or Space Invaders), but because the common scenario would be a parent buying a console. This is just a theory of mine, but think about it; during the 70s and 80s (think Odyssey, Atari 2600, ColecoVision, etc.), when the game industry was nowhere near as big as it is now, most people with enough money to buy consoles would be adults, who would usually have families. Even though games would appeal to anyone, kids would be the ones with enough free time to really get into them. Also, older people would be already used to other hobbies, while adults today already have a console or interest in getting one.
The average gamers' age is above 30, so a lot of them probably play since at least the NES, which is when Nintendo practically saved the market from the ´83 videogame crash.

It's funny to grow up hearing that games are for kids and eventually you realize you are not a kid anymore and you still like them.

Something similar happens regarding women. Not only do some people say games are for children, but specifically for boys. The beautiful fact is that there are actually more adult women players than boys.
Every girl I know who has access to a console in their house has enjoyed playing quite several games, and I'm talking about either young or adult. They also get comfortable when they play, just like everyone else does, contrary to what some people picture them.

Expectation and reality.

Now that the game industry has grown (quite a lot!) in both reach and age, people are starting to accept them as something more universal, rather than an expensive toy. I am very glad with how games have evolved so much that each year it seems more and more plausible for videogaming to become an art. You know, people also laughed at the possibility of movies becoming an art, at first. ;)

"You don't stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing."