a time without video games

Do you remember a time when video games weren't part of every household yet? I sure do.

When I was a kid, I went outside every afternoon to play with other kids. I knew all the games and I got really good at playing some of them after awhile. I remember my dad buying JR and I our first Nintendo but at that time, Nintendo was still pretty new and we thought it was so expensive back then. Eventhough we had our Nintendo, we still went outside every afternoon to play and we'd only start playing video games after dinner. Around the time Miguel was born, video games were becoming increasingly popular and so were PCs. I think I was 11 years old when my parents bought our first computer at home. Even then, PCs weren't part of every household and we thought only the rich had internet. Of course PCs became increasingly popular and soon enough almost everyone I knew in school had one at home and ICQ was the "in" thing. I remember having an ICQ number as a piece of identification as opposed to having a username. It used to bug me because I kept forgetting my friends' ICQ numbers and always found myself writing them down somewhere. After ICQ, Mirc became popular and eventually we were introduced to YM. When I think about it, I still can't believe how amazingly fast it grew in popularity. In a span of only a few years, the internet became so big and now almost everyone has access to it and you can find almost anything on the net. Now, I can't even imagine life without the internet let alone a PC.

Anyhow, back to what I was originally saying (sorry, got a bit sidetracked there), when Miguel was still young, we used to worry that he wasn't interacting with other kids so much because he was always in front of the computer if not the TV. My parents used to worry that he wasn't developing his social skills. Sure, he would go out to play but not as much as JR and I used to. He would only play outside when he felt like it but most of the time he'd rather go online and play. He turned out ok but sometimes I still wonder whether he had the sort of childhood JR and I had. I wonder what comes to his mind when he thinks about his childhood.

I hope no matter how popular video games are and no matter how "real" the games may seem, that children still go out to play with their friends. There are so many things to learn and discover between friends through different activities. Even though people can talk over the internet while they play RPGs, it's still different compared to having the person right there in front of you.

I must admit that I love paying online games too but nothing beats spending quality time with a friend.