Generation Y refers to people born during the 80s, and generation Z refers to people born during the 90s. Older generations (generations V and W?) tend to think videogames are designed for kids (people under 14). With this world-vew, it’s understandable that they are surprised when they hear about games like Grand Theft Auto. Coincidentally, the generation V and W people are the people in power, which is why politicians actually take the idea of banning violent videogames seriously, as opposed to dismissing it as the views of the senile, out of touch with the world as it exists today.

I remember asking for Final Fantasy VII for Christmas, so I must have been around 16 at the time. My parents bought it, but it was marked as being my younger brother’s gift, and he was given priority for playing it over me, because I was “too old” for videogames.

A lot of gaming blogs I follow celebrate the milestones that the gaming community have achieved. Ars Technica, for example, writes “Last night’s episode of Late Night provided a look at Punch-Out, an interview with Morgan Webb, and a look at Ice-T’s Xbox Live habits. Has Jimmy Fallon finally brought gaming to the mainstream on television?” A lot of the blogs portray this as a battle, much like women winning the right to vote was a battle. But I think a better analogy would be to compare “videogames going mainstream” to a glacier.

A battle implies effort from its members, but a glacier just naturally moves forward over time. Videogames are going mainstream not because of any particular efforts of gaming advocate, but simply because the “anti-videogame” crowd are dying of old age. When Gen-Y gets into power, the politicians will be people who grew up with videogames being somewhat geeky, but very common. When Gen-Z gets into power, the politicians will be people for whom gaming consoles always existed (since their parents were gamers), a normal family activity between parent and child, and to whom the idea of a family without a console is as strange as a family without a TV or a telephone is to Gen-Xers.