As I read Dean Takahashi's Opening the Xbox: Inside Microsoft's Plan to Unleash an Entertainment
Revolution this weekend, I came across interesting bits of gaming lore that make for fun discussion here in
2005 2006. For instance, at one point, Seamus Blackley (then a Microsoft employee and evangelist for
the recently-announced Xbox) told press that games were like masturbation in that "Everybody does it, but no one
wants to admit it."
Is this still true? Do you find increasing acceptance for gaming (and for discussions of it) amongst your non-gaming friends and family, or is there still lurking disgust and fear? How long is it going to take to legitimize gaming as a viable form of entertainment that people aren't afraid to admit they enjoy? Will we really need to wait for all of the old guard to die off first?
[Image above is part of an evangelical Christian comic book designed to instruct on the evils of Dungeons and Dragons. D&D fear has largely subsided what with all of the new evils threatening to undermine society.]
Well, at least the commercials are a lot better now than they once were.
