One of the reasons I wrote my own website is so I don't have to hear all this shit, and you don't either (except this page). Instagram, fakebook, YouTube, the fucking NEWS...every other week "gaming is the most unsexy hobby" "middle-aged man children play video games" "shouldn't you be working on your investment portfolio instead of playing Nintendo" "you should be playin' that pussy like you play video games" - it's fucking stupid, sometimes to a hilarious degree. Yeah, my generation plays video games at 40. It's bad enough I have to listen to the demented orange man on TV half the damn time, then poorly resolutioned debates on gun violence, and more assorted stupid rage-bait I'm supposed to burn the shit off of to find what's actually useful about it.

The #1 problem as a middle-aged gamer, is that society thinks that past a certain age, you need to become a boring person only interested in the practical and aesthetically risky. This is largely because of the other stupid belief everyone should have kids to replace themselves with. Basically, by the time you are 40, you're supposed to have some teenage children driving you nuts with their video games, while you whine and complain about your car payment, mortgage, investment portfolio, the president (uh, who ISN'T right now who has more than one braincell and an IQ above room temp), and household chores (uh...I DID write an entire diatribe on a Kirby Vacuum from 1980) - but this doesn't need to be my whole friggin life. And I don't have kids, so it's not a problem.

The way I see it on the kids thing. Some of us are ambassadors to the past from the future, and the rest of us are the keepers of the old hardware and software with the skills to maintain them. If I had a kid, I couldn't have the time or inclination to pick up a soldering iron or use a multimeter. I'd be too busy trying to figure out how to buy my kid a goddamn PS5 for christmas! I'm one of the people who will be a part of the reason YOUR kid can still find a 1978 Heavy Sixer in 50 years when they suddenly get curious about Atari games from the 1980's. And it's not like we don't have nieces/newphews anyway who might get into our stuff. My adult capabilites with my "childish" activities are keeping a lot of gaming hardware and software alive well past it's sell-by date.

The second one is that gaming is un-sexy. Typically, this is aimed at guys. And to be honest, in my hindsight, if I was suddenly single tomorrow, you couldn't pay me enough money to go back to the dating scene. I'd just put a ring on my Jag-Stang instead! The problem is too many women out there are too concerned with society's views on shit, and not enough of them are standing with the true femimists like Joan Jett to say "fuck you, I'm doing my thing, and you can get lost". And honestly, I have some experiences with Nintendo and romantic times so this is total horse shit, you're just dating the wrong women guys.

The problem in part, lies with men. We tend to silo our amorous behaviors strictly to our desires for a specific kind of attention, without considering that this person, if in a serious relationship with them, need to SHARE some level of mutual interest. If you were more obessed with high scores than high body counts, maybe you'd land somebody you can stomach beyond the bedroom.

And through this behavior, we pick up women who are not exactly what I'd consider a good candidate for us gamers. We end up with some plastic-candy-princess dragging us through nightclubs, berating us just like the "adulting" crowd does, and trying to keep us from our activities as much as possible because "you're not a kid". Because of another fallacy, these thigns are only for kids...

Video Games and Cartoons share a lot with each other. Cartoons originally were "bumpers" of sorts to regular movies, and often adult themed. You mean to tell me that "Bettie Boop" was for little kids when the whole entire basis of the comedy is her attractive nature vs. everything else? THAT is where it started. Then the "system" as it is, took this and thought, "ooh, we could sell this to little kids, and we'll get massive TV ratings", and next thing you know, it's sanitized for kids, and to the lamestream, becomes merely FOR little kids.

Video Games did the same thing. Originally, PONG was put in Andy Capps Tavern - ie, let's drink alcohol and then go home (and it was customary per Nolan Bushnell for ladies to use Pong as an excuse to show interest in a guy BTW), and the Magnavox Odyssey had ADULTS in a lot of it's ad footage, indicating it was a FAMILY activity. Up through the early era of the Atari 2600, Video Games were a FAMILY activity, or for all ages.

Then, sometime in the early-mid 1980's, it turned from a family activity to a "kids" activity. I believe this has to do with the same shit we're living with Trump Now. Under Republican Presidents, I've noticed something, that Corporations get away with a whole hell of a lot more subversive shit than they do under democrats. I'm not saying the Democrats are good too, but it does seem they at least somewhat (just barely) partially reel in Corporate bullshit. The Regan years were the years of "hey, we have this big franchise popular with the kids, let's make toys, dolls, books, schools stationary, shoes, shirts, monetize the aboslute fuck out of it, and the parents can't do shit about it, because we'll run an ads on TV between the cartoons for our cash cows" - I think it started with Pac-Man, and grew with Mario and Sonic in the late 80's/early 1990's.

That's where we get the picture on the left at the top of this page from. Your "cool" 1988 mullet and rat tailed Capcom fanboy! He's got Chip N' Dale on his NES on his TV, a Capcom poster on his wall, probably has a Mega Man Lunch Box, eats from the Nintendo System Cerial every morning, sleeps on Little Nemo sheets, and probably has a arm-gun thingy to pretend he's Mega Man during games of war outside.

We adult gamers are perceived as we are still that kid on the left side, just grown up...just slap on a beard, make the Nintendo yellowed, and maybe put a stack of just barely percievable as pr0n tapes next to the TV...maybe toss a Hair Metal poster for some extra "immaturaty cred" on the wall, and boom, you have the dumbass asthetic the lamestream wants to project - the same people who say they are "adulting" because they don't feel "fully adult".

But it's really more the right side...you don't even see me, because this shit doesn't consume my life, it's just another thing I can do when it's too hot outside to build guitars, I don't have a range visit budgeted into my expenses yet, the cars are all fixed, the house is clean, and I'm tired from a busy week at work. So what does my sleepy 43 year old ass do? Plop down and play some Dragon Warrior while half-asleep....make madcap creations in Drive Beyond Horizons, because that's what I enjoy doing. Wanna' kill some time while the wife gets ready, SPACE INVADERS! Some people listen to Waterfall sounds by Enya....I prefer 8-bit Koichi Sugiyama soundtrack with a story by Yuji Horii.