The people at my work don’t look like they play games. They always talk about skiing trips, hiking treks and salsa classes. Some of them look like they’d barely know their way about an analog stick.

Yet it always surprises me when our lunch time talk turns to games; from debates over hardware and consoles to the latest and greatest titles, as well as reminiscing over old ones. (I guess it’s hard not to expect this coming from an IT environment, but I figure that we have a lower proportion of hardcore nerds compared to other companies out there.)

The push from companies to promote gaming in the mainstream is impressive. Games that I never thought would’ve taken off are overnight celebrities - Guitar Hero, Brain Training, The Sims. Game previews have moved on from the full page spreads in gaming magazines to rubbing shoulders with movie previews in the cinema. My local game stores are packed full during sale season to the point where I find it hard to move around, and the larger retailers now have whole sections dedicated to games instead of the piddly aisle or two.

And, to be perfectly honest, I would have never thought that the Wii would have taken off like it did. But it was so accessible. The learning curve was as difficult as you were proficient with handling a remote control. The interface had decreased from the 360’s imposing 10 button + two analog stick finger trap to a wand with a thumb button and a trigger.

What many adults had cast off as a bit of childhood fun has now suddenly become “socially accepted”. (Well, tell that my workmate’s newly wed wife who doesn’t want him to spend his days going “pew pew pew”.) Let’s ride the wave while we can.