Barry: Calling time on gamers

Nov 11 2009 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

IN case you missed it, dear reader, yesterday saw the launch of the new computer game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The new shoot-em-up is expected to become the highest-selling game of all time and has had teenage boys dribbling with excitement for weeks.

Makers Activision hope to sell three million copies of Modern Warfare 2 in the UK this week.

I must confess that I’m somewhat ignorant of this latest addition to the glorious canon of Western civilisation. Being a man of 30, it’s been years since I played a computer game of any description.

I do remember as a teenager wasting immense amounts of my life playing the now ancient Championship Manager 2, an addictive football game that could just eat any amount of time you wanted.

But after a certain point I grew up and ditched the computer games, developing a healthy interest in alcohol and girls instead.

Since then, I’ve looked on “gamers" – as they like to call themselves – with pity. Many of them spend dozens of hours each week staring at a screen, shooting bad guys or slaying dragons.

Meanwhile, the opportunities of youth pass them by.

I know there’s no reason to pay attention to an old duffer like me but, seriously guys, think of the future. In 30 years’ time, are you going to look back on all those hours you spent playing computer games as the best of your lives?

Or are you going to remember them as one big waste?