It never ceases to amaze me. It wasn't too long ago when 'gamers' were the not so cool kids. It was almost frowned upon, as if you were this super class of geek.  It's funny though as the casual space has grown, and the Wii has taken off, almost everyone I encounter plays games to some degree. Though some don't immediately recognize it, almost everyone is playing Bejeweled on their cell phone, poker online, Wii Tennis, etc. It's just so common.

Well, for the past week or so I've been sick with a respiratory infection and decided it was time to head to the doctors before things got worse. I shouldn't have said it. I shouldn't have told them. Right there on my patient form - Occupation: game developer. As luck (luck? Its a majority at this point) would have it my 40+ year old family practice doctor loved to play games. He's a self proclaimed 'gamester'. Needless to say, the line I seem to hear from everybody came right out. "I've always had this great idea for a game". I imagine it's the same response a shrink might solicit. Needless to say, my doc has a Wii and loves it. And well, he had played this awesome game at Chuky Cheese's and thought it would be great for the Wii. Well, I gotta say, it is a bit cool to see everyday folk drawing simple conclusions about interactive media. The Wii just makes it so easy to envision how an everyday game could be translated into a digital one. But then again, you start spouting numbers on development costs and timelines and everyone thinks your crazy. No way will it take that much to produce a game. How could making a game cost as much as an sub Hollywood film?

In the end, I think we talked more about video games than my health. Eh, it was good to just get out of house. And really, the day your doctor can hold a serious conversation about games - well, thats just cool. Time are changing.

It's that time of year again. GDC is near. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it but I'm really looking forward to the keynotes, mainly Microsoft's to see whats in store for the Xbox 360 and XNA. I'm sure it'll be good.