I'm an old, average gamer, it seems.

(yet another column)

I looked forward to interviewing Matthew Gibson of Portal. You can read the big story here, but, at the tender age of 18 he was one of 13 finalists who beat out more than 36,000 competitors to compete for the title of...

Wait for it...

Wait...

"Pokemon Emerald Ultimate Frontier Battle Brain."

No kidding. Thing is, Matthew's living proof of a way the entertainment world is changing. Chances are that if you're over 30 you picture video games as "kid stuff."

You're wrong. I used to think that at 28 I was a relative oddity - sitting at home I have, almost in order, an Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo, N64, Dreamcast, GameCube and Playstation 2.

The Genesis died long ago, and I won't have any more Microsoft in the house than is necessary.

The thing is, all my friends also have PS2s, Xboxes or Gamecubes at their houses. And they're getting ancient like me. I grew up making the transition from Atari's Pac-Man, Pitfall and (may God have mercy on my soul) E.T. to the NES' Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Brothers 2 in middle school.

High school brought the Sega cocktail of Sonic the Hedgehog, Starflight and Street Fighter II. My college years were consumed by a heady mix of Final Fantasy VII on Playstation and Goldeneye (and later Perfect Dark) on N64.

Now it's Mortal Kombat: Deception and GTA: San Andreas on the PS2 and my long-running and continuing addiction to Counter-Strike and Star Wars Galaxies on my home PC.

What's the point of the list? I actually remember each of these titles vividly, down to the most minute detail. I can recall the thrill of lasting for the entire 20 minutes on Pitfall. I can play the final music from SMB2 on piano.

I nearly cried when Aerith kicked the bucket in Final Fantasy, and some of the best times of my college career were spent at Bermuda Run's apartment L2 having the Brennaman boyz hand me my tail in Goldeneye.

They were defining moments for me, like when Grandma saw "Gone with the Wind" or when my father caught Three Dog Night at the Flame. Lots of my brain's "happy place" is filled with video games.

I'm not alone, either, though I thought I was for the longest time. Turns out that average age of video game players is 29, and the average buyer is 36 according to a study put out last year.

I'm not going to fight it any more. Video games are perfectly cool - and the gaming population is only going to get older with me.

When somebody asks me if I watched "Survivor," I'm going to tell them the truth. No, I wasn't watching the History Channel, I was working out the intricacies of Nightwolf's second style-branching combo to whoop up on people in Kombat.