Week 16! Haven't you noticed? We've been sharing our culture with you all morning.

I wouldn't say I'm a really a gamer. I tend to drift in and out of phases of playing on a fairly regular basis and then not playing anything for months at a time. For instance at the moment I am playing quite a few games down to the fact that I have only in the last few months, come into possession of an Xbox 360, prior to this change in console related circumstances however when all I had vent to my video game playing urge was a PlayStation 2, don't get me wrong, a much loved console but by this time well past it, in my fickle eyes, It was a shadow of its former self sitting under my TV probably ranting in a drunken state to all the other electrical appliances about how it used to be somebody.

The thing that appeals to me in gaming is the escapism and with this in mind when i am in the grip of the game playing phase I do tend to get engrossed and it then can sort of become a distraction.

As for the game culture as a whole I suppose I have noticed change. Fairly recently on my last few visits to the cinema their have been big dramatic, cinematic trailers on the big screen for a few highly anticipated game releases. This i dont think was something that happended a few years back so I think there has been a cultural shift and as games are becoming more sophisticated they are not just considered a pass time of the geek.