For most of my life, I’ve played video games. I still remember the day, in the late 70’s, when I went to this little strip mall where my mom bought me bought my first pair of Hulk Underoos. I couldn’t have been much older than 7, but there was this little electronics store that showed a demo of little dots, bleeps and bloops on the screen and I was fascinated. I had to have one. It was this amazing technical wonder called the Atari 2600. It played graphical heavy games such as Pong, Space Invaders and Yar’s Revenge.

I often tell my friends that I might be the first generation of old guys that are still playing video games in their retirement facilities. I tell my kids if I ever get dementia, just plop me on a couch, with a controller and turn on the XBox and I will just sit in front of the TV playing games, whether I’m playing them or not.

I play with some 3 friends online, one who is my brother-in-law and his two friends from college, who are now my friends. None of them live nearby, but we get together weekly over video game chat, and we have formed a cohort. I didn’t even know what that meant until this week, when I kept hearing it over and over again. Apparently it means a group of people supporting the same thin, or a division of the Roman legion, normally a group of about 500 men. I will let you guess which one we are.

When I was growing up, there was a stigma involved with playing video games. In the 80’s, parents actually thought that video games were dangerous and could melt their brains. Some parents even thought that the reason why kids were so violent was because they played violent video games. It turns out that games in general and video games, specially have a lot of benefits. As you can tell, they’ve been beneficial to me, as a way to create friends or a way to communicate with friends that are far away. My son has been able to keep in contact with one of his childhood friends in Seattle through video games.

Growing up, there were limited ways to make a career out of video games. It was either work for Nintendo or Atari, and that was about it. Now there are multiple ways to have a career in gaming. Theer are Twitch streamers, competitive video game leagues, and thousands of ways to get digital games. You have the more traditional ways, such as the console or on PC, but now phones and tablets are powerful enough to run sophisticated games, and there are even VR and AR games.

My mother-in-law used to say I played video games too much, but ironically she probably played more than I did. She just didn’t acknowledge that playing Solitaire and Backgammon on the computer were considered video games.

In trying to beef up my case against imaginary court case called Bitter Ben vs. The United States of America, I read a book called Reality is Broken, Why Games Make Us Better and How They can Change the World. The entire premise of the book shows benefit after benefit of games in general, but video games specifically and how they have and will continue to change the world.

That’s a long way from the dangerous threat they were to kids when I was growing up. She noted dozens of examples of how games helped to build communities (or cohorts), solved problems, and created new solutions for things they couldn’t do any other way. There are even studies that show that playing games helps ward off dementia by keeping the mind sharp because games make you problem solve and persevere.

And before any of you criticize me like my mother in law, just remember, most of you play games on your phone, even if it is just Candy Crush or some other time waster while you’re waiting in line somewhere.

Don’t be ashamed of your video games, because you might be lucky enough to find your cohort out there, that shares your love of slaying dragons, Calling Your Duty, or Crushing Candy. And the best part is that you have the game in common and don’t have to worry about all those silent lulls.

Here are some visual examples of what I just talked about…

The best way to bond with a male stranger…

It takes care of…

You always have something…

It also allows you to build…

Or your…

I keep telling everyone that I’ll be the first generation…

I tell my kids that if I get dementia…

Though I probably won’t get dementia…

Games help people stay in touch…

In case you are my court opponent in Bitter Ben vs….

And we have built many cohorts…

And we will use Candy Crush to make this…

ARRRGGGHHHHH

Bitter Cohort Ben