Last year in the UK, video games topped the list of entertainment purchases with sales reaching £4bn. This was more than the total sales for DVD’s and CD’s combined and wiped the floor with Hollywood competition with more than four times cinema box office takings. Illustrating the demand for video games, Grand Theft Auto VI grossed $310m within 24 hours of its release last year whilst Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows earned only $220m in the same timeframe.

A  lesbian couple in Australia took their love of gaming from the living room to the altar with a gamers wedding. The couple played the game Rock Band rather than having a hen party, the wedding was themed around the video game Portal and they posed for their wedding pics with Nintendo DS consoles.

You can check out more photos here. I hope they left the consoles out of the bedroom on the wedding night!?!

There used to be a perception that video gamers were nerdy spotty young guys in darkened room playing Super Mario Bros. until their fingers locked in position. The gaming industry has spent big bucks to change this perception. Advancements in computer graphics now means we see eye-popping TV adverts with heart pumping music and action which we’ve previously only seen for movie trailers. New consoles such as the Nintendo DS have provoked a change in thinking as to what computer gaming is. Gone are the days of people playing Pac Man. Your games console can now help improve your memory, your IQ and even help you make dinner. Celebrities of all ages have been recruited to showcase new consoles and games again trying to entice people to put down the TV remote and pick up a console. Gaming is now becoming cool….well cooler at least.Of course as the gaming industry becomes more powerful people and more people settle down to ‘’get their game on”, various group have questioned the cultural impact of gaming. Hilary Clinton, for example, is quoted as asking:

“What kind of values are we promoting when a child can walk into a store and find video games where you win based on how many people you can kill or how many places you can blow up?”

However a recent report from the Entertainment Software Association shows that in the USA shows that the average gamer is aged 35…not the vulnerable child likely to grab a grenade and a sawn off shotgun in order to imitate the action from Halo 3. The report also shows that 40% of gamers are female, with gaming companies moving away from the ‘shoot em up’ style helping to attract more female gamers.

Video game consoles have developed to become home entertainment devices playing music and dvds and connecting to the internet. This has served to take the game out of one individuals bedroom, allowing the console to have pride of place underneath the TV, with families and friends (under the same roof or thanks to the internet, anywhere) competing against each other for the coveted accolade of ‘top scorer’. Video gaming is now a more interactive, social activity with people playing at local and national competitions, groups and chatting about their favourite games on online forums. There is even a site dedicated to lesbian gamers with the tagline “because sometimes we use our hands for other things”!