I didn't initially recognize the importance of this paragraph (and Tetsuwan Penguin's post in general) until just very recently. Being someone who's favorite medium of entertainment is video games (despite my disillusions over what has happened to gaming over the past generation... particularly the past four years), I'm naturally very attached to it. Video games truly do mean a lot to me and they were the primary source of my childhood memories. Thanks to the Internet, I am able to discuss this (and other subjects of course, including Astro Boy of course) to my hearts content without fear of prejudice or feeling it's something I eventually "grow out" of. It is because of this why I will always love video games and my hope is that I can continue to play them well into old age."Tetsuwan Penguin" wrote:I was almost 11 years old when Astro Boy first aired in NYC (I think on channel 5). Being a nerdy weakling who wasn't good at sports, I got picked on a bit in school, and I fantasized having Astro as friend. Back then being a fan of any TV show was a lonely thing, there wasn't any Internet, no fan conventions. It was all marketing and merchandise. Sometimes merchants would form a 'fan club', but these were just gimmicks to promote advertising for fan merchandise. Today things are so different, its easy for fandom to thrive and people to meet others with the same interests.
Having said that, I doubt I would feel the same way about video games had I grown up in the 1960s/1970s (and theoretically speaking, had video games existed then in the format they did in the late 1990s/early 200s). I used to play video games all the time when I was a child (they were mostly my childhood), but while I still play them, I don't do so nearly as much as I used to. Given that the Internet mostly didn't exist in the 60s and 70s, I would have had basically no outlets to discuss video games and probably wouldn't have placed nearly as much value on it as I do. One of the greatest benefit (and arguably worst drawbacks depending on circumstances) is that it allows people who enjoy a product to discuss it without fear of being ridiculed. That is, after all, why Tezuka has any sort of fan base.
