My hypothesis is that the vast majority of dedicated gamers have a long history of gaming that began early in their childhood.

So. My question. VGCers, how old are you now and at what age did you really get attached to your first video game? 

** A follow up thought to this hypothesis is that young kids these days don't play video games like we did, so by the time they are our age, there won't be as many core gamers. 

And to answer my own question, I am 21 and I was 6. Super Mario 64. 

I was 5 or 6 when I got my Sega mega drive.

I was 7 when I fell in love with Pokemon, but I eventually abandoned around my preteen years. It's a shame, as I could have really have used some games at that time.

My brother had a Megarive already, I started playing when I was about 4.

23 now, I was 5 then. First game: Super Mario Bros.

It was a pirate knock-off NES with "999 games". Most of the "games" were just different levels of the same dozen games. It had SMB and that was my first game ever :D

4 is when I started playing games but I didn't really get into them until I got my 360 back in 06, so 10.

My first games console was a PS1 bought for our family at launch, when I was 6, and I remember being a couple of years older than some of my friends who had been gaming since they were about 4.

And yes, I seem to be a gamer for life (22 now), though we'll see how long it continues in the future. Long way to go yet!

I didn't really start playing until I was in high school. Then again, I wouldn't consider myself a lifelong gamer.....I haven't been around long enough, and I already play games much less than I did in the past.

Yeah I realize that classifying most of the people here as "lifelong gamers" is a weird thing to do, but I've been a gamer since 6, so in my life... that's... lifelong, I guess..
/end weird postrationalization

Great thread by the way. I agree with you hypothesis; younger age = more likely to be lifelong gamer.

I also agree with your follow up hypothesis. A lot of my friends started @older, and they only play PES, NFS, CoD, GTA.