I didn't notice any change since i always though gaming was already mainstream since all of my friends at pre school had a console or a pc and there's always someone with a gaming mag you could borrow from. Then again i grew up in the playstation era.

Gaming has always been mainstream. It just moved from one format to another. Just happens that in our lifetimes that gaming has evolved to electronics.

It's changed a LOT.

There was a time when people out of their early teens didn't really admit to playing video-games. Older adults who came from a period before video-games looked down on it heavily. It was pretty much the social equivalent of saying that you still played with action figures. The people who did admit to it were those who got picked on by jocks anyway.

The funny thing is, that had kind of changed from years before, when the cool kids would hang out at the arcade. I think Nintendo's early attempts to define it as a kid's toy were a step back.

The PS2 was probably the first huge game-changer. Older teens didn't mind admitting they had one and pretty soon guys were talking openly about it.

The Xbox opened things up a bit more, then the flood-gates really came open with the 360/PS3 and the huge successes of Madden and CoD. I used to run a video rental store and we'd have all KINDS of people coming in to rent the big franchises. There were tons of kids who only cared about sports games, for instance.

Now you hear adults talking about video-games at work. I heard one of the guys I work with talking about Mass Effect and it turns out his favorite game ever is FF7. Another guy brought up Mario and then we were talking about what we've played on PS+. We had a group of us, adults, standing around talking about what games we play. That didn't used to happen very often.

The more gamers grow up, the more acceptable it is as a hobby.

Excellent point... too bad everyone has to take sides in the "console wars" which probably only hurt potential sales more so than help...

edit: also since when is 1% of the global population main stream?

Funny thing is, if NIntendo never sold them as toys for the family computer, they'd have never convinced people to stock them in retailers. That's what Rob is for.

Gaming is a hobby? Fuck that noise, its not  a hobby for me.

What the fuck is it, then?  Actually, nevermind, I don't care.

Then why'd you ask?

They had to do that because Atari tarnished home consoles with crap games.

I think what further mainstreamed gaming was the Wii. The PS2 did do most of the work, but the Wii took it a step further by having games that could be enjoyed by anyone.

I started on the nes in 87 at the age of 7. It wasn't nearly as mainstream back then. It was considered a kids toy. I think alot of that changed as the graphics got better and when the orginal playstation come on the market. I would also credit gta 3 for making gaming more mature and adult.