So I was out of town this weekend teaching in a small town without internet access. But I had some time to catch up on some demos, reviews of which will be posted this week.
When I returned I had so many emails I didn't know what to read first, but this one caught my eye.

Do your grandparents got game?
First I thought 'that's not grammatically correct,' but after the ubiquitous 'Got Milk?' campaign and the equally gramatically incorrect 'I'm loving it!' McDonald's campaign I have come to expect nothing less from the marketing industry.

But this isn't about the English language. This is about gaming. I saw the email was from Nintendo and I was fairly certain I knew what it was about, and I was right. While the studies are still ongoing in Japan and I don't believe there is enough data to make an accurate statement, I do believe that playing some games may help everyone in some way.

I don't have either of the games mentioned in the article which is a shame because I would not mind checking them out. But I do play Sudoku, Kakuro and Hanjie, three Japanese puzzle games that are fairly popular across the world. Sudoku is one of the games in Brain Age.

While the email is geared at current gamers it's also a clever marketing strategy. The question has always been how to get a wider, older audience for video games. Nintendo answered that question with games that don't revolve around killing or driving twitchy reflexes for the most part.

It's a good strategy and it might actually be beneficial for all concerned parties. If the research shows that people are receiving benefits from these video games it could pave the way for more games of this nature as well as a small victory for the gaming industry. Vindication one might say. After all the persecution of the video game industry by reactionary elements of society it would be nice to say "Up yours, video games are good."

But is it just a marketing tool or is it the real deal? As always, only time will tell...

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