When I was ten, I begged my parents to allow me to use my Christmas money to buy a Sega Megadrive. This was a computer console at the height of gaming sophistication at the time, with its trusty blue hedgehog, Sonic, leading a whole band of children and adults on an endless quest to bag as many gold coins as possible, without falling to their deaths. Computer games were something that occupied a number of my childhood years, before I got interested in music (Oasis were much better than Blur!), make-up and boys. It appears, however, that for many people gaming isn't something that they grow out of, but rather continue throughout their lives.