Recession-proof

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! The numbers are in and videogames win. Amid the wailing and gnashing of teeth in the retail sector, a clear trend has emerged. Allow me to expound.

When I was in high school and college, when I finally realized I was destined for nerddom, I played videogames because I had overprotective parents who did not want me to go out late with friends. I developed an intense love for console-based JRPGs. I played them through every chance I got. I have an old photograph of myself wearing my prom dress while playing through an old NES Legend of Zelda game. I lived and breathed videogames when I wasn't at school or at a volleyball game. In fact, I'd say at least 80% of the times I got in trouble were because I "just had to get to a save point." Parents never understand.

In college, I came to recognize my gaming hobby as a method of escape from all manner of stresses. I had boyfriends, tests, roommates, and neighbors to avoid and escape from, and any time not spent with my friends was spent playing Ragnarok Online, Snood, or the latest Final Fantasy game. Escape. That's the key word.

Escape is the reason, I think, that one of the few retailers experiencing not only stability, but growth in our economic supercrisispanicwhatever is GameStop. In the 1930s films and comic books were the escape. People locked themselves in a dark theater for a matinee, nighttime show, and could shut out the sounds of the job market crashing around them. These days, all we have to do is snag a pair of headphones, pop a disc in our videogame machine of choice, and play for hours. Profits don't lie. Videogames have finally become mainstream. Good or bad, that's the state of things.

Enjoy the rest of your Thursday.