It’s almost that time of the year again, the time that makes many gamers everywhere shudder with fear and look on with dread. You can tell time is rapidly running out by the sidelong looks and growing smiles and smirks of parents poking around in the background. You know they are enjoying your discomfort as they gloat over your pain. You know they just want to watch you squirm as they use the pretense of getting you ready for the big day…What am I talking about? Why it’s almost back to school time of course. The day when controllers everywhere are hung up for the duration..or at least until the homework’s done.

So those of you going back to school, what do you do to get ready? Do you pull an all-nighter or two trying to finish a challenging game you are half way through but now seem to be stalled on? Maybe you resist starting a new game that you desperately want to try or maybe you plan on spending your time at school daydreaming (not a good idea) about what you are going to do to finish your game once you get home.

You just know the minute your back is turned and you are out the door good ole Mom or Dad is going to have their grimy paws all over your best controller. You just know they will be trying out your favorite games and most likely dropping cigarette ashes and slopping coffee all over everything in their rush. Well you know we are just kidding about that, but once upon a time Mom and Dad most likely played their fair share of video games too. There may not have been much to choose from way back when so to start with Pong would probably have been their game of choice.

When you think about Pong and think about our modern day video games, going back to school might not be such a bad idea after all. Somebody along the line had to have a lot of education to get us from a black and white stick and ball game to the life-like fantasy worlds we can play in today. It might help ease the pain and quiet the groans of school day if you could think that with just a little more education, you could possibly become the next great game designer of your time.

On a more cheerful note. Without schooling, you probably wouldn’t be able to get the job that is going to keep you away from your video games for even longer periods of time. That would be all right since without that job you would most likely not be able to afford the games or gaming system the video games are played on. Hey, it seems like school might not be such a bad thing after all!

Now it is time to re-feature our favorite school themed video!