I was trying to reason with my nine-year-old son about how pointless it is to buy a PS-3 or an X-Box that would become outdated in no time. I said, "A toy worth Rs 30,000 is ridiculous. When I was your age, I just had few dolls and a kitchen set to play with. We had no computers, video games or even cable TV. Yet we were very happy." He heard me out patiently and then put his arm around me and said quietly, “Mom, I feel so sorry for you. You were so poor."
Welcome to the Gen Next kid. The one who thinks that life without play stations, internet and game boys is a life lived in abject poverty. I didn't know how to react - whether to yell at him or laugh. My son, like all others of his age, is born in a time that has gone ahead technologically in leaps and bounds from what it was when we were in school and were content with Ludo, Carrom, dolls and playing tag in the neighbourhood park. Even the spinning tops that little boys played with on, is available today in a renewed and hi-tech avatar as the beyblade with remote launchers!
Kids today learn to play games on their parents' mobile phones even before they can say their ABC. They may not be able to eat on their own but they know which button to press on the TV remote to switch it on or which key to press to answer a call on the mobile. The younger brigade is a faster, quicker generation and they respond to technology much faster than we do. Anokhi, mother of a four-year old, says, "My son can play computer games at ease while I battle with the buttons and joy stick."
And the games available start from as early as three-years plus. Catch them young is the policy. Car, bike, plane racing, war games, boxing matches, cricket, Harry Potter games, space missions, Lara Croft...the list is endless. Catering to every age, the games get more challenging and exciting. Try out the Da Vinci game or Lara Croft or even the King Kong game; they are amazing.
Flourishing industry
There is an entire industry that flourishes on feeding the gaming appetite of the young and more importantly, the old. While the kids and teenagers are the prime target, the parents are not to be left behind. Actor Shah Rukh Khan is a self-confessed gaming enthusiast. He is known to spend his time after shooting playing games on the Play station. If the grapevine is to be believed, he turned the entire cast of Don into two warring groups who used to play games on the play station against each other.
Celebrities notwithstanding, fathers today prefer to be cool dads (!) and wrestle over game boy or play station matches with their kids in the name of quality time. Gone are the days when dads played football or cricket with their kids. Subash, father to a 10-year-old, says, "I would love to play football with my son. I used to play with my dad as a kid. But in Mumbai where is the place. We live in a high rise apartment that has some place around it but not enough to have a football match." This is a hard reality of today. Most Indian metros are concrete jungles, leaving little place for a cricket or football. 
Having said this, it is also true that the gaming bug has bitten adults too and really hard. Many parents confessed that they bought the very expensive X-Box 360 and enjoy playing on it as much as their children. Sunil, father to a 4-year-old Amit says, "I have bought the X- Box. My son is too young to play on it but I couldn't resist the graphics and the games. I play on it regularly. Since my wife watches her saas-bahu serials in the afternoon, I use the TV to plug in the X-Box at night to play before hitting the bed." Sunil isn't an exception. There are many like him who are hardcore gaming addicts.
But when it comes to the children, it's little wonder that they are hooked by the amazing graphics, interesting plots, catchy music and the games, which are really mind blowing. Quick to cash in on the latest blockbuster that has the kiddie brigade in a swoon, a movie-based game is released. Soon after Spiderman 3 was released, games based on the film with all its popular characters were released. So now you had Spidey games on the computer, TV, play station, game boy and et al. Ditto with Da Vinci code, King Kong, Lara Croft and others. So after watching the film, expect the kid to start hankering for the game CD, as all his friends have bought it and it is the ultimate game to possess! What's new today gets outdated faster than you can imagine. And to ensure that you keep buying the newer version, the games of the earlier version stop being sold. So if you have a play station 1 (this by the way is pre-historic according to the techno gaming freaks!), games for it are no longer available in the market. Play station 3 was just launched at a whopping Rs 30,000 plus price. The market is full of games for that version and a few PS 2 games. For the uninitiated, you can't play PS 1 games on a PS 2 console or PS 2 games on a PS 3 console. See the pattern! Every 4-5 years manufacturers will be out with a new version, making the old one obsolete. Since your old games wouldn't run on the new set and games for the old set wouldn't be available any more, you are stuck with a set that's sitting junk in the house. By then your kid and possibly you too would be so addicted to gaming that you would want the newer version. So you will buy the latest new version for price that's more than a month's salary of many in our country. But try explaining this to a six or a nine year old!
Materialistic
Most parents complain that as reward for good performance at school, children aren't happy with cycles or such gifts. It is passé for them. Birthday gifts also have to be electronic - game boy cartridges, X-Box games and computer games. Rita, mother of 10 year old Akshay and 7 year Aniket says, "As a child if I did well in exams, I was happy with a new doll or a good board game. The year when I was given a new bicycle, I was the star of my colony. My pride and happiness knew no bounds and I used to clean and polish my cycle every afternoon and never let any one touch my most prized possession. But my boys like games that can be played on the computer or Play station." Most parents agree that their children have scant regard to gifts that are not electronic.
Ten year old Anuj's mother was surprised when for her son's birthday all his friends turned up with money in an envelope. "I was very surprised and was irritated at the parents who didn't have the time to buy a simple gift for their child's friend. To my horror I found out later that my son had told his close friends to gift him money so that he could buy game CDs of his choice." Anuj along with his friends had decided that they would gift each other money so that the birthday boy could buy the game boy cartridge or CD of his choice. He said, "It's much better that I buy what I please for my birthday with the money rather than receiving some silly board game!" Stories like this abound. Who is to be blamed? The parents who themselves get addicted to such games and thereby pass on the craze to the children?  
Meanwhile, I have a pact with my son that he can have electronic entertainment for only 2 hours in a week. He agrees grudgingly but I feel happy to see him eagerly flipping pages of the children's classics. But of course, he has his stack of game boy cartridges, PS-2 games and computer CDs - his most prized possessions.

Gamedrome                in Bangalore
With the increase of PC penetration, the gaming scenario in India is evolving from a nascent stage to that of a lifestyle hobby. As a form of multimedia entertainment modern computer games contain a unique synthesis of 3D art, CG effects, architecture, artificial intelligence, sound effects, dramatic performances,music and interactivity.
Sify gamedrome, the countries premier gaming chain from Sify, launched its state-of-art gamedrome in Bangalore recently.  This gamedrome enables the gamers to compete for prizes in several online game categories.  The gamedrome is equipped with 27 high-end computers and a special console gaming area. “The speciality  is that the gamer can play online with any other gamer from any part of India, on the same platform,”says Sundeep Kumar, manager of south GD Sify. 
Shainu  Mohan