Confessions of a Life Long Gamer

        In the year 2009, the term 'gamer' has a different connotation than it did ten or twenty years ago.  A common use of the word in the modern era refers to people who play video games as a hobby.  Sometimes we hear it used in sports to describe a player who plays with passion and shows dedication to playing a sport.  In a few select places the term also refers to people who play boardgames, strategy games, war games, pen and paper games and role-playing games.  These are some of my favorite topics, and I hope to return to them in later posts.

   I have played video games since I was a child.  It has always been a hobby for me, but now people are earning money and becoming professional video game players.  In some places they are even famous! Not every game is appropriate for every person, but as long as you have finished your homework and have your parents' permission, you can say you are training to be a professional athelete.

Wall Street Journal Article on pro-gaming at mongabay.com


Vocabulary: 
era (noun) - a period of time. Example: the olden days, the middle ages, pre-historic times
gamer (noun) - a person who plays games, especially video games
passion (noun) - a great deal of energy and enthusiasm for something
dedication (noun) - being willing to work for a cause, organization or activity
modern (adj.) - of or having to do with current events, world happenings and technology
boardgame (noun) - a game that is played on a specific surface that the rules are based on
pen-and-paper (adj.) - used to decribe writing that is not done on a computer or other digital device
strategy (noun) - a way of approaching a problem or task intentionally to yield desired results
hobby (noun) - something a person does for fun, usually on an ongoing or repeated basis
professional (noun)-a person who does something for money, or (adj)the qualities pertaining to those people
appropriate (adj.) - describes something that you will benefit from seeing or experiencing

Exercise:

1.  This young adult novel is _________ for 7th and 8th grade students to read.
2.  General Washington's ________ in the Revolutionary War was to use hit and run tactics.
3.  Are you learning ___________ graphing in math class or is it all on the computer and calculator?
4.  One of my favorite hobbies is playing video games, so I am a _________.
5.  I am very _________ about games, that is why I wrote a blog post about them.
6.  The 1800's are called the Victorian _______ because Queen Victoria was the Queen of England.
7.  When people ask about my favorite ________, I tell them I like snowboarding and video games.
8.  Monopoly is a __________ about construction in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
9.  It takes a lot of   __________ to finish a game of Monopoly because they take so long to finish.
10.  My grandmother does not own a microwave, she says she doesn't need  ________ cooking appliances.

Grammar Point:

A lot of non-count, abstract nouns have similar endings.  When you see words that end in -ion like dedication and passion it is a clue that they might be abstract nouns.  This type of noun represents something that cannot be easily defined, seen, held or placed in a box.  Can you find another noun on the vocabulary list above that is like this?