Videogames are addictive, violent and blood-soaked. People just shouldn't let their kids play games. One attendee agrees with the next, polite apologies are made in my direction and the memes pass around the table with the bread.

On the way home, I wonder where the hell all this comes from. These are the same people who drowned machines in quarters back in the 1980s, who played Super Mario Bros. until their thumbs were sore. I know, because I was there. I bet some of them even had Pac-Man lunch boxes like I did. So where's the love?

Within the hour, I send off an email to 40 people over 30 who aren't gamers. "Just off the top of your head, what would you say if someone stuck a microphone in your face and said, 'How do you feel about videogames?'"