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I should say I am not much of a gamer - anymore. The reason for this is that I have to make a living, and my body requires vitamin D, and I've come to value the heady pleasures of human interaction over the temporary exhilaration of reaching the 'next level.'

I have a little bit of that gamer spirit in me. I just don't have the time to be a gamer. But in another life, I would be one.

We are witnessing a very slow and painful cultural shift. Some male gamers with a deep sense of entitlement are terrified of change. They believe games should continue to cater exclusively to young heterosexual men with ever more extreme virtual power fantasies.

There has been a kind of stereotypical 'gamer dude' that has been representative for the gamer community in the years past. But I want to spearhead or be a part of changing that.

I've been a gamer all my life.

There are people who are very dismissive of games and gamers.

I'm not really a gamer.

As others have recently suggested, the term 'gamer' is no longer useful as an identity because games are for everyone. These days, even my mom spends an inordinate amount of time gaming on her iPad. So I'll take a cue from my younger self and say I don't care about being a 'gamer,' but I sure do love video games.

Gamers are everywhere, coming in all ages and genders, and developers have grown up, too.

For most people, an hour a day playing our favorite games will power up our ability to engage whole-heartedly with difficult challenges, strengthen our relationships with the people we care about most - while still letting us notice when it's time to stop playing in virtual worlds and bring our gamer strengths back to real life.