Nintendo's recent advertising campaigns have focused on showing gaming as a social pastime: Ant and Dec sit grinning on a sofa asking families about playing with their Wiis, while Zoë and Johnny Ball compete on DS games. With such ads, Nintendo is positioning itself as the "wholesome" end of gaming, the games that you can and should play with other people.
There's nothing wrong with playing in a group. Arthouse game-creator Jason Rohrer has written fascinatingly about the new dimensions opened up by playing against a human opponent rather than a computer. Games can be an opportunity for empathic interaction, in which we try to understand what the other person is thinking, put ourselves in their shoes and work out what move we'd make if we were them.
But it's a shame that so much of the stigma around gaming has come from it being seen as a solitary activity, because there's nothing wrong with doing something on your own. Culturally, we are troubled by solitude, labelling those who enjoy it as "lonely" or "antisocial".
But lone gameplaying can be as enriching and fascinating as reading, walking or enjoying any other cultural pleasure alone. It's freeing to play alone: you can experiment and make mistakes without anyone laughing at you. Lone playing is absorbing or even meditative: you can get involved in what you're doing without someone else distracting you with questions. And it's pleasurable: you don't have to justify the silly games you like, or listen to someone else telling you that they're a waste of time. I'd certainly rather play games alone than under the constant chirpy commentary of Ant and Dec.
