Dear Future Gamer,

I'd like to tell all the FG readers how helpful and instructive magazines and ezines can be. This month I had my GCSEs and I took a month off playing non-stop (although that doesn't mean I didn't nab a couple of hours daily on CM3).

In my English exams, guess which composition came up? Yes, you guessed it: videogames. I sniggered to myself and wrote the history of videogames as I'd read a lot about it in various magazines (especially the features section in Future Gamer), covering everything, including most consoles and classic games.

So if your parents ever ask you why you spend all that time reading magazines and/or Future Gamer, tell them my heartening story. Yes, and concerning parents: anyone have any ideas how to convince your parents that computer games are not a waste of time and that I should not be doing something more useful? Mine really bug me with their insistence that I should be doing something else.

Mark Muscat

FG: That is indeed heartening Mark, and it's a good job you got landed with a composition piece you knew something about. Parents are always concerned that their offspring are wasting their time on unhealthy pursuits. This is usually because the offspring are wasting their time on unhealthy pursuits. It's all a question of balance. Playing games day in, day out isn't a great idea. It might make you good at them but it won't help your eyesight and will cut you off from the rest of the world. As for what to tell your parents that will allay their concerns, erm, sorry, you're on your own there Mark, you know them better than me.