I’m surrounded by gamers. Almost everyone in my family circle is into it – right from the five-year-old to the 40-somethings. Xbox 360, PlayStation, Nintendo, Game Boy and computer games, you name it, they are into it.

Family gatherings are made of this group of people huddling around some console or PCs, challenging each other until the wee hours of the morning. You can say, in their world, I’m the odd one out. Even during my schooling days, when my siblings took to gaming like ducks to water, I stayed away. I was just not interested in the world of Pac Man, Mario Brothers, Sonic or Street Fighter.

I never could understand the fascination until recently when I was, well, kind of, persuaded to play a game of tennis on the Wii. Nothing complicated, no intimidating controllers. All I had to do was swing the motion-sensitive controllers and get physical. It was fun, gathering around the TV with some friends and moving around as if I was really playing tennis.

Apart from tennis, other virtual sports are also available. The participatory nature of the game is simply appealing and addictive. It beats pushing buttons to activate a move.

The Wii designed to attract players regardless of their age or video game experience has been very successful. Since it was launched in Japan in 2006, this video game console has become a major hit world over. In fact, the company has been unable to meet the demand. The current production of 1.8 million units a month, is not enough to meet consumer demands.

Many who were planning to get a Wii for Christmas were disappointed. Some parents in the United States had even resorted to camp outside stores to get a chance of grabbing the first consoles in a new delivery. So hot was the demand for this product as a Christmas gift that a Web site was set up to help people find stores that stock the consoles in the US (http://www.nintendowiichristmas.com/).

Since I played the Wii, I totally understand their frustrations of not having this cool console. If I could have had one present for Christmas, it would have been the Wii too. Maybe next year, Nintendo.