Ohio grandma becomes celebrated gamer?

A 69-year-old grandmother has become the heroine of young video-game fans and the star of a Web log created by her grandson.

Barbara St. Hilaire plays video games 10 hours a day and spends a good part of her Social Security check on games.

St. Hilaire said she thinks the blog and media attention she's gotten is funny but doesn't quite understand it. Mostly, like anyone getting a Christmas gift, she appreciates the free games showered on her by video game makers who want to share in the reflected glare of publicity.

And there are the bloggers she has met online. "I guess this is my form of traveling the world," she told the Akron Beacon Journal.

MTV profiled St. Hilaire, hired her as a video game correspondent and offered to screen her interview requests. It's all been, as her 22-year-old grandson Timothy St. Hilaire put it, a bit head-spinning.

"Well, last weekend was hell, but it's over," the grandson told his grandmother's fans on his blog http://oghc.blogspot.com. The blog is named for her moniker, Old Grandma Hardcore -- as in hardcore video game player.

According to the trade group Entertainment Software Association, 19 percent of computer and video game players are 50 years old or older. The senior-citizen share was 9 percent in 1999.

How awesome is this? Yeah for old gamers! Article here.