With the decade known as the naughties behind us, alot of good times and bad times have also past on.  From good movies, games, events, people; the 2000-2010 was a pretty turbulent time.  Now that the decade is really over, I thought it would be good to look back and say: "Hey, these 10 things really made the last ten years something special".  It doesn't matter what it is, and you don't have to rank them - hell, it didn't even have to be made in the last 10 years - what were the 10 "things" that made the last decade special for you?

1.  Avatar.

The King of the World came back - and how!  Brining the biggest and best special effects ever to grace the screen, James Cameron brought 3D out of the 'gimmick' books and into the mainstream.  It also proved that Titanic could be unseated as the highest grossing film of all time... it just took the same guy to do it.  It brought people back to the cinema in droves.  Experiencing this on the big screen, in 3D, is something I'll never forget.

2. Xbox 360.

The Reign of the PC finally ended; Consoles offically became the main market for game makers.  With titles like Gears of War, Halo 3 and Mass Effect, not to mention the invention of "Achievements", Xbox Live Arcade and the incredibly awesome Xbox Live Indie Games, Xbox 360 really stepped up what a home console was all about.  It has since slowed down the graphical advances and extended the generation for consoles by some years.  Playing Oblivion on this bad boy made the price tag all worth while.

3. September 11, 2001.

Before September 11, I didn't care about Politics, I didn't know about the Middle East, and Terrorists were simply the bad guys in 'True Lies'.  After September 11, not only was I changed but the world with it.  Future generations will look and ask "Where were you on September 11, 2001?".

4. Indie Games.

There are simply too many to list, but the revival of the Indie Games scene is something that has effect myself and many people I know.  New games, new concepts and entirely new ways of thinking have emerged thanks to Indie Games.  With Companies like Activision Blizzard and EA Games fighting against innovation, Indie Games - like Braid - show that creativity still exists.

5. SPORE.

The biggest disappointment of the decade.  The ability to make life, travel the galaxy and do whatever you wanted was promised.  What was delivered was a shell of a game, all the fun stripped out to make room for Expansion Packs.  A terrible game built on amazing technology.  I'll never forget the wait for SPORE; I wanted it more than anything.  Exactly the game Will Wright demonstrated.  When I finished my twentith hour, I wanted blood.

6. Half-Life 2/DirectX 9

Like Doom 3 months before it, Half-life 2 ushered in a graphical golden age that we're currently still enjoying.  New effects, mind-blowing in some cases, changed the face of gaming forever.  Gone was the need to inject imagination to complete a scene; now every ripple of the ocean, every leaf on a tree would be rendered and animated with near-perfect results.  It's aged a little since it's release, but it's impace upon the gaming landscape is still being felt.  I play through it once a year.  Flawless.

7.  Finishing School/Leaving Home

A big one for me personally, I graduated High School and moved out of home a week later.  The freedom!  The parties!  Then the crushing responsibility of the 9-to-5 grind.  Oh how I long for the carefree days!  At least my house is cleaner, though that may just be because of my girlfriend.

8. Music.

From MP3 players to streaming live radio channels to your phone, Music has changed; the way we listen to it now is so much more personal.  Everyone has a phone with MP3s, everyone has their playlists and their favourites a few swirls of the finger away.  Purchasing music in a store is old-hat; now we download away whatever we like whenever we want.  In fact, I'm listening to my music right now on my iPod, and I have some 55,000 songs to chose from.

9. Political Correctness taken to extremes.


Maybe it's a "post 9/11" world, maybe it's because I'm still young, but in my time I've seen political correctness explode.  Certain topics have their time in the lime light, but from dat to day, you have to becareful of what you think these days.  We weren't allowed to put up Christmas Decorations at work this year.  Not because someone employed there had an issue, no no, because some woman complained to the Shire Council's office about a business on the other side of town wishing her a Merry Christmas... and she didn't celebrate Christmas.  Then she sued them.  And won.

10. Getting Older.

I'm not an old man, but I'm older than I used to be.  As I've gotten older, new social fads have come and gone.  I learnt new words like "emo" and "freestyle rap battles".  Things like Gangsta rap exploded across all media, and has started to fizzle out now.  When I was a kid, it was all about ripped jeans and grunge rock.  Now it's baggy pants and DADA Jackets, and it looks like skinny jeans and "Scene Hair" will replace it.  Experiencing the roller coaster of life is something we all go through, but this Decade I sat back and realised that young kids of the day look at me and call me an "old guy".  I realised that I sometimes begin stories with "when I was a kid".  I'm growing up.

What are your 10 things for the decade?