(Definition, for those who are not familiar with the term: phosphor based display systems (CRT direct and rear view and plasma) are susceptible to image retention also known as "ghosting, image shadowing, image burn in." This is due to physical properties of phosphor and how it reacts to light and electric impulse. www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com)
For the rest of you, namely Sonny, you may have a problem. Now, for owners of Plasma, rear projection TVs or projectors, burn in may be an issue. I'll tackle each independently.
Plasma
Hopefully you know whether you have an LCD or Plasma TV at this point, the external differences are more or less non-existent these days, they are both big, thin, "flat-screen" TVs. No longer is it true that LCD TVs are small, I have a 42" and I've seen far bigger. LCDs may also have a great picture these days, now longer are all of them washed out like their early iterations.
Plasma TVs when first introduced had a dark side, static (still) images could become forever imprinted on the display, a condition called 'burn-in'. Games were very much capable of causing this damage as HUD items like health bars, compasses or a score box could burn in on the TV.However, things such as TV station logos or the black bars you get on the top and bottom (or left and right) of the screen when watching a movie could also burn in. The threat of burn-in was exaggerated to an extent, but some of us just like to be sure. If your TV is several years old, take particular care and yes, maybe you should avoid playing games on it.
However, if your TV is more recent, like 2 years (maybe 3) or less, the you should know that progress has been made towards reducing the risk of burn in on your Plasma TV. For these TVs, burn-in is most likely to happen in the first 100 hours of its use, although your mileage may vary, especially with budget plasma TVs. Budget plasma's may or may not be more likely to burn in. As well as this I have seen more than my fair share of gamers with huge Plasma TVs, nary any burn-in in sight. If you have a recent Plasma, I'd say go for it, feel free to game on it, but for the first 100 hours or so, try and avoid long stretches of gaming time, especially on one game.
Rear Projection
These TV's are the very large screen TVs which also happen to have a very large back, and very large weight. I used to have on of these when I lived in England. Now if you have an early version of these, avoid games. I did just that. However, again, I've seen many gamers play on this type of TV so I suppose, if you would chance it, playing games may be safe so long as you avoid keeping an HUD or a menu on the screen for long periods of time.
If yours is one of the newer ones (i.e. you can actually say it looks kind of nice), it may have DLP or LCD projection. If you know your TV has one of these, games are fine. Burn-in is mostly impossible.
Projector
This is an interesting one. Projectors burn in. A few may have technology designed to stop such burn in, like DLP or LCD lighting (this has been said to have burn-in on occasion however), but many do not and therefore may be deemed unsuitable for gaming. However, whenever I've seen a projector being used, 9 times out of 10 I've seen it used in a situation where burn in is bound to happen. Things like the start menu of a PC, the icons on a desktop, one powerpoint slide shown for hours or often, games, are bound to cause burn in. Nevertheless, I've never personally seen burn-in on a projector, so from experience, I'd play games on them, cautiously.
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