SelectButton had a thread about playing games in public, and I thought it was interesting. It was about feeling embarrassed or enjoying it, seeing other people playing, meeting new people, etc.
Original thread
I play both my DS and PSP in classes all the time. It depends on the class, but in a lot of classes I can pay attention and play at the same time pretty easily. Games that you can put down at any moment are the best to play.
While my girlfriend was at a salon recently some kid seemed really excited that my PSP was metallic blue and that I was playing sideways. I was playing Star Soldier.
In general, I feel fine playing on campus but awkward playing anywhere else. Also, I think playing the PSP is less embarrassing than the DS, although I still play the DS more.
One time I stood outside a GameStop using my DS for over a half hour. They were giving away Deoxys. I couldn’t find my copy of Pearl so I filled my R4 with about 20 copies so I could get a bunch of them. It took a long time to do that for every copy.
Two years ago at Anime Expo we had a lot of great Tetris DS matches. It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had gaming. We also did a lot of Pictochatting during AX Idol that year. Last year no one was really playing Tetris. I only managed to find one person with The World Ends With You, but I eventually realized that I was playing the European version, which was why I couldn’t find more people. We Pictochatted during AX Idol again, but it wasn’t as fun. Maybe it was because the people were actually good. Someone did draw a pretty hilarious picture of this really talented black guy with an odd, short, pointed mohawk singing “Rain” from Cowboy Bebop. I also played Elite Beat Agents with my girlfriend and some guy behind me in line while waiting for David Hayter’s (voice of Snake) autograph.

Rain, originally uploaded by theuser.