Playing Video Games as a Kid, then a Teen, and now as a Young Adult

As the title suggests, the point of this blog entry is to reflect on how I viewed video games and how it has affected me as I grew up with it.

I have been playing video games since I was about 3 or 4 years old. My memories were pretty hazy as I just immigrated to the United States around this time. I remember moving into my cousin's house for the time being before getting a different apartment.

There my older cousin owned a Nintendo, the original NES, and I remember playing Super Mario Bros 1, 2, and 3. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. At this early stage I didn't play too many video games, in fact I only played whenever my cousins were playing. It wasn't something I chose to do, so I couldn't really say how I felt about it other than how fun and exciting it was. As I got older, I remember moving out, but my cousin picked up the Sega Genesis and later the Sega Dreamcast.

He mostly played fighting games such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, King of Fighters, and Marvel vs Capcom. It's during this time I was introduced to competitive gaming. Fighting games are by nature, pure competition; and there's usually only one person that comes up on top. I didn't care too much about it at the time because I didn't really have any way to practice, I just enjoyed watching the various visuals the accompanied fighting games. But the times I did play, I lost. A lot. And that stung my ego. I learned the hard way, that some people are better than you and you either get good or stay out of the lime light.

Winning was a different feeling however, and it felt great. But dominating gamers, especially when they were older than me, felt REALLY great. It wasn't until many years later when I took fighting games to its logical conclusion... tournaments, that I felt this sense of domination. I entered video game tournaments for my favorite fighting game title, Tekken. Tournaments are where you learn how good you really are. And as much as I played... I wasn't as good as I wanted to be unfortunately, but nevertheless, the thrill was real when I was victorious. Real competition, that's that good stuff.

Eventually I moved to a house rented with my uncles. One of them owned a play station where I learned about Lara Croft and Tekken (for the first time). Then my mom bought me my own play station where I played my first adventure game, Spyro the Dragon. At this point I'm either 7 or 8 years old and it was also when I beat a game on my own for the very first time. I remember feeling accomplished, but I also remember realizing that I have the ability to get things done on my own. A small sense of independence if I could put it more clearly.

Eventually I would play more complex games like Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy Tactics, Starcraft, The Sims, and Sim City 3000. I found that Final Fantasy games were my favorite so far in that even though I couldn't really understand the story, I was attached to the characters and even more addicted to the game play. Starcraft was a difficult game for me to play since it was hard for me to make real time decisions without pausing and thinking about my next move but it was still enjoyable. The Sims weren't that big of an impact on me other than showing me that in order to buy nice things, I need to get a job and that get promoted to get more money. Life lessons I suppose.

Sim City 3000 however, was very enjoyable, and it almost made me want to become a mayor in real life. There's something about planning many phases in advance and taking into account various factors that could contribute to either the prosperity of your creation or the utter devastation. Inspiring it was, to watch your city, your creation, come to life.

Around this age, I was also given a Gameboy Color and then the Advance by my parents. I only played two games though. Pokemon and Mario Tennis. And I only played Yellow, Gold and Ruby. Like most gamers during this time, the early Pokemon games holds a special place in my heart. Something about becoming a pokemon master like in the popular tv show was just so captivating. But aside from these memories, I never went much beyond that with handheld. The memories of the gameboy fading on you because your batteries were low or dying might have been a contributing cause.

As I entered my teens, I purchased a game called "Kingdom Hearts". There's something about sappy cinematic romance and drama combined with an epic story and enjoyable combat system that carves a deep etching into your memories. "Simple and Clean" by Utada Hikaru will forever be the song of my early teens. The hormones definitely raged with all the mixed emotions I felt in the game and began to experience in my daily life.

When I entered high school, a friend let me borrow a PC game of his called Rome Total War. Of all the games I played, this is probably the game that changed me the most. It took me from a kid who hated school, to a kid who at least loved history. The complex thinking involved with turn based grand strategy then the shifting to real time tactical battles got all my brain circuits fired up and with it yanked open my love of history. To this day, I owe my undying love of learning to this game.

When I left for high school and entered college, video games took a backseat to parties and socializing. During summer breaks however, I got my hands on my favorite FPS game title of all time; Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (I, 2, and 3). I don't even remember playing story mode, I only played for the online experience. The best way I could describe it was that it awakened a yearning to return to competitive gaming (at least from my point of view). It was the first time I would describe myself as actually addicted.

How do I know this? I had a girlfriend at the time that I deliberately ignored in order to play for hours on end. And the funniest part was that she was staying under the same roof during these short vacation periods.

Fast forward into my late 20s basically where I am now. Games have shifted from a wonderful distraction to unfortunately somewhat of a chore. I have this uncanny ability to find great games for low prices and I end up buying loads of them to the point that it overwhelms me. The problem is not that I'm addicted, but that I have a compulsion to finish things that I start. And even worse is that I prefer to play them in harder difficulties just to stroke my own ego.

Unfortunately I've learned that harder difficulties really only means taking time to research and figuring how to use or exploit the game mechanics so that you at least stand a fighting chance. Which means putting in even more hours into a game than I would have originally liked.

How did I figure this out? Let's just say that stubbornly bulldozing your way through difficult levels and bosses can only take you so far until the game becomes utterly impossible to beat without the proper equipment or abilities that you needed to obtain way earlier.

Aside from that, as stated before, the point of this blog entry is to give me a sort of reflection on how video games shaped me and how I myself viewed video games, in a compressed summary. I still enjoy video games for the challenge, the competition and for the captivating stories and characters. The games shaped me I hold dearly but I will always make room for the next video game to change my world.

I only wish I had more time and patience to get through them all. But that's life for you.