The Gamer Me

I'm a gamer. Always have been. You're going to hear a lot on gaming here, so if that topic doesn't interest you, my best suggestion is to run away screaming.

Other than time spent with my family, gaming is what keeps me sane. I guess I'm going to have to analyze this...

To begin, I've grown up with the industry. I was there for Pong, and Atari, and Intellivision. I was the first generation who's mothers had to physically drag their male children past the Space Invaders machine on their way out of a Pizza Hut.

I learned to program on a Radio Shack Trash-80, and spent long afternoons trying to land that damned lunar module on those treacherous, blocky peaks. I blew many a sunny summer Saturday holed up in my basement playing Adventure. Then Zork. Then King's Quest. We continued to grow, and the industry grew and matured with us.

I was the first generation of kids that grew up playing pen & paper Dungeons and Dragons. We imagined, we created, our adventurs were epic, and we remember those early days fondly. Fast forward to the present, and you'll still find me most Friday evenings, dice in hand, at one of my good friends' dining room tables.

Gaming is so many things. It's a social event, a reason to get together with friends with similar interests, to laugh it up, ham it up, and wind down after a busy week.

Gaming is recreational mental exercise, an opportunity to match wits (both the cerebral and humerous varieties), match reflexes, match strategies, and many times, a good opportunity to practice humility.

Gaming is an important vehicle for stress relief. It's down time incarnate. Many people enjoy TV or a movie at the end of a tough day, and I certainly do as well. Wrapping one's self up in a story, however - at least for me - is that much more effective when one can interact with said story.

People are animals - intelligent, complex, and (supposedly) civilized - but animals nonetheless. We retain our primitive urges to fight, to hunt, to mate, to flee, but we don't like to admit to it. I don't mind. Gaming is a healthy outlet for many of those instinctual behaviors. I don't get urges to get in bar fights. In the past week, I have vanquished 45 murlocs, three dozen orcs, and a giant fire elemental. I beat a hopped-up Lancer Evolution to the finish line, and wasted 9/10ths of the Covenant forces. I have no pent-up hormonal agression left to spare on two rude drunks. :)

In short, I'm a gamer.