Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Why I'm A Gamer



So it's been a while since I last blogged. Life happens and I just don't have time to consistently write articles as much as I should. I'm glad I can still put down thoughts whenever I can though.

I love videogames. I love collecting them, I love playing them, and I love getting lost in a whole other world whenever I play them. I've been playing videogames almost my entire life since maybe I was only about 3 years old way back in 1982.
At that age I even had the small Nintendo handheld portables for Pinball, and Donkey Kong. My family owned an Atari 2600 and had Pong, PacMan, Space Invaders, E.T. and Frogger. My family also owned a Colecovision and I remember playing BurgerTime, Centipede, PopEye, Donkey Kong Jr., and Buck Rogers.

When the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) came out in 1983 my family got one and my older brothers and I would always be fighting over who gets to play next. The NES hit the store shelves and was trending so high it's popularity was soaring with the masses and almost every family household owned one. The phenomenon that was Super Mario Bros.was when I was truly sucked into the world of videogames.
In the years and decades to follow I would own hundreds more new games and several new console systems almost as soon as they were available. There's so many great and entertaining videogames that I experienced that it's difficult to sit here and name them all. If it was great and you can name it, I probably played it like you.

During my highschool years from 1993 to 1997 I had a wide range of things keeping me busy. Extracurricular sports, studying for exams, Muay Thai Kickboxing classes, and videogames were all part of my regular schedule. However, I would get a motivational booster from my eldest sibling Janet to try harder at school. I made a deal with Janet. The deal was that every time I made the Honor Roll at school, I would get a new videogame of my choice. Seeing as each school year, had 3 report card periods, I could get rewarded with up to 3 new games every year. I made it my goal to try and make the Honour Roll as often as I could which meant getting at least half A's and B's on all of my subjects to get a total grade-point-average of 3.5. I rarely ever missed the Honour Roll and kept my grades up and was always rewarded with a shiny new game for whatever system I was using at the time. Mostly like a Sega Genesis game or Super Nintendo game.

This sort of motivation and reward system carried me through all of highschool and even helped me through College 1997 - 2000 where I motivated myself to push harder and get better grades. If I got good grades, I would go out and buy myself the latest game I wanted at the end of Semester when I had time to relax and play without worrying about school. Of course the post Secondary years were mostly spent doing social things, like partying, and hanging out with friends, and talking to girls, more than playing videogames, but I always found a way to fit it into my schedule.

Yes I'm an adult and I still play VideoGames. If you don't like that fact then you are in the wrong century. VideoGames are the best form of entertainment. They are bigger and better than straight-up watching Television. The interactivity of videogames involves a whole lot more brain activity and is way more socially engaging than regular TV. The videogame industry is right up there with mainstream Hollywood movie industry.

I highly recommend watching this video on YouTube by GameRanx titled
"10 Misconceptions About Gamers from Non-Gamers"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJukS3HjYWY]

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