A History of my Childhood (Roughly)
Now I'm not going to do a timeline, I'm no history major and I don't intend to be. Okay maybe I'm just lazy but judgement is the first to go when you procrastinate as much as I do.
When I was I wee chap, I did what most kids do. I Played outside, ate too much junk food, and hung out with friends, but these didn't come to affect my gaming lifestyle until I got much older. As I grew older, outside became a release from stressful gaming, junk food became my fuel to continue gaming, and friends became a reason to play games together. However, as a kid, my reasons were much simpler.
As kids, we don't realize all the things we do are to exhaust us. School, organized sports, and eating enough broccoli to take out a large elephant are all meant to exhaust us til our next bedtime. In the meantime, our imaginations run free but not energy to live those dreams. Dreams of dragons, Tasmanian devil's, and other magical heroes are to be dreamed of another day. However, something changed as I grew, and maybe you as well, as we began to understand what exactly video games did. They reached where I couldn't, and brought to life something impossible.
Congratulations, You're a Nerd
Now before you intend to tune me out, which I sense you may have already, I don't accept that the term "Nerd." Let me explain.....If I takea game everyone in America likes, for example football, and call it an expensive version of catch, then it doesn't do much justice to something that has history and complex detailing. The only difference from any sports fan watching on TV from me is that they can't control their frustrations by improving their savvy. No matter what they do as a fan, it doesn't affect the game. No matter how much you know, no matter how good you are at fantasy football, you don't affect the game.. That shit is deep......or the world's most sarcastic metaphor.
I never knew I was going to be classified as a "Nerd" as a kid, I just thought the weight I gained was me building a protective layer or blubber for the winter like a walrus. When I was a kid I was just having fun, escaping from the harsh realities of life I couldn't control. Without going into it, imagine that sad moment in the movie Boy in the Striped Pajamas and that will emulate the sadness. As I grew up, video games became something deplorable to the popular bunch, but it remained a fun escape from the daily routine. Though I could control the things that happened in my life, video games became which expanded my thinking as well as my imagination.
My First True Game - RAYMAN
As a kid, it doesn't take much to be a superhero in a game. Just being able to beat scary or creepy looking bad guys is often enough. Rayman was simply unique because the hero had no limbs, a floating torso with a frat-guy hairdo and mickey mouse gloves to match his running shoes. He tied it all in literally with his ascot that had no purpose, lacking a neck. The story was also simple. Some evil caped evil trapped all your friends, and you aim to free them.
There was one aspect of this game that was different than anything else when I picked up a PlayStation (Not literally that would be ridiculous). Playing in my deemed guest room at my grandparent's house, I discovered something from a game that no adult could offer. The game challenged me. Not for their own benefit and not to satisfy its own intentions, but for fun. Rayman does not treat you like you are a child, but someone who learns and adapts and paces greatly unanticipated.
