Growing up, my family had a PlayStation system. We had all the staples of that system like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. If you had told me back then that I would be an avid video game collector in the future, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. While I enjoyed the games we played as a family, I didn’t have a personal stake in gaming until much later in life.
Gaming As A Kid
Gaming as a kid was a much more thoughtless process. Granted, games were simpler back then but so was I. I wasn’t weighed down by the world just yet, despite not having the best childhood. Gaming for me meant hiding under my sheets with my favorite Pokémon. Sneaking in a few extra minutes of gameplay was my specialty. If it wasn’t for how bright those dang light attachments were for the Game Boy I probably would’ve been better at it.
Being a kid meant that I wasn’t always invested in the game I was playing. Instead, it was an outlet to call upon when I wanted to alleviate boredom. As much as I enjoyed Pokémon Red as a kid, I can definitely appreciate it more as an adult today. When you’re a kid you don’t necessarily know what makes a game great, you just play it to have fun.
Even though this definitely contributes to my love for gaming I wouldn’t say that it defines it. In fact, I am still growing and changing as a gamer everyday. Instead, I like to view this as a kindling for something bigger. The flames of passion hadn’t hit yet, but they would eventually. Until then, I just enjoyed gaming as a past time.
Gaming As A Teenager
While gaming technology advanced, so too did the world around it. I was born in 1992, so gaming and I grew up together. As such, I think I have a unique perspective into this world. There were a few years in my childhood where we didnt have the next big console or even the newest Game Boy so I rooted myself into the classics. Sure we eventually had a PlayStation 2 and a few games for it, but it wasn’t anything to write home about. I spent a lot of my gaming time replaying my favorites. Thanks to the PlayStation 2 those favorites expanded to games like Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter. Shout out to Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games for continuously fueling my gaming desire even to this day.
Like most teenagers I was full of angst, emotion and everything puberty had to offer. As such, my time was mostly spent arguing with my parents and actively gaining and losing friends left and right. Gosh growing up was awful. I am glad it is over. Despite that though, I still gamed a little bit. I remember finally get a PlayStation 3 in 2009, the year my family and I moved to Tennessee.
Because of the move, I didn’t have a lot of friends. Slowly but surely I found myself staying in and playing video games a lot more. The PlayStation 3 saw me through some very, very dark times. Because of that, I know longer sought out gaming just to cure boredom. It become a literal escape for me. Gaming became a way to leave my troubles behind and embark on a new adventure. An adventure that I had control over.
Gaming As A Young Adult
As adulthood approached, my relationship with gaming changed again. While I still gamed to escape the real world, eventually I got to an age where I had to venture into that real world to make money for myself. I found myself losing hours of gaming time to, well, survive. This meant that I normally only purchased a game if I intended to play it immediately. Money was tight, so my gaming collection was small. However, I worked hard for those games and enjoyed every second of them.
As a young adult, I made many mistakes. No matter where life took me though, my PlayStation 3 and eventually PlayStation 4 followed me everywhere. Even though 2013 presented one of the hardest challenges to me, it also gave me my favorite game of all time, The Last of Us. I eventually named my first dog after Ellie. I am watching her sleep on my bed while I write this piece.
My early twenties saw me hold a job that finally paid me pretty well at the time. This allowed me to begin (slowly, mind you) my now extensive collection of collector’s editions. First on the list was Uncharted 4 and afterwards was Horizon Zero Dawn. Needless to say this sparked a bit of an obsession in me. I can also remember the decision to get my 3DS and finally catch up on all the Pokémon games I had missed. That was definitely an exciting time since that was the first Nintendo platform I owned since the Game Boy Color.
Gaming Presently
After naming my dog after my favorite video game character and beginning my small collection, I was on my way to becoming the gamer I am today. I slowly began to notice that I was purchasing games that I intended to play but not immediately. Remnants of a backlog crept into my room ever so slightly as if to foreshadow the years to come. Still though, I hadn’t put much thought into this.
Mid twenties arrived and with them, I finally got my hands on my first Switch. Truthfully, the combination of that console and a rather dicey relationship led me to my passion for gaming. I had finally met someone who enjoyed gaming as much as I did, arguably more so since he had built up quite the collection. Spending time with him in his game room inspired me to expand my knowledge of video games.
I branched away from the blockbuster games and tried my hand on indies. Since I was over at his house a lot, my Switch became my go to console and it honestly still is. I found myself playing titles and genres both new and old that I had never before been exposed to and immediately fell in love. Ironically, that was the only love that survived the test of time but such is life. 2020 ruined a lot but it certainly rooted in me my passion for gaming.
These days, I work hard on my collection. Each new addition is a piece of video game history that I cannot wait to explore. The number of unplayed games in my room certainly outways the number of played significantly but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I created this very blog because of my passion for gaming and my obsessive nature to dive into each game I play. This blog has been the perfect outlet for my thoughts and has helped me further my love for this medium.
