A little about my experiences

I've owned every system from the Atari to the 360 (excluding the PS3), I've hauled computers to friend's houses for all night Starcraft, rejoiced upon the triumphant defeat of the dark King Koopa before he became "Bowser", and raged in frustration as a passerby tripped on the power cord as I fought the final Boss. I remember the days when they were not called "Bosses", they were referred to simply as "the End Guy", a term which I believe to be self-explanatory. I grew up using "paddles" to play games, not controllers. I was there when if a game wasn't working, you simply blew on it as hard as you could and/or flicked the power switch for a few seconds. My earliest memory I have is playing Super Mario Brothers 3, and getting to World 7 all by myself, I believe I was 3 or 4 because I had not yet started Kindergarten. I've spent hours and hours waiting for the Midnight release of a game, and then spent the entire night and next morning playing with friends. I've lost track of time while playing a game in the morning and then suddenly realized that the sun had long ago set.

Now that I've made it look like my entire life up to this point has revolved around video games, and you have this image of me in your head of a 30 year old 400 pound slob whose gut is so large that I can rest a bag of chips on it while typing, someone who's never had a girlfriend and just trolls the internets to pick fights with random strangers online. That is not me.

I just wanted to show that I am a gamer, I am one of you, a man of the people and for the people. But my life is not video games, I just love them. My biggest passion in life is simply stories, as long as they are told well through whichever medium the artist (or artists) have chosen. Video games, movies, books, blogs, or word of mouth all have their upsides and their downs, and I love them all. But a video game, to me, is the most immersive medium of storytelling. Since you control the character, you begin to feel for the character. When he gets hurt badly by some bad guy, you wince, you feel a small jolt of fear for his well-being, if only just a subtle hint. If you let go and let yourself be immersed in the story, you can feel what he feels, and enjoy what he enjoys. And the fact that his (or her, as the case may be) life is in your hands, demands something of you. You are no longer a casual observer and sympathetic third party in this adventure, you are right there in the thick of things.