Life, through gaming.

[splinterchaos]

It's time to be serious guys. I write this post with a question in mind: "For what reason do we play the games we play?".

For me, it started a long time ago, when I was barely old enough to put sentences together coherently. There was a time when everything around me was a cataclysm of anger and stress, of betrayal and despair, of losing and leaving the world I had known to another I had never seen or even thought existed.

My little bubble of a world had been the four corners of my room, in which the most interesting thing was the cherrios cover for my light switch. I distinctly remember staring at that thing for what I thought was a long time (back then it was probably no more that 5 minutes, a significant amount of time for a two year old). Other than that, I had lost who I thought was a mother, and had felt what I can only describe as a looming sense of dread and intensity which I now know the cause of. So it wasn't exactly the greatest or most fun time of my life.

It was within this brief but influential time that I first played a video game, and it was a video game which was based on my favourite show at the time: Power Rangers.

Now, this show really needs no introduction. It was THE show. Rita Repulsa, Lord Zed, that goo guy, all of em getting their butts handed to em by a bunch of high schoolers who were part of that whole Karate thing back in the 80's I take it, and were all trasformed into super-awesome spandex wearing ninja's by a disembodied....uh... face.... in a... vat/tube/thing. Yeah Zordon, your awesome.

I have yet to find this game, I search for it, but to no avail. It seemed like a power rangers RPG of some sort, yet it is IMPOSSIBLE to find. Which is too bad because I seem to remember it to be awesome. Absolutely AWESOME.

Another game I remember is Bonanza Brothers. Gods, slamming open the door whilst your partner was directly on the other side and turning your friend (or brother) into a pancake was the funniest thing ever, and still is pretty funny today.

After that, things moved VERY fast. The storm clouds that had formed around Greenville, South Carolina (the place where I was living at that time, though I wasn't born there. I was born in Kingston, Ontario. I am 100% Canadian, but I am also American) burst. It isn't my place to say what exactly happened. What I will say is that my father is one of the most powerful men I have ever known, in willpower, in strength, in intelligence... Hell, in all aspects of life. He has been through Hell, and for the sake of my brother and I. Reality does indeed have superhuman people, and my father is definitely one of them. What he went through to get me to where I am is no less than a Herculean Feat of Strength.

But enough about that. What this rapid movement lead to was me living in sugar shacks and (unbenownst to me and my brother) welfare. I remember playing on my dad's REALLY old computer, playing a game that started with those red lines, those red and white bars which kinda looked like a curtain. The game, again, I can't remember which, was a space game, where you played as a commando. The coolest move I remember was NOT going up the stairs, and instead going BEHIND THEM. Unlike Bonanza Bro's, which was really pushing the 3D barrier, this game was completely 2D, so not going up something ahead of me BLEW MY MIND.

After that, things got pretty standard, I played Sonic, then Sonic 2, then Sonic 3, then Sonic and Knuckles, AND THEN, I put the first three into S&K to play as knuckles in em! So much fun.

But my most cherished game from the Sega era was not Sonic, but rather, it was Toy Story.

Toy Story at that time was the hardest game I had ever played. It was also by far my favourite movie.  I hated the claw... hated it... with a passion. After failing to save Buzz SO MANY TIMES, and losing after going through all of that SO MANY TIMES, I started to hate seeing the claw in the movie as well. We have since reconciled, since I have recently gone back and utterly embarrassed the claw with my... ahem... better experience with games.

I loved that game because of its difficulty, but also because of its charm. The world of Toy Story has to be one of the most endearing worlds ever created. From the Clouds in the Sky wallpaper, to the bleak and rundown look of Sid's room, that movie will always, ALWAYS, bring me to a different world which I enjoy, and the game was no different.

The game had swinging, it had monkeys in a box, it had RC parts, it had Rex riding, Buzz chopping, alien throwing awesomeness that I still think is awesome.

Also, it was the first game which I discovered an awesome bug, in which Woody gets unlimited life (but unfortunately, not unlimited continues.)

From here, I played other games, my family moved to New Wesminister, where I started going to school. Now, for those of you that don't know New West, its very pretty. Got lots of nice trees, and a cool park... But it is also full of really weird people. Luckily we moved quickly.

It was within the three-odd years of New West that I was introduced to a number of games, and consoles. I was introduced to Mario, Link, Samus and all of the classic characters that we all know and love. I remember when Ocarina of Time first came out. HOW EPIC IT WAS. well, it still is epic, but it was a new kind of epic back then. Back then, it was so epic, that the silvercity in metropolis had stalls which you could play it in. Yeah, EPIC.

That was also the place where I played Megaman Legends, arguably the BEST megaman game I've played. People will disagree I know, some people just don't dig that whole "Bonne" thing, or the whole "Got to find the mother load" thing. Or the fact that Megaman isn't Rockman, but rather, Megaman something or other. Still, I thought it was awesome. I liked the music. And the gameplay. And the charm.

This was also where I first played Metal Gear Solid. Funny enough, I convinced my dad to buy it for me after I told him that the manual of the game claimed it to be the best game ever made. It worked. A lot of the stuff that was said in the game flew right over my head. But after a while, I started to understand it. Metal Gear taught me a lot about the world. About smoking and how, though it is really really bad for you, it can help you spot deadly lazers of doom. It taught me that an M1 tank can be taken down by throwing a few well placed grenades into the machine gunners hole. It also taught me about... a lot of other stuff. It was awesome, nuff said.

But, again, there are games which stand out amongst the crowd. MGS, OoT are some of them, but the earlier generations deserve some highlights as well. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is one of my favourite games of all time. Never have I loved another Mario game more than Mario RPG, and the other attempts to copy the formula have been.... good efforts at best.

The other classic game which I nostalgically miss is Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. This, to be completely honest, was the first game that I actually beat completely. I had never actually beaten a game before Yoshi's Island, and I can still remember all of the best parts. The part where you turn Satanical Santa's into giant eggs of christmasy doom is a highlight.

Then, we moved again. To Delta. And Delta, while not NEARLY as weird as New West was, didn't really give me a stalwart impression on humanity. School was horrible. I, as a person who has ADD, was always... inattentive. I could never figure out what was going on, what I was doing wrong, or how to improve. It was a vicious cycle. Actually, to be completely honest, Elementary School in general was Hell and a half.

It was here that I got an X-Box, and it was here that I played Halo. It was here that I learned about pirating games, the epically awesome story that is Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. It was here that I learned that you can't play certain games on a chipped console. And it was here that I lost a lot of stuff.

That part of my life had little influence on who I am today. The video games, like Soul Reaver and Halo, gave me interesting stories to rap my head around. As a note on ADD, those of us who have it have a constantly thinking mind. It ALWAYS thinks, always has SOMETHING there, and it isn't like a lullaby, or a silent thought, no, we have day dreams constantly going through our minds one after another. So complicated stories give us the stimulous we need to go about the day attentive. Its kinda counter intuitive, but hey, ain't life grand?

On a side note: Those who think that ADD doesn't exist, or have some sort of opinion on how it doesn't really affect things... well, they can go shove it. I live with it, I know what it does. I feel the effects, and I had to endure a long time of suffering because of it. Arguments that focus on my intelligence, or my ability to succeed, or my currently existing achievments do not understand that it is not what I possess that I worry about, it's what I DON'T possess. People think that the special pill, whether it be Ritalin, Adderall or Concerta, changes your mind into some sort of machine, and think that it makes us intelligent. They think its cheating. They.... are morons. I have the intelligence already, one can just look at other people who have been diagnosed with ADD, take the pill and are still morons to see that. So it isn't the pill that makes us intelligent, and it definitely isn't the pill that gives us drive. It's us.

This leads me to another part of my life. Fast forward a few years (nothing really happened in between these years) to Grade 9. In Grade 9, I was introduced to another one of my favourite games: Prince of Persia.

This game blew my mind so harsh that I think there are still temporal chucks on the moon just, floating around (saying "im in space!"). I mean, it's got awesome combat, parkour, time travel, monsters, demons, evil sorcerers, hot girls, incredible music, awesome comedy, serious undertones, innovative gameplay, interesting characters, ALL IN ONE GAME, AND THERE IS STILL MORE! The ones after it were kinda crap, but Sands of Time is still one of my favourite games ever!

After that, I lost my console. To myself. I played too much, and my grades began to suffer for it. They weren't good, but then again, they were never good before that either. They were just... mega bad here. So, I lost them, and haven't had a console ever since.

There was a year I played no games, didn't play at all. To me, it was like drug withdrawal. It was pretty intense. I was so addicted to games at that time it was horrible. My lifestyle was decrepit, my brain was moving at a sluggish pace, and Gr.10 is still highlighted as one of the most difficult years of my entire life.

But that..... was the last time I ever felt that way, and the cleansing brought something new, something powerful from me, something I didn't even know I had: Drive. We have to make a slight detour here for a second.

During the summer of Gr. 9, I worked at a place called Shady Island, with a boss who could speak 4 words of english, all of which were swear words. Then he learned "GODDAM BOY" and... well you get the picture. That was a pretty intense time as well, as I was pretty much thrown into the proverbial fire of the workforce, and was massacred by the way it was run. Bearing in mind, the job I was in was TERRIBLE, but at the time, I didn't know it. I was a horrible employee, and I learnt the hard way how to lose a job... twice.

That changed. In the summer of Gr.10, just before Gr.11, I worked at Shady Island again. The boss, Andy, needed an extra guy, and because I had experience, he gave me the job again. I was thankful for this, though, the first half of the summer was still pretty rough.

Then.... something happened. I don't know what... I might've had a dream.... or a vision.... or an epiphany of some kind. Whatever it was, I turned into a HARD worker. A fantastic worker. I worked harder than I had ever worked in my entire life. I was doing everything right, organized, making things work right, doing things the right way and then perfecting them so that I could do them better. I was starting something powerful, which only got better.

Now remember, I still don't have Video Games at this time, and the relapse into it, now that I think about it, might not have been too good of a choice. Nevertheless, this allowed me to enter into Gr.11 with a WHOLE new attitude.

And it showed. During that year I accomplished all the things I needed to to put me where I am today. I became an organizational powerhouse. My room was so organized and so perfect that it would take a ninja to go in there without me knowing. I got my first A, then another one. By the end of the year, I had gone from a C to C- average student to a straight A student. This, my friends, is the power of drive.

And also why the whole "your smarter when you take Adderal" crap is stupid. I took concerta from Gr.8 to 10, and I was still a C to C- average student. You know why I got straight A's? Determination, willpower and intelligence, that's how. Yeah, I got ADD. Yeah, people see that as a disability. But I've gotten WAY better grades than people that DON'T have ADD and ridiculed me for having it throughout the years! HOW DO THOSE BASTARDS LIKE DEM APPLES EH?!

Anyway, epic rant over, on to more game discussion. It should be noted that, Gr.11 wasn't just a year of profound intellectual and spiritual growth, but also an expansion of game base. It was during this year that I finally got a computer worthy of playing a game other than Lego Island. And what did I buy first? Well, honestly, I got Dawn of War first, WHICH WAS AWESOME. Then, I got another computer because of... well, a good deal to be completely honest. My brother got the one I had, and I got a mega computer (at the time).

The first game I got that really influenced me here was Sins of a Solar Empire, which is a fantastic game that everyone who even remotely likes RTS's should play.

Then there is Call of Duty, ditto.

But the mack daddy of the game's I played was not one game, but rather a collection of games. Yup, you guessed it. I'm talking of none other than The Orange Box.

Half Life 2 is a game I have played... maybe 5 times over.... completely. Yes, I like it that much. Its inspiring because it had a look that reminded me of the beauty of the concrete jungle. That, mixed with a killer soundtrack, amazing gameplay, Ravenholm (probably one of the spookiest levels EVER), the gravity gun, Dog and the amazing cast of characters puts that game definitely in my favourites.

MASSIVELY HUGE EDIT TO SAVE CONFUSION:

It's time to finish this thing.

SO, there were many games that came out during that year, and many games which I wanted to play and had yet to play by the time I got that awesome computer. One of these games was Bioshock, and to be quite honest, it wasn't as mindblowing  as it might have been to the rest of you.

Now, this isn't because it wasn't mindblowing, it isn't even because it was bad. No, this is because the HUGE FUCKING TWIST was spoiled for me before I got there. Yeah, damn.

Another huge thing which I forgot to mention was my foray into horror games, which was completely random and unexpected.

Let me explain: I, for YEARS, was horrified of zombies. HORRIFIED! The boogeyman was not something that hid under the bed, no, it was a shambling, flesh-eating creature of doom.

I blame Resident Evil 1. I was 7. That first scene, where that one guy is getting eaten by the zombie, and you walk in and are like "woah, sorry to interrupt" and the zombie's like "Dude, what the fuck are you doing here"... yeah, that scene. FREAKED THE SHIT OUT OF ME. Now, as you can see, it is funny as hell. And you know why.

One game: F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R. taught me something I will never forget, something that I carry with me to this day. That the shotgun is your friend, and that horror games are kinda theraputic.

Now your going, "Dude, he's crazy. Horror games? Theraputic? Did you somehow fall out of the Clive Barker mind of insanity or something?" No, not exactly.

It was funny at first. F.E.A.R presented the most terrifying experience in gaming I had ever been through at the time (now, Amnesia takes the cake, wait no, IT TAKES THE BAKERY), and there are a few scenes that still give me shivers... but I could still play it. I wasn't frightened of it.

It got to the point where I would just make it a big joke. Thing would be funny instead of scary. I'd poke fun at Alma because she got really ugly, really fast. I would insult the teleporter dudes because they were going spaz attack. But, before I got there, I had to see how shooting them in the chin and sticking them to the ceiling with the nail gun was awesome and hilarious first.

So yeah, it was F.E.A.R that brought me there. After that, nothing could really scare me. Some people think that Dead Space is scary. It's startling for sure. There are times where you jump, and times where you go "that is fucking creepy as hell" (Like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", creepiest rendition EVER), but at the end of the day, you aren't scared of it, your just... enjoying the experience.

It was during this time (this is Gr.12 now) that I got my first girlfriend. She was fantastic, and it was great. Not much to be said other than it was a long distance sort of thing (the distance between Deep Cove and Richmond is pretty major), and... it didn't work out. But I started seeing the truth to some portrayals of love, and how I had not really gotten there yet.

During this time, I played a large collection of games. Mirrors Edge, Crysis, Portal, Fallout 3, Double Agent, Spore... the list goes on. It was a pretty major crush of games. And I was balancing the girlfriend and school. Needless to say, it was difficult. But I managed.

But not enough. I didn't get the GPA I needed to get to UBC, which was a bummer, and my ultimate goal WAS TO GO THERE. So, I felt like I didn't have that drive anymore, that speed, power, determination, whatever you want to call it, I didn't feel like I had it anymore. So, out of my own choice, I asked my parents for a Mac, and for my PC to be burned... forever.

AANNNDDD... that didn't work out so well. First of all, the Mac was a bad choice. I was eventually going to play games, and as a barrier, it was a stupidly expensive one. It could play indie games fine, and some newer games at crappy settings, but other than that, it was useless. I played some great flash games at that time.

WOAH. I totally forgot about flash games. Holy. HUGE GAP. Ok. Start from the top. Uh.... you know what, different post. It's too big to start here.

Anyway, some great flash games at the time. Bodilies comes to mind, and Alice Is Dead, and a lot of AustinBreed stuff. Yeah, it's artsy. Yeah, its deep. But its interesting.

I also got addicted to WoW. Go figure.

Anyway, NOW, I have real computer. One that actually does... stuff.... well.

Right now, I just went through Dead Space 2. WHICH IS FANTASTIC. Play it, even if your scared of these things. Bring a utility blanket or something. It's great. And seriously, just know that half the time, you'll KNOW somethings going to happen, and expect it. When you don't, just forget about it, kill it, feel awesome that you just grabbed it's own arm and impaled it with it and move on. Its that awesome... I mean, simple.

Also, Mass Effect 2. It's awesome. I still need to do Renegade shep, which I'm working through ME1 right now as a woman with.

So yeah, this is my life through gaming. It's long, its complex. It's real. Feel free to share your stories (As I see that some of you have) as I am interested to hear them!

[Psyentific]

No words. They should've sent a poet.

[Malumen]

Matt, seriously.  You remember when I said you are the Mike Lim to my Sam?  This just adds more to that argument, and I think I'm getting the feeling Sam told me he got when he learned of Mike's eerily clone history.
Albeit not precisely the same, I think we've had some very similar arching themes to our lives.

First off, I'm pretty sure I have some form of ADD that I've learned to cope with or a learning disability.

Second, I had some similar issues during my childhood.  For a time it was money, which forced my parents to make some decisions that would later bring someone into my life.  I am okay with talking about what happened, but my family/parents still don't know and I'd like to keep it that way.  To skip the details, I was messed up for quite some time until I realized none of it was my fault.

Now to try and recall my life chronologically as your post is:


In kindergarten/preschool, I was fat.  Yes, me, fat. Kind of hard to believe right?
I was bullied for a long time, had shitty social skills because of it. 
One day, to cheer me up, my uncle came over and brought his SNES.  I don't know what we played, but it was fun.  A few months later I remember he bought me a SEGA.  I cannot recall exactly when this was, if it was for christmas or my birthday or just because.  This uncle is my father's brother, he was shunned by his own mother and learned to carve his own way through life.  This man started me on video games, and for that (and as much as my own mother thinks they'll rot my brain) I am eternally grateful.

I remember playing a power rangers game, Matt.  Quite possibly the one you speak of, but my memories of this time are quite foggy and hard to grasp due to a phenomenon known in psychology as repression.  The memories I do recall with ease though are very precious to me.

Throughout Elementary school I tried making friends and socializing with others, but I came off quite awkward and weird.  It also didn't help that I was still fat.  I was quickly dejected from the groups of kids I could talk to and soon found myself sharing lunch and playing with the foreign kids.  I quickly became interested in getting them to understand my questions about the cool places they'd come from so that they could respond.
I never really did become friends with anyone during that time.  I felt cemented at a distance, I knew more about the things people made jokes about.  I never once entered the change room for PE classes.  I remember being asked by my teachers why I wouldn't until one of them tried pulling me into the room and I kicked his shins 'til they bled.  I got suspended from school and my parents were told I had "anger issues" and to be sent to counseling.

At no time did anyone ask what was wrong or what happened.  No one was putting two-and-two together.  It was automatically assumed I was a 'problem child' and assumed I had anger issues.

I was abused and being bullied.  I felt so incredibly alone and alienated.  I didn't get to see my foreign-friends anymore.  Didn't get to hear about this "China" and "Japan" and all the cool things that were so different from my world.

I gave up.  I escaped into Video Games.

It was quite sudden.  My parents thought it was the miracle of therapy.  My counselor was quite pleased with herself.  If I was ever hit or teased in school, it didn't phase me.  I was just waiting for the bell to ring and go home and play my games.

I remember Dynamite Heddie, a combination of mario, rayman and kirby.  I remember dying a lot and just going through it all again.  I remember Sonic, a My Little Pony game given to me by that certain person as a front she was a good human being.  I remember Bubsie Bobcat, a sort of precursor to Conker's Bad Fur Day.  I remember Vector man.
My uncle came over one day and dropped us a whole slew of new games like the sonic series. I remember beating all of them and then going back to stick them in S&K to play as knuckles.  I always thought Knuckles was cooler.

All of these games were very Mario-like, just keep going until you die and have to restart.
Then times got tough again.  We stopped celebrating Christmas, stopped drinking tea to save a bit of money.  I knew things were bad.  I didn't want any part of it.  I stopped having dinner some days, proclaiming I wasn't hungry or that my siblings deserved it more than me.  I lost a lot of weight.

Towards the end of elementary school, my parents were keen on keeping me... Sedated...  And saw how much I loved video games.  My Dad (I think maybe my Uncle bought it and gave it to my Dad to give to us) bought an N64 for Christmas, which was all so big because that's when we started celebrating christmas again.

I had a Toy Story game for the N64 (whereas I'm sure Matt had it for SEGA or SNES).  That was also an underestimated difficult game for me.  There were a few other games, but when we got Ocarina of Time, a lot changed.
I was lost in the epic quest.  I got out of The Kokiri forest/The starting zone.  I remember the whole starting sequence around the Hyrule Castle.  I remember Ganondorf and how much I hated him.  I remember just playing that game so... Hard...  I remember really just no longer caring about all the things at school.  I would hum the songs, plan boss fights or draw out block-puzzles I had yet to solve.
Then it gets a little hazey.  Something happened with that person.  I was at school, I was feeling good about myself.  I remember thinking how cool it would be to have a shield, something to hide behind and block people.  I remember thinking how Link wears green, my favourite colour is green...

The bullying was suddenly apparent.  I hated how I had my worlds mixed up.  How I longed to just go a day without these Deku's shooting seeds at me or these tektites jumping on me on the playground.  I saw people who didn't do all these things.  I didn't want to feel so disgusting anymore, I could play as Link and be a hero.

So one day, I beat the shit out of a kid until he didn't move.

He was the one who'd kick me in the head and then apologize.  Try to get me to lower my guard and be friendly then push me down the hill.

It was a long fight.  He was probably abused too, maybe being beaten by his father or something.  It started as a self-defense thing, but because I left without a scratch I was still deemed the bad guy.  A few of my foreign-friends were there, but they didn't say anything.  This one kid spoke up for them, and probably because of him (he was also bullied by this kid) I didn't get expelled from the school entirely.

Ever since then, this guy and I have been best friends.  I haven't seen much of my foreign friends, but with facebook I get to keep tabs on them.  From that time I still feel like they view me as some kind of monster.  I certainly felt like it.

I was home on suspension and remember playing a lot of Ocarina of Time.  My parents didn't talk to me, probably thinking I had relapsed into my bad-kid behaviour.  They weren't around a lot due to needing to work, they never asked me what was wrong, but I don't blame them.
Upon returning from suspension, I remember having Link buffed up to face Ganon.  All I wanted to do was run home and play play play and beat that fucker.

But that guy was waiting for me at school.  The kid who spoke up.  He asked if I wanted to play or something.  It was a really difficult decision for me, but I knew the game wasn't going anywhere and I said sure.  If I had chosen to go beat Ganon I swear to god my life would have been acres different.

I started to make friends.  I started to give a lot to others and enjoyed school for that aspect.  I still didn't do very well academically, for whatever academic stuff you do in Elementary school...  But I remember having a massive vocabulary (now that I was talking) due to having to read all the video game text.  I think there is strong evidence videogames have that effect on children during early stages, like advancing vocab/grammar/rote knowledge of facts.

We went to Middle School together, which wasn't much better.  I had a terrible time talking to anyone older than me.  I'd freak out in panic-attacks anytime a girl touched me.  I had made a few more friends, but the deficit I'd suffered earlier in my school career was still showing.  I didn't care about my grades as much as my feats in games.

Majora's Mask made its way into my household and soon into the core of my being.  I saw the struggle as some reflection of myself (again).  A lonely Skullkid, does something for attention and everyone treats him as if he's evil, when all he needed was a friend and someone to sort of ask what's wrong (which is probably 900% not what the story is like, but that's how I remember it).
I had mastered these skills before, and was plowing through Majora's Mask.  I was beaming with confidence.

My friend had said he wanted to go to the school dance (eeewww, middle-school dances).  I felt godly so I went with him and his friends.  Time came for a girl I liked to come and talk to me.  I was pretty good at talking now, but she grabbed my hand to take me off the wall and I still just couldn't handle it.  I freaked.
I think I made her cry.  She had liked me and had the courage to come up to me and I threw it in her face. Fuck. I'm such an asshole :/
Derp.

My friend got his mom to pick us up and drove us back to his place.  he had the brilliant idea to sneak into his older brother's bedroom and play his PlayStation.  The deviousness of conniving young boys stole me away from my embarrassment and cold-sweats.  We only knew how to turn it on and play with the controller (changing CDs was like rocket science compared to N64 cartridges).

There, we found Final Fantasy 7.

We played until we were told to go to bed.  His brother was at a band gig and wouldn't be back until next week.  I went and woke him up during the night, but he had actually been awake wanting to go play it more.  I came back almost every day and we played.
Final Fantasy 7 was grungier, felt more adult-like.  With no bushes to slash open and refill your health, it felt mountains more difficult.  And it was the challenge I needed.  The romance between the characters, the loss of Aerith, the vengeance, the complexity was awesome.

I passed that grade. Meh. Next year. Meh.  That Christmas, before the end of middle school, we got a PS2.  It came with a racing game (Gran Turismo).  I went into it thinking it would be like all the other racing games, like oh I don't know, Mickey Racing, Mario Kart (and I want to say there's some form of F-zero for N64 but I doubt it).

Nope.  A legit-racing game.  While the novelty of a real-life racing game was cool, I preferred the fantasy of exploding shells.  Needless to say I played the shit out of that game.  I also remember just playing 99-red balloons constantly.
THEN MY DAD BROUGHT HOME DARK CLOUD.  MY MIND WAS BLOWN.

The story goes, some guy unleashed the dark genie because he's evil and dissolved most of the people and bits of the world into these balls you have to adventure and find in dungeons while not getting assraped by monsters but the first boss is Dran and he's really wuvable and he was evil because the dark genie mad him evil but now that he's your friend he'll help you so he gives you this thing on your glove that lets you do some cool spiffy stuff-- OH DID I MENTION YOU GET TO MAKE YOUR OWN WEAPONS AND WORLD?

Fuck. Everything. Else.

Customize EVERYTHING.  TO me it was brilliant, having to ask the villagers what they wanted and try to satisfy everyone.  The randomly generating treasure chests when you got a new house made or someone satisfied, they were tiny as fuck but I LOVED finding them.  This game is fucking brilliant.  Anyone who says otherwise is a hater.
Oh, and during the first part of the game, you save this cat and it tries to save you-- THEN GETS TURNED INTO A CATGIRL.
And thus, my affections for catgirls emerged.  She loved Toan (MC) because he was just some guy trying to help everyone.  I admired that and modeled myself after that.  Still haven't found where my fucking catgirl is at.

Anyways, that game was also mostly text, but had a good story (the over-acing one was kinda generic, but the stories between the characters were quite good).  Its no Inception, but fuck I loved that game.

Then came Kingdom Hearts.  Man I remember just getting this anxious rush, the goosebumps, the excitement. I thought that game was awesome-- oh, and everyone talked (mostly). COOL.
The lighthearted adventure was fun.  But figuring out how to murder Sephiroth was the epitome of that game.  For me at least.
Fast forward and you hit Final Fantasy X.  I had clearly gained ADD by this time, as I do not recall ever thinking about Final Fantasy past FF7.  Never touched FF8 or FF9.  I know I know, I'm a horrible person.  I also really want to try Legend of Dragoon...
FFX was more of a tragedy.  It had all the greatest elements of FF7, it was a different story and I loved it. 
It was at this time, with the turn-based combat and good graphics and near-whole voice acting my siblings began watching me play.  They called it "story time".  We would debate over the meanings of what people said or where I should go next.  We opted to always do side-things before moving the plot further.  My older sister became Master Of The Walkthrough Website (because the internet was a terrifying place for young people, apparently).  She knew the spoilers -somewhat- and merely told us what would be permanently missable and what wouldn't.
It was about the most fun I've had playing a game, playing with an audience.
After that I got back to really bonding with the family.  Things started looking up (until the End of FFX where I kept my whole party alive, my team was Tidus Auron Yuna, I brought out all the characters to speak for the special finale bits and NO ONE DIED until it turns out Auron/Tidus are dreams and are already dead and WE ALL CRIED, FUCK YOU SQUARE ENIX).

I'm pretty sure by now I'd entered high school.  Academics now counted, which I sucked at.  PE was now for marks, and with my body now being comprised of bones, I was wondering if I should swap eating disorders to get some fat to turn into muscle.
I almost failed everything, basically passed my first semester with pity marks (51% or 55%).  A note to everyone: you never just barely pass something.  They pass you because they don't want you back.

I sat there, the dissonance between my maxed out characters, my strong pokemon (oh yeah I played pokemon, forgot to mention), my maxed out hearts in LoZ.  All of those achievements, all of those feats and then I just suck at this other world.
Not anymore.  I decided I was to be good at one thing, just one damn thing.  I chose Japanese.  Asked my teacher for the next grades' materials, finished them, rinse repeat.  By the time I started gr10 I had finished his textbook for SFU's curriculum at the time.
I noticed my other grades went up.  I was working harder.  I had LEARNED HOW TO WORK HARD (but aside from rote memorization for Japanese I still do not know how to study to this day). Also I noticed I was really tall.  I had been tall all my life, but now other people noticed how tall I was.  People started to gravitate to my confidence and charm.
That Summer I worked for my mom's work filing mail.  Ironically I came home to play WindWaker (yeah) and played the minigame that I was--- filing mail away.  SUDDENLY MY WORLDS ARE PARALLEL!!!

Before School started up, I went and applied to work at a restaurant.
I bought this game called Persona 3.  One of my favourites to this day.  And it showed me how to date a girl. 
I asked this girl out in the Japanese club I was in and we were together for 2 years.  I made quite a bit of money, bought and played a ton more games, quit and went to Japan for the summer of `11 (just started dating the girl and had to leave ASAP, derp).

I graduated high school and worked for a year, trying to save up enough money to be able to move out with my current girlfriend.  She broke up with me, I realized she had become my everything and I had lost touch with most of my friends.  About 90% of my friends went to University straight outta High School.  It was February and I had missed the deadline for spring enrollment. Fuck.

No friends, no girlfriend.  Just work and video games. After playing video games, I reminded myself of where'd I'd come from, all the shit I'd  been through in my life and I wouldn't let this breakup/friendlessness depression ruin me.  I started living an interesting life.  Spoilertags couldn't cover all the things I've done so I'll keep them OFF the internets.

Buuut then I started SFU, quit my job and decided to be a student.  My videogames now just usually end up being time-wasters or minor quick-games like COD or Crysis 2.
I think I could probably be doing much better in my courses if I knew how to study and built in a routine for learning material.  I don't think videogames are a problem in my life, its my ADD/learning disability/whatever I am doing wrong.

But seriously Matt, if I gave any more details you'd see we have a fair bit in common.

[Agitomega]

OOO well I guess I started playing videogames when I starting to be able to remember. I think It was a snes, and it had shooting soldiers and duckhunt I believe with the light gun thing. then after a while I stopped playing until I came to canada in 1999. I was introduced to smash series and really got in to it.

When I came to canada I was introduced to pc gaming through my back then neightbour Paul.(he was white so its paul want) I started with the toddler games(magic school bus and some fucked up car thing) because I dont know english. This is when I realised I dont like sports back then(I like it now but just not watching and not sports games. and really limited my social interactions. Then I started StarCraft(I wasnt very good and used cheats all the time back then and didnt know much) and Little Fighter(a wierd little Hong Kong game that some how got popular here through the asians). And I remenber playing Neopets(Can you even consider it a game?) and Runescape. Also marvel vs Capcom really got me into Megaman.

Then I started playing gba emulation in highschool and really got into it and gba emulation got me introduced to web forums. Around this time I was introduced to anime so I concentrated on both. During this phase I started playing final fantasy 1-12(except 11 but including x-2). and my computer still sucked because I had only built in graphic card and my parents dont really like me playing video games.(asian parents) I also got in to mmorpg starting with pirated servers of RO and helbreath(its korean but its like diablo).  I also started playing smash with Paul(white paul)

starting In university I played WoW for a while in pirated servers ofcourse. but then I got a graphic card and started playing portal and the popular FPS and TPS. I got into the shin Megami Tensei series two years ago thanks to one of my friends in the sfu surrey games room. Oh and i started going to the sfu games room when I first went to the surrey campus. And I discovered warhammer but people are telling(still telling me) not to get into warhammer.so Im not that much into table top gaming yet but I do play Dawn of War(which probably saved me a shit load of money).

I also played alot of games in my community center, I had many connections through gaming.

Really Gaming and Anime is what connected to people but It also disconnected me to others. It has hurt and helped my social relationships in many ways.

I'm pretty obssessed with gaming and my parents see it as a problem. But In university my grade doing doing fine and I do get social interactions through cosplay meets and of course the club. I even joined the zombie walk. so gaming really affected my life in one way.

[Gaming]

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