The life of a gamer has taken on many
different roles as well as stereotypes over the years. It seems that society
tends to label gamers as fat, lazy, unemployed and living in their parents
basement just to name a few words to describe gamers. For a lot of gamers, that
couldn’t be any further from the truth. Gaming to a lot of people is more than
just that. It’s a hobby, to some it’s even life. Here I take a look at just how
gaming has affected the life of a gamer as well as a tell all look at myself.
Angie
is a 33 year old gamer. She’s been gaming since she was eight and her first
console was Atari. Her fondest memory was staying up late playing video games
with her dad. “Whether it was Mario or Sonic we had fun trying to beat them,”
Angie said. Angie hasn’t just limited herself to consoles, she also plays games
on the PC. “My favorite games are World of Warcraft (WOW), The Sims Online and
Second Life,” Angie said. Angie has been playing SL for 10 years now as Justice
Mirabeu.
As
far as what gaming has done to have a positive impact on her life, she gave a
lot of thought before she gave her answer. “I don’t see gaming really having a
positive impact like it did anything super good. Granted I spend time with my
mother on SL as we don’t seem to have a lot to say in first life but we have
good mother and daughter time in game,” Angie said. Family wasn’t the only
people Angie mentioned however, like most people who game, friends were made
over the years playing games. “I’ve met some people who became good friends from
gaming on WOW and SL, some of which I’ve met in real life,” Angie said. Angie
is engaged in first life and she lives three and a half hours away from her
fiancé. She spoke of the advantages of gaming. “Gaming gives us a chance to be
close and spend quality time together being that far away. It’s tough being in
a long distance relationship but gaming makes it a little be easier, plus I get
to teach him how to play SL,” Angie said.
Switching
gears Angie then told me about the negative aspects that gaming has had in her
life and there seemed to be more cons than pros. “Even though my gaming was
mostly done during the night or on the weekends, it made a lot of people think
all I did was sit on my butt all day every day and play SL and WOW.” She paused
for a couple of minutes and then continued. “It beats going to the club all the
time and drinking and smoking which is a lot of what people wanted to do.
Gaming kept me out of trouble,” Angie said. After that she opened up more about
her fiancé and the negative part of being a gamer. “As nice as it is to game
especially with my fiancé, sometimes things get out of hand.
I still game don’t
get me wrong but I’m not into it like I was and I play more SL than I do games
on the console,” Angie said. When asked her to elaborate why that was, again
she paused and had this to say. “Sometimes I get bombarded with wanting to
play. Don’t get me wrong it’s not just him. A lot of people think just because
I got a new console or a new game, or I’m on SL that means they’re going to get
to play all the time or that I’m going to let them borrow it or use my
computer. A lot of the time I don’t feel like my stuff is really mine and I
just want to sell it or put it away for good!” She added, “it’s also a struggle
just to have any time to myself with or without being on my PC. If I even go to
get a drink, somebody gets on my computer and I basically have to fight just to
get it back.” Gaming gets taken more seriously than it should in my life!
Which
brings it to me. I’m 33 and have been gaming since I was seven. My first
console was Nintendo.I’ve been in SL for two years now. I don’t get on daily so
I’m still learning new things all the time.
My
fondest memories come from both childhood as well as being an adult. As a child
I remember my parents both yanking the controller, sometimes out of the
Nintendo because they thought it would help you jump. If you think about it,
that might have been the foundation of motion controls. I also remember my dad
thinking he was playing the original Mario Bros. game but he didn’t press
start. He never touched a controller ever again. I also remember my mom playing
The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle game for the Nintendo. We rented it for a few days
and I may have got to play it 5 times. My mom ended up having dreams about it.
As an adult, my fondest memory is playing LEGO Star Wars and New Super Mario
Bros. Wii with my kids. We had so much fun and I wouldn’t trade that for the
world.
I
suffer from depression, panic attacks and bipolar disorder. I go to the doctor
when I’m supposed to and I take my pills when I can afford them. There’s plenty
of times where none of that works. I only get to talk to my counselor once
every other month. In addition to all of that, suicide runs in my family and
yes I’ve attempted it a handful of times. I can honestly say that the PS3 and
PS4 and PC gaming has saved my life numerous of times. I turn it on and start
playing and I get lost into the game. I forget whatever it is that’s bothering
me and by the time I’m done, I’m better. If I’m mad at the world or at certain
people, a first person shooter or Watch Dogs usually does the trick. If I get
into an intense battle in Madden or NBA 2K14 then that’s even better. Some
people cope by drinking, others by smoking, my coping mechanism, my addiction
so to speak is video games! It’s not just life, it saved my life. That’s how it
has affected me in a positive way.
Now I’d be a liar if I didn’t say that it hasn’t caused negativity in my
life as well. As much as it’s saved my life in the past, in a lot of ways it’s
destroyed my life. It’s a big reason why I’m divorced and only get to see my
kids maybe three times a year if I’m lucky. When I was younger, 19, 20 and so
on, whenever that game I just “had” to have came out or I wanted to play a game
on the computer, I would go out and buy it, whether we had the money or not,
whether my daughters needed diapers or not, I went out and bought games. Then
I’d try to hide the game and the fact that I bought the game. It was always a
lie. Oh I found it, somebody let me borrow it. It was always something. Many of
times I had a job and I quit because I wanted to stay at home and play video
games.
It got so bad that I’d park the car in the garage, wouldn’t answer the
door or the phone and I’d play until my ex-wife came home. You might be asking
where the kids were. I’d drop them off at her mom’s house or at a babysitter’s
house. When it was time for my ex-wife
to come home, I’d put everything away get in the car and drive around in the
country and come home like I just put in a full days of work. That’s just if I
pretended to work the same shift. If I had a second shift job or flat out lie
about having one in the first place. I’d drive around in the country seeing how
far the road goes for however long my “shift” was. All so I could come home and
play games. Sometimes I’d say I had the day off and would keep my kids. I’d be
so wrapped up in the game that they would destroy the house, clothes
everywhere, coloring and writing on the walls, and sometimes barely fed. I
ignored my own kids and my ex-wife for years. It got to the point that be it
video games or the computer, we only communicated through Myspace or Facebook.
I had a real problem. I was a bad parent and husband because of it, and that’s
just ONE aspect to my end of why we’re divorced. We had an unfortunate house
fire back in 2005. The ex and I got into a fight because I bought something I
shouldn’t have. She took the kids to her mom’s house. Well the furnace was old
and the wires were frayed and the house caught on fire. I almost didn’t make
it. I was accused by a handful of people of starting the fire on purpose. The
detective I understood but others that’s just crazy.
A former relative said to
me that they knew I didn’t do it and they can prove it. I would’ve gotten all
the stuff I deemed important (games, wrestling stuff, childhood stuff) out of
the house, I would’ve hid it somewhere and then little by little as time went
by, things would magically appear. To this day, and it’s sad to admit this,
that person is right because that’s exactly what I would’ve done. Surprisingly
the PS2 and all of the games survived the fire but it was “decided” that the
PS2 should be thrown out. So as you see, gaming for better or worse has played
a huge part in my life. Admittedly more than it ever should for me or anybody.
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