#3: For the Love of the Game

Hello. My name is Kuro and I'm a gamer. Specifically, I'm a video gamer. I play video games. Even more specifically...I almost always play Nintendo games. I'm not necessarily the brand-loyal kind of person...but I do like the kind of games that are on Nintendo consoles...and I always have...since the 80s...

I don't remember how old I was when I started playing Nintendo. I think I was somewhere around six years old...and I finally got my hands on something I'd been wanting for a very long time...a Nintendo Entertainment System. My first games were, of course, Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt, which were released on one game pak with the system. It also came with a Zapper...a light gun that was used for games like Duck Hunt.

I remember playing these games for hours...until realizing...well...I was no good at them. I never got very far in Duck Hunt...and even then, it was only because I stood right at the screen and held the Zapper inches away from my poor feathered prey. As for my beloved Mario...well...I remember how, after weeks and weeks of trying...I was very proud of myself for having beaten World 1-1. Of course, after this triumph would inevitably come certain doom once I've found myself in World 1-2...but such was always my fate.

As years went by, I never stopped playing video games. I mean...alright...I did stop playing...for thing like eating, sleeping, watching television, and all the other stuff I did...but what I mean was, I never lost interest in my video games. I've owned an NES, a Sega Genesis, a Nintendo 64, all manner of Game Boys, and finally, a GameCube...and...now...13 years after the first time I ever heard the game over music in Super Mario Bros....I still cringe the exact same way...to the exact same music...in Super Mario Sunshine.

This is nothing to many of you...until you realize...I got this game the day after it was released in North America...and I've been playing it ever since. What have I achieved in this game so far, after all this time? Forty shine sprites. Yes...that's it.

Then...you must also realize...out of over 50 games that I currently own...I have actually finished only a small percentage of them. My problems range in their...problemality...from places where I am stuck and don't know how to progress...to enemies I cannot defeat, no matter how hard I try...to challenges of all sorts that are just...beyond my skill level...or sometimes even beyond my attention span.

Staying semi-true to the understood traditions of the hardcore gamer...I use cheat codes and players' guides very sparingly. Even when I do turn to a walkthrough or strategy guide for help...it is always because I have tried to solve a problem on my own and am stuck.

My inability to get through crucial parts of most games is what causes me to doubt my gaming prowess. In fact...I've often gone so far as to say...I'm a bad gamer. The skills I need to complete a game are usually skills I don't have in abundance...and I'm not even sure what these games are.

It was a realization that hit me years ago...when I was playing some Sega Genesis game...and I started to discuss it with a casual acquaintance of mine who was the same age as I...and he remarked that the game I was playing was a pathetically easy game and that he had beaten it a week after he'd gotten it. It's continued on to even now, when I talk to my online friends about video games...only to find that they have a tendency to beat most games in the amount of time it takes me to get through the first level. Some people...the sort who would dismiss Yoshi's Story as a pathetically easy game...can hardly believe I got two games over before I could actually defeat Baby Bowser for the first time.

Some may tell me that all I need is more practice and that I'll get better eventually...but that statement completely disregards the fact that playing games is all I know. I'd been playing Atari since before I could even read...which is, in fact, my earliest conscious memory. I've played games of all types all my life...and I enjoy them...even when I find myself to be completely inept. Still...no matter how much I play...and no matter how hard I try...it seems my skills never really improve.

So...why do I even play games at all? Well...like I've said before...it's all I know. Video games in general are a part of me...and an important part at that. If I didn't play video games...it would be like...well...I would feel incomplete. I enjoy video games. They are my passion...my escape from life. They bring me comfort when I am sad...and they are always willing to play when I want to. More importantly...video games are...fun. They offer insight into worlds that would not be accessible in any other medium...simply because video games are unique. Because of video games, I've saved worlds, rescued people, used incredibly powerful destructive weapons, and done things no human being can conceivably do...and I've enjoyed every second of it...except for the seconds during which I am frustrated and unhappy because I seem to lose quite often.

Still...I carry on...because that is all I can do. Sure...lately, I've been doing a lot of things besides playing video games...and maybe they aren't as major a part in my life as they once were...but that doesn't mean I love them any less. I love video games...and I always will...and...maybe one day...my skills really will improve. There is no telling...but I know one thing. I will never stop playing.

Thank you all for listening.