Live Free or Game Hard

Hi everyone, my name is Jamieson, and I'm a gamer.

*YOU*: Hi Jamieson.

I think it all started when I was about 3 years old and my older brother, Jason, who is 10 years my senior, put an Atari joystick in my hand. That was it, man, POW! Since that moment, I've never been the same. It molded me into the man I am today (the jury is still out on whether or not that is a good thing). I think I could give up breathing and still be better of than if a doctor told me I had to stop gaming. It's been a way for me to socialize, and a way for me to be by myself. In fact, I was pretty much raised by plastic boxes attached to televisions with cables (okay, maybe my parents did a little bit; I mean, who else was gonna buy me new games?).

A few years later, on Christmas, when I got my NES, whoa! Might as well call up the school and tell them to give my seat to another kid, because you couldn't pry me off of that thing without a crowbar and some chloroform to knock me out. My new class room was the living room. My teachers came in convenient cartridge form, and my 'writing' implement was a beautiful little plastic rectangle with two red buttons. Thus began my journey into REAL gaming. Sure, Atari was awesome, and I can say with an odd sense of pride that we owned E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. That's right! At least one copy saved from the landfill. But with the Nintendo, a whole new world was opened up.

It started with Super Mario Bro.'s. One look at the crazy, cracked-out world of mushrooms, big green pipes to secrets places, and castles with pretty much the best theme music ever written, and I was certain that the rest of my life would be spent with controller firmly in my grip. This was better than chocolate milk (the best thing I'd had prior to the Nintendo), and it was damn fun. And then I struck gold. Seriously, GOLD. That being the golden cartridge that was... the Legend of Zelda. When Jason told me that the freakin' thing had a BATTERY in it, to SAVE YOUR FREAKIN' PLACE (little Jamieson: "Ahhhhh..." *mouth hangs open in utter awe.), I could have died and gone to Valhalla right there! That probably would have been the ONE thing that would stop me from playing that game.

It's true that video games have kind of taken over a good portion of my life. In my teenage years, I would gladly forsake movies, sports and most other forms of social interaction to keep playing. I think I may have ruined a couple good friendships just to beat Final Fantasy 6 one more time, but I'm sure it was for the better. If they were REAL friends, they would have been there cheering me on, or at least trying to convince me to play something multi-player. Friends that game together, stay together, or some sappy shite like that.

Now recently, I've been hearing a lot of people bitching about the gaming industry, talking about the number of garbage titles being released as if everything that came out on the Nintendo was of the caliber of Metroid and Mario 3. Well I'll tell you, this is NOT the case. Sure, we have these fond memories of kicking the crap out of Ganon, or blasting Mother Brain in the face with rockets, but we forget the real stinker games. Hey, maybe it's for the better. Who wants to feel responsible for having their parents blow 50 bucks on Totally Rad? Or the embarrassment of owning Amazon? Seriously, I still wake up in a cold sweat at night after the nightmare about paying real cash money for the Robin Hood movie game. Hey, we all make mistakes.

The point is, bad games are not new; we, the old school gaming community, have just become jaded. Yeah, we came from an era of Street Fighter II, Ghosts N' Goblins, and every great Final Fantasy, so it's hard not to get cocky when they STILL release these games over and over again, with a few bells and whistles. And hey, let's admit it, we buy them. I bet everyone who downloaded the SF2 re-release on the 360 already owned at least 2 different versions from generations past. It okay. We are weak to nostalgia. If they put out a remake of Chrono Trigger RIGHT NOW (hint, hint Square) I would run out, shove an old lady out of my way and BUY IT! Proudly, and without any hesitation or regret. The addiction is that strong.

But we had more than our share of crappy games. Stuff that's so bad it's not even fun like one of those games that is fun because it sucks. Hell, there were more than 700 NES games, and I'll tell you that no one is jumping up to bring back most of them. But when we look back, we'll remember the GOOD games, the Contra's and Dragon Warrior's, not the throw-aways. Why would we? But those good games, those great games, those are the ones that stick with us. I can honestly think of pretty much the same number (give or take, of course) of great games from every generation (a lot of them take place in the year 20XX). I can't think of one time period that had that much more in terms of games I love than any other.

It is true that certain fanchises seem to be losing there steam, but new contenders take their place. When the reigning king dies, the empire shouldn't have to die with him; it should honor him, replace him, and move on, maybe looking back every once and a while to think back on good memories. I'll be the first to say that with Rock Band, BioShock, Metal Gear Solid 4, Metroid Prime 3, and numerous others coming down the pipeline, I am not afraid for the future of gaming. I think it only gets better from here. And I don't think I'm alone.

So to wrap up, it's great to feel connected to the past of great gaming, but don't let it blind you to what is still out there. We need to be sure that our children, and our children's children, still have great, new fanchises. And maybe a few remakes of CastleVania.

Keep on' gamin'.