A Little Introduction

So here I am, writing seriously for the first time since I graduated from college back in 2008. I’ve been throwing around ideas for a blog of sorts for a while, but never found any specific topic. This changed last week in a good chat I had with my friend Matt. Matt is in Korea for a while teaching little kids english, and as such he has access to a truly interesting portion of their culture. In Korea, much like sports in America, a video game called Starcraft is played on a competitive level. Now we do this in America too, but we don’t televise it. Matt and I were joking about how we’d love to be the first announcers for an American version. Then the “duh” moment hit me: why don’t I talk about video games?

But I didn’t just want to talk about video games in general. I would have no direction and wouldn’t get any substance from it. It was here that I read a topic on the SomethingAwful.com forums titled "No, the OTHER right!" helping other people play games (Thanks to the user Coyo7e for creating the topic). The topic started out as a place for experienced gamers to go and complain about the frustrations of getting the people they love to play games with them. Those of us who have played games for a long time are more attuned to the controller and the way games play. When we see others play games from the first time its much like watching someone drive a car for the first time, lots of silly mistakes and you immediately enter backseat driver mode.

The topic began to drift from its original intent, and that was why are us gamers more attuned to the games. I sort of gave my answer to the question already in that we’ve been around them longer and therefore know how they work better. So there lies the root of what I want to tackle: what has turned me into the gamer I am today. Each person probably has different answers to this, but I know damn well where my influences came from. My plan is to start by talking about the games I have played through my life that got me especially excited about the medium, then take it from wherever that leave me. I want to explore what about these games made me (and many others) love them, and then why non-gamers might find them interesting.

The first update is coming soon! Get ready for some piratey goodness!