Here's a little something to know about me: I am a gamer. If it is a game, chances are I will play it and enjoy it, at least once. Whether I continue to play depends on how good the game is.
I began gaming as a lad. My dad likes to remind me how I used to feed quarters into arcade machines, especially the original Super Mario Bros at Richmond drug store. The store no longer exists, and arcade machines are a thing of the past, but well do I remember funneling money into the change slots to continue my games.
Gaming for me began with the original Atari. I owned a couple of games, one of which was Popeye. The other two were original titles that never got any notoriety, but they were still fun. This, of course, was in the 80s back when the name Atari had more "oomph" behind it. Of course, it faded and the original NES rose to prominence. I owned that console, as well as the Sega Genesis that was its competition. I gamed on the Sega CD, the original PS, the X Box, the N64, and then I got a PC for the first time.
I love games. They are an enjoyable challenge of both my reflexes and my puzzle-solving ability and tell some fantastic stories to boot. I have gamed since my earliest childhood straight through into my 30s.
And as of Ash Wednesday, I stopped gaming for the duration of Lent.
There are many reasons to this act and I won't go into all of them. But giving up gaming is not a small sacrifice for me personally as I hope the history above shows you. And having given them up even temporarily, I find the urge to game is a constant temptation - sink more time into whatever my game of the moment is, or do something else? I even find myself missing it - I left Bioshock 2 unfinished and want to see the end of the story. But ever since I've been carless, I've had little other than gaming to do. Giving up gaming seems not only appropriate as a sacrifice, it's breaking a habit that has sucked up my time more than I would like.
In giving up my favorite activity, I believe I'll be able to find some new ones. I've already had my special project occupy last week's newly freed time. This week, I'm thinking even more will come my way.
Gaming, I'll see you in 33 days. :)
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Brian, come game with us. (Spoken in unison from last night's gaming)
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, gaming can take up too much time. I limit myself to gaming on Tuesday nights for two hours with the group, plus two more hours during the week. I hope you find the right balance in your life. And in 33 days I expect you to be on TeamSpeak :)
Haha, thanks for the support Doc. I don't necessarily think I will have a problem limitng my gaming per se - yes, I've spent a lot of my past time gaming but the main reason I would habitually game was because going somewhere else and doing something else was too frequently not possible. Not only has that changed, but even if it hadn't I know there's other things I can have fun with at home and I want to expand my activity repertoire.
ReplyDeleteI think there will always be a place for gaming in my life, but being able to add other things to my activities just seems like a perfect change right now.
Cat planet cat planet.
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