Pretty hard to believe that I'll be turning the big three-zero soon. Man, where has the time gone?... Oh! I remember!
It went towards hundreds of video games and multiple 100+ hour RPG's! Ah that brings me back, the good ol' days of gaming.
The time period when you didn't have to worry about micro-transactions. Yeah, I still haven't forgotten.
I've been pretty much a video gamer my whole life. It all started the moment I held the original Game Boy as a little kid, playing games like Kirby's Dreamland, Raging Fighter, and Yoshi's Cookie. Not long later I was playing games on the Nintendo like Super Mario Bros. 3, Contra, and Battletoads to name a few...and then the Super Nintendo came to say hello with its Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Battletoads and Double Dragon, and TMNT: Turtles in Time to name a few from there.
I got so absorbed into gaming that a time-skip happened.
I don't remember much after that other than I got taller...stronger...faster and maybe a little bit hairier but hey, I had the SEGA Game Gear, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, Gamecube, Xbox, DS Lite, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and now the Nintendo Switch.
Ah, but how could I forget the Floppy Disk and CD-ROM era of PC gaming? Games like Quake, Wolfenstein, Last Knight of Camelot, PAC-MAN, Battlezone II, Oni, Speed Busters, Global Operations, etc etc...
That's a lot of consoles and games over the span of nearly 30 years!
I guess I do have to ask myself the question; "Do I regret spending so much money and time playing video games?".
Maybe a little bit...BUT!
I enjoyed my time trying out so many games, going on so many adventures, reading and playing the creations of hundreds if not thousands of people. Sometimes I just stare at my old collection of video games, and reminisce of the adventures I had in those games. Then I stop to wonder about how many people came together to make those games and where are they now? Are they still alive? Are they doing okay? Is the studio still around?
Making video games is really, really hard work and extremely time consuming. I've tried coding in C++ before using Microsoft Visual Studios and it is hard work. Especially when you don't know what the code does, and you need to write a comment on it. It blows my mind how anyone can understand this kind of mumbo-jumbo. Supposedly Java is much easier but I've never tried it. I'm not interested in coding anymore though. Very impressive to those that stuck with it, and can now speak code fluently.
With that said, I really miss the old days of gaming. I'm talking as early as the 1990's to the early 2000's. For me it was an era of great games, great ideas, and great adventures. Of course it wasn't all sugar and rainbows but in my opinion it was an era when social media wasn't as big as it is today, an era when people weren't so politically charged as they are now and things weren't as stressful as they are today. I mean really, I could probably hop on Reddit right now and find something depressing in 3 minutes or less.
It was also an era when I got those AOL discs in the mailbox. Good times indeed.
When I look at the current media landscape now, I can't help but be disgusted with how things have become. With the over saturation of subscription services and the broad list of micro-transactions. Games are still as great as ever, but with some added annoyances.
Anyway, I better stop myself here.
I'm pretty sure that if I keep writing, I'm gonna start writing a 10-page college essay on the introduction and negative effects of micro-transactions, DLC, Loot Boxes, Gacha, Season Passes, lay-offs, crunch time and men in business suits.
I tried my best to gather my thoughts so I could write something meaningful before I turn 30. I guess I went towards a bit of a rant at the end but hopefully I didn't offend anyone.
Thank you for your time for reading my thread and please share your thoughts. Feel free to AMA, or reminisce with me.
It went towards hundreds of video games and multiple 100+ hour RPG's! Ah that brings me back, the good ol' days of gaming.
The time period when you didn't have to worry about micro-transactions. Yeah, I still haven't forgotten.
I've been pretty much a video gamer my whole life. It all started the moment I held the original Game Boy as a little kid, playing games like Kirby's Dreamland, Raging Fighter, and Yoshi's Cookie. Not long later I was playing games on the Nintendo like Super Mario Bros. 3, Contra, and Battletoads to name a few...and then the Super Nintendo came to say hello with its Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Battletoads and Double Dragon, and TMNT: Turtles in Time to name a few from there.
I got so absorbed into gaming that a time-skip happened.
I don't remember much after that other than I got taller...stronger...faster and maybe a little bit hairier but hey, I had the SEGA Game Gear, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, Gamecube, Xbox, DS Lite, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and now the Nintendo Switch.
Ah, but how could I forget the Floppy Disk and CD-ROM era of PC gaming? Games like Quake, Wolfenstein, Last Knight of Camelot, PAC-MAN, Battlezone II, Oni, Speed Busters, Global Operations, etc etc...
That's a lot of consoles and games over the span of nearly 30 years!
I guess I do have to ask myself the question; "Do I regret spending so much money and time playing video games?".
Maybe a little bit...BUT!
I enjoyed my time trying out so many games, going on so many adventures, reading and playing the creations of hundreds if not thousands of people. Sometimes I just stare at my old collection of video games, and reminisce of the adventures I had in those games. Then I stop to wonder about how many people came together to make those games and where are they now? Are they still alive? Are they doing okay? Is the studio still around?
Making video games is really, really hard work and extremely time consuming. I've tried coding in C++ before using Microsoft Visual Studios and it is hard work. Especially when you don't know what the code does, and you need to write a comment on it. It blows my mind how anyone can understand this kind of mumbo-jumbo. Supposedly Java is much easier but I've never tried it. I'm not interested in coding anymore though. Very impressive to those that stuck with it, and can now speak code fluently.
With that said, I really miss the old days of gaming. I'm talking as early as the 1990's to the early 2000's. For me it was an era of great games, great ideas, and great adventures. Of course it wasn't all sugar and rainbows but in my opinion it was an era when social media wasn't as big as it is today, an era when people weren't so politically charged as they are now and things weren't as stressful as they are today. I mean really, I could probably hop on Reddit right now and find something depressing in 3 minutes or less.
It was also an era when I got those AOL discs in the mailbox. Good times indeed.
When I look at the current media landscape now, I can't help but be disgusted with how things have become. With the over saturation of subscription services and the broad list of micro-transactions. Games are still as great as ever, but with some added annoyances.
Anyway, I better stop myself here.
I'm pretty sure that if I keep writing, I'm gonna start writing a 10-page college essay on the introduction and negative effects of micro-transactions, DLC, Loot Boxes, Gacha, Season Passes, lay-offs, crunch time and men in business suits.
I tried my best to gather my thoughts so I could write something meaningful before I turn 30. I guess I went towards a bit of a rant at the end but hopefully I didn't offend anyone.
Thank you for your time for reading my thread and please share your thoughts. Feel free to AMA, or reminisce with me.
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