Becoming A Gamer

 I am a 90's kid, late 90's to be fair, but I most certainly have a 90s vibe. Of course, depending who you talk to decides if I am Millennial or Gen Z. I personally think that's a stupid subject to dwell on overly much, but my age will factor into this post. 

My Dad was born in '80, he's a true Nintendo guy. I grew up with some amount of love for Mario and Link, but I was never really a gamer. I had a DS Lite, I even have a vivid memory of sitting on the coffee table in our living room (the same one I currently work in, and am currently writing this post in) and cracking open the pretty, white DS. If my memory serves me, I also received a pink iPod nano that day. Ahhh the good ol' days, I'm still a pretty loyal Apple consumer (well at least their phones... for now). At the beginning of 4th grade, we were about to move to Germany, but we had a month or so before we left so I attended school for a while. My teacher had Webkinz in the classroom, and I absolutely adored them. I love stuffed animals (and still do, as evidenced by my 30+ Squishmallows). Around this time, the family invested in a Wii (what would be the first of several, two still live in the living room now.) we played the shit out of Wii Sports, Link's Crossbow Training, and more. I wouldn't say video games were a main interest of mine. There were things I played a lot, I also enjoyed watching my Dad play things like Saints Row. Castle Crashers and Journey were my first forays into console gaming. Two that still rank very high on my favorites list. Dad tried hard to get me into more video games, but I was resistant. Maybe I didn't think they were cool, or more likely I simply didn't have the attention span or interest at the time. I don't have the most amazing hand-eye coordination, which I'm sure factors into it as well. 

In 2018 when Tyler and I started dating he wanted to find a game we could play together. An old friend had talked to me extensively about Overwatch, so I offered it up as something we could check out together. We both became absolutely obsessed, we had merch, we put so much time into the game it was insane. Tyler was playing on an Xbox One during this time, I enjoyed it though I had far more experience with Nintendo and PlayStation. It's important to note that I do not understand the console war, personally, I'd love to have all current-generation consoles. I think all of them have unique features and games that are worth my time and money. But I digress, not long after I started enjoying Xbox my Dad gifted me a Nintendo Switch. I was obsessed, I played through Let's Go, Eevee first. And subsequently, many Mario and old Nintendo games followed. We all got on some Diablo 3 at this time, but unfortunately, that game fizzled. This is also where my first Skyrim playthrough occurred, I played a Khajit named Ophelia who did a lot of magic and a lot of two-handed weapons. I didn't have a lot of Skurim knowledge at that time, but I had an absolute blast playing it. I put Skyrim down in favor of Animal Crossing. I logged close to 400 (if not more) hours on it. I had a five-star island and beat most (if not all) of the DLC. Unfortunately, a while ago my Switch stopped docking to the TV (of course around the time Switch Sports came out), and more recently it has not been able to hold a charge. I am sure I will look into upgrading to the OLED switch when I can. 

After receiving my Microsoft Surface I began playing quite a bit of Xbox game pass, I started a new playthrough of Skyrim partially inspired by the need for fantasy content on the weekends we weren't playing D&D. I was using Tyler's account, which meant we were unable to play anything together. We decided to invest in an Xbox Series S and my own Xbox Game Pass subscription. With the move out of the apartment and into the RV, my family, Tyler, and I have been playing a lot of video games together. Left 4 Dead came first and revealed a big issue with Tyler's OG Xbox One, the disc drive was damaged and really struggling to read discs. My dad one night said, "Well looks like you guys need to get an Xbox Series X." I argued at first, but was easily convinced this was the case. An awesome Activision Blizzard sale solved how we were going to play Diablo II & III together (we were able to get both games for 19$). Of course, we had a blast, which led to me deciding I was going to buy a Series X  and preorder Diablo IV. 

Which is how you get this post today, my little sister is currently playing a Paw Patrol game on my new Series X and my Diablo IV disc is sitting on my desk calling my name. I am excited for the future of my gaming, and the enjoyment I get from doing it with the people I love. It's been quite a journey, I never thought I'd consider myself a gamer, but life always takes interesting turns. 

Taila Out.