Why Do I Play Games? Not just for Kids

c/o http://www.dorkly.com/post/47055/the-most-dangerous-gamer

Before I get into my reasons behind why I do what I do, let me throw some numbers at you, care of the awesome people over at ESA (The Entertainment Software Association):

As you can see, your “stereotypical gamer” is a thing of the past. In 2013, gamers spent $21.53 BILLION (which is almost what Kobe Bryant made that year) on games.  About 53% of that was digital content, either DLC for existing disk games or full digital copies of their games. The majority of those gamers were over 30 and nearly half were female. We have reached the point where nearly every household has two gamers and more Americans play video games then attend professional sports, like baseball. Avatar, one of the highest grossing films in history, took nineteen days to break the one billion mark. Grand Theft Auto V did that in THREE DAYS.

Now onto my point: Why do I game?

I game because of the community. I game because of the ability to do things I’d NEVER dream of. I game for the fun. But mostly I game because it is the literal glue that holds my life together.

I’m in my late twenties (getting dangerously close to thirty) and I am female. I am not your cookie cutter “pretty girl”.  I’m a bit curvy (fine, I am A LOT curvy). Oh, and I have bright blue hair. So, I am not really that girl everyone fawns over (although recently the hair thing has gotten me a fair deal of fans). Anyway, I have always been a loner, always kept to myself. All though highschool and most of college, I was that weird girl in the corner with a handheld. Or the girl who spent her weekends at the mall, not shopping, but hanging out at the arcade for literally ten hours. You know what though, that all paid off in the end.

Spending hours and probably close to a couple hundred dollars in quarters introduced me to some of my best friends.  Always hiding in the corner with my handheld introduced me to the man I hope to marry one day. We met on a train platform. Our train was broken down. It was late and I was panicking (as I normally do when I am “social” to long). He had a Nintendo DS. He showed me it and tried to calm me down.

Two stops later, I got off the train, but not before slipping him my cell number. A few weeks later, he got the courage to call and see if he could come over. Since games had started this all, I figured it would be okay to challenge him to a friendly game of Soul Calibur II on my Playstation 2. As a “friendly wager” I told him if he beat me, we would become boyfriend and girlfriend. I did not realize what a mistake that was. This guy used to hang out at the arcade almost as much as me. Where I kept to the front playing Dance Dance Revolution, he hid out in the back corner. On the Soul Calibur II machine. He was the high score that plagued me. Needless to say, he beat me to a pulp. And needless to say, we are still together seven years later.

We are  both gamers (obviously). He plays League of Legends, where I’m more of a FPS girl (Call of Duty: Ghosts takes up more of my life than it should). We still find time to play our handhelds together (though we have now updated to a purple Nintendo 3DS for me and a red Nintendo 3DSXL for him). We have literally made decisions using a D20. He can still stomp me in games (Pokemon X/Y) but it is all in fun. Our daughter (who is seven now) has her own 360 and my old Nintendo DSlite.  She plays with us every chance she gets.

Because the family that games together, stays together.

Catch us online on our Twitch channels SynthetikxAngel (me) and All_Is_Dust7 (him) or on our YouTube channel The Catastrophe Factory.