FanGirl Special Edition

For my final PAX East themed post, I wanted to talk about the main focus of the convention, something that I enjoy and also something that is also huge in popular culture, which is...

Video Games

 

Now, video games have always been a huge part of my life increasing my love of competition and good storytelling/graphics. As I had older siblings I grew up watching and sometimes playing games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. As I got older me and my sister played on the N64 and of, course the original PlayStation and the PlayStation 2. Not to mention I've played an endless variety of computer games like Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, MathBlaster and Myst. I'm probably dating myself, but I still remember the days when only one kid in the neighborhood had a specific game and we would all crowd in his computer or living room to watch. This led to some awesome memories that I have failing at Goldeneye or endlessly using Yoshi for Super Smash Bros. Some other games that I have great memories with : Street Fighters III, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Spyro, Aladdin, Super Mario World, Crash Bandicoot, Carmen Sandiego, Myst, Mario Kart, Zelda: A Link to the Past and on.

I think I had such great memories because the games were both interesting and challenging in their own ways. Later in college I took a Psychology of Video Games class, which got me hooked back on playing games, when I had normally just watched others for a while since I would quit games a lot. Required "homework" for the class would be a minimum of two hours of gaming a week, and although I started doing the bear minimal, I ended up playing for 6,8,10 hours each week. It did help that I had a great game to play (the original Kingdom Hearts) and I was able to remember how much I loved video games from when I was younger, as this game had mature gameplay and stories combined with Disney nostalgia. This past fall, I bought a Nintendo 3DS, which I love and I was able to actually beat games for the first time (The New Super Mario Bros, Pokemon X) and have fun while doing it which is really important for me.

 Recently I started watching the IGN channel on YouTube and getting into Let's Plays to reminisce on older games that I haven't seen in a while. This added to my interest in gaming and was one of the reasons why I attended PAX this year, I wanted to make the switch from being passive to active in all of my interests. Currently, I have been playing Mass Effect, Bravely Default, The Wolf Among Us and the Walking Dead and have at least 10 other games in my queue for Steam. Seriously, once class is over I will get more into gaming and reading, two things that have been lacking recently.