I was first exposed to gaming at a very young age since my older sister played video games when she was younger. My first game played was Tekken 3; I could barely make out the basic concept of that game around that time, but that first experience of a controller in hand was a match made in heaven. When my sister got Grand Theft Auto 3, I would continuously plead with her to let me play; hardly she would give in. Eventually, I got my own PlayStation and would “borrow the game” from time to time. However, this did not last too long since I shortly got caught by my father during a late-night session and was barred from playing the Grand Theft Auto series until I have reached a certain age, which solidified my love for gaming. Being forbidden from playing this game did not stop me as I got stealthier as I got older until I was old enough to play openly. To add on, a heavy influence of older family members who got to enjoy gaming in its very early infant stages of storytelling strengthened my love for gaming with games like Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks and Kingdom Hearts. The idea of online play in the early 2000s seemed like sorcery to me during the tenure of Playstation 2 and Xbox Original. Soon enough, online play was becoming more easily accessible with the growth of Xbox Live and Playstation Network. I saw more of my older family members playing sports titles online against their friends, which soon sparked my infatuation with online play. Initially, the fun aspect of gaming was all that mattered to me. That was until I got my first taste of playing at an extremely high level, which slowly became my only motivation to play the sports titles I currently play. In simple terms, the journey of getting better is what I enjoy now. A bonus is that I end up on the leaderboards and have opportunities to play with and against highly revered players. My current three main games are NBA 2K, Madden, and UFC 4. I’m spending more time now on UFC and Madden as the next NBA 2K is approaching release.
On the contrary, this love for competitive play has also affected my passion for gaming as I don’t play games that are story-heavy or plot-based other than Grand Theft Auto. Given that, I’d most likely watch the cut scene movie of a said game that I’m interested in on Youtube. Hopefully, by the end of this semester, I will regain my love for playing games that intend to tell a story.