What Made you a Gamer?

[DrgoFx]

This question may be a little confusing so I'll try to explain it as best as I can.

What helped you decide to be a gamer? Was it that games were fun? Were they an escape from the life you lived? Was it to be competitive? Did it change over time?

I'm curious.

For me, it started off with the "games are fun and all my friends are playing them, so I should too." But later down the road, they kind of became that sanctuary for me from my life. Back in 8th grade I hated my school and games were what made me smile back in the day. I fell behind in my studies because I needed to cool down at home.

After that, it became an addiction and then I simmered down to how I am now, someone who supports forms of art. Movies, Music, Games, the art you did in art class. I support all of it if I feel it deserves recognition, and games definitely deserve it.

 

[PotluckBrigand]

Final Fantasy VII.

I was always a fan of books and stories as a kid, and I owned and played my NES and Genesis, but when I was uh... 13, I think? That sounds right. When I was 13 I borrowed a friend's Playstation and his copy of Final Fantasy VII and for the first time I got a taste of what it was like to merge interactivity with story-telling and I was hooked on the idea.

Admittedly, Final Fantasy VII is hardly the best example of story-telling even in the videogame industry, but it was my first meaningful experience with the medium and I was hooked from there.

 

[krazykidd]

Basement , mountain dew , world of warcraft , redbull , guitar hero .

OT: the game that did it was the original final fantasy , as a child i quickly learned to read just so i could play that game . My dad was smart , he said that if i wanted to play the game he would only help me with hard words , but for the rest i had to do it myself . I was 3 , and i had my parents teach me to read . By the time i was 4 i could read better than most 12 year olds , plus i could understand old english . Been playing final fantasy games ever since .

 

[C F]

PC gaming and Age of Empires II.

My dad would play PC games with his mouse hand, and hold infant me on his other arm. Let me tell ya, that's a great way to get started.

Handheld gaming and Pokémon Crystal one fateful birthday sealed the deal.

 

[MammothBlade]

I didn't start playing games frequently till I got my first PC (windows 95) and PS2 when I was about 13. I really wanted to play before that, because it looked like gameboy and playstation were damn fun. Sure, I did play before that. On other peoples' games, whenever I got the chance. Now, I was playing the likes of Age of Empires II, 007: Nightfire, and LOTR: The Two Towers on my own system. And I've been playing ever since. It's like I've always been a gamer, it just happened that I started to play games.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

Playing online. Making friends so easily and so connectably, while in real life no one wanted anything to do with me or failed to interest me in the slightest. Making friends online also gave me the ability to be friends with someone in their forties without it being weird. I always had trouble connecting with people my own age as they generally seemed, well at the risk of sounding full of myself kids my own age seemed stupid and immature. I always connected better with older people.

I found out before I was 14 that I belonged online in a video game work, instead of parties and drinking like the rest of my peers.

 

[Phasmal]

My parents getting divorced and stuff that followed.
Some time after my dad left I was moving the sofa and I found a box behind it, which I pulled out. It turned out to be my dad's PS1, but from then on it was mine
None of my sisters were really into it like I was. When my mum met my step-dad and my stepbrothers moved in I got more aggressive about my gaming, because it was then I met with the `Girls can't do X` attitude. But I'm out of that now. Sort of.

 

[Swyftstar]

With the home consoles, I guess some of it was escapism. Well it was probably a lot of escapism, especially with the rpgs. But I got my start in the arcades. My uncles were really good at gaming in the arcades. Ms Pacman, Sinistar, Defender, Joust and all the classics. I wanted to be like them so I'd grab my quarters, follow them and keep playing until I got good. When the Atari 2600 came out, I just had to have it because I was already a gaming nut. And so on with each subsequent system.

 

[Hazy992]

When my mum bought me a PS1 when I was six. I've been hooked ever since

 

[ZehMadScientist]

I got into gaming because of my cousins, I guess. I was about six years old when my cousins got a N64, and every time I visited I would play on the console for dear life. I remember hiding, struggling and crying whenever my parents called me to go back home.

Because of this behaviour, my parents got me a gameboy color with Pokemon. That was the Event Horizon. I got my own N64, eventually. Took me a lot of begging and crying though.

But that made me the gamer I am today, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

 

[Viridian]

The SNES at my grandmother's house when I was little.

First game I ever beat was Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Excuse me, all this reminiscing has sabotaged the seals on my manly-tear containment units.

 

[FamoFunk]

My older Brothers used to have the NES, Jaguar and SEGA.
I used to play on them all the time as a child, it was fun sitting on my own playing or playing with my Brothers, and then again when they had the PSone. Finally was brought my own PS2 and still continue gaming with my PS3, albeit forever alone~

 

[Nemu]

This will date me, but when I was in 1st grade, my parents offered to buy me an Atari 2600 if I aced my report card all year. I did, they did and my Da and I would play Combat every night after dinner. From there I had an Intellivision, then a Nintendo 8-bit and the rest is history.

I loved the time my Da and I spent together, plus as I got more technical (and more advanced) games, I found that I enjoyed solving the puzzle of playing them. I would say that those are the main reasons I got into gaming.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Super Nintendo and my sister with her friend Dianne. F-Zero. They used to play it all the time and as a kid I was fascinated. I became a gamer the day I stopped giving up whenever I blew up the Blue Falcon and when I started practicing. And getting good. My sister introduced me to RPGs with Super Mario RPG and of course I loved Super Mario World. Then I got a gameboy color with Pokemon Yellow and my fate was sealed. A few years later my first 'gaming' PC with Midtown Madness, Monster Truck Madness and Sim City.

Set for life.

 

[Weealzabob]

While I've always played games, there are three things that cemented gaming as a mainstay in my life were...
Ocarina of Time.
Multiplayer funtimes on the N64.
And living in climates where a significant portion of the year meant playing outside wasn't really an option.

 

[Dieter Meyer]

Two words: Knee injury

 

[TehCookie]

Games were always there my entire life, my parents liked and played games. Family game night wasn't board games, it was videogames. When I was really little I just enjoyed multiplayer games since I couldn't beat a game on my own, or watching my brother play them. When my family got a PS2 is when I started to play single player games, since I got the old Playstation. I enjoyed them because they are fun. It didn't change much since I didn't have a deeper meaning with games. Asking me why I'm a gamer is like asking a random person why they watch TV or movies.

 

[mcdain]

Being a gamer isn't something that I decided to do. It just happened. I've been playing games ever since I could hold a control pad. I still have the Megadrive my dad bought before I was born, and I still play it to this day.

 

[Drenaje1]

I remember that I had a Sega Genesis, and that was at a very young age. Some of the first games I played were on that thing, and then I think my parents sold it. Which sucks, because I would honestly like to have had it around today with whatever games I had with it. Anywho, a few years later I got my hands on my first PS2. And good lord, was it glorious. I built up a collection of around 60 games over a few years. I've lost some here and there, of course. But the PS2 was pretty much the greatest phase of gaming I've had so far. Once I got my hands on a computer, my PS2 was forgotten.

Aaand nowadays any games I play at all are on the PC, but I really honestly don't have that many. Apparently the intensity of the flame of gaming has died down. And also, I'm kind of poor, so that's a contributor.