How Gaming Affected My Life

Throughout my entire life I have always been fascinated by video games. This fascination led me into a new fascination with programming and emulators. During this time I was an active member of Emuparadise frequenting their IRC chat network. While I would frequent the network I met many people whom I now call friends including MasJ, Ace, Gouki, and my current girl-friend Katt well that's what she went by on IRC anyway.

How Gaming Affected My Life: Communication,

As time went on I took more of an interest in online MMO games and met a whole slew of personalities you might call quirky and fun. Things didn't quite work out with my girl-friend the first time around, but there would be another chance. While it was this very interest that allowed us to meet it was also this interest that seemed to keep us apart. Neither one of us really knew how to communicate in the real world. Internet chat and video game socializing was all we really had.

Eventually I met someone new and I moved to be closer to them. Once again things didn't work out very well. Video games require surprisingly little communication and even less face to face contact, so they don't do much in the way of teaching us social etiquette. When things failed once more I moved to AK for a period and no longer had so much as a computer. It wasn't long before I learned to weld and had a job to buy a GameCube with and move into my own place. Next thing I knew I was back on the video games again.

How Gaming Affected My Life: An Addiction,

I moved to MO and found a new group of friends and worked on several new webpages and games though nothing ever really panned out for me. During my time in MO I met a new girl and again things just didn't work out. This eventually led me back home where I would happen upon the game Neosteam. Neosteam is a fantasy steam punk MMO where I currently play and meet new people all the time. I've met many girls there and even grown rather addicted to this game from time to time. Would you believe I actually proposed to a couple of girls I met in this game? This quickly grew into such an addiction that I would spend 8 hours a day or more simply grinding. (The act of senselessly slaughtering hordes of beasts for exp.)

One of my favorite personalities in the Neosteam universe is Irys who played a shadow reaver she is always fun and entertaining even to those she doesn't know well. I have often felt compelled to go to Wisconsin to visit her though nothing ever seems to work out to allow it. As time went on I lost my job and threw away a possible $3,000 medical study just to keep at the game. In my mind I was ensuring a chance of becoming a paid GM. (Game Moderator) That's how I justified my obsession with the game though after more than a year of playing I still hadn't gotten any closer to making real world money.

How Gaming Affected My Life: My Girlfriend,

All of this brings me to the present and it was through all of this that I met my current girlfriend again. I had just signed up for Facebook and created an account for my friends on Neosteam to reach me at. My ex had run some people searches which turned up my name and sent me a message saying that she would like to see me. I wrote back that I would like to see her and we met up. All of this brought on by my initial interest in video games.

How Gaming Affected My Life: Gaming Sport,

I would say that video games have become an important and integral part of my life. Certainly the affects that gaming has played in my life are equal to that of any competitive sport. I never liked sports much and I don't appreciate the bar scene, so many of the people I know and call friends; I met online through one of my many MMO games or IRC networks. Currently I and my girlfriend still have our same social issues, though I recognize the problem I do not know how to repair it. That's how life goes sometimes, I have a new son that she brought into this world and I hope to be able to teach him well enough not to make the same mistakes we did.

How Gaming Affected My Life: Closing,

The Internet appears to be becoming a massive bar to which all ages are permitted entry for fun and entertainment, but it can also become a social boon; removing what little social contact we have left. People who often IM, TXT, and chat through casual gaming and Internet networks, typically have problems properly communicating in the real world.

It's far too easy to become anyone you want to be in the digital world and nearly impossible to tell if someone is lying. This can lead to people preferring to communicate through these digital means rather than in person contact. Though in proportion video games, casual gaming, and Internet chat are likely to have little ill affect, when played over-zealously they can consume reality or distort your ability to practice real world communication.