Why do you game?

For me, it's sheer entertainment and therapeutic.

It started when I was three or four-years-old. Growing up in Virginia, it wasn't the greatest area one could grow up. My family was poor. Our neighborhood was old and cheap. The newer houses were beginning to be built by the time I left, which were taking over the cheap poor houses.

Anyway, my point is this. Besides pretending to play War, my friends and I gathered together to play Atari, Nintendo and Sega. We, like everyone else, forgot about Atari when Nintendo and Sega hit the streets. My best bud got his hands on a Sega, but I begged and pleaded for the Nintendo.

I finally got one after months of my parents paying off the layaway at K-Mart. It was SO worth it.

Now instead of pretending to play War, we pretended to be Mario or Mega Man. Hey, we even pretended to be Snake!

We spent hours upon hours playing Joe Montana Football on the Genesis along with Mutant League Football and trying to beat the ridiculously hard Battle Toads on the NES. Did anyone actually beat that game? I don't believe you. Oooo. And I cannot forget Maniac Mansion. That game blew my mind when I was a kid.

Then something unexpected happened. I lost my father at nine-years-old. Now, I don't remember much after his death. If I try to think about anything from age nine until twelve, it's black. Or, I start to get a migraine. It's crazy.

What I do remember is playing video games to help me through the difficult process of losing my father. The game I was playing that day was...well, I can't remember the title. It was a game where you were a werewolf. It's killing me that I can't remember the name now...

Games helped me cope with that loss. It also brought me closer to my friends. Who says gaming isn't social? We would get together at each other's houses and either play the games together or do the old school way:

Take turns playing each level. OR, take turns every time someone dies if the level was too long.

When I got to college, gaming helped me bond with my roommates. I sold my PS2 when I saw an Xbox ad. Nope, I didn't see an ad for Halo. Just the system. I arrived PS2 in hand and received about $80 worth of in-store credit and purchased the Xbox. The game: Halo. Like I said, I didn't see an ad for it. I bought it solely based on the back of the box information. It was a risk. Turned out to be a great risk.

My buddy down the hall and I skipped two full days of class to play co-op campaign two times! That weekend, we put our money together to buy two more controllers and started holding Halo tournaments. Losers of the first match bought pizza.

Now, gaming is something I do as a part of an online community and with my wife. Yeah. I'm one of the lucky ones that met a girl that actually was open to gaming. She actually likes it a lot now. Jeez, she's actually paying for her own Live account and she's a little obsessed with her gamer score. Ha!

That's why I game. It's entertaining and therapeutic.