Growing Up On Gaming

I have faint memories of playing video games with my older brother on the Sega Genesis. That isn’t where my gaming story starts though.

It started when my mom bought me my first console from the pawn shop in a small town 20 minutes away. I was maybe six or seven at the time and she surprised me with a Super Nintendo with two games; Aladdin and Super Mario World. The moment that I turned it on and played my first game I was hooked.

Now I never beat Super Mario World because that game can be hard as fuck. I did beat Aladdin though, and I decided to play the other Disney-related games there were out there. By far, my favorite was The Lion King. It had varying levels of difficulty and at that time there were cheats to use as well if you knew them.

As I got older, I was introduced to other consoles out there such as Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Playstation and XBox. I remember playing Crazy Taxi, Grand Theft Auto III, Resident Evil, and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

I was definitely too young to be playing some of the games I had been playing but I like to think that I grew up to be a well-rounded individual that doesn’t have a history of violence due to gaming like the media will have people think.

One thing I was told growing up was that I can’t be into video games because I was a girl. That it is only meant for boys, that I would grow up to be a loser addicted to video games, and that I wouldn’t be good at them because being a “girl” is a handicap in that world. I let that get to me growing up because I had some relatives that were bullies and made me feel like I was less. Which is probably what drove me to play them more. I was lucky to have some best friends at my small town school that enjoyed playing video games as much as I do and we still do multiplayer to this day.

Video games let me be something that I could never be in the real world. Although I could be a crazy taxi driver but I don’t think I would last in that job very long and don’t care for ableist language. Having had low self-esteem, I would play open world games that let me create my character and customize how I wanted them to be. I’m seeing myself being represented in the gaming world with more options to play as a female.

I have beat the odds that people told me growing up because after a while I realized that I shouldn’t let people define who I am going to become. I’ve published articles on websites about video games and have a supportive husband who loves gaming as much as I do. I created this future for myself and am still an avid player to this day.

Now, I should beat Far Cry: New Dawn like I’ve been meaning to since it came out.