This is a cross-post from my gaming blog, wowimanerd.net! Be sure to check it out if you enjoyed!
I have been playing video games all my life. At the age of four, my parents bought us three kids a Playstation, as well as each our own game. My sister got a racing game, my brother got a Madden game, and I got Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase. I remember hooking up the new system to our massive CRT in the basement and spending hours a day playing the games.
Looking back, I'm sure its just because the game was terribly designed, but I was having a very hard time beating the damn thing. The platforming was hard for my young inexperienced self, but the crazy thing is that it didnt matter. I still kept trucking on and eventually beat it, even though it was hard as all hell and I just plain sucked.
That was the start of my gaming career. From then on I had a PS2, Nintendo GameCube, GameBoy SP, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, and a PC. But while fun - I have wonderful memories with all of those consoles - nothing changed my life quite like the Xbox 360 did.
Now, my parents were very against me playing M-rated games. To be fair I was in sixth grade at the time of this so I cant blame them too much. I would go over to my best friends house, and his older brother would be playing this game called Halo 3. I had heard of Halo, but seeing it played before my very eyes? I was awe-struck. Amazed. Stupefied. Shaken. I knew I needed that game and that I would do anything I can to get it.
I had devised a plan. I had six months or so until Christmas, and I would present the idea now to plant the idea into my parent's heads. When I first told them about it, they actually werent crazy opposed. My dad even brought up that one of his co-workers was on the team that thought up the original idea for Halo: Combat Evolved, which is a cool fact I am sure everyone knows even though it has nothing to do with me. Slowly but surely I would tell them how even though the game is rated M, it really isnt that bad.
I would compare the ESRB ratings of Halo 3 and GTA IV, because even sixth grade me knew that Halo was butterflies and rainbows compared to GTA when it came to mature content. Halo 3 sported three simple Blood and Gore, Mild Language, Violence descriptors while GTA IV had a whopping six! Intense Violence, Blood, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Partial Nudity, Use of Drugs and Alcohol. This knowledge, combined with websites such as Common Sense Media, slowly started to turn my parents towards allowing me to play the game. I tried getting them interested in gaming itself, though they didnt (and still dont) care for it much, though ironically I have them to thank for introducing me to the damn medium.
Finally, six long months later, it was Christmas time. Ill skip the slow stuff and get to the obvious fact that I did get an Xbox 360 with Halo 3 and one year of Xbox Live Gold. Thats right, I am fortunate enough to never have experienced Xbox without Gold, and I am very grateful for that. After thanking my parents over and over, I went to set it up in our family office and became enamored with a series and a console that is still there, stronger than ever, nine years later.
I found out much later that one of the reasons my mom changed her mind was because she thought that the other spartans were instead robots. I let her think that for a while longer.
After Halo 3 I was pretty happy for a long time. Over time I was introduced to all of the series I was unable to play beforehand due to their ratings, as my parents became more and more lenient on the M-rating once they saw that I wasnt running around trying to kill everyone like they once feared. Im joking of course, but it was an interesting period of change. Gears of War 2 came, and then Oblivion and Call of Duty and Assassins Creed and Battlefield. Through this little box I was able to experience worlds like none other. Ones that I grew connected to and have many cherished memories with to this day. For a kid that was too shy to talk to new people and who enjoyed a night in instead of going out, that was everything.
Then the next best thing happened - my friends started getting Xboxes too. At this point I only had a few friends, but as they got Halo and Gears and everything else with me, I was slowly introduced to their gamer friends as we all played together, and through this I became close friends with them as well. Pretty soon we had a network of around twenty people of varying degrees of closeness to me that would be on Xbox Live. Constantly in parties, playing different games, all talking with one another and exchanging stories. We would set up LAN parties on the weekends, and we would have weekly custom games in Halo 3 that would end up maxing out lobbies! We developed memes within our custom games before we even knew what memes were! This group would continue on all the way to GTA Vs release - the end of high school - before everyone sort of going their separate ways with the release of the new consoles, going to the PS4, and graduating/not playing games as much.
The Xbox 360 gave me social skills. It gave me friendships that last to this day. The games taught me values I uphold now. It changed my mindset. It helped me realize I have a passion that can be turned into a career, as it was during that generation when I discovered IGN and games journalism in general. It got me into video editing (Halo montages), critical thinking and analysis (complex stories involving politics and deep relationships, such as Mass Effect), and how to cooperate with other people (Gears of War Horde). Those who think video games do nothing tend to be those who dont think about how it stimulates the mind and what sort of principles can be applied to young, impressionable children. On the outside, yes it does just look like we are sitting at a screen staring blankly into space, but on the inside, mentally, the brain is on fire.
I distinctly remember one of my buddies who wasnt into gaming at the time was watching me play. He commented on my blank stare and said It doesnt even look like youre having fun. Why do you play these? I forced him to play a game of Halo custom games with us one night. I showed him that just because I'm not sitting there smiling like an idiot that doesnt mean I'm not having fun. Im also being challenged, which I find fun. Im competing with my friends, which I find fun. A few months later he had an Elite and Halo 3 right along with us.
People sort of shit on where Microsoft is going with the Xbox One right now. They question why anyone should get the console and this and that. I understand where they are coming from, especially with exclusives now coming to Windows 10. But to me, the Xbox is what gaming is. I grew up with it. I fell in love with the franchises and the characters and the worlds. Also, I prefer most of my gaming to be on console, so I am going to go with the one I love. That isnt to say I dont care for Sony or am a fanboy or any of that bullshit. I have so many memories with their franchises and eagerly await the day I can buy a PS4 as well, but barring some catastrophe, Xbox will always come first to me. I gotta have that Halo.
What console changed YOUR life? What do you think of the current generation of consoles? Let me know in the comments below, and be sure to check out my blog at wowimanerd.net!