Why I love Video Games

For all you game aficionados. This is my story and the reason why I love video games. Do you remember the old Nintendo games that people were so crazy about? They would be like, hey come over and check out my new game it is in 16 bit graphics. It looks so cool.

Then you would go over to your friend’s house and there would be a huge gray box with short wires all over the place. They would have to unwrap their controller and sit right next to the TV so that they could see the box like images jumping up and down all over the screen. If the game didn't start rite off the bat they would have to blow as hard as they could into the game and then the box so that those life like representations of the nether world would actually play.

Those were the days when everyone would stay up late trying to jump over the squiggly eyed animal and then the next day tell all of their friends how cool the fireworks are. Looking back I can remember how jealous I was of all of the people who had the consoles to play games, the money to buy games and the time to play games. When my buddies Mom would kick him out of the house he would come up and make me play with him in the yard. I always obliged because that is the kind of person I am. When the tables were turned and I didn't have anything to do and I would try to get him to play you'd think his reaction would be similar rite? Not even close he would give me one of three excuses. I am playing a game right now, I am doing chores right now, or, my Mom wants me to stay inside. All of which meant that he was playing a game.

On the occasion that my buddy could come outside and play we would always see his brothers playing "Mario Bros" on the old dinosaur they called a big screen. Some times my brother and occasionally my sister would sneak inside the back door of my buddies abode so that they could get their hands on the highly coveted two buttoned, square controller of the Nintendo. Oh, how badly I wanted to be in there killing Koopa or boxing Tyson or hitting that square thing with my rectangle arms. Those were the days!

Those were the days when games were really not that fun but they were there. They were the sign of success. They were the difference between the big dogs and the little dogs. In those days if you had a Nintendo you were cool.

The reason I am writing this is because of what being cool means as far as your psyche is concerned. Being cool means basically that you can follow the trend hang with the groupies and impact or lead others because you know what is desirable and are able to incorporate desirability into who you are.

Because of this cool factor the rest of your life is shaped. People are consumed by the coolness trend. They can let this idea control them or this idea can be a learning opportunity. Because of the dysfunctions of my family growing up coolness was more of a distant dream, only held by people who had things, then an obtainable reality. Games didn't have to be the deciding factor but they certainly made the difference between being cool or not more distinct.

When I worked at a highly popular luggage store(that has to go unnamed due to my fear of the risk associated with naming them) one of our biggest customers was a guy by the name of Tiger something. Every time he came in the building he would buy over two hundred thousand dollars of merchandise. When he came in they would bring in the champagne and block off a portion of the store so that he could have privacy.

Come to find out even though I had never seen him before this is the guy that may have had a huge impact on my life because he invented the hand held video games I used to play (you may recognize his trademark TIGER logo.). Besides his huge software company he does other things that give him the freedom to buy one of a kind watches and purses made out of Minx, but those things don't matter at the moment.

What matters about Tiger and video games and the people who own them is the fact that they are a form of control. Video games and the people that promote them, make them and want them all control each other. Game makers can not make games that people wont buy while people who want video games usually want status that is associated with the video games they own. They can invite friends over to play their video games they can show that they are cool because they own video games and in Tigers case what else is there to say. When a man walks into a high end retail clothes and luggage store and throws down one hundred thousand dollars on a watch for his sister and then buys a fifty thousand dollar cashmere jacket for his mom while his Entourage parades around him serving up all the wine a person can comfortably drink the point has been made with serious distinction.