by Burbie52, HSM team writer

I am getting old. That is just a plain fact that I cannot deny. I will be 62 this coming year, and I have been a video gamer for most of those years.

I started video gaming when it was invented, back in the early days of console games. The first experience was Mr. Baer’s Odyssey, by Magnavox. I can still remember playing games like Duck Hunt with the little gun to shoot a screen with, and of course the classic table tennis games. Commodore 64, Sega Genesis, Nintendo64, Game Cube and of course the PlayStation One, Two and Three; all of these consoles and more have graced my gaming table over the years.

Before that, there was the time when you couldn’t play anything but pinball machines in your local bowling alley, bar or pool hall. I loved pinball — still do, actually — but I never get much of a chance to play any more except a virtual game on my PS3. When I worked in bars as a younger person many moons ago I was considered a bit of a pinball wizard, as I played the game so much that no one could beat my scores after I learned all of the nuances of the machines. It was while I was working in the bars that the first Pacman and Asteroids sit-down gaming consoles were introduced, and it was amazing how people would wait in line to get a chance to play and beat the scores.

It showed me that video gaming was going to be a huge hit — and it was.

Games have been a big part of my life; it is a passion I share with both of my brothers, handed down by our father who loved games of all kinds. I only wish he had lived long enough to see video games – he died when I was twenty, at the age of 48 back in 1972, before electronic gaming really got its start. He would have loved it.

When I first saw Home it was a revelation to me: a whole new world at my fingertips just waiting to be explored. Never having participated in any social MMO prior, Home opened up a whole new way for me to use my gaming console, a way I could have never foreseen back when I bought my PS3 in December of 2009. I have been in Home for four years this month, and I have reveled in both its complexities and in the friendships I have found and nurtured here. Nowadays, everyone is full of fear and wondering if Home has a future; all I can say is that I will wait it out and be supportive until it ends, one way or another. The experiences I have had here are worth the effort, time and every dime spent and every dime still yet to be spent.

Before video games.

The New Year is a time of reflection for most of us. A time of looking back to see what we did with our year. With more gaming years behind me than ahead of me I am trying to reflect on what I will do when I reach that point in life when I can’t play video games any more. The only thing that will stop me from doing this is health. Since I am truly a healthy person so far, without any impediments like arthritis or any physical troubles except for failing eyesight, this is a question that is hard to answer for me.

Pac-Man: The Way I Remember It

If nothing untoward happens to me health wise in the next several years I can see myself gaming until the day I die, whenever that is. Games are such an integral part of my life that I would be truly lost without them I think. There may come a time when my eye-hand coordination preempts me playing video games. If this happens I will be very sad, but I will still game somehow unless something else prevents it.

There are plenty of games that don’t require speed to accomplish the goals set before you. There is a lot of study going on about gaming and age and some of it seems to show that video games are good for aging reflexes and eye coordination, besides being just plain fun. I have come to rely on gaming to relax me, though at times it can do the opposite and get frustrating when you can’t get a quest done or you have to fight that boss over and over to beat him. When I feel that way I step back for a bit, then try again until I get past it.

When the time comes for me to stop playing video games, I will certainly have a lifetime of experiences to look back on. All of the stories I have played through in the RPG’s that I love so much. I read fantasy literature and many of the games I play have been right in line with that genre I love.

But of all the video experiences I have had over the years, there is nothing that will ever compare to Home. I can only hope that as a new year dawns, Home will continue to grow and evolve for the foreseeable future. Though it seems its future is limited, I intend to enjoy it to the fullest for as long as it lasts. I will have a gamer’s end, whatever and whenever that will be.

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