A passion

Ever since I was very young, I’ve LOVED video games.

I remember being 6 years old, my friend had a SNES with Super Mario Bros. and during sleepovers i’d wake up early in order to get some playtime in before him and the rest of his family woke up. I was fascinated with how the games worked, the music, the colours.

In 1997, My parents bought me my first console. It was a Nintendo 64, I was enamoured. Mario 64, multiplayer Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing and F-Zero. As I got older, multiplayer all nighters in Goldeneye and Perfect Dark…It was like a drug induced fixation and I loved the creativity of these games.

Throughout my teenage years, I moved onto PC gaming. What started with Age of Empires II (which my Dad didn’t mind me playing) eventually turned into online multiplayer Unreal Tournament (my dad hated it!) which become an early addiction for me. The internet supercharged the experience, being able to play against people in different, cities, states and countries…and also everything that came with that, the clans, the community, the real life friends.

Needless to say as I got older, games fell to the back of the priority list for me…I still loved games, but with university and work responsibilities and a girlfriend, it just got a harder and harder thing to commit to. Online multiplayer games also lost a bit of magic with overreaching companies wanting to control the experience. No more self hosted servers, no more mods, the proliferation of loot boxes as an income stream meant game companies were incentivised to get players to purchase cosmetic items rather than make their games an enjoyable experience.

Starcraft 2, QuakeLive were the last of the very positive gaming experiences for me. Call of Duty Warzone during the recent pandemic was a blast but unfortunately also succumbed to BigCorp ruining it with lootboxes and battlepass nonsense (thanks Activision!). Epic Games unfortunately cancelled development of Unreal Tournament latest version to focus on Fortnite which really painted a picture of what the future looks like.

I’ve heard great things about Helldivers 2 and look forward to getting a gaming PC and giving it a crack. Here is hoping game development companies can go back to making fun games and promoting great communities.