The Evolution of Gaming

Growing up with the influence of games.

Since I can remember, I’ve always been consumed by games. Whether it be Pokémon, NBA 2k, Halo, COD, Runescape, Maplestory, Minecraft, League of Legends, Overwatch, Valorant, etc, the list goes on. I’ve been diving into made up worlds to escape the one around me for over 20 years. It has been the absolute most consistent escape for me. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, that’s for the reader to decide (probably bad lol). Whether it’s a long day at work, long training session, or just a day off, there is nothing that I’d want more than to play a game and indulge in a world that’s fiction. There is one thing for sure, I’m definitely not the only one.

Growing up, I found my fascination with gaming early on. With an older brother and older cousins, I was shown Pokémon very early on. I remember the Gameboy Advance SP was my “phone, wallet, keys” as a kid. Throughout elementary school, that thing was on my body at all times. I feel like my Gameboy addiction was foreshadowing the addiction I currently have to my phone. I remember the first Pokémon game I beat was Fire Red. Of course, after watching the show I had to start with the best starter in Gen 1, Charmander. From that point on, I’ve started every single generation with the fire type starter. I still have clear images in my head beating the Elite 4 for the first time outside of Bank of America, after my grandma had picked me up from school. I couldn’t tell you what grade I was in, maybe like 3rd? I’m pretty sure I had Charizard, Pidgeot, Machamp, Gengar, Cloyster, and Lapras. I probably tried to beat the Elite 4 at least like 30 times before I actually learned how. My little small peanut brain could not understand how to actually do it. At that time, I didn’t understand that Pokémon had most kids in my generation in a chokehold. Talking to others about playing games wasn’t necessarily a common occurrence. I feel like most of us were almost afraid to talk about the games we played with other kids. Fast forward to present day, there are now 9 generations of Pokémon. Pokémon is definitely in the top 10 most influential games of our generation. It is absolutely insane to me that something I played as a kid has given hundreds if not thousands of people a living wage. Just talking about it or embarking on a playthrough, people have been able to make a decent amount of money through this virtual world.

Fast forward a few years, gaming becomes a little deeper. I get away from a handheld console for a little bit and dive into Playstation 2 and Xbox. One of my older cousins, Kaleo, moved in with my dad and brothers from Hawaii. With that, he brought his Xbox. I remember going to school and coming home to play Madden’s rush attack with him and his son Trance. It would literally be every day, come home from school, eat a bowl of rice with soy sauce and play rush attack. Soon after, Halo 2 became an addiction for me and my brothers. Any night that we were all at home, we would system link our 2 Xbox’s from room to room and play on ‘Lockout’. We would play 3v3 and the system link allowed us to play in 2 different rooms on 2 different screens, which was unheard of. Playing through the internet was an insane advancement at that time. I remember the first person who was able to do the super jump pretty much won the game, being able to snipe from up there was almost an automatic win since everyone else was trying to get up there. I wish I could have had a camera to record our yelling and screaming from room to room. A lot of decibels were put out then. What an amazing time. An experience embedded into my DNA and a moment in technological advancement where you could play against someone on a different console. That ‘advancement’ was able to give a few kids lifelong core memories. Thank goodness for the engineers working on this for my family and I to enjoy.

I think the next addiction came when my dad and step-mom got married, they got gifted a Wii for the 6 sons they had. That was the beginning of great brotherly bonding over years. We had a man cave in our house, and the amount of time we all spent on that Wii was very unhealthy. Of course we started off with the classic Wii Sports, then slowly convinced our dad to buy Super Mario Brothers, and lastly, landed on our final Wii game that gifted our parents probably hundreds of hours of peace of mind, Super Smash Bros. Super Smash Brothers was a game that took over literally any night of the week. We all had our own characters that were a pain to deal with. Tanner with Kirby, Diego with Ice Climbers, Me with Ike, Trevor with Sheik, Jordan with Samus, and Tyler with Snake. We would only have 4 controllers available so we would have the first 2 people to lose their stocks to kick the controller over to the other 2 brothers. We could play probably 2 hours before someone would be sick of it. We spent hours and hours in that garage. Still, anytime all the brothers come around, we definitely try to bring the switch out and connect it to an available TV. My brothers and I work very well together. We all get along, none of us have had a falling out. I like to think that this bond over gaming has been a small part of the reason why we all get along so well now.

Around high school, the gaming culture is slowly making gaming computers more available to younger ages. Since Runescape didn’t really take much processing power, it became a very popular game within the household. I’m pretty sure every single one of my brothers started playing Runescape. It was just on a website at that point so it was very easy for us to just hop on for a little bit and chop some willows. I wish I could really put into words how influential this game not only was but still is today. I learned about flipping items for money in that game. The way I view my life is quite synonymous to how Runescape skills work. The more time you put towards something, the closer to a 99 you’ll be. Maybe the scale is a little off, but it’s essentially the same. For example, if you go out and run everyday. You will get better at it. Your cardio will improve, your muscles will be able to withstand more work, your body will become more efficient for running, essentially working to your 99 skillcape. In all that I do, I understand that the more time and effort you put towards something, you could reach a 99. As long as you’re doing tasks that are more experience efficient at your level, there’s no doubt you will hit your 99!

Regardless of what game it is. Gaming has made quite the stamp on today’s society. It’s one of the most common activities in today’s age. I’m sure some of the later articles, I’ll go deeper into certain areas of gaming that I took a little more liking to. Now that Twitch is more popular and available almost anywhere, gaming is taken to a whole new level. People who are at work who can’t play games, could be watching from their favorite streamer playing their favorite game.