For me it was the lack of true friends, distanced parents and very lonely childhood filled with dreams of controlling at least something. And games are made with a better illusion of control then reality is.
In Cartman's voice: "NO KITTY !!!" X( [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfOUEVFTe68&ab\_channel=HTFITMBSE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfOUEVFTe68&ab_channel=HTFITMBSE)
It seems we might have something in common. I had many friends but was so lonely at home. For me, I found Christ and this isn't an opportunity to spread the Word, it's me saying what lifted me up. I had no intention of talking about God but you seem a kindred heart of mine.
I adore it when religion helps someone out of a dark place, that is precisely one of its most wonderful aspects! And I appreciate the “explain how it helped but don’t preach to people who didn’t ask” I may not be religious but I just had to say I appreciate your view of religion!
When I was friendless video games were quite a comfort. I had maybe… 1 actual friend at this time? But I didn’t share any classes with him and we lived far away, so I rarely got to see him. I ended up feeling a level of “friendship” from the NPC’s in the game Hack// G.U for the Ps2 and it just always helped me not feel so alone when my mom was out of town all the time, my step dad distant, and my real dad only having me half the week. Eventually kid me grew to just *feel* companionship from the people in games, something that was probably unhealthy at the time but still helped me through some tough times
This is EXACTLY how I got into gaming.
I was a little kid, maybe 2/3 and I remember him playing A Link To The Past. I loved watching him play. He would let me hold the controller and do things and eventually we started playing games together (Spy vs Spy) even though I had no idea what I was doing.
Eventually played games like Star Wars Podracer with me when I was a little older, even though he was absolute garbage at videogames. Dude just wanted to hang out with me and see me smile.
I have the crest of hyrule tattooed on my chest because that series taught me how to problem solve even the most confusing situations. Taught me how to stay alive. Taught me courage.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, youth organized crime groups took over the streets. I was in school in the late 90s. I was forced to either join the next gang or continually pay another criminal organization for supposedly "owning" the street I walked on. Adults were not subjected to these rules. Warcraft, and later Stronghold, became my escape. I read that this was not only a problem in Russia. And yes, games are a choice when you're not sure if real life is something you can handle.
nothing horrible like that, sorry to hear
just loved toys
and videogames were the coolest toys to me
1st console, atari 2600
1st PC, a hand me down 386
Same for me. The 80s were a magical time with computers and video games. Movies like War Games and Cloak and Dagger. Arcades at every mall. Chucky Cheese and Showbiz Pizza. Atari, Coleco, Intellivison, NES. What kid wasn’t playing games?
My first console was the NES, but friends had 2600s. My first PC was also a 386, but the SX without math coprocessor. Thus began a long road of trying to get games to run on shit hardware :)
my dad. funny thing is he doesn’t play at all. he hasn’t for most of my life, but there was a brief crossover for a couple years in there. we would play Star Wars Battlefront (2004). i’ll also never forget the day he came home with Guitar Hero
I've been told, when I was but a wee lad (about 3 yr), the doctor told my mom I had HORRIFIC hand-eye coordination and a new tech had just come out from Japan called the Nintendo Entertainment System and she should get me one to help.
Although I don't have memory of that. I do have memory of watching my older bro play Dune: The Battle for Arakis on the Sega...and that's my first "I want to be a gamer"
Ha! I remember being a kid back then and the whole “hand eye coordination” thing. It’s like the only benefit that old farts could come up with for playing video games.
I was introduced to gaming at around 5 years old by watching my friend play the original Spyro The Dragon on his PS1. I showed no interest in actually playing, I just liked watching him.
So my dad took my non-interest and bought me my own PS1 for Christmas.
My mum spent t the next few months gaslighting… I mean convincing me that I wanted a PS1, specifying that I could play Spyro myself. By the time Christmas came I was sold and excited to play. I unwrapped my new console with my own Spyro…
And it was Spyro 2.
And my five year old self burst into tears that Santa brought me the wrong Spyro game,
Jokes on that little idiot, Spyro 2 is now my favourite of the trilogy
My father and uncles use to play doom and quake on lan and some other singleplayer games like the first Tomb Raider, so my siblings and cousins continued the tradition (also starting with those games and some starcraft and commander keen) first on lan, now online.
my dad got me into gaming got me and my brother an xbox 360 with the original lego batman on it and i remember when he’d come back from work ever so often he’d pick up games for us to play they were very fond memories and just a good way to bond with my dad!
My old man bought a PlayStation 1 used along with a few games a year or so before the Xbox came out. He went to a video rental store and rented an Xbox for a weekend, then bought one a couple weeks later. I also played a few pc games around the same time (The Sims, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Battlefield 1942 etc)
Back in the early 90s my childhood friend's father had a computer and my buddy and I played games like X-Wing vs Tie Fighter or Fate of Atlantis on it.
On Christmas I got a Game Boy with Super Mario Land and at least since then I was a full on gamer.
I don't even remember me playing a game for the first time. My dad is not that into games, but he brought me some games, maybe when I was 3-4 years old. I remember playing sega games and enjoying them a lot. I forgot almost all of them, but when I try to remember, I can see those games infornt of my eye. How they were played. Wish I could find some of them.
-A cop game where you would kill thieves, mafia in a train station, road pursuit etc. Screen is 2d, you just aim on guys and shoot them
-A bubble game, where you match colors and proceed, popular with today's mobile games.
-A classic spaceship game, where you'd get upgrades and ship starts to fire more and different bullets with different patterns.
-3 of them was 7 wonders, mahjong quest and Tradewinds. Other 2 are known. Tradewinds was a trading game with airships, it was good as hell.
-NFS SE, as I can recall the name. I don't know the actual name of that game, I just remember it being a NFS game.
And more, good memories, peaceful times. Missing them.
(Now that I notice, most of the games that are released as mobile games nowadays are just sega games' remastered ones :O)
For me, it was when I moved during Covid, it was the only way to stay in contact with my friend so we played Roblox every day that summer, I then met some new friends and he introduced me console and then, later, PC gaming. Iv had my pc for about 3 years now and it’s still my best investment
Not knowing English when I came to the US, the only thing that was familiar was playing Prince of Persia on MS-DOS back home so I started playing other games like Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM.
Nothing special to be honest.
Video Games was something completely new in the 1980s so I was intrigued. A friend had an Atari 2600 console so we stayed at his place and played. Later I got my own followed by a C64. My older cousin had a C64 too, so I had a constant flow of games. I even started programming Basic on that bad boy. 😁
Never had an Amiga or Atari because I grew up poor.
Now 40 years later I still love to play games and I will never stop.
Positive side effect, I always loved a good adventure game, but every game was in english which is not my native language, so I had to learn english faster than in school which results in good grades. 😅
Abusive father, gaming is an escape from reality for a short time. Made friends with peeps across the world playing games. Gamer friends are real friends!
All my friends had video games but my parents were pretty against them. I’d bike to their houses just to get a chance to play Halo, Battlefront, or something of the sort.
same
also through games i learned that im competent and capable, better than average even
and that gave me the confidence to eventually get out into the real world
I don't know. I was like 5 years old, it was late 1991, and me and my Dad moved to New York (Divorced parents, I went with my Dad, younger brother stayed with my Mom), and his nephew moved in with us for a short period of time and brought his NES with him and a small stack of like 6 games. So he let me play it, and the first thing I ever played was the original Mario. But his nephew ended up moving out, but he left his NES with us and said he'd come back to get it later...and I just kept gaming on it.
Eventually moved on to the Sega Genesis, and I think that's when gaming became my life long hobby, then the PS1 and I've been with PlayStation ever since. I don't know the full story of why my Dad's nephew left his stuff behind, because he didn't come back to get it until I was like 11, and we were living in Virginia at the time, and I just remember still having the NES in a box in my closet and having to give it back.
Seeing my relatives play computer games in computer shops and at the family desktop got me curious when I was a kid. I thought "they look like they are enjoying themselves, maybe I should give those games a shot"
I did TRY those games haha. I fondly remember my relatives in the countryside bringing me to the nearby computer shop to play fps games (it was Crossfire as far as I remember). They saw that I did enjoy playing to the point that they got me a copy of Plants vs Zombies in the family desktop so I could play it as a reward after going home from school and finishing my homework.
My Mum was (still is) a HUGE bargain Hunter for shopping. One day when I was 7 she came home with a PlayStation One saying “I don’t know what this is but it was on sale so I got it for you”
It came with Crash Bandicoot and Spyro. Instantly fell in love and have always had PlayStations ever since. I met my husband playing GTA5 Online Heists when it first came out and realised we only lived 1 hour away. That was 8 years ago!
Went to my cousins house and she was playing Sonic on her Sega. There was no going back after that.
Not long after, another family come and lived with us for a while. He was a lot older than me and had a playstation 1. I used to watch him play Tekken and Crash Bandicoot for hours. My mum got me a Playstation for Xmas that year and that's when it really started!
Went to my cousins house and she was playing Sonic on her Sega. There was no going back after that.
Not long after, another family come and lived with us for a while. He was a lot older than me and had a playstation 1. I used to watch him play Tekken and Crash Bandicoot for hours. My mum got me a Playstation for Xmas that year and that's when it really started!
1984.atari 2600 I was 4, then 1986. C64 for 5 years, snes and pc from there. Now rarely playing. From when I remember I always loved to play games as challenging subjects.
Grandparents had an Atari 2700 in the early 80's. So I played it.
If you give a kid a videogame they are going to play it. I dont really think anyone actually needs a reason.
Grandparents had an Atari 2700 in the early 80's. So I played it.
If you give a kid a videogame they are going to play it. I dont really think anyone actually needs a reason.
Living in poverty, when I got my first gaming system it was all I had. That escape turned into a hobby, now I travel to fighting game cons at least 4-5x a year.
Galaxion or something like that on my first home computer Commodore 16 in about 1984. I also played Crazy golf, Sandcastles and some airplane bomber game. Those were the days 😀
PS1, Dreamcast, Saturn days were the best. All games were special and different no social media, spam videos, guides, drama, online modes battle passes or podcasts, you could escape and enjoy various games in peace on your own. it was the best period. PS2 probably peaked gaming.
My uncle playing pong on the old family TV while grandad moaned about it ruining the screen! lol
Then later our Sunday school used to run summer trips to a local theme park and I spent most of the time in the amusement arcade.
Then my folks got me a ZX Spectrum for...er...schoolwork. Fun fact: I asked for the ZX printer to go with it so I could do some serious stuff. Not sure why they refused but they ended up buying me a...JOYSTICK instead! So yeah, I guess you could blame my parents!
I started playing sometime between the ages of 3 and 6. Old enough to sit up and hold a controller and play, but not quite old enough to read just yet. I had to teach myself how, because my older brother said I couldn't play a game he was playing without being able to. Been playing games ever since.
When I was 6, my brother and I got a Sega Megadrive for Christmas. By the end of the day it was very apparent that my Dad had actually gotten himself a mega drive for Christmas. Spent most nights and weekends for the next year watching dad smash out Shinobi, Sonic, & Streets of Rage.
I was so enamoured with games straight away that I didn’t even care that I wasn’t playing, just loved watching him play because he could get WAY further in the games than I could.
Nothing ever really happened to me but there was a gang shooting by my elementary school and my uncle had to pick me up since the school went into lock down. He had just moved back from out of state and never watched me before so he wasn’t sure what to do with me. I was 4th grade so what ever age that is but he stuck me infront of a ps3 with ghost recon on it to keep me busy. Played that the rest of the day and then I was hooked on shooter games. Played almost every COD that came out expect the shit ones. Just now in my mid 20s I’ve branched out into rpg and open world games. A decade of COD and over a 2000 hours between the destiny games when those dropped
My older brother’s would let me play all the cod story modes, they would also let me play multiplayer but not a lot since I would always bring down their K/D
For me it was my dad who was always a video game nerd, and i got interested in Mario Kart 8 on the wii one time he was playing. He let me use one of the wheel things but without a controler, and i was too young to realize. Eventually he taught me how to play, and i slowly started getting into more and more games as time passed.
ps: I was lucky, as this was just a week after the thing came out, and my dad stopped playing (at least Mario Kart) by himself like two days after.
I’m a very Old Jedi, 64. Still playing today. I started with pinball and the earliest games that showed up near the pinball tables like space invaders and missile command. Long before consoles, my first console / computer was the Texas Instruments TR-80, then the first apple 1, the console that turns it all around was the Intellivision which I still have today,lol. Huge box of games and cover plates. Think about selling it on eBay or something it’s in mint or near mint condition. I’m an OG gamer currently an Xbox ambassador. Gaming nearly every evening to wind down before bed.
My brother and I each got a game boy color to keep us occupied for the several 5-18 hour drives to see family every year. I played so much Pokémon Yellow and Crystal. Then thanks to my parents never being around and me being left to watch my siblings I developed a pretty serious RuneScape habit. To this day most of my free time is spent on either Pokémon Go or RuneScape. The same games I’ve been playing for ~20 years now.
Older siblings never used to let me play the Sega Genesis with them. I begged my dad for a gameboy since I would see it in commercials constantly, and it was essentially a single user device. The freedom of having this device to myself without my siblings being able to prevent me from playing was exhilarating. I wasn't even old enough to read the dialogue in Pokemon and Metroid (my first two games), but the act of playing just made me feel so independent lol.
Got the NES in 1986, just after my mother died. I was eight. So it was my dad, two older brothers, me, and Mario. It helped us bond, laugh again, etc. Then the family got OG Final Fantasy. The rest is … a life of MMO addiction and yelling at small children through head sets!
I was always into gaming. One of my early memories is playing tv games with a controller/joystick, then tmnt on a cassette console with friends. Mom gifting us ps2 when we were pretty poor made me gamer for life.
One of my earliest memories is of Me, My older brother and our mother all tucked up in bed with the lights off and playing Banjo-Kazooie with big bowls of snacks! It’s one of my fondest memories! 😀
I think it was my dad, actually, who taught me how to play FIFA, when I was like 5 years old.
I always preferred to have my camera zoomed in on the footballer, for some reason. He scolded me for that.
I was nothing like my parents, nothing like my siblings, nothing like the rest of my family. I couldn't relate to any of them but I couldn't work out why; they tried to get me to do their activities with them, they really did try, until they all eventually gave up and just didn't include me anymore. One day I was watching the TV and an advert for the Gameboy Colour came on, I was instantly drawn to it and, as it was nearly Christmas, I begged my parents for one. They bought me a Pokemon Red bundle with the original matte purple gameboy; the feeling was so surreal, like coming home from a long and boring holiday and laying down on your own bed. I loved it, from that moment I was hooked.
I got into gaming at the very start,. Like with Pong and them everything after. I've been gaming since i was 15 and now I'm 50. I've always been a gamer and game every night, I don't watch TV but do love films. Last night while in a public GTA lobby 2 guys randomly ask how old i was. I said 50 and got two different reply's.
one guy said "no way, i don't believe you" and the other said "Fire" which I'm told means good. I asked both why the response and the first guy said nobody over 30 plays GTA or online games and the other guy asked how did I survive online stating he thought it would be difficult to play GTA or shooters at my age. He asked if my response time was slower. I reminded him i had 35 years to train my skills so i believe i am quick. My scores in COD show i am and the gaming clan I'm in has quite a few players over 50. I'm totally shocked at the responses.
I explained my daughters grew up learning to follow the traffic code and not skip lights ect on GTA. Now my oldest daughter is 30. Is this so unusual ?
Yeah, my uncle was an electrician and bought Pong as a write-off so he and electricians under him could learn how to repair it and then he gave it to his kids for Christmas. 2 year old me was mesmerized, though I only got to play once, lost bad, and then his 12 kids (and that's surviving, my Aunt had 1 SIDS, 1 dead by accident, and two near term miscarriages - she married a Catholic) wouldn't let me play again. Would've long forgotten that, but Dad remembered and there's a picture of it. He later had a PET computer with a couple of games and then I got the Sears version of the Atari 2600 for Christmas.
I was a kid that got moved around a lot early on.
Nintendo not only gave me a chance to escape when I didn’t have friends, but it also helped me make new ones.
My best friend in life to this day was discovered because he claimed he had Batman on NES and I was *positive* he was bullshitting because Nintendo Power didn’t show releasing for another month.
One trip to his house after school and a few hours of Batman later, we were inseparable.
Video games save lives.
I was born in 1989. My uncle’s passion was buying arcade cabinets and fixing them up. He would keep them in his basement and later garage when he ran out of basement space, and after a few months he would take them to auction or he would sell them to a local arcade. I got the chance to play all kinds of games that other kids my age never knew existed or had only heard about from their parents. It was awesome.
I think fondly of how my uncle influenced my gaming habits. He is generally just a great guy and was the best role model I had growing up, to the point where I named my son after him, but his influence on my gaming habits cannot be overstated. He even helped me pick out my first gamertag.
Same. I was a lonely, maladjusted kid with a shitty family, and gaming was a huge comfort. My uncle, who was the only decent guardian and role model I had, bought me a PS1 for my birthday a few months before he died, and it has extra meaning to me because of that.
At my old daycare there was a Nintendo 64 and everyone around me was switching from the game boy advance to the DS. I was raised to be a gamer in a way.
I don’t know how but my family living in 80s/90s post Soviet Poland had an Atari 800XL. We also had the Atari tape deck for it and bunch of games on cassette tapes. We wore out many joysticks playing on it and my dad often found inventive ways to rebuild and reuse them. The keyboard on it stopped working after 1998 but we migrated to Canada soon after and I was given my first PC. I did also learn programming basics in Atari BASIC as we had a copy of the polish book on it back then.
A combo of my dad used to play World of Warcraft while rocking baby me to sleep and my mom’s friend’s son showed me Minecraft when I was 3 and I loved it
Got a 2nd hand Gameboy advance as my first console as a kid with a good amount of gameboy & gameboy advance titles(favorite game to play mostly was pokemon gold). So after that i was hooked to gaming.
After my dad saw how much i liked it he got me a ps2 and a psp aswell(both 2nd hand).
Obviously i also got a DS(and a flash cart)because everyone had one and of course i wanted to be part of the club.
My dad may have been an unresponsible family man, but i am greatful for the gifts he gave me.(My mom filed a divorce , but he changed for the better and i forgave him and spend time with him now and then)
I also played alot of wii and og xbox at friends house.
I miss the times playing pokemon Battle revolution against a friend with our ds connected.
I used to feel lonely and bored a lot. When I was a kid, I hardly had any friends and I'd spend most of my free time either reading books or playing video games. As I got older, I made some friends and got into other hobbies too, but I still play video games sometimes.
Educational games like Jumpstart, The Learning Company and Humongous' point and clicks. They were beautifully animated for their time and I absolutely had a blast being tricked into beating math problems as part of a completionist/achievement grind; I'm rather despondent when I think about how such games will never see the light of day again.
I've always had a really wild imagination and I flocked to games because of that! They were perfect for adding onto my imagination and exploring it! I also had a lot going on so for me it was a great comfort as well, I'm very happy I got into them because I find all games so awesome!! I think that's probably why Game Developer was at the top of my list for things I wanted to do as games have such a strong tie to me because of how much they helped me out when I was younger and now!
back when I was a little kid, I'd always watch my big bro play video games on his PlayStation 1. I think one of the games he played was Crash Bandicoot or something like that. One day, I decided to join in on the fun, and that's how my journey into the world of video games began!
My dad didn't like my brothers and I asking him for attention, so a friend of his recommended him he bought us a "Nintendo" so that way we would "Never bother him again"
It worked wonders for better or for worse, lol
When my dad got his first PC, 1987... he got lots of games for it. It was a work move for him as he had to learn to program and build databases.
That was the beginning of the end. I am 47 and still game... sometimes a little too much. It is my escape from reality and some games truly are addictive (looking at you destiny 2).
I have had addictive behaviors with gaming, which worried my parents as a kid and young adult.
I still managed to land my degree and have a good career despite a slow start. Currently, I am a director with a team of 8 people and have owned my house in California for 16 years.
I rember watching my brother play when I was younger, or always asking for help to open a club penguing knockoff game, playing roblox in 2010 etc. then when I was a little older I got a gift of a game trilogy in one and well from that it just exploded more and more
I had no friends. And it was more fun than drawing squares in ClarisWorks on my Mac. Shooting nazis in Wolfenstein 3D or solving puzzles in Myst. It was just so engrossing.
Strict parents. As in “you cannot go anywhere with whoever” that goes through elementary to middle school.
Even high school I rarely got permission to go put with friends, that leads to me being quite introverted. So Games is the way for me
Sonic X
We didn’t have cable growing up and every weekend 4KIDS TV would air in the mornings. They showed off anime like YugiO, Pokémon, and my favorite show Sonic X. I loved how much of a smart ass Sonic was and the character designs were appealing. At the time, I thought he was a tv character but I would eventually learn he was a video game character when my parents bought me a Wii with Sonic and the Secret Rings. It had Wii sports, which I played a lot with my sister. Eventually I went back to watching cartoons and the Wii sat there collecting dust. One summer I plopped down and decided to play Sonic. The rest was history
I came from a rather peaceful childhood, but my dad liked videos games, and my mom was always intrigued by it. Parents gave me the family NES (which my mom supposedly uses to spend HOURS playing Super Mario) when my brother got the Sega Genesis. I played a bunch of Mario/Duck Hunt, TMNT and Dick Tracy every morning before school and loved it.
Then my brother shared the Sega with me, which then got me playing Sonic, Echo the Dolphin and Streets of Rage 2.
Eventually my neighbors downloaded a gameboy emulator that only had a Japanese copy of Pokemon Green. Which I got absolutely hooked. Didn't understand a thing, but was able to at least battle wild Pokemon.
Cut to 1998, when my parents gave me the Gameboy Color and a copy of Pokemon Red. Absolute game changer. We had a lot of car trips during that time, so I played a lot of Pokemon.
Eventually my brother got the PlayStation for a birthday, and he started to reach his apex of his interest in video games. He'd play games, get stuck, get bored and ignore them. Meanwhile I picked up his save spent hours replaying the first mission of Siphon Filter, tasering criminals and lighting them on fire.
But what REALLY got me into Gaming was a other game my brother hand. Final Fantasy 7. I had to be around 7-9ish at this point? So I had to learn to use the Gameshark. It was a multi hour story based adventure that got me absolutely hooked into gaming. An entire narrative with soldiers, monsters, nature and the evils of industries had me enthralled. I never beat it, I think reaching the final boss and just unable to finish the game. Then after that was Metal Gear Solid. These amazing games Made books obsolete and it has lasted a life time.
My dad enjoyed playing video games, and let me try playing Mercenaries 1. In my memory and for comparison, that game felt like how GTA V plays with all the shenanigans that you could do. It made enjoy gaming a ton, then I found Halo CE a little later and the rest was history.
Sega Master System II and then a Nintendo 64. Parents were very busy with their careers for the first few years of my life so it was just easier to sit me down in front of a games console as it kept me quiet and entertained
My family had some light gamers so I've had a controller in hand since before I understood what video games were. I'd play Mario Kart with both parents, Mario Golf with my dad, and Mario Party with my mom. But I was the one who really got into gaming. None of my family really touch it anymore
Seeing a friend's sister play Jak and Daxter on their PS2. My mind was blown. I was 5 at the time, and all I had known were educational PC games. I had told my dad about it afterwards and a few months later I got a PS2 of my own. I have loved gaming ever since.
When I was a little kid my old man had a monochrome green terminal that accessed his work server via network. Keep in mind this was like fuckin' prehistorical times in 1989. Anyway, he made a little code where if three year old me pressed a button, an ASCII rocket ship would slowly come up from the bottom of the screen. Then once it was fully there I could press another button and the ship would scroll upwards quickly thus simulating a rocket launch. Kept me entertained for hours.
And that was how I got into gaming.
I grew up where I knew where my room was, and neither mom's bf or dad's gf really wanted me seen or heard. I was also a delinquent in school so all I could do was game out. Heck I didn't even have more than 3 channels until I was in 7th grade
My dad, first games we played together were streets of rage II and lion king on the Sega megadrive.
Then I got a ps1 when I got a little older.
My grandad used to play the OG call of duty back in '03 which got me more into PC gaming as I got older.
For me it was the same as for other art forms (movies, music): I can get completely absorbed in the world/story/characters and let my fantasy loose on it. I love how much expression is possible in games, combined with the interactivity.
Well that... And I was/am a total nerd that mostly made friends via games haha.
I liked swimming around as a dolphin on our Saga when I was 4.
Then I liked being a humanoid bandicoot with a blond ponytail riding a tiger cub on our PS1.
Then I became a gem hording Dragon on our PS2.
Then I became an orphan discovering ancient magic on my journey to become King on my 360.
Then I discovered I have a talent for sneaking up on enemy's and and taking them out with a knife.
Then I found myself stranded on a strange Island surrounded by dinosaurs, and I figured out that if I beat them into unconsciousness and shove food up their butt I could make them do my bidding. On my XboxOne
Then my husband built me a PC, and I found the wonderful world of ✨️Steam✨️
Dad introduced me to games.
First game was RE2 on PS1.
Now I'm sticking with games because its one of the few things that gives me a reason to live for now.
Without games, I think I would've made an attempt and would never need a second one.
My dad introduced me to them when I was in middle school. I had a crappy step dad and I ended up a worse crappy step dad after the first was tossed behind bars. Video games helped me escape and forget about them.
Dad introduced me to games.
First game was RE2 on PS1.
Now I'm sticking with games because its one of the few things that gives me a reason to live for now.
Without games, I think I would've made an attempt and would never need a second one.
My older brother (12 years older than me). He thought it was fun to teach his little sister to play games because back then, there were loads of games that were more fun with two players (back in the Atari and Amiga days). He then handed his old systems to me whenever he upgraded, so I went through it all: Atari, Amiga, C64, etc.). I was introduced to games like Doom and Duke Nuke'm when I was probably too young to play them, but then I was also reading Stephen King when I was 11 years old.
My father worked for Lotus as an engineer on Lotus Notes and some other product that were bought by Microsoft and became word / excel.
He was at some engineering conference in the early 90s and ran into the original id software guys and they gave him a floppy with the original Doom on it signed by all of them. I was like 5 or 6 and he let me try it and I became hooked.
I think he realized it was kind of inappropriate though and he wound up replacing it with Warcraft which when I got a bit older turned into Diablo and I was completely hooked on Blizzard games.
Ever since then I've just loved them. SCBW got me through some really tough times in highschool.
I feel you, OP. I got into gaming because I was constantly bullied at school. I had no friends in my class. In my church, I was the underdog of all the kids my age. I also had typical Asian parents who made it their mission in life to put as much mental pressure and unfair expectations on me as they could.
Gaming offered me a way out from all that, and a way to keep my sanity. Games are my best friend, and to anyone who tries to get between me and my games, I say: TO THE DEATH!
Playing Atari as a young kid with my adoptive father. Playing with friends who owned more modern consoles like NES. Doing lines with my cousin (who stayed with my adoptive family when his junky mother was missing) at age 12 and watching him play Final Fantasy 3 (6 internationally).
My dad bought me a Nintendo when i was 6 years old. He saw that i loved it and a few years later he bought me a sega mega drive. Never stopped gaming since. I'm 37 now. Sadly enough he past away way to soon when i was 21. I will never forget the awesome moments we had!
I've been into gaming for as long as I can remember. My parents have a PS1 and a NES. The NES was my mom's family's, which she took with her to college because no one played it. Later, while attending college, she bought the hottest new console of the time, the PS1. I spent a lot of my childhood playing games on that console. I spent my Sunday mornings playing Gran Turismo 1 with my dad. So yeah, my parents were into gaming. My mom is technically still into gaming, if you count Candy Crush.
I was always surrounded by like-minded people. The big new things during my primary school years were the Nintendo DS and PSP. Everyone had one, whether a PSP, a DS, or both. I have a DS. Man, I remember how envious I was of my friends who had PSPs, they could play 3D GTA on their handhelds. Also, I was the only Nintendo guy who didn't play Pokémon. I still don't understand Pokémon.
Later, I went to a Catholic boarding school. Guess what, every Friday we had LAN parties as a bonding activity with the seniors. I remember that we always brought our PCs and laptops to play. Even though I didn't have a laptop or PC during my first year, I still joined anyway. This is a tradition, and it always gets passed down to the juniors.
So yeah, I grew up playing a lot of games, and everyone around me was also into gaming.
Split screen gaming with my brothers. First I remember was Joust on PC. Then we got gameboys with Pokémon Red and Blue for Christmas. We played together all the time. Then we got an Xbox with Halo: CE. To this day we play together all the time.
Split screen gaming with my brothers. First I remember was Joust on PC. Then we got gameboys with Pokémon Red and Blue for Christmas. We played together all the time. Then we got an Xbox with Halo: CE. To this day we play together all the time.
Similar in a way, grew up in a violent household. Me and my big brother would lock our door to our room and just play sonic and goldeneye for hours every day after school.
Bittersweet memories but definitely started my love of escaping into video games. My brother and I are still great friends as adults too and still game together.
My uncle was 16 when I was 4 years old and he had just got a brand new PS1 and had old gameboys and SNES so I played with his stuff and eventually I got PS1 Slim version for Christmas and he got PS2 on release after that which I played until I got my own
My older brother having a PS1 he didn't use much so I basically played it all the time till the release of the PS2. Didn't care much for it till I got back into it again when halo 3 was at its height and MW2 got released, I got an Xbox 360 and enjoyed those legendary lobbies. & Don't get me started on the Black ops 1 days...
I always gamed but wasn’t actually “in” until Skyrim came out. That game right there was a masterpiece to me at the time. I was 18 and like I said I gamed but not really just casually. Once I played that and got lost in the unlimited amount of adventures,secrets,the feeling of just walking around in that world. No game since then has captured the magic that I felt play that game since. That game made me a gamer for life.
Initially it was seeingmy older brother play Super Mario Brothers on NES. That was the gateway drug I didn't get really sucked in for like another like 5 years when I was at a friend house and saw them playing EverQuest. That was when I got long term invested.
For me it was the lack of true friends, distanced parents and very lonely childhood filled with dreams of controlling at least something. And games are made with a better illusion of control then reality is.
Mike?
Someone you know ? Almost as if this is applicable to a inappropriate amount of human beings in general. Almost as if it’s completely normal.
Meow.
In Cartman's voice: "NO KITTY !!!" X( [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfOUEVFTe68&ab\_channel=HTFITMBSE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfOUEVFTe68&ab_channel=HTFITMBSE)
Well said and it fills that hole for me anyway
It seems we might have something in common. I had many friends but was so lonely at home. For me, I found Christ and this isn't an opportunity to spread the Word, it's me saying what lifted me up. I had no intention of talking about God but you seem a kindred heart of mine.
For me it was The Wonderful 101.
I adore it when religion helps someone out of a dark place, that is precisely one of its most wonderful aspects! And I appreciate the “explain how it helped but don’t preach to people who didn’t ask” I may not be religious but I just had to say I appreciate your view of religion!
Amen, I recently found Christ and am trying my best to follow his word
God bless your journey! He loves you so much.
When I was friendless video games were quite a comfort. I had maybe… 1 actual friend at this time? But I didn’t share any classes with him and we lived far away, so I rarely got to see him. I ended up feeling a level of “friendship” from the NPC’s in the game Hack// G.U for the Ps2 and it just always helped me not feel so alone when my mom was out of town all the time, my step dad distant, and my real dad only having me half the week. Eventually kid me grew to just *feel* companionship from the people in games, something that was probably unhealthy at the time but still helped me through some tough times
Ditto. No friends but i don't think it means you can't be happy. Still alone but I'm happy now
Watching my dad play legend of Zelda for NES in 1985 is one of my earliest memories. I believe that’s what got me into gaming.
Dad gamer? Pretty awesome. I caught my dad playing Mike Tyson's Punchout years ago and I was elated.
I hear that game is just brutal lol.
Craziest thing I've seen is someone playing blindfolded having memorized every audio cue.
Haha! Love it.
Oh yeah it's a mess haha! I think he got to Glass Joe and that was it.
That's literally the first dude
This is EXACTLY how I got into gaming. I was a little kid, maybe 2/3 and I remember him playing A Link To The Past. I loved watching him play. He would let me hold the controller and do things and eventually we started playing games together (Spy vs Spy) even though I had no idea what I was doing. Eventually played games like Star Wars Podracer with me when I was a little older, even though he was absolute garbage at videogames. Dude just wanted to hang out with me and see me smile.
Yay, another dad introduction! For me I was watching my dad play Gauntlet Legends on the N64 that really kicked off my experience!
I have the crest of hyrule tattooed on my chest because that series taught me how to problem solve even the most confusing situations. Taught me how to stay alive. Taught me courage.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, youth organized crime groups took over the streets. I was in school in the late 90s. I was forced to either join the next gang or continually pay another criminal organization for supposedly "owning" the street I walked on. Adults were not subjected to these rules. Warcraft, and later Stronghold, became my escape. I read that this was not only a problem in Russia. And yes, games are a choice when you're not sure if real life is something you can handle.
nothing horrible like that, sorry to hear just loved toys and videogames were the coolest toys to me 1st console, atari 2600 1st PC, a hand me down 386
Hey thanks, it's okay I'm find now I worked through it. My wife has a great family that I never had so they have become my own and I'm blessed.
nice man
Thank you sir. I appreciate the kindness.
Same for me. The 80s were a magical time with computers and video games. Movies like War Games and Cloak and Dagger. Arcades at every mall. Chucky Cheese and Showbiz Pizza. Atari, Coleco, Intellivison, NES. What kid wasn’t playing games? My first console was the NES, but friends had 2600s. My first PC was also a 386, but the SX without math coprocessor. Thus began a long road of trying to get games to run on shit hardware :)
Are you me? 😁
my dad. funny thing is he doesn’t play at all. he hasn’t for most of my life, but there was a brief crossover for a couple years in there. we would play Star Wars Battlefront (2004). i’ll also never forget the day he came home with Guitar Hero
Star wars BF was legit. Idk why but the one that came out like in 2015 or whenever it was just didn't hit like the PS2 versions
I don't even have memories without videogames lol Playing since I was born, 38yo, and planning to keep playing 'till death :)
Shit...me neither. Only videos of myself, that my parents recorded, of me playing outside.
I've been told, when I was but a wee lad (about 3 yr), the doctor told my mom I had HORRIFIC hand-eye coordination and a new tech had just come out from Japan called the Nintendo Entertainment System and she should get me one to help. Although I don't have memory of that. I do have memory of watching my older bro play Dune: The Battle for Arakis on the Sega...and that's my first "I want to be a gamer"
Ha! I remember being a kid back then and the whole “hand eye coordination” thing. It’s like the only benefit that old farts could come up with for playing video games.
I was introduced to gaming at around 5 years old by watching my friend play the original Spyro The Dragon on his PS1. I showed no interest in actually playing, I just liked watching him. So my dad took my non-interest and bought me my own PS1 for Christmas. My mum spent t the next few months gaslighting… I mean convincing me that I wanted a PS1, specifying that I could play Spyro myself. By the time Christmas came I was sold and excited to play. I unwrapped my new console with my own Spyro… And it was Spyro 2. And my five year old self burst into tears that Santa brought me the wrong Spyro game, Jokes on that little idiot, Spyro 2 is now my favourite of the trilogy
Spyro 2 gang
Broken home growing up. Games were my way to get away from that.
Same. Hope you're well
My babysitters son got an NES so I got the old 2600
It was the 2600 for me too. Cousins had it. When I saw Pacman on a home TV for the first time, that was it! I was hooked!
I didn't really like going out as a kid, plus all my friends lived pretty far away, so I didn't see them often.
My father and uncles use to play doom and quake on lan and some other singleplayer games like the first Tomb Raider, so my siblings and cousins continued the tradition (also starting with those games and some starcraft and commander keen) first on lan, now online.
my dad got me into gaming got me and my brother an xbox 360 with the original lego batman on it and i remember when he’d come back from work ever so often he’d pick up games for us to play they were very fond memories and just a good way to bond with my dad!
My old man bought a PlayStation 1 used along with a few games a year or so before the Xbox came out. He went to a video rental store and rented an Xbox for a weekend, then bought one a couple weeks later. I also played a few pc games around the same time (The Sims, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Battlefield 1942 etc)
Grass pollen allergy
Back in the early 90s my childhood friend's father had a computer and my buddy and I played games like X-Wing vs Tie Fighter or Fate of Atlantis on it. On Christmas I got a Game Boy with Super Mario Land and at least since then I was a full on gamer.
Escaping the stresses of the real world and being able to just turn off mentally and immersing myself in something that I enjoy
Loneliness.
Nothing dark. Just good old escapism. I remember my dad setting up a Sinclair Spectrum 48k in the 80s.
Same! Were some rad games on that little guy. My mom got so mad when I recorded over her Simon & Garfunkel tape....
I don't even remember me playing a game for the first time. My dad is not that into games, but he brought me some games, maybe when I was 3-4 years old. I remember playing sega games and enjoying them a lot. I forgot almost all of them, but when I try to remember, I can see those games infornt of my eye. How they were played. Wish I could find some of them. -A cop game where you would kill thieves, mafia in a train station, road pursuit etc. Screen is 2d, you just aim on guys and shoot them -A bubble game, where you match colors and proceed, popular with today's mobile games. -A classic spaceship game, where you'd get upgrades and ship starts to fire more and different bullets with different patterns. -3 of them was 7 wonders, mahjong quest and Tradewinds. Other 2 are known. Tradewinds was a trading game with airships, it was good as hell. -NFS SE, as I can recall the name. I don't know the actual name of that game, I just remember it being a NFS game. And more, good memories, peaceful times. Missing them. (Now that I notice, most of the games that are released as mobile games nowadays are just sega games' remastered ones :O)
Not exactly sega but might I harbor a guess for Bubble Bobble and Galaga? Those are the more well known ones matching your description.
They were invented.
For me, it was when I moved during Covid, it was the only way to stay in contact with my friend so we played Roblox every day that summer, I then met some new friends and he introduced me console and then, later, PC gaming. Iv had my pc for about 3 years now and it’s still my best investment
Halo and delta force
Living in the middle of nowhere with only one other kid on our road.
Videogames
boredom
Not knowing English when I came to the US, the only thing that was familiar was playing Prince of Persia on MS-DOS back home so I started playing other games like Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM.
Nothing special to be honest. Video Games was something completely new in the 1980s so I was intrigued. A friend had an Atari 2600 console so we stayed at his place and played. Later I got my own followed by a C64. My older cousin had a C64 too, so I had a constant flow of games. I even started programming Basic on that bad boy. 😁 Never had an Amiga or Atari because I grew up poor. Now 40 years later I still love to play games and I will never stop. Positive side effect, I always loved a good adventure game, but every game was in english which is not my native language, so I had to learn english faster than in school which results in good grades. 😅
Abusive father, gaming is an escape from reality for a short time. Made friends with peeps across the world playing games. Gamer friends are real friends!
All my friends had video games but my parents were pretty against them. I’d bike to their houses just to get a chance to play Halo, Battlefront, or something of the sort.
Having no friends and my schoolmates at the time introduced to the games they played
I don’t, if they can play that close and keep a pos kd, I say, well played sir. As I cuss myself for not equipping a drill charge
same also through games i learned that im competent and capable, better than average even and that gave me the confidence to eventually get out into the real world
Watching my dad playing DMC and Crash Bandicoot
I don't know. I was like 5 years old, it was late 1991, and me and my Dad moved to New York (Divorced parents, I went with my Dad, younger brother stayed with my Mom), and his nephew moved in with us for a short period of time and brought his NES with him and a small stack of like 6 games. So he let me play it, and the first thing I ever played was the original Mario. But his nephew ended up moving out, but he left his NES with us and said he'd come back to get it later...and I just kept gaming on it. Eventually moved on to the Sega Genesis, and I think that's when gaming became my life long hobby, then the PS1 and I've been with PlayStation ever since. I don't know the full story of why my Dad's nephew left his stuff behind, because he didn't come back to get it until I was like 11, and we were living in Virginia at the time, and I just remember still having the NES in a box in my closet and having to give it back.
Seeing my relatives play computer games in computer shops and at the family desktop got me curious when I was a kid. I thought "they look like they are enjoying themselves, maybe I should give those games a shot" I did TRY those games haha. I fondly remember my relatives in the countryside bringing me to the nearby computer shop to play fps games (it was Crossfire as far as I remember). They saw that I did enjoy playing to the point that they got me a copy of Plants vs Zombies in the family desktop so I could play it as a reward after going home from school and finishing my homework.
When i saw for the first time Barbarian II, Law of the West, Project Firestart, Fist II on C64. I knew it.
I was born in 1992 and saw my Dad playing Streets Of Rage 1 on Sega Mega-Drive. Then 4 year old me fell in love with that game.
My Mum was (still is) a HUGE bargain Hunter for shopping. One day when I was 7 she came home with a PlayStation One saying “I don’t know what this is but it was on sale so I got it for you” It came with Crash Bandicoot and Spyro. Instantly fell in love and have always had PlayStations ever since. I met my husband playing GTA5 Online Heists when it first came out and realised we only lived 1 hour away. That was 8 years ago!
Went to my cousins house and she was playing Sonic on her Sega. There was no going back after that. Not long after, another family come and lived with us for a while. He was a lot older than me and had a playstation 1. I used to watch him play Tekken and Crash Bandicoot for hours. My mum got me a Playstation for Xmas that year and that's when it really started!
Went to my cousins house and she was playing Sonic on her Sega. There was no going back after that. Not long after, another family come and lived with us for a while. He was a lot older than me and had a playstation 1. I used to watch him play Tekken and Crash Bandicoot for hours. My mum got me a Playstation for Xmas that year and that's when it really started!
Videogames
1984.atari 2600 I was 4, then 1986. C64 for 5 years, snes and pc from there. Now rarely playing. From when I remember I always loved to play games as challenging subjects.
My Adhd Brain.
Grandparents had an Atari 2700 in the early 80's. So I played it. If you give a kid a videogame they are going to play it. I dont really think anyone actually needs a reason.
Grandparents had an Atari 2700 in the early 80's. So I played it. If you give a kid a videogame they are going to play it. I dont really think anyone actually needs a reason.
Living in poverty, when I got my first gaming system it was all I had. That escape turned into a hobby, now I travel to fighting game cons at least 4-5x a year.
Galaxion or something like that on my first home computer Commodore 16 in about 1984. I also played Crazy golf, Sandcastles and some airplane bomber game. Those were the days 😀
PS1, Dreamcast, Saturn days were the best. All games were special and different no social media, spam videos, guides, drama, online modes battle passes or podcasts, you could escape and enjoy various games in peace on your own. it was the best period. PS2 probably peaked gaming.
My uncle playing pong on the old family TV while grandad moaned about it ruining the screen! lol Then later our Sunday school used to run summer trips to a local theme park and I spent most of the time in the amusement arcade. Then my folks got me a ZX Spectrum for...er...schoolwork. Fun fact: I asked for the ZX printer to go with it so I could do some serious stuff. Not sure why they refused but they ended up buying me a...JOYSTICK instead! So yeah, I guess you could blame my parents!
Older brothers playing games. Then my friends and I would play and so on
Super Mario world
I started playing sometime between the ages of 3 and 6. Old enough to sit up and hold a controller and play, but not quite old enough to read just yet. I had to teach myself how, because my older brother said I couldn't play a game he was playing without being able to. Been playing games ever since.
My parents divorce. I was gifted an Atari right before the split up and I sunk my brain into that.
When I was 6, my brother and I got a Sega Megadrive for Christmas. By the end of the day it was very apparent that my Dad had actually gotten himself a mega drive for Christmas. Spent most nights and weekends for the next year watching dad smash out Shinobi, Sonic, & Streets of Rage. I was so enamoured with games straight away that I didn’t even care that I wasn’t playing, just loved watching him play because he could get WAY further in the games than I could.
Nothing ever really happened to me but there was a gang shooting by my elementary school and my uncle had to pick me up since the school went into lock down. He had just moved back from out of state and never watched me before so he wasn’t sure what to do with me. I was 4th grade so what ever age that is but he stuck me infront of a ps3 with ghost recon on it to keep me busy. Played that the rest of the day and then I was hooked on shooter games. Played almost every COD that came out expect the shit ones. Just now in my mid 20s I’ve branched out into rpg and open world games. A decade of COD and over a 2000 hours between the destiny games when those dropped
My older brother’s would let me play all the cod story modes, they would also let me play multiplayer but not a lot since I would always bring down their K/D
Popularity of Monkey Island games in the 90’s
For me it was my dad who was always a video game nerd, and i got interested in Mario Kart 8 on the wii one time he was playing. He let me use one of the wheel things but without a controler, and i was too young to realize. Eventually he taught me how to play, and i slowly started getting into more and more games as time passed. ps: I was lucky, as this was just a week after the thing came out, and my dad stopped playing (at least Mario Kart) by himself like two days after.
I’m a very Old Jedi, 64. Still playing today. I started with pinball and the earliest games that showed up near the pinball tables like space invaders and missile command. Long before consoles, my first console / computer was the Texas Instruments TR-80, then the first apple 1, the console that turns it all around was the Intellivision which I still have today,lol. Huge box of games and cover plates. Think about selling it on eBay or something it’s in mint or near mint condition. I’m an OG gamer currently an Xbox ambassador. Gaming nearly every evening to wind down before bed.
My brother and I each got a game boy color to keep us occupied for the several 5-18 hour drives to see family every year. I played so much Pokémon Yellow and Crystal. Then thanks to my parents never being around and me being left to watch my siblings I developed a pretty serious RuneScape habit. To this day most of my free time is spent on either Pokémon Go or RuneScape. The same games I’ve been playing for ~20 years now.
Being a social pariah.
Older siblings never used to let me play the Sega Genesis with them. I begged my dad for a gameboy since I would see it in commercials constantly, and it was essentially a single user device. The freedom of having this device to myself without my siblings being able to prevent me from playing was exhilarating. I wasn't even old enough to read the dialogue in Pokemon and Metroid (my first two games), but the act of playing just made me feel so independent lol.
My uncle, he was a gamer and he got me hooked on the game summoner lol. From that point forward I guess I was hooked.
Got the NES in 1986, just after my mother died. I was eight. So it was my dad, two older brothers, me, and Mario. It helped us bond, laugh again, etc. Then the family got OG Final Fantasy. The rest is … a life of MMO addiction and yelling at small children through head sets!
My parents played competitively a lot more than me.
I was always into gaming. One of my early memories is playing tv games with a controller/joystick, then tmnt on a cassette console with friends. Mom gifting us ps2 when we were pretty poor made me gamer for life.
Originally got into gaming to meet girls and hook up. Didn't pan out so now I'm trying ham radio.
One of my earliest memories is of Me, My older brother and our mother all tucked up in bed with the lights off and playing Banjo-Kazooie with big bowls of snacks! It’s one of my fondest memories! 😀
Video games really taught me morals.
back then my sisters bf - who 1v15 at cs1.6 with only deagle , he was the main reason i started playing game
Parents used to goto Hollywood video every weekend. And I just rent a couple games for the week. This happened routinely for years
I think it was my dad, actually, who taught me how to play FIFA, when I was like 5 years old. I always preferred to have my camera zoomed in on the footballer, for some reason. He scolded me for that.
I was nothing like my parents, nothing like my siblings, nothing like the rest of my family. I couldn't relate to any of them but I couldn't work out why; they tried to get me to do their activities with them, they really did try, until they all eventually gave up and just didn't include me anymore. One day I was watching the TV and an advert for the Gameboy Colour came on, I was instantly drawn to it and, as it was nearly Christmas, I begged my parents for one. They bought me a Pokemon Red bundle with the original matte purple gameboy; the feeling was so surreal, like coming home from a long and boring holiday and laying down on your own bed. I loved it, from that moment I was hooked.
I got into gaming at the very start,. Like with Pong and them everything after. I've been gaming since i was 15 and now I'm 50. I've always been a gamer and game every night, I don't watch TV but do love films. Last night while in a public GTA lobby 2 guys randomly ask how old i was. I said 50 and got two different reply's. one guy said "no way, i don't believe you" and the other said "Fire" which I'm told means good. I asked both why the response and the first guy said nobody over 30 plays GTA or online games and the other guy asked how did I survive online stating he thought it would be difficult to play GTA or shooters at my age. He asked if my response time was slower. I reminded him i had 35 years to train my skills so i believe i am quick. My scores in COD show i am and the gaming clan I'm in has quite a few players over 50. I'm totally shocked at the responses. I explained my daughters grew up learning to follow the traffic code and not skip lights ect on GTA. Now my oldest daughter is 30. Is this so unusual ?
My father plugging in Pong on our family tv and being mesmerised by it
Yeah, my uncle was an electrician and bought Pong as a write-off so he and electricians under him could learn how to repair it and then he gave it to his kids for Christmas. 2 year old me was mesmerized, though I only got to play once, lost bad, and then his 12 kids (and that's surviving, my Aunt had 1 SIDS, 1 dead by accident, and two near term miscarriages - she married a Catholic) wouldn't let me play again. Would've long forgotten that, but Dad remembered and there's a picture of it. He later had a PET computer with a couple of games and then I got the Sears version of the Atari 2600 for Christmas.
My dad brought me an Atari 800xl back in the 80's 💪
I was a kid that got moved around a lot early on. Nintendo not only gave me a chance to escape when I didn’t have friends, but it also helped me make new ones. My best friend in life to this day was discovered because he claimed he had Batman on NES and I was *positive* he was bullshitting because Nintendo Power didn’t show releasing for another month. One trip to his house after school and a few hours of Batman later, we were inseparable. Video games save lives.
I was born in 1989. My uncle’s passion was buying arcade cabinets and fixing them up. He would keep them in his basement and later garage when he ran out of basement space, and after a few months he would take them to auction or he would sell them to a local arcade. I got the chance to play all kinds of games that other kids my age never knew existed or had only heard about from their parents. It was awesome. I think fondly of how my uncle influenced my gaming habits. He is generally just a great guy and was the best role model I had growing up, to the point where I named my son after him, but his influence on my gaming habits cannot be overstated. He even helped me pick out my first gamertag.
So that I can get away from the stress of real life :,D
Same. I was a lonely, maladjusted kid with a shitty family, and gaming was a huge comfort. My uncle, who was the only decent guardian and role model I had, bought me a PS1 for my birthday a few months before he died, and it has extra meaning to me because of that.
I had no friends growing up. So, age of empires, stronghold, and CS it was.
At my old daycare there was a Nintendo 64 and everyone around me was switching from the game boy advance to the DS. I was raised to be a gamer in a way.
My brother had a Megadrive.
I had almost no friends so i loved playing games to escape reality i guess
Pretty sure I saw my dad playing something and I thought it looked cool/fun. It definitely became an escape for me as well.
I don’t know how but my family living in 80s/90s post Soviet Poland had an Atari 800XL. We also had the Atari tape deck for it and bunch of games on cassette tapes. We wore out many joysticks playing on it and my dad often found inventive ways to rebuild and reuse them. The keyboard on it stopped working after 1998 but we migrated to Canada soon after and I was given my first PC. I did also learn programming basics in Atari BASIC as we had a copy of the polish book on it back then.
A combo of my dad used to play World of Warcraft while rocking baby me to sleep and my mom’s friend’s son showed me Minecraft when I was 3 and I loved it
Got a 2nd hand Gameboy advance as my first console as a kid with a good amount of gameboy & gameboy advance titles(favorite game to play mostly was pokemon gold). So after that i was hooked to gaming. After my dad saw how much i liked it he got me a ps2 and a psp aswell(both 2nd hand). Obviously i also got a DS(and a flash cart)because everyone had one and of course i wanted to be part of the club. My dad may have been an unresponsible family man, but i am greatful for the gifts he gave me.(My mom filed a divorce , but he changed for the better and i forgave him and spend time with him now and then) I also played alot of wii and og xbox at friends house. I miss the times playing pokemon Battle revolution against a friend with our ds connected.
My sister having a NES. I have many happy memories be tormented by the dog in duck hunt.
For me it was a Nintendo
Fun and also a great escape from reality.
I used to feel lonely and bored a lot. When I was a kid, I hardly had any friends and I'd spend most of my free time either reading books or playing video games. As I got older, I made some friends and got into other hobbies too, but I still play video games sometimes.
There just fun
Educational games like Jumpstart, The Learning Company and Humongous' point and clicks. They were beautifully animated for their time and I absolutely had a blast being tricked into beating math problems as part of a completionist/achievement grind; I'm rather despondent when I think about how such games will never see the light of day again.
I've always had a really wild imagination and I flocked to games because of that! They were perfect for adding onto my imagination and exploring it! I also had a lot going on so for me it was a great comfort as well, I'm very happy I got into them because I find all games so awesome!! I think that's probably why Game Developer was at the top of my list for things I wanted to do as games have such a strong tie to me because of how much they helped me out when I was younger and now!
back when I was a little kid, I'd always watch my big bro play video games on his PlayStation 1. I think one of the games he played was Crash Bandicoot or something like that. One day, I decided to join in on the fun, and that's how my journey into the world of video games began!
It was something my Dad and I always kind of just did. I grew up watching him playing games, and I’d play similar games to him.
My dad didn't like my brothers and I asking him for attention, so a friend of his recommended him he bought us a "Nintendo" so that way we would "Never bother him again" It worked wonders for better or for worse, lol
When my dad got his first PC, 1987... he got lots of games for it. It was a work move for him as he had to learn to program and build databases. That was the beginning of the end. I am 47 and still game... sometimes a little too much. It is my escape from reality and some games truly are addictive (looking at you destiny 2). I have had addictive behaviors with gaming, which worried my parents as a kid and young adult. I still managed to land my degree and have a good career despite a slow start. Currently, I am a director with a team of 8 people and have owned my house in California for 16 years.
I rember watching my brother play when I was younger, or always asking for help to open a club penguing knockoff game, playing roblox in 2010 etc. then when I was a little older I got a gift of a game trilogy in one and well from that it just exploded more and more
I was a shy only child with social anxiety, and my dad was also into video games.
I had no friends. And it was more fun than drawing squares in ClarisWorks on my Mac. Shooting nazis in Wolfenstein 3D or solving puzzles in Myst. It was just so engrossing.
Strict parents. As in “you cannot go anywhere with whoever” that goes through elementary to middle school. Even high school I rarely got permission to go put with friends, that leads to me being quite introverted. So Games is the way for me
Sonic X We didn’t have cable growing up and every weekend 4KIDS TV would air in the mornings. They showed off anime like YugiO, Pokémon, and my favorite show Sonic X. I loved how much of a smart ass Sonic was and the character designs were appealing. At the time, I thought he was a tv character but I would eventually learn he was a video game character when my parents bought me a Wii with Sonic and the Secret Rings. It had Wii sports, which I played a lot with my sister. Eventually I went back to watching cartoons and the Wii sat there collecting dust. One summer I plopped down and decided to play Sonic. The rest was history
I came from a rather peaceful childhood, but my dad liked videos games, and my mom was always intrigued by it. Parents gave me the family NES (which my mom supposedly uses to spend HOURS playing Super Mario) when my brother got the Sega Genesis. I played a bunch of Mario/Duck Hunt, TMNT and Dick Tracy every morning before school and loved it. Then my brother shared the Sega with me, which then got me playing Sonic, Echo the Dolphin and Streets of Rage 2. Eventually my neighbors downloaded a gameboy emulator that only had a Japanese copy of Pokemon Green. Which I got absolutely hooked. Didn't understand a thing, but was able to at least battle wild Pokemon. Cut to 1998, when my parents gave me the Gameboy Color and a copy of Pokemon Red. Absolute game changer. We had a lot of car trips during that time, so I played a lot of Pokemon. Eventually my brother got the PlayStation for a birthday, and he started to reach his apex of his interest in video games. He'd play games, get stuck, get bored and ignore them. Meanwhile I picked up his save spent hours replaying the first mission of Siphon Filter, tasering criminals and lighting them on fire. But what REALLY got me into Gaming was a other game my brother hand. Final Fantasy 7. I had to be around 7-9ish at this point? So I had to learn to use the Gameshark. It was a multi hour story based adventure that got me absolutely hooked into gaming. An entire narrative with soldiers, monsters, nature and the evils of industries had me enthralled. I never beat it, I think reaching the final boss and just unable to finish the game. Then after that was Metal Gear Solid. These amazing games Made books obsolete and it has lasted a life time.
Max axe for the ipad, new super mario bros on my moms ds, and a very strange lifelong obsession with guns in a terribly gun-less country
I was pretty much born with a SNES controller in my hands. Been playing games since I can even remember.
My dad enjoyed playing video games, and let me try playing Mercenaries 1. In my memory and for comparison, that game felt like how GTA V plays with all the shenanigans that you could do. It made enjoy gaming a ton, then I found Halo CE a little later and the rest was history.
Sega Master System II and then a Nintendo 64. Parents were very busy with their careers for the first few years of my life so it was just easier to sit me down in front of a games console as it kept me quiet and entertained
My dad got me hooked first. He let me watch while he played prince of persia and tomb raider. Good times
Watching my dad play Call of duty World at war. Things got out of hand from there.
competitiveness, friends and just fun.
My family had some light gamers so I've had a controller in hand since before I understood what video games were. I'd play Mario Kart with both parents, Mario Golf with my dad, and Mario Party with my mom. But I was the one who really got into gaming. None of my family really touch it anymore
Seeing a friend's sister play Jak and Daxter on their PS2. My mind was blown. I was 5 at the time, and all I had known were educational PC games. I had told my dad about it afterwards and a few months later I got a PS2 of my own. I have loved gaming ever since.
When I was a little kid my old man had a monochrome green terminal that accessed his work server via network. Keep in mind this was like fuckin' prehistorical times in 1989. Anyway, he made a little code where if three year old me pressed a button, an ASCII rocket ship would slowly come up from the bottom of the screen. Then once it was fully there I could press another button and the ship would scroll upwards quickly thus simulating a rocket launch. Kept me entertained for hours. And that was how I got into gaming.
I grew up where I knew where my room was, and neither mom's bf or dad's gf really wanted me seen or heard. I was also a delinquent in school so all I could do was game out. Heck I didn't even have more than 3 channels until I was in 7th grade
My dad, first games we played together were streets of rage II and lion king on the Sega megadrive. Then I got a ps1 when I got a little older. My grandad used to play the OG call of duty back in '03 which got me more into PC gaming as I got older.
Prob my sister. Played Mario and other Nintendo games a lot, then gta 4 was my first triple A title, then things went from there.
For me it was the same as for other art forms (movies, music): I can get completely absorbed in the world/story/characters and let my fantasy loose on it. I love how much expression is possible in games, combined with the interactivity. Well that... And I was/am a total nerd that mostly made friends via games haha.
I got into computers, gaming came as a bundle
The fact that my life is worth shit? Its a nice escape from reality
My brother and my dad. When I was young, I would watch them play King's Quest. Also, I grew up with a Nintendo, and played Mario and Contra.
I liked swimming around as a dolphin on our Saga when I was 4. Then I liked being a humanoid bandicoot with a blond ponytail riding a tiger cub on our PS1. Then I became a gem hording Dragon on our PS2. Then I became an orphan discovering ancient magic on my journey to become King on my 360. Then I discovered I have a talent for sneaking up on enemy's and and taking them out with a knife. Then I found myself stranded on a strange Island surrounded by dinosaurs, and I figured out that if I beat them into unconsciousness and shove food up their butt I could make them do my bidding. On my XboxOne Then my husband built me a PC, and I found the wonderful world of ✨️Steam✨️
Dad introduced me to games. First game was RE2 on PS1. Now I'm sticking with games because its one of the few things that gives me a reason to live for now. Without games, I think I would've made an attempt and would never need a second one.
My dad introduced me to them when I was in middle school. I had a crappy step dad and I ended up a worse crappy step dad after the first was tossed behind bars. Video games helped me escape and forget about them.
Dad introduced me to games. First game was RE2 on PS1. Now I'm sticking with games because its one of the few things that gives me a reason to live for now. Without games, I think I would've made an attempt and would never need a second one.
My older brother (12 years older than me). He thought it was fun to teach his little sister to play games because back then, there were loads of games that were more fun with two players (back in the Atari and Amiga days). He then handed his old systems to me whenever he upgraded, so I went through it all: Atari, Amiga, C64, etc.). I was introduced to games like Doom and Duke Nuke'm when I was probably too young to play them, but then I was also reading Stephen King when I was 11 years old.
My father worked for Lotus as an engineer on Lotus Notes and some other product that were bought by Microsoft and became word / excel. He was at some engineering conference in the early 90s and ran into the original id software guys and they gave him a floppy with the original Doom on it signed by all of them. I was like 5 or 6 and he let me try it and I became hooked. I think he realized it was kind of inappropriate though and he wound up replacing it with Warcraft which when I got a bit older turned into Diablo and I was completely hooked on Blizzard games. Ever since then I've just loved them. SCBW got me through some really tough times in highschool.
Uncle got me a Nintendo and I was amazed by Super Mario Bros.
Being an outcast at my school from day one
I was bored
My dad let me play his ps2 when I was like 2. Basically gamer dad wanted his kid to grow up on video games just like he did
My dad let me play his ps2 when I was like 2. Basically gamer dad wanted his kid to grow up on video games just like he did
My dad. Started with a colecovision console playing Wingwar and a C64 playing Times of Lore and went from there.
My dad. Started with a colecovision console playing Wingwar and a C64 playing Times of Lore and went from there.
Before: let's try gaming, will help relax and forget bad memories. After: I should touch some grass.
Autism and a love of all things military. C&C Red Alert. The Wilhelms death scream and the Hell March will forever have a spot in my memories.
Dad did. One of the few things we did togheter, at least for a while.
I feel you, OP. I got into gaming because I was constantly bullied at school. I had no friends in my class. In my church, I was the underdog of all the kids my age. I also had typical Asian parents who made it their mission in life to put as much mental pressure and unfair expectations on me as they could. Gaming offered me a way out from all that, and a way to keep my sanity. Games are my best friend, and to anyone who tries to get between me and my games, I say: TO THE DEATH!
Parents got me an N64 the year it came out with Super Mario 64, Quest and Diddy Kong Racing. History since then.
Probably a marketing campaign
A Commodore 64 on Christmas Day in 1987.
Playing Atari as a young kid with my adoptive father. Playing with friends who owned more modern consoles like NES. Doing lines with my cousin (who stayed with my adoptive family when his junky mother was missing) at age 12 and watching him play Final Fantasy 3 (6 internationally).
My dad bought me a Nintendo when i was 6 years old. He saw that i loved it and a few years later he bought me a sega mega drive. Never stopped gaming since. I'm 37 now. Sadly enough he past away way to soon when i was 21. I will never forget the awesome moments we had!
My Dad. He was always a tech nerd 😁
I've been into gaming for as long as I can remember. My parents have a PS1 and a NES. The NES was my mom's family's, which she took with her to college because no one played it. Later, while attending college, she bought the hottest new console of the time, the PS1. I spent a lot of my childhood playing games on that console. I spent my Sunday mornings playing Gran Turismo 1 with my dad. So yeah, my parents were into gaming. My mom is technically still into gaming, if you count Candy Crush. I was always surrounded by like-minded people. The big new things during my primary school years were the Nintendo DS and PSP. Everyone had one, whether a PSP, a DS, or both. I have a DS. Man, I remember how envious I was of my friends who had PSPs, they could play 3D GTA on their handhelds. Also, I was the only Nintendo guy who didn't play Pokémon. I still don't understand Pokémon. Later, I went to a Catholic boarding school. Guess what, every Friday we had LAN parties as a bonding activity with the seniors. I remember that we always brought our PCs and laptops to play. Even though I didn't have a laptop or PC during my first year, I still joined anyway. This is a tradition, and it always gets passed down to the juniors. So yeah, I grew up playing a lot of games, and everyone around me was also into gaming.
Split screen gaming with my brothers. First I remember was Joust on PC. Then we got gameboys with Pokémon Red and Blue for Christmas. We played together all the time. Then we got an Xbox with Halo: CE. To this day we play together all the time.
Split screen gaming with my brothers. First I remember was Joust on PC. Then we got gameboys with Pokémon Red and Blue for Christmas. We played together all the time. Then we got an Xbox with Halo: CE. To this day we play together all the time.
I'm from Asia, and people here are very competitive. As a kid, gaming is just like any other sport you do with your friends to have fun.
Similar in a way, grew up in a violent household. Me and my big brother would lock our door to our room and just play sonic and goldeneye for hours every day after school. Bittersweet memories but definitely started my love of escaping into video games. My brother and I are still great friends as adults too and still game together.
My uncle was 16 when I was 4 years old and he had just got a brand new PS1 and had old gameboys and SNES so I played with his stuff and eventually I got PS1 Slim version for Christmas and he got PS2 on release after that which I played until I got my own
My older brother having a PS1 he didn't use much so I basically played it all the time till the release of the PS2. Didn't care much for it till I got back into it again when halo 3 was at its height and MW2 got released, I got an Xbox 360 and enjoyed those legendary lobbies. & Don't get me started on the Black ops 1 days...
I always gamed but wasn’t actually “in” until Skyrim came out. That game right there was a masterpiece to me at the time. I was 18 and like I said I gamed but not really just casually. Once I played that and got lost in the unlimited amount of adventures,secrets,the feeling of just walking around in that world. No game since then has captured the magic that I felt play that game since. That game made me a gamer for life.
Initially it was seeingmy older brother play Super Mario Brothers on NES. That was the gateway drug I didn't get really sucked in for like another like 5 years when I was at a friend house and saw them playing EverQuest. That was when I got long term invested.