Gaming: A Lifelong/Family-tastic Affair

As far back as I remember, I have been a gamer. While not quite my earliest memory, a closer runner is the Saturday mornings of my youth in Texas. I would wake up before everyone else to watch cartoons, as befits being that sort of age (well, and this age too. Anyways *cough*). However, I was not permitted to watch G.I. Joe for some reason. To fill that half an hour, I’d boot up the Atari and make a splendid botch of Pac-man and Galaxian and the like. When Nintendo came onto my radar in the late 80s, I was devoutly sure that I had been good enough for Santa to hook me up. And he did, though not just me alone. So I’d fight my siblings and parents to play Tetris, and Dragon Warrior, The Legend of Zelda, Faxanadu, and of course, the ubiquitous Mario-based games (and any other number of titles; those are just some of my faves that readily spring to mind).

Still one of the finest games out there.

Still one of the finest games out there.

As for computer gaming, the first thing I ever remember was playing Solitaire on a babysitter’s computer in the early 90s. She quickly regretted letting me play that one time, and would have to pretty much bludgeon me daily to get me to go do my homework instead. Once we finally had our own computer, I got hooked into the first Civilization, Wolfenstein 3DSettlers 1, and any other number of games. Heck, I’ll still play them here 20 years one, these games of my childhood. I’m actually really slow to add new games to my repertoire, as I consider the sign of a good game that I want to play it and not stop playing it… which is why I chronically have something like The Sims and/or Minecraft up.

My husband also got an early start on gaming here in the UK. He’s currently happily engaging in the revisioning of his childhood love Elite, and got me hooked on Telengard when I moved over here. Our courtship was me getting him to join me in Diablo II; after all, the couple that games together stays together. As we are nearing a decade together, and while we might not necessarily play the same games together, gaming and sharing in our gaming with each other continues to be an important facet of our relationship (marriage and friendship).

((Oh yeah, and we met in a cute little game as well. Naturally!))

Of course, this is a love we share with our children. While Littlerbit is too young to catch the wave at 3 months, Lilbit wants to be ‘like Mommy!’. While I don’t play racing games that often, she’s very fond of them in addition to ‘my’ games. I’m well pleased that she is having fun, and hope that her generation are as fortunate as us children of the 80s in not being told that gaming is ‘not for girls’. Considering that the majority of gamers ARE women (and I’m staunchly against genderizing anyways), I don’t want her or her sister to be harassed for doing what they enjoy.

And really, whatever the game, gaming certainly has its benefits. My hand-brain coordination is superior to my anything-else-and-brain coordination from long years of gaming in various mediums. It’s an outlet for frustration, for creativity, for relaxation, and so many other things. Of course, most people know this by now except for a few killjoys who are convinced that gaming causes mass murders and desensitization to life in general. For me and my broken brain, it helps to keep myself distracted and amused. That goes for most of my hobbies though, hee hee. But as they’re newer, I figured this would be the one to chat about at the start!

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A Sort of Glorious Relaunch

Hello, all and sundry!

Firstly, if you are here because you followed this blog when it was The Scarlet B, allow me to direct you to its new home:: The Scarlet B. The long and the short is that I broke the back-end here irrevocably, so I got off my ass and moved domains as I promised myself that I would do a long long time ago. Because I’m self-hosted WordPress, I can’t transfer you guys over there as followers… sorry about that. 🙂

Happiness is digital cake. Or any cake, really.

Happiness is digital cake. Or any cake, really.

As for everyone else — welcome to my latest endeavour in blogging! I’ve had this domain for a very long time, and I couldn’t let it languish or pass on from my usage, so here I am. And I reckon — I have hobbies, so why don’t I pool my nattering about them into one convenient place? You’re likely to find posts about knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, cheerfully botched attempts at sewing, baking, cooking, and games… lots about games. I’ve been a gamer since ye olde Atari days, and I haven’t relented in that hobby in the slightest.

While some might not consider me a ‘real’ gamer because I am a solo player and *gasp* dare to love The Sims franchise, I shrug and grin — fuck you! Yeah, there might be a touch of ‘social justice’ weaved in as well, because gate-keeping is some nasty shizz and I’m quickly losing my tolerance for it. I could totally list my 30 year-long creds here, but I won’t. You’ll just have to see what gaming is piquing my interest as time goes along, and heck, maybe some of y’all will point me towards new games (if anyone can stop me from playing my current addiction, which is Minecraft).

Anyways, let the fun begin.

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