The Birth of a Gamer

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I wish to share a very personal story with all of you.  This is the story of how I became a gamer and I write it because I want you my friends to know how gaming came to be with me.

The year was 1987, I was a young child of five and we didn't have a great deal of money.  I don't know how my mother convinced my father to buy a Nintendo in the first place, but she did.

Her favourite game was "The Legend of Zelda." The first installment in Miyamoto's dynasty of the Zelda universe.  My mother was in love with the game.  Despite being so young, I can clearly recall the time my mom spent at the NES.  She had her pencil and graph paper out, carefully marking every hidden item in the game.  Each and every bush, rock, wall or secret place in the game that you could burn, bomb, push or play a recorder at, that woman had it marked (on the 1st and 2nd quest). Then she helped me through it. It was another one of our reading bonding exercises.  She'd help me read the clues and the speech boxes and give me gentle nudges in the directions of the clues. I fell in love with gaming.  It was even better since my mother had such a direct impact in my life as a gamer.

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My last memory of my mother was the night before she died. I was sixteen years old, it was a Sunday night over the summer.  We were playing the original Diablo over battlenet.  I had introduced her to "hacked" characters and showing her that you could PlayerKill with these. She was laughing herself in tears telling me how horrible I was as she controlled the mouse to kill unsuspecting players as I trolled them over chat.  I'd never seen my mother laugh so hard. Nor had I remembered having so much fun playing a video game before in my life.

 

I'm all grown up now and I'll never forget where I got my start as a gamer.  My mother's influence in my gaming origins will never be forgotten.  Legend of Zelda had such an impact on my life and my memories of my mother that I had forever etched the tribute of the game that first tied me to gaming on my right forearm.

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In closing, I had the most awesome mom ever. <3

Comments

[Jules]

I think there is something in my eye.

[Tia Marie]

I've been meaning to write this post for a while, but haven't been able to without being teary eyed. I figured the hell with it, that I'd just share :)

[Sjsharktank]

I can imagine how difficult it must have been for you to write this. The bonding of you and your mom over gaming is truly unique. Thanks for sharing these stories and memories!

[Tia Marie]

Thank you for reading. I'm not a very religious person, so my best tribute to my mom is to immortalize the awesome things that she did and praise the things that I believe made me a fun person.

Also, I heavily believe that gaming doesn't ruin kids. Leaving a kid alone with a video game does. My mom was very involved in my gaming life. If there was a game to play that I liked, she played it with me no matter how hard it was for her to learn.

When I taught her "Magic: The Gathering" She used to joke that I was cheating every time I'd play a counter spell.