But First, Introductions

My first thought was to jump right into games.  Specifically video games.

But first, introductions.

My name's Jack, JWfW, JDub or Jaconian.  All depending where I am on the internet.

I've been playing video games since the ripe young age of I don't remember when.  My first memory of playing video games of any kind was either on Dr. Potts' Atari 2600 or on the Intellivision down in Lake Arrowhead at a house my grandparent's rented for the first half of my life.  The first time I played on a Nintendo Entertainment System was probably sometime around 1986 or 1987 at a neighbors house up the street.  The following Christmas, my sisters and I received the "deluxe" packaging NES that came with the Power Pad (because when my Mom sent my Dad out to buy it, he naturally bought the biggest available version; a bit ironic since my Dad doesn't play video games on any level).

So my childhood and teenage years was during the height of the Console Wars of which I was on the side of Nintendo.  NES, SNES, Gameboy (original and Play It Loud series), Gameboy Advance, N64, Gamecube, DS lite.  All Nintendo.  I did buy a PS2 from Dr. Potts after he won it in one of those Coke bottle cap contests and I did buy a PSP from my friend Chreekat (since we're using aliases here) before he moved out to go adventuring.  These I bought so I could play Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, on their respective systems.  I have played some PC games, but until recently as 2003, I never owned what one might call a "gaming computer," and even then, the computer I had still wasn't very powerful (80 gig hard drive, Pentium III processor, 256 Mb or RAM).

I tend to play mostly role-playing games although I do also love and play other types as well.  The one big exception is rhythm and music games.  Sure I've played Guitar Hero and Rock Band and I've even gotten on a DDR pad a couple of times, but they're just not my pint of beer.  There's a wall that I definitely hit right after the "Easy" stage that I can't get past without hours of practicing, which doesn't happen since I don't own any of the games.  Figures.

Now to close with a short story.  In elementary school, our school decided to have a dance.  It was the first dance the school had ever had (that's what we were told, maybe they lied) and it was going to be on Valentines Day.  A lot of kids went either because they wanted to go to a dance before going to Jr. High, or because of the novelty of our school having a dance.  I on the other had was very not enthused about the prospect of a dance.  Plus I had recently rented Captain Skyhawk for the NES and was most likely trying to get passed the second stage.  A number of my friends had asked if I was going to go and felt bad/guilty that I didn't want to go because I'd rather sit at home and play a video game.  Whatever, I'm all the better because of it.  And I never beat the game either.

~Jack/JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Copying People More Famous Than I.