Games

Games. I am addicted to them.  Why?  I don't know.  I realize that I have lots of real-life responsibilities: my job, kids, housework, school, and most importantly, quality time with my hubby.  Yes, I regard that last as a responsibility.  I believe that you have to work to make a relationship last and stay strong, and that requires actual time spent together alone.  I usually rate working on my marriage as one of my top priorities- it is that important to me.

So, anyway, games.  I will start at the beginning: I was raised with a gaming system always present in the house, whether it was the Atari, Nintendo, Gameboy, computer, or whatever else.  From a young age, I played on my dad's Atari and my little brother's Nintendo.  I didn't play as much as my brother because, let's face it, I was a huge bookworm.  I enjoyed watching my brother play in the Nintendo, and we would spend hours with him playing and me writing down codes for him.  The main reason he played more was that I got frustrated when I couldn't pass a level, but he just persevered until he made it.  I will say this for my brother: he was, and is, a very determined person.
I continued watching him play games on the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, and Xbox, and sometimes participating (especially on the fighting games), right up until I moved out of the house. 

When I was 10 (1993, before the Internet), my dad got our first family computer.  There I found my favorite game-playing format. I loved playing computer games, and I would stay glued to the computer as long as my family would let me.  I played the traditional games like Minesweeper and Solitaire, but I also played Warcraft 1, 2, and 3, Castle of the Winds, Wordzap, Simlife, Simcity, Simtower, and many others. When the Internet arrived at our house, that opened up a whole new world for me.  I played free online games in addition to the above computer games. 

When I was about 23, I discovered the free online game Kingdoms of Loathing, and that became my main game for the next 5 or so years.  When I joined Myspace at age 24, I mostly used it to play games.  When I joined Facebook a couple years later, I used it to play games.  Now I have a Windows phone, Samsung tablet, and a laptop computer- all of which I use to play games.  Right now my favorites are Wordament and Monster Rancher.

Now don't get me wrong- I don't use all those devices exclusively to play games.  I maintain contact with old friends and family through Facebook, I check my email, I pay bills online, I do schoolwork, I keep up with some news, I do research, I read other people's blogs, and I have my own blog.  But I can still spend hours playing online games if I'm left unchecked.