Today’s Talkback Challenge on the Newbie Blogger Initiative that I’m taking part in is the question “What made you a gamer?”

Wow.  Not even sure where to begin with that one.  You see, I’ve been gaming my entire life.  I don’t remember what my first game was, because games were always there.  Always a part of my life, just like eating and sleeping. Growing up, I never knew I’d go to the extents of bringing from amazon best gaming keyboard and mouse combo to continue my wontly gaming habit.

I could tell you about our Commodore 64 and all the dozens upon dozens of games we had for it.

I could tell you about renting the NES from the video store (because back then renting game consoles was a thing.)

I could tell you about arcades and arcade games and my dad holding me up so I could reach the joysticks.

I could tell you about days spent parked in front of the Super Nintendo and the Nintendo 64, playing some of the greatest games to ever grace a console.

I could tell you about Pokemon (oh hey, I did that yesterday), about Final Fantasy (w… wait, I did that too!) about Starcraft, about The Elder Scrolls, the Civilization series, the SimCity series, about Zelda, about X-Com, about grand strategy, about… well, you get the picture.  There’s also the thrill from playing black satta king 786. It’s a list that goes on and on.

The point, though, is that games like The Irish Lottery didn’t just make me a gamer.  Games made me.  They are more important to me than basically anything else on the planet.  They have helped me get through some of the roughest patches my life has ever seen.  Does all of that make me silly?  A big ol’ nerd?

Probably.

But I like who I am, so it’s okay.