My Experience with Video Games

I consider myself a gamer. One of the earliest memories I had was playing Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire on the Gameboy Advance while my parents were doing groceries.

During my grade school years, I have played a lot of Flash games on Facebook and other websites. I distinctly remember an Avatar The Last Airbender game available on Nickelodeon's website. I tried finding it on the Internet Archive but I can't. All in all, good memories.

During my high school years, I decided to try "serious gaming" which basically meant FPS games and MMOs. I did not like it. While some FPS games were fun (Far Cry and Grand Theft Auto was great), I was more interested in the stories and most of the time, I just used cheats to progress. I really wasn't interested in the gameplay and I found myself wondering if I was actually a gamer since my preferred games were Civilization, Sims, Minecraft, and Stardew Valley.

One note: I did get into an MMO game - it's called Mobile Legends. But this was more because my friends played it. I did play it in my free time but as soon as I discovered I was getting sucked, I stopped.

Also, one thing I don't like about FPS and MMOs is the fact that they are multiplayer-based most of the time. I do NOT like multiplayer-based games. Co-op games like Mario are fine because I choose who I play against/with. But anything like DOTA or League of Legends is just toxic.

Not the game itself mind you - that one is fine and actually fun. It's the people. These games really attract the stereotypical gamer everyone thinks of.

The ones that rage quit because you accidentally stole their buff. The ones that will directly kill their character and blame you as the support for not healing them. The ones that refuse to strategize in defeating the enemy. The ones that gang up on you if you chose the character they usually use.

I left the genres really because of the community. It's also why I didn't try Fortnite, Among Us, and other popular games - simply because the community is mostly horrible.

Also, the fact that lag really infuriates me is never going to stop. And the lag in my area is usually >200 ms. So I decided to play single player games instead.

One thing I did struggle with is video game addiction for a bit. Once I got sucked into a story (not that hard to do), I intended to finish it as quickly as possible - which led to me sometimes doing stupid behavior.

Nothing like skipping class - but things like staying up late just to play more or not going out with friends because I wanted to play rather than to socialize. The latter isn't bad per se - but I really want to go out with them. I stopped because I'll be "behind" on the story (as if there's a timeline to finishing it).

And once I finished the story - I felt like something was missing. The side quests weren't part of the story so I didn't feel motivated to do them. I wasn't playing the game to enjoy - it felt more like an escape.

Thus, I had to stop for a bit after noticing that. While I still enjoy storylines of different games (Luigi's Mansion 3 is great - even if the controls are frustrating), I now prefer those that do not really have one. Games like Civilization, Minecraft, Stardew Valley, and Cities Skylines.

I also enjoy co-op games more since I find it a way to bond with people. I really prefer playing with other people which is why I love the Switch so much.

Overall, I think gaming as entertainment is incredibly good but there are many aspects that someone should really take care of. For example, it's really a good idea to avoid toxic communities and also a good idea to manage time. I've seen people disregard their responsibilities because they need to play a game - this is unhealthy and shouldn't be tolerated. Gaming should really be entertainment rather than an addiction.