Personal Entry 3 - A Gamer At Heart

If someone asked me: "What defines a gamer?", I would say "Anyone that plays video games honestly". But then there's a gamer at heart. And to me that means someone who devotes a large portion of their life to gaming, almost an unhealthy amount to the point where they get criticized. You know the type of person I'm talking about. Yeah. That's me. While I don't get criticized as much as I deserve to be, gaming is an integral part of my life and again was influenced from the actions of my father.

Gaming defines me as a person all around. I've met friends from all around the world who I still speak to on a day to day basis. Gaming provides one of the best social networking platforms for people with similar interests to meet up an hang out. Just recently, I met a new employee at my job who I quickly found out was also a gamer. From there, we began playing online and then he introduced me to his old childhood friend who he's known all his life. Now with one of my friends included, we have a whole group of awesome guys that I can call my best friends. Just to take a step back, gaming was also how I fell in love with the world of Tolkien. I remember watching an animated VCR tape of the Hobbit as a child, and then later watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but not really understanding much about the story. Then a few years later, the MMO, Lord of The Rings Online (LotRo) came out and I was hooked. It started out as a small hobby, and I didn't really understand how to play MMO's.

My dad was highly invested in the game and made friends with a couple of people down south, one of which was a doctor. It always surprised me looking back at it that a doctor had time to play an MMO. I eventually learned how the mechanics of the game worked and played every day after I got home from school, and for hours on end on weekends. The game was awesome because it allowed you to immerse yourself in the world of Tolkien and re-live and

reenact the experiences of some of the characters Tolkien made. Apart from being mesmerized by the violence because I was a kid, I also found the story really interesting. From then fourth, I went on to game more and more and practically made it part of my every day life. Currently I'm playing console games on my new PS4, but I'm a computer gamer at heart. I'm into World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Counter Strike, Dota 2, Borderlands, you get the point. I'm into pretty much every genre of game as long as is captivates me from the start or has a nice end-game goal to work towards. I can't see myself as the person I am today if it wasn't for the influence and great impact gaming has had on me as a character.