It was a Sonix/Soundic home video game system.This simplistic console gave hours of fun with the standard variation of Pong (Hockey/Football, Squash/Handball, Tennis/Table Tennis) but also had an amazing shooting game using an excellent pistol/rifle light gun, this is probably why I have an unhealthy enjoyment with target shooting. ;)
This is my first memory of gaming. Its a humble beginning to an amazing world of gaming in the years to come. Others had the ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64 or moving forward to the NES and Sega systems. These humble beginnings enable the gamer to appreciate any new and rule challenging game designs, the ones that push the boundaries and not necessarily the graphical boundaries (which is unfortunately the main focus in this day and age). I did have a SNES, mainly for SF2, Starfox and a MechWarrior game. I missed out on the PS1 until its last year where I became addicted to MGS, a PS2, Xbox moving up to the present day. A Wii (which has now been sold), a PS3 (hardly used for gaming I'm afraid) and the main machine I use, the Xbox 360. I did dabble over the years with some PC games, mainly Star Wars ones as i could never get on with FPS mouse control, a joystick was my main controller of choice. In all honesty, I believe I'm a well rounded individual in regards to gaming, I have played all types of games over the years and I pride myself in not going always with the hype, but with my own likes and dislikes.
These unpretentious beginnings are something that the current generations of gamers do not have. This humble entrance into the gaming past-time has gone and with that we have the birth of a gamer we could do without. The Gaming Chav.
Now I am not a person to ridicule or attack someone for their likes and dislikes. I like to engage the person in a conversation, gather the particular reasons for their opinions and see if I can change their mind or even accept that the person has, in fact, changed mine. I have conversations like this with many of my online friends over xbox live, in particular, Kraven, Tiq and Peace. In these discussions we have all our own likes and dislikes, but do not force them upon others. Something is in common between us all, we were born before or during the 1980's. Now I'm not being Ageist but it seems that any gamer under the age of 20 is more likely to be a member of the Gaming Chavs.
Now the Gaming Chavs are individuals who act more like the Borg. Hear me out. The GC's, as I will call them, all have the same opinions but also split in different directions of fanboydome for games consoles. For example (delete as appropriate):
Halo RULZ it is the best thing EVA
GOW is better than GOW2
PS3 sux ass/rulz
Xbox sux ass/rulz
Wii sux ass/rulz
But they all have the same attitude:
YOU ARE WRONG AND THEY ARE ALWAYS RIGHT
And they will endeavour to change your mind with the insesent "your wrong dude like so wrong" or "halo rulz fullstop!"
Resistance, as they say, is futile. Well in the GC's eyes anyway.
I have PREFERENCES, but I will never be so immature as to be classed as a GC. These individuals may be die-hard fans, but they have no real love or passion for gaming, only the latest fad or overly hyped poor quality game. Having been brought up with the games that are not flashy, but were challenging and interesting have enabled the old school gamers to develop well rounded opinions that have value, not one dimensional arguments from the GC's.
I am really, really grateful of M$ as the new NXE dashboard update enables party chat. Now I don't have to listen to the whining teens moan about how Epic failed with GOW2 or how Halo is the most amazing thing to grace a console. This gives a really bad name to the gaming community, because in any social group it is always the minority that cause the group to have a bad name. We, as mature, well informed and passionate gamers really need to make our cause known. I really hope this doesn't get any worse, as not many people are aware of how close and mature this community of gamers can be.
Truthfully, I can't see it getting any better, what with the current opinion of American gamers getting ever lower (I have a few good American friends online, but it seems that most of who you come across are GC's) and a new breed of British ignorant fools who seem to be getting more and more present over xbox live.
I have hopes, small hopes, but hopes that this terrible situation can be recovered.
We as gamers do need to stand together and try and resolve this now!
Peace out people.
