Level 1 - Prologue

*1st Post!
Who cares?*

   Before I can start having fun, I must inform you of the events that led up to the creation of this blog. I used to play video games constantly. Birthday parties were just excuses to have more that one friend over to play Smash Bros. and Goldeneye. My love of video games began when I was really young, less than five in fact. My babysitter's children all played Nintendo (NES) and even suffered through teaching me how to play. That year for Christmas my Dad bought one for me and while he read the instructions, I plugged it in. (Perhaps not the best parental supervision) My first game was the "Super Mario Bros. / Duckhunt / Track and Field" combo cartridge. Nintendo and I had great times with all of its systems, except the Super Nintendo. (Thank God for ROMs)
   Fast Forward to Middle School- My brother and I did chores for a whole year to save up for a N64. It came with "Mario 64" and we bought "Ocarina of Time with it". Chris A. introduced me to "Monster Rancher 2" and the Playstation. Then three of my friends: Garrett, Tom, and Matt got me hooked on Blizzard games. (I actually had played "Gobliiins" for DOS) Thus began my love for Starcraft, Diablo, and eventually Warcraft. I resisted the "World of Warcraft" craze until I was in college.

   I became addicted. Not destroy my life and ruin my relationship addicted (some of my best times were playing with my fiance'), but bad enough that it interrupted my homework and sleeping schedule. Most of the subscribers were friendly, but there was such animosity sometimes that could rival the fight for the Holy Land. Then there was the endless hours waiting for groups and guilds were just ridiculous. You either had to conform to a practice schedule or you belonged to a guild where no one could be bothered to help you. The final straw was when I walked into Outland, at level 60, for the first time. 2 FPS! WTF?!?! Numerous support calls and talking to game masters led to naught. Then my video card crashed. I was so fracking pissed. There went a $1,000 laptop and I didn't even get to use my "Wrath of the Lich King" expansion. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade that time in for anything in the world. It was fun while it lasted. I have been clean for two years now and the withdrawal symptoms are almost gone. (Totally serious)
   Then I started playing "League of Legends," another great online game and it was free! My fiance's laptop couldn't support it very well, so I installed it on my mom's home computer. The first couple months were extremely fun and just as addicting for me as WoW. When you get to level 20 (out of 30) people start getting way too serious. They expect you to never die and to perform roles that the characters were not built for. (My tank should not be DPSing no matter how big the teams are!) Then there were people who just paid for all of their stuff and assumed everyone else had money to waste. Since matchmaking tried to make teams as even as possible you could be pwning one game then get brutally eradicated the next, and it was always someones fault. (Because no one could ever be better than anyone else...)
   After one rough night of getting bent over my keyboard a thought occurred to me. I'm not happy playing games. Why? Because, people are pissing me off and I never have a good enough computer for these games. Solution: Go back to my roots and play console games. Confession #1: I've probably only completed about 25% of the games I own. That's bad. I'm actually kind of ashamed of that one. It might even be lower. This got me thinking. If I start playing console games again I can save and quit whenever I have something important to do. (Or even Pause! Oh, I missed Pause) No one can tell me that my Mage has to cast fire spells. I don't have to wait around for groups, games, or bonuses. Then I had the urge to create this site, for my own enjoyment and to reminisce and discuss console games with others. This is about taking back my favorite hobby from the PC and putting back into my hands.
   Note: Passwords are just Tags for my posts. This way people can find their favorite games or systems in upcoming posts. The Reaction buttons should be used as follows: "1-Up" - Click when you like the post you are reading. "Game Over" - Click when you dislike the post you are reading. "Continue" - Click when you want me to expand on something. Make sure you leave lots of comments to help me improve the site and encourage discussion. Remember the whole point is to have fun. If you want to be a contributor and join the Reformation email me or find me on facebook.