There is no place on a resume for XBox Achievements
When I was a child I played far too much videogames. I was playing Populas on my computer when all my friends were running around playing with sticks (I was a young kid at the time). It was a great escape since I moved to a neighborhood which I didn’t get along with most of those kids. I had a Commodore 64 when I was born, a Nintendo, an Atari, I actually was the first person I knew to ever own a Super-Nintendo. I loved my Super Nintendo and had more games than anyone else, with more adventures than I can remember.
I remember there being a summer break from school that I didn’t leave my house and I played Might and Magic 3 the entire summer. The entire summer when kids where camping and playing outsides I sat in a dimly lit room leveling up characters. When I grew up I became more and more distant from gaming. I found gaming itself being something that was a waste of time that you’d work towards achievements that didn’t mean anything. I wished I could go back and enjoy those summer days instead of playing through the same old story again and again.
By my early teens I was very anti-videogames. I didn’t spend any time playing and if anyone talked about them I would rebuttal how they were a waste of time (never giving them a chance). Last year I had a roommate who kept offering to introduce me to multiplayer games and wanted to play LAN games of Starcraft – I would always refuse. Until one point my brother came back from Seattle with and I threw him a video-game party (he was really into video games and I was really into parties). I played Castle Crashers and experienced something I didn’t experience in a long time, comradery from playing a game together.
I started to notice that games could be used for something more, to build friendships. I felt that every time you play a game with someone you go on an adventure with someone. You also start to build a friendship on something you have in common, the love for the game.
Campus Gamers has been a difficult venture because I am now promoting something I hated earlier in my life. I realize that campus gaming life is something that can make people who have difficulty socializing find new friends. With our events we are socializing gamers and help building the community. From ground up Campus Gamers is trying to make friends, and it is good to see that video games can do that.
