The founder of the website Hot Blooded Gaming has authored an extraordinarily introspective—and sometimes painful—piece on how videogames have always been there for him, through just about every tough moment he’s experienced in his life.
Calling games his “guardian angel,” author Kreyg details his love affair with games, which kicked off when he was only four years old and his family acquired a “broken” NES. By the time he began attending school, Keryg was not popular because he "was the fat kid,” but even then, videogames were there for him:
Video games helped make not having friends at the young age more bearable. It was how I got to have fun as a kid. While people were at birthday parties I wasn’t invited to, I was playing games that would have made a nice gift. Their loss, right?
Kreyg did eventually make some friends in high school; friends who shared a common love of games:
While the majority of the school was out partying and running from real cops, we were trying to not get busted in GTA and lose our turn to play. Ironic how we were playing GTA and staying out of trouble while some of our fellow classmates were the ones out getting in real trouble. As high school progressed, our weekend video game meet-ups were something we looked forward to.
Kreyg offers up many more tales (definitely read his full account here) before offering:
Throughout my life, I’ve been put in many tough situations. Through them all I’ve had one thing constantly there – video games. Video games made the bad times good, and the good times even better. Without video games, I feel many parts of my life, especially my childhood would have been a lot harder for me to get through.
Whether it be by coincidence or design, for the last 20 years of my life, video games have been my guardian angel.
Comments
Re: How Games Assisted One Person Through Life
I can feel his hurt, I was the same, but I buried myself in my studies & homework & eating. Food is comfort. His comfort is games. Everyone has a comfort they go to. No one is perfect.
"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry
Re: How Games Assisted One Person Through Life
I know this is supposed to be somehow touching or something, but am I the only one who thinks this guy is a fat loser with no marketable skills and the inablility to even provide himself with a basic standard of living?
Here is a kid who spent so much time playing games to escape his obviously screwed up family life that he ended up working for minimum wage at the local game store.
His sister turned to drugs/alcohol, he turned to games. I really don't think the behaviour he outlined in his essay is healthy. It does not deserve our applause.
I had a very similar home life, domestic violence, etc, and I briefly turned to drugs and alcohol, dropped out of university and went to live at home again. I got clean though and I now support myself with a good IT job.
Sounds like he is the perfect case for video game addiction.
Re: How Games Assisted One Person Through Life
This isn’t just his story but the story of plenty of other Youth out there or Adults now. We were brought up with no skills, just told to go to school only thing we had was video games. I myself share a similar story. Except I started training in Martial Arts for years and years but its something I had started during one of the last White Flights in Chicago.
My family stayed, all my friends left. Within a year my area was a literal war zone houses that were kept up were boarded up. The Principle forming the white people who stayed if a black male attacks you, you’re not allowed to fight back or you will be suspended and possible sued for racial discrimination and “That’s the way it is now” pretty much hinting to talk to your parents to move.
To have all you’re friends leave and then those who came in referred to you and tried to attack you because you’re the “white devil” and you’re not allowed to do anything back or Da Community will picket you. Trust me, single mothers on welfare who have nothing better to do getting free rent of subsidized rent have nothing better to do but whine and complain.
And most people wonder why I am a conservative and against the Liberal Progressive Agenda. You live in a City where your screwed for most of you’re life you’re going to go against it.
If you read this man’s story his homelessness is sad a story as well. I feel worse for his friends who went to college and will come home to find there College Experience a waist which will either cause them to be overqualified or given pay that won’t really help pay back there student loans.
School sucked for me only because I was the White Kid in a now black area which means anything I do or say is wrong. By the time I went to high school in the suburbs between Video Games, Martial Arts and my current area that’s all I knew. Now all of a sudden I discover people still listened to Rock, and wore tight jeans lol When people were running around yelling Ram Stern and Corn and Blink 189 I didn’t know wtf they were talking about, who was Ram Stern?
Video Games have always been there for when I needed them, and they have always helped me keep myself neutral in a City and a Country that sees me as a 3rd Class Citizen. I am White, I am a Male and I am not a Baby Boomer I do not get any special treatment. I do not get into places colleges, or get a job based on my race. I am not a baby boomer so I am experienced to take a very low paying job and be highly qualified but have no way of attaining that because entry level jobs are nill out there. Unlike a Baby Boomer who really doesn’t even need a High School Education they expect me to have an education but when I do I am expected to take a pay that is beneath what my parents and other people around my age parents told me I would get when I applied to those student loans and college would open the door and blah blah blah
Re: How Games Assisted One Person Through Life
Honestly... what do you expect? A Baby Boomer is going to be older than you and have more job experience (I hope, for their sake), so you having a degree is pointless if you don't have as much experience as them. In my field, what counts is the quality of your work and how fast it can be done. A degree means nothing if you can't do better than the guy who was self taught. The degree is only there to help you when you're tied with someone else who doesn't have one for an entry level position. That's really it. It's a stepping stone, but that's it. Some people have this crazy notion that just getting a degree enititles you to a job, but it doesn't. It's the work you put behind that degree that matters.
Employers are also going to have a bias. They trust older people more than they do younger people. It's unfair, but true, and something you just have to get over.
If you can't sell yourself to the employer, you're screwed over that way, too. If Bob has worse work than I do, but I come off as a total asshat, the company is going to pick Bob over me. Bob can learn to do better work much faster than I can aknowledge and change my asshattery.
As to race--if you honestly think that employers are turning you down simply because you're white, it's still racism, and they can get in trouble. Have you tried legal action? Really though, this is hard to prove unless you have something definitive other than "I never get hired anywhere, but this non-white person always does."
------- http://www.whatnottodo.tk
Re: How Games Assisted One Person Through Life
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: How Games Assisted One Person Through Life
Throughout my life, I’ve been put in many tough situations. Through them all I’ve had one thing constantly there – Alcohol. Alcohol made the bad times good, and the good times even better.
Throughout my life, I’ve been put in many tough situations. Through them all I’ve had one thing constantly there – Christ. Christ made the bad times good, and the good times even better.
Throughout my life, I’ve been put in many tough situations. Through them all I’ve had one thing constantly there – Family. Family made the bad times good, and the good times even better.
Sorry, i'm just not buying this. Sounds way to much like escapism, which we are already accused of way too much. The third one isn't said nearly enough.
(sorry about the font size and stuff, i cant seem to get the editor to stop it.
Re: How Games Assisted One Person Through Life
Haha! Exactly the point I was going to make, Sean. This text is a demonstration of why some people still cringe at the mere reference to gaming; it is far from a positive story. Substitute the gaming in it for any other kind of escape and you've got yourself an AA introduction speech.
This is not why gaming is cool. It is the exact opposite.
Re: How Games Assisted One Person Through Life
Alcohol is really only enjoyable as a social activity. You can drink alone but it is rarely enjoyable if you're dealing with issues that are bothering you and causing depression. Remember alcohol is a depressant.
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Not everyone believes that religion is the answer to all of life's problems. It might not be politically correct to say so but never worked for me and I feel it's such a cop-out. They say believe and things will get better. If they don't then you just wait longer but once things finally go your way, "Praise Jesus for he has saved me."
Escapism (noun): habitual diversion of the mind to purely imaginative activity or entertainment as an escape from reality or routine. (Sounds like religion to me)
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Not everyone has a good solid family to rely on. I'm sure you'd like to believe that everyone parents love each other and care deeply for their children but it's not true. Some do, yes, but not all. Take a look at the divorce rate in America and you'll see how much family is regarded in the states.
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We all have problems and issues in life. Alcohol, religion, family, and games are coping mechanisms people use to relieve stress. You don't need to trash this guy because his happens to be one that is unfairly categorized as being for little kids. Anything we do in life that is not directly related to the "here-and-now" moment of life is escapism. We all do it.
Get off your high horse!
Re: How Games Assisted One Person Through Life
Sickbags on standby.
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.