EPTby me.
ctrl+click me for background music
Imagine a world without games.
Can you?
I cant.
My whole life i have been playing something, and thats the way that should it be.
In the begining there was a game, it hasnt got any name, so it can be played without any words. Just feeling, touching, hearing, nothing else was needed. I dont have any memories about that, but i can imagine looking to my little nephew, he plays all day long, without worring about anything beside the dog eating his piece of bread. Now he is 2 yo, and he plays with my toys from 20 or maybe more years ago. And i can remember things about my childhood watching him and playing with him.
After that the social games begin. And those never stop at all, or at least those shouldnt stop. There was a game that i used to play in my early school days, we called it "el semaforo" and all the boys were running chasing the girls, When you catched one she said a color, green was a little kiss on the cheek, yellow one on the lips, and actually red was a french kiss. I was 6 years old at most
My first girlfriend was a girl on my class, i was 7, her name was alejandra. She was my girlfriend, and my friend sergio really liked her, so when she was playing with me she was my girl, when she was playing with sergio she was his, and when the three of us were playing together she was our other classmate´s, one called felipe. All that we knew about relationships was that we were playing.
Then i knew the money... and the games become very interesting... i have played with dices, cards, cigarretes, glasses, pillows, pieces of paper, and of course... machines.
But then i knew something a little bit more interesting than money... the crowd. I was a real addict of videogames since i was a little boy. I had an atari in the 80s, first pc maybe the 88, a commodore AT, then a XT, and i lived the revolution of the i386. After that i never actually own a console, and my mother´s old 386 saw how everybody had a pentium, even a pentium 2... so i was getting so behind... Arcades were the solution to my addictive behavior. And we were already on 90s, so The King of Fighters 95 was simply made for a 12 yo like myself. I was pretty good on it, so i usually beatten everybody who challenged me, and some people actually watched me playing. I thought i was in the best place to be until i met TEKKEN. The most of my friends played on arcades too, we were an urban tribe in the late 90s that spend some money in coins to play great games, share strategys, start using internet to connect with other people in the world about that game that we just love, Tekken Tag Tournament. And i was pretty good, too. Not the best, but good enough to have my name on the record list of every tekken machine that i used to play. In some places, like in the machine near my house, my name was actually on the number one. In others, like one in the center of the city was last. Around those years (99, 00) i knew starcraft, and played some with my classmates, but i didnt realise it was a social thing until one or two years ago.
Later i entered to drama school. I love playing theather, and art. Actually, in german, english and french they use the same word for jugar and actuar (spanish). It is the most social game ever to me, but we were actually using our bodies to play. I really missed machines. To me playing on a machine is in fact a social thing. Isnt better nor worse, just different. So, i move out to other city due to study subjects, to Valparaiso, where i lived 4 years. In the beggining i didnt knew anyone, just my classmates first, the people who i was living with then, and they all were artist, or art students, and anyone of them understood that playing on a machine was a social thing. And there was an arcade paradise with his very own son of god, tekken tag tournament. And i started to spend my free time there, and soon i had a lot of new friends, some of my age, the most younger than me, some of them a little bit older, maybe like me with starcraft today. And we made tourneys, went to party friday night after playing, interact, had crowd watching our beautyfull matchs. Then i knew a girl acting, and i left machines again, acting was getting better and better. Got some roles in plays, didnt have time. Sometimes i went to de arcades, and played a game or two, but my level was low, my friends were a little bit distant, and there where so many new faces. I was retired.
When i was over valparaiso i reconected to some school friends from santiago, they were playing starcraft, so... i started to play starcraft again. Now i was older, and was actually rejoining old friends through a game. No just a game, the game. Im studding maths now, i just play with numbers and theorems, is pretty the same in my point of view than art.
I realize that no one in my family can understand an eSport arena, with a hughe crowd cheering one or another player, because they are older than me, they cant see the social content in "just a game"
Of course they dont understand whats the meaning in my life to actually be admin on a server.
And i dont know so much about korea... i remember the videos about tekken, and now i see the pros through internet, and i like it very much. So many people sharign ideas, using technology, and a really accesible one, because of the low requeriments that sc have.
Gamming is about relationships.
Thats exactly why i play 2 games of chess a day, try to play it on a board, at university, but when i cant i just do some training on internet.
