Aight people.. I have a confession to make...
I'm 36 years old... a family man.. a business professional ....
and yes... I play video games.
I got my start back when I was just an ankle biter and my Mom and Dad bought me Pong.. Oh yeah.. I said it.. PONG ! Then it was Atari... then Nintendo... then Sega... then PlayStation... and now I own an XBOX 360.
So far though.. you are probably thinking.. so what.. I've done all that too.. but I bet I can one up most of my readers. I don't stop at just console games. I am one of those guys that buys his home computers around the PC's gaming capabilities. If the PC can't run today's greatest FPS (First person shooters for you noobz) or if it can't handle WoW in window mode while I'm surfing porn... I mean YouTube in another window.. I don't want it.. !!
But thats not the point of my story.. I wanna tell you about something that's pretty damn cool that most people who don't understand PC gaming will probably never get... nor will they ever experience..
About 9 or 10 years ago.. my addiction to PC gaming began.. it began with a game called RavenShield. This was by far the most addictive video game I have ever played and it was the one that got me hooked.. most likely for life.
I joined a clan... A clan is an online gaming community where a bunch of people get together to form a virtual team to play against other clans in tournaments and leagues (held online) in their game of choice.
I could literally write pages about this whole thing.. but to spare you all I am going to just write about one small part that I think you will all appreciate. Over the years .. video games have taken a beating in some circles.. too violent ! too racy ! deters kids from exercise.. or whatever..
But one thing you won't see on the news or in the papers is that you can actually form friendships through video gaming.
10 years ago I was playing RavenShield online.. running around in a virtual world shooting guys (and girls) who were on an opposing team trying to eliminate my squad. I ended up on a squad with a guy who's online name was "Napalm". Napalm was a member of a clan called "DNS" or Dirt Nap Squad. He and I were chatting back and forth while playing and he asked me if I was in a clan.. I said No..
At that point I never thought I would join one.. I thought it was "weird".. but then I was thinking.. this kid is pretty cool and these guys all seem like they are having fun.. so when he asked me if I wanted to join.. I said.."what the hell"..
I ran out to the store that weekend and bought myself a headset with a mic on it.. and that night I was online, playing a video game, with a bunch of guys I would never meet face to face.. just shooting the shit.. and playing a video game. It was an instant bond that was soo frickin weird.. but strangely comforting.. It was like the first day at a new school.. you are all there for a common purpose and you don't know each other..but yet it's pretty easy to introduce yourself and start a conversation.. etc.
Well anyway.. here we are 10 years later and I am still in a clan.. Now it's "A4D".. Appetite for Destruction. My online handle is "Max".. the same as my pen name here on the Blog.
Max actually comes from "Maximus" the hero of the movie "Gladiator". I thought that was a cool name... bad ass.. no one would want to mess with "Max".. in real life.. or in a video game.
The cool part of all this is that over the past 10 years.. I am still gaming with some of the very same guys that I met on that first weekend.. Maro, Wallace, Bradawg, Prodigy, Reaper.. they were all guys from my first Clan experience.. I am still gaming with these guys today..10 years later.. we are in the new clan and I have made some new friends along the way .. Mofo, Onlyone, Merc, SixpointBuck, Decoy, Cop, Snags, Wolf, Rambone, ... I could go on...
Whats amazing to me.. and it dawned on me tonight.. is that some of these guys I have known for TEN YEARS.. I have only seen pictures of these guys.. I have NEVER met one of them in person.. I know their voices well.. and I feel like I know some of them better than I know people I work with.. weird huh..
During those 10 years I have moved from PA to CA and back again.. I have bought a house, sold a house and bought another.. I have changed jobs 3 times, had children and lost children, lost family members and welcomed new ones.. and many other life events.. and one thing that has remained constant .. is this group of guys (and a few gals)..
I have shared some pretty personal stuff with these guys... I have vented to them about stuff that bothers me.. I have listened to many of them vent as well.. offered advice to some and taken some as well..
This group of adult men, family men, guys with real lives and real jobs.. have offered their prayers when needed... laughed when appropriate and were just there to listen too. These are traits that are often not there with people we call friends and family in "real life"..
The picture you see above is my Avatar in the Clan forums.. The Avatar is supposed to be a picture that matches your online persona. Mine is special.. that picture is Max... the new Max.. Max from about 5 years ago when my online name changed forever..
You see.. when my son Max died.. 5 days after birth.. back in 2003, I wanted to have something to help me remember him .. So I shortened my online name from Maximus to Max. It wasn't complete so I asked my buddy Mofo (who is GREAT with photoshop) to create an Avatar for me. I left it up to him and his creativity.. I just asked him to help me out by giving me an Avatar that matched my name and the story behind it..
When he gave me this Avatar.. he said to me "This is what I thought your son would look like if he was gaming with us today"...
To this day.. that thought still makes me well up inside.. a guy who I have never met.. only talked to online over the past 10 years ... thought enough of me to put real thought and creativity into this little task.... and it's gonna stay with me forever..
Next time you hear a politician suggesting that Video games are messing up our youth.. think again...
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6 comments:
The friendships that develop online are almost surreal. I was one who used to ridicule people about the "friends" they spoke of making in a chat room.
I then begin to realize the "friends" I made gaming wasn't much different. I too am a gamer and can admit it proudly. I have made some good friends that know as much about me and even sometimes more than my other firends of over the years.
It is weird being a "grown man" and playing video games online or on a console. Sometimes when you talk to people at your job and they ask what did you do over the weekend and you break off with "after my wife and I went to dinner and watched a movie, I jumped online and scrimmed for a couple of hours while my wife caught up on her homework."
Then you explain the scrimming process. Some people think your a dork or some actually know because they are "closet" gamers.
Years ago my wife would get kind of mad when i would play. Get this, my mother - in - law, YES I said mother - in - law, asked her why she would get mad. She explained to her I was home every night, I wasn't at the local sports bar kicking drinks back with the guys and she always knew where I was at.
She even actually recently tried playing some games with me but she gets frustrated too easy. She is also pregnant with our third child that will more than likely be a gamer just like his 2 older sisters.
I R D 733tz0r parent.
Sup Maxy its Maro, and a more true statement has never been uttered" true friends most of which I have never met." We speak everyday about ouor youth "disconnecting" becasue of texting or ipods or many of the devices that technology has bestowed upon us. the one epci fail...love that phrase... that we fail to realize that these kids are escaping just like we did in role playing games or sports or whatever our medium of escape was at the time. Yes Im a 40 year old father of two, 2 cars and a mortgage, and a business owner and most of all AN AVID GAMER. Its mainly because of friends like Max that I come back toplay almost every night and have brought my 10 year old son and 7 year old daughter to the online community to play
oh and MAx GO COWBOYS
Great description of how it is with the good clans !!
Other than the truly touching symbolic tie to your son Max, I would say that choosing the "badass" handle Maximus did nothing for ya in the game though.
You still got pwned like a little girl Max or not. More like "Frag-Magnet Maximus" I think it was.
Bag'O'Doorknobs would probably agree with me on that.
All this said with much respect to ya bro. ;-)
Cheers,
-Animal (aka the camper)
I know its been 2 years since this was last posted but I'm gonna give it a shot and see if it gets a response xD, Where have you guys been??..I tried checking to see if your A4d site still existed but it seems to be down. Are you guys still gaming as another clan name or just got tired of gaming lol..Anyways This is Ex'A4D SaMurai...I'm sure you guys may remember me :p Schooling you guys Since Rogue Spear days!!
this is decoy .. omg maxy i forgot all about this .. you guys were a family to me and we all delt with alot together .. births .. deaths . and no matter what i could count on you guys to make a bad day a little better and make me laugh untill the wee hours of the mornings .... maxy . boner . maro . wolfy . snags . sami you know i miss you all soo much
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