Genesis.

It all started about 20 years ago...

Picture this, if you will: a dark-haired little boy, maybe five years of age. He's sitting on the living room floor, playing around with some arbitrary toys. It's the 25th of December. This boy's parents try very hard to give this boy a happy life but things are not easy. This year, these particular parents have acquired a Nintendo Entertainment System for their son. They expect the boy to enjoy this fancy new toy, and does he ever deserve it!

There's one problem, however: their son isn't paying any attention to the newly-opened gift! It would appear he has no idea what "Nintendo" even is. Not to be deterred, the parents connect all the components and set up a game of Super Mario Bros. for their boy. Upon dragging him away from a cardboard box or whatever random thing he was playing with, the young boy was placed in front of the television.

Unfortunately he was not having much luck understanding the control of this so-called "video game." There was a monster halting his onscreen character's progress, and then there were giant pipes to contend with! But wait, this kid's a quick learner, and within a short time, he had reached the goal of this Mario character's World 1-1. The boy didn't stop playing this Nintendo machine for quite some time, much to the delight chagrin (and possible regret) of his parents.

Then some shit happened...

Aaaaannnnd here we are! About ten game consoles, countless hours with a controller in my hand, and 20 years later. It's 2009, where the NES is essentially considered "vintage," its predecessors "antiques!" In case you hadn't guessed, that little boy was, in fact, yours truly. I didn't know what I was doing at first, but I became a pretty serious gamer. I was never wealthy as a kid, but I would play the shit outta the games I did have. When I started working, far too much of my savings was spent (read: blown) on videogames. Do I regret this? No. Would I spent all that money and all those hours the same way if I could do it all again knowing what I know now? Maybe, maybe not. But then, I see my whole life that way.

I've moved 23 times so far, but I currently live in Minnesota, having returned to the mainland from Hawaii most recently. I bartend (as well as some side projects) for a living. I started college to be something 'fancy' or 'upper-class' like a doctor or lawyer, but I found myself bored. Easily. This coupled with some near-death experiences (literally) have changed my outlook. Thus, I for the most part do what the hell I want when I want to do it. I do a job where I can use the gift of gab to enjoy going to work. I have always been one to work hard, play hard, and live as honest a life as I can manage. I'm definitely in the "nice guys finish last" category. But that's alright.

If you're still reading this, chances are you're either a friend of mine already who is humoring me or you're a real trooper. I can obviously type up a storm, and I'm long-winded as all get-out. In an attempt to keep myself from writing my auto-biography (man-oh-man, the stories... maybe a good idea?), I shall try to outline a few details of who I am as a gamer.

I have owned most of the major consoles over the years, but most of my gaming is done on the Xbox 360 these days. My gamertag is Ethical Sin, and I'm a bit of an achievement whore. It stems from when I was a kid and my brother and I used to set goals for ourselves in the games we owned. After we beat the game once, we'd try to do it again without dying, or without upgrading anything, or whatever the case was at the time. Achievements in Xbox games have essentially brought those concepts (in some games, at least) back to the forefront.

I like most, if not all, genres of videogames but I have a soft spot for a good RPG. The Final Fantasy series and various others have brought me many sleepless nights. I played the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI for quite some time. The account is open to this day, technically, but I hardly ever log into it. I have a FFXI-related blog located here: Clicky! Can't say I'm a spectacularly-skilled gamer anymore (I used to have a history of completing every game I played), but I try. I don't do a lot of versus-type multiplayer, but I do love co-op gameplay. Gears of War was the first multiplayer in quite some time that I actually got into heavily. When I quit playing Gears, I was ranked in the 70,xxx range out of over 1,500,000 ranked "Warzone" mode players. Gears of War 2 is now out and I played it a bit but moreso for the new Horde cooperative mode.

I thoroughly enjoy the Rock Band / Guitar Hero games. I'm Hard to Expert level on Guitar and Bass, Medium-ish on Vocals and Drums. I really wish I was a pro at these music games because I love the concept and I am near-obsessed with music in general. As of this writing, I have Valve's Left 4 Dead booted up in front of me. I love zombie games like Resident Evil and in my opinion, L4D is what RE: Outbreak should have been when Capcom released that piece o' junk.

I shall leave it at that. If I remember to do so and if time permits (and I suppose, if it seems people actually read and/or care about this blog) I will try and update this journal with various gaming and not-so-gaming exploits. PM or comment or whatever 2O2P blogs allow if you wish! Until next time~