Playing Games

Hey, Dave McGee, here. I’ve been wanting to do reviews of games for a long time, now, and RJ’s been kind enough to give me some space to do it. I’m sure nothing could possibly go wrong with this.

A little about myself, first. I’m over the hill, married, have a couple offspring, and have been playing games for as long as I can remember – all kinds of games; video games, board games, role-playing games, miniatures, cards, drinking, athletic – you name it, I’ve played it, or some form of it.

I think I started playing games with Monopoly. My folks used to play it, and I might have been four when I first played it. From there, I played all the popular ones: Checkers, Chess, Trouble, Parcheesi, Life, Clue, Sorry!, etc.

One morning, I found Tank Battle under the Christmas tree – and then it started. I loved any kind of game that had to do with war and battle. I had more plastic army men than would fit in a Hefty bag. As far as I was concerned, nothing could be better.

I was wrong; while on vacation at Niagara Falls, we sat down at a table in our hotel lobby. It had a television screen set into the top. Pong. Several dollars worth of quarters later, and Dad bought us a Telstar for Christmas. We played the bejesus out of Pong, Tennis, and Squash. Video games were my new obsession.

After Star Wars came out (yeah, the original – I’m that old), video games got cooler. Space Wars, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Pac-Man, Defender – all those ate my hard-earned paper route money (anybody even remember the Bulletin?). My father was concerned that I was blowing all my money at the arcade; so much so that he bought me an Atari (the 2600, baby). Unfortunately, that only fed the addiction. It provided a fall-back once I ran out of cash for the week.

At around age 14, my buddy introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons, by TSR. Then the quarters went to the latest module, rulebook, dice, miniatures, edition and gallons of soda and bags of snacks. We wasted many hours and lots of money that could have, otherwise, been spent dating girls on Friday and Saturday nights. We were sick, but we succumbed to the vice like lambs to the slaughter.

After graduating high school, I did a stint in the United States Air Force.  I found many like-minded folks, and we played games like Car Wars, Axis & Allies, Warhammer 40,000, Aftermath!, Laser Tag, Paint Ball, and, of course, Air War.  At least, this time, I managed to get some dating in there.

When I left the Air Force, I came back to the Philly area, tried to re-join the group, but many of the group had moved and moved on.  I needed a new group of folks with which to play games.  I bought a Sega Genesis, and got lost in all the cool new graphics and gameplay.  I got the CD-ROM attachment.  I got the cable-TV attachment, through which you could download and play games every month!  HEAVEN!  I bought a computer, and discovered computer gaming.  Along with the really cool games coming out at that time (Dune, Civililzation, Strip Poker, Command & Conquer, Total Annihilation, all the Madden titles), the internet only added to the experience.  But, I missed the group setting.

I found my good buddy, Jeff Dodge, on the internet.  We had a common interest in games, and we found others of the same ilk.  Now we have a regular group of gamers numbering close to twenty, and game three, four, five times a month (sometimes more).  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been pwned, and I’m no 1337, but I love playing games.  It’s fun.  It’s a great hobby.  It is one of my most fervent wishes that gaming becomes as popular in this country as it is in other parts of the world, like Europe.  I hope to pass on the love to my kids (my wife just won’t buy into it).  I don’t ever see myself stopping, and will play just about anything these days.  I have a large library, almost an entire lifetime of experiences and a desire to share my opinions – I love the internet.

Talk to you, soon.