Wednesday, November 14

Gaming and me

My life have always been revolving around video games.

It all started from primary school almost 20 years ago. My parents were poor folks working hard for a living, leaving me with the keys to take care of myself (which also explains why I have always been independent). I fell in love with the Atari game system, being probably one of the first game console that can connect to the TV. I will go to my neighbour's house every now and then and play with it.

The introduction of Nintendo games was a huge progress from the Atari standards. Super Mario, Donkey Kong, Megaman and all those classics kept me looking forward to life after school. 10 minutes after school ends, I will be seen at some electronic game shops watching people play, or get involved in the action myself. $1 for 30 minutes. And that was 2/3 of my daily allowance. I stole now and then from my parent's pockets to fund my habit.

Secondary school days were the day of Sega games. Sega doesn't have as much games as Nintendo, but the controller has more buttons, meaning more variety of gameplay actions. It was also during those days I met Joe, and frequently go to his house to play Bare Knuckle games. Great fun!

Then, I realised the presence of arcades near my secondary school. Its totally a new concept for me, housing so many video game machines in a room, and no changing of catridges. Games like Final Fight, Street Fighter, King of Fighters etc... And I was decently good at kicking people's a** in fighting games. Not expert, but above average. Fun. Fun. Fun.

During Sec 2, I even came to the extent of leaving my bag at the arcade, and went to school empty-handed. When class started and my teacher asked me to take our textbook out, it then dawned upon me that "Hey, where's my bag?" I left for the arcade after school to pick it up. Glad no one took it.

During JC, studies started getting busier. I played hard at arcades as always, but I was also hardworking at my tutorials. Guess it helped that I had almost no other interest, other than studies and video games.

Yes, I am a nerd.

When I reached Uni, I started learning how to write HTML for creating webpages. I started my first webpage - the now defunct "House of Shingo". It was a decently popular webpage/forum for a while. And yes, Shingo is a character from the game I always played.

I started gathering a group of like-minded gaming friends, and we will waste spend our entire Saturday at the arcade. And got into problems with a rival Ah Beng gaming gang. Oh well.

I have no life other than games and studies, and graduated with a first class honours. Something I have always been proud about.

I continued arcade gaming when I started working, moving from fighting games to action games and even Dance Dance Revolution.

Limpeh can dance, ok? At least in the arcade.

When I started work, some of my colleagues are into a game called Warcraft. And we will play in LAN centres, and other best-left undisclosed places.

Then I met my 2nd girlfriend (Wifey), who was also an avid gamer in her own right. And then we started playing MMORPGs. And I got hooked to a game called Fairyland.

And subsequently moved on to World of Warcraft, till current.

As I am approaching my birthday soon, I started thinking ahead. I need to make myself different to gain an advantage over others. And I need to kick my worst habit out.

I need to game less. Its becoming an addiction. An addiction that is getting control of me.

I am meant for bigger things in life.

I have plenty of unread motivational books on the table, so much things out there waiting for me to conquer. I should be spending more time with my wife, my friends, my various incomes, my future kids, ping pong and enriching myself.

I am confident that the day I can break free will be the day my financial freedom target improve by leaps and bounds.

I have stopped playing World of Warcraft for about a week. And that is a significant milestone for me. I have been spending time after work doing more meaningful stuffs. And I really hope to keep the momentum going.

Just because a habit is hard to change doesn't mean I keep at it.
And when I'm drastically reduce the time spent at gaming, I'll be able to blog more regularly and better about health, wealth and happiness.

About the author: Shingo T believes that by telling the whole world about his resolution, Mr Ego will whip him real hard so he doesn't malu himself into failing it.

2 comments:

mkpjerry said...

urg i was going to inform you about the Fairyland revival... then i read your post about kicking the gaming habit (er... oops =X)

anyway also to let you know that phylaine has also shifted her blog to: http://xanga.com/phylaine

Anonymous said...

good luck bro

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