When I was a kid, my mom and grandma would often play board games with me, such as Monopoly, Scrabble, WordUp. Uno, etc. I liked board games, but my brother didn't as much so it was often hard for me to find somebody to play with.
When I Was about 8 or 9 years old, my grandpa got me and my brother Gameboy Pockets for Christmas. He got us one game each: My brother got Jurassic Park, and I got Batman. Batman was the first game I ever played, and I liked it!
Not long after that, my mom got us games, too. She got me Pokemon Blue and my brother Pokemon Red. Pokemon Blue was the first RPG I ever played. And I liked it so much more. I was hooked!
Maybe a year later, we got a SNES, and our first games were Zelda and Super Mario Bros (it came with 4 games in one, SMB1, SMB2, SMB3, and SMB: Lost Levels). I had many fun times with Zelda and SMB, bonding with my brother (about 2 years younger than me) and growing up with video games as my main passion.
When I was in 7th grade, my brother ended up being bed-ridden for a while when he got a brain tumor. :-\ The doctor suggested the Internet as a way for him to pass the time, and he recommended the game Neopets. Yup, a doctor perscribed Neopets. lol...I saw my brother playing Neopets and I was like "hey, that looks fun!" so I joined him. That was the first time I got interested in the Internet.
That passion evolved into playing Horseland (a game similar to Neopets, but with horses) and sneaking away to my grandma's house to play it because my mom only let me on the Internet for an hour a day. I'd get busted, though, when she'd call my grandma and the line was busy! lol
My passion for playing games on the computer grew even more when I discovered Ultimate Risk (aka Risk II), Sim City 2000, and Civilization II. I played those games endless hours. I'd stay up late at night playing them, and often get in trouble. xD
EDIT: I left a significant portion of time out: the high school dayz! ...Around 7th grade through 10th grade, my gaming addiction evolved into the Gameboy Advance, Gamecube, and PlayStation 1 & 2, but my main favorite games from those systems were Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis (GBA), Lost Kingdoms II (GC), and Brigandine (PS1). No story about my gaming history is complete without mentioning them! My brother and I would bring our GBA's and GC with us camping, and just sit in the camper or around the campfire playing TO:KoL and LK2. xD My mom and step-dad kind of didn't like it -- they'd rather us socialize and enjoy nature -- but alas, there was no stopping us! "Go to the park", they'd say, and we'd go...but bring our GBA's with us. Hehehe...</EDIT>
But in August of 2009 was the first time I played an MMORPG. My brother introduced me to this game he was playing called Shaiya. I started playing that and, not long after, started playing Aika (a couple of my Shaiya friends itnroduced me to it). Then a couple years later, a few of my Shaiya friends introduced me to League of Legends, where I met even more friends.
As the years went by, my friends started to play Shaiya, Aika, and LoL less and less, and I had to move on to other MMO's without friends, or single-player games.
I can honestly say, that in all my 20+ years of gaming, I've never had as much fun as I did in 2009 ~ 2013 playing Shaiya, Aika, and League of Legends. Things have gone downhill since then. I hope Chronicles of Elyria will be the game to make me relive the glory days!
