For my first ever blog post on Destructoid ever, I decided to write about how I got my start in this crazy hobby of gaming. I figured that I would basically just ignore the instructions to put it in my bio. I thought that my adventure into the virtual world required way more than would seem appropriate for a short bio. So before I start, I would like to thank you for being perhaps the only person reading this blog! Go on, give yourself a pat on the back for me. you deserve it.

My tale begins about 12 years ago during my kindergarten years. Most of the kids my age were learning to read and enjoying nap time. I however, had just gotten my first computer. If memory serves, it was a Gateway PC with a whopping 1 gig hard drive (the man at the Gateway store assured us it was more hard drive space than we would ever need). I would spend every night on my dad's lap playing computer games with my dad. I was learning important values too! Values such as killing aliens and being sure to pay strippers. My dad figured it was perfectly appropriate for his five year old son to play Duke Nukem and Quake together. As a side note, I hope to be half as good a father as that someday. Fantastic parenting aside, my dad helped introduce me to the wonderful world of electronic gaming. I've been hooked ever since.

Fast forward one year later. My mom for whatever reason had signed me up to be an "actor" in local commercials. My first commercial was a school closing commercial for a local news channel. I played a little Mark Johnson, the local weather man around the Cleveland area. My childish charms got an nice chunk of spending money. My parents naturally took most of my newfound wealth to save for that "college" nonsense, but thankfully, I still had a bit left for me to spend on whatever I wanted. I got the one thing that would bring my status as a gamer to the next level:

A GREEN GAMEBOY POCKET WITH POKEMON BLUE VERSION.

This was my entry in to the world beyond PC gaming. Being the oldest child in my family, I never had the advantage of a cool older sibling with an NES or SNES to play with. Beloved characters like Mario, Link, or Sonic may have been completely foreign ideas to me, but damn, my Bulbasaur and I were ready to take on the world.

Some time after, my younger brother and I had bought a PlayStation with our Christmas money. We only had enough money for the system itself, so I played the ever loving shit of the demo disk that came with it. I still have fond memories of playing some WWF game with my mom and feeling like the best gamer ever when I beat the Metal Gear Solid demo. We did finally get some games for the system. I loved playing Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and the PlayStation Final Fantasy games. As far as I can remember, I only ever beat Crash. I only beat Final Fantasy VII,VIII, and IX when I reached high school and figured out how to use the internet to my advantage. Even though I was horrible at video games, that PS1 may have been one of the best uses of Christmas money ever for me.

The GameBoy and PlayStation eventually made way for a used N64 I bought simply out of the desire to play Ocarina of Time. My friend Michael had always let me play his copy of the game, and I had finally saved enough money to actually buy my very own N64 with the game. I got a Gamecube and Xbox a couple years later. I expanded my love of all things Nintendo and played Halo like it was my job.

All that background on my gaming history brings us to today. I'm a proud owner of an Xbox 360 and a DSi, but I still maintain my love for PC shooters (FPS games play waaaaay better on PC's anyway).
Nowadays you can probably find me playing Left 4 Dead 2 on Steam, playing Pokemon on my DSi, or grinding my way though FFXIII or Deadly Premonition on my Xbox 360. It always amazes me when I think about how playing computer games with my dad set my love for video games into motion.