It's funny, whenever I would go to the local shopping plaza (Australian version of The Mall) and walk past the EB Games store (Australian version of GameStop) I would always make it a habit of going in there to check it out. And it wasn't called a gaming shop to my friends and I, no, we actually called it church. "Care to have a religious experience?", my friend would ask. To which I would have already answered by my legs walking the rest of my body towards the chapel in question.

However, the older I seem to get and the more involved in gaming I become, the more politics seem to get intertwined in the fun of it all and I confuse myself as to what it is I enjoy and what it is I don't. A collective of gamers can have a strong effect on the original opinions of one self, so much so, that a persons opinion can completely change altogether. The same applies to life I guess.

Being a gamer for close to 20 years now, I began to realize at a young age that this form of entertainment is something that will stop me from getting done what needs to be done. Schooling, Social life, Family...all things that I was happy to keep in my peripheral vision while I was more focused on the television screen. It soon became apparent that my fingers worked on the controller like my lungs worked to keep me alive. Was it a waste of time? Could I have done more productive things with my life? Would I be a different person now if I chose to do something else with my time? Sure. But if this is where I am now and that is what I did then, its pretty obvious that I loved doing it and I still do.

I have gone through countless jobs; some great but most just out of necessity. Whether I was fired or quit, I was usually more happy to leave and get no money than to stay there doing something I would clench my fists thinking about the time I would waste doing it. Time was always something I considered to be more valuable than money itself and even if I was doing nothing with that time, it would be better than doing something I couldn't stand doing, even if I was being paid to do it. To me, it always seemed like I was getting paid to be depressed so that others could be happy. Fuck that.



So here I am now, at EB Games (GameStop).

Sure, the hours are not as full as what I would like. The musical loop they have playing in the store with the voice over guy promoting the latest sales drives me insane. Most of the staff have no fucken idea about gaming whatsoever. And most customers are casual gamers that come to the counter asking for a Wii Fit or a DS lite. But I can tell you this...I am happier now than I have ever been. I have met the Masterchief in person, have access to promo and marketing gear for big titles (Just scored door sided Assassins Creed 2 and Halo ODST Posters) and am currently working on advertising footage for Starcraft II and Modern Warfare 2 for the store.

Don't get me wrong, I would rather invest my time in something better than game sales, but I am working towards that with Journalism and hopefully one day I can live the dream. Jim Sterling style. But until then its GameStop and even though it may be considered the enemy by some, I'd rather be there than any of the 50 odd jobs I've had in the past and if you don't agree with me, then feel free to suck 72 cocks in hell. Because I don't give a shit.


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