I'll start by saying hello, my name is Keith, aka The Awkward Mongoose. It's taken me a while to join the party, but better late than never right?

I've been reading Destructoid religiously almost since it's inception, it's a refreshing place filled with tons of interesting people, trustworthy gaming news and great Podcasts. I feel like RetroforceGO! is something everyone should be listening to, because it's great to either hear about the classic games you love, or be informed on gems you may have missed. This is not to mention it will have you laughing almost the entire time.


This brings me to where I'm going with this post. I'm not going to talk about my first system (Sega Genesis) or the first game I fell in love with (Chrono Trigger/Turtles in Time) but rather talk about the point in my life where video games grew to something much more than something I enjoyed regularly.


I've played games the majority of my life, in fact, I can't remember NOT playing video games. I played Sonic and Dynamite Headdy until my eyes hurt. I spent more time with Chrono Trigger than with my real friends, faked sick to stay home and beat it. I used to bet my allowance money with my dad's friends, challenging them to races in "Top Gear".


The thing is, I have never cared about gaming as much as I do right now, because of sites like Destructoid, podcasts like RetroForceGo! and Podtoid, and the amazing gaming figures like The GameJew, Mega64 and Penny Arcade/Ctrl+Alt+Delete. I was thinking to myself the other day, "I spend more time reading about games than playing them". But is that a bad thing? I don't think it is, I mean...I love being here.


Now some back story, I generally refer to the ps2 era as my downtime in gaming. Yes, of course I still played mine, often...but it wasn't the same. Even though I played one of my favourite games of all time, Silent Hill 2, and many other classics, my passion was not there.


First time through, I never payed attention to Ico, God of War 1 and 2, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, and the list goes on. (I didn't own the original Xbox either, so if anyone has any suggestions on games I should get and play on my 360, thank you.) At the time I felt disconnected to the gaming world. I had long since stopped subscribing to Nintendo power, was annoyed by the fanboyism in OXM and PSM, and basically I just lost my knowledge of the current generation of games.

Once I started frequenting the more mainstream videogame sites like IGN, Gametrailers and Gamespot, the fire was reignited. Then, I stumbled upon Destructoid, and it was on like never before. I took out a loan and bought an Xbox 360, HD monitor, and a pile of games. I bought a DS lite and *not* an R4 to *not* play every single game I could get my grubby little hands on. I went back to my parent's house and dug out my Dreamcast and ordered a bunch of games online.

I want to start blogging more, and maybe joining in on some Friday night Fights with you guys. Thank you Dtoid, as you have been The Start of my Affair.