The next gaming machine I remember getting was the Gameboy Colour. I’m sure most people got a Gameboy to play Pokémon and I did the same. I, like many others, was swept away in Pokémon-mania which involved watching the anime, trading Pokémon cards and (for me) reading the Pokémon magazine. Pokémon was my first RPG experience and probably the first game I requested and owned all to myself. I recently stumbled into a conversation with some people in my Biology class that involved childhood memories and naturally Pokémon came up. I was surprised to learn that I was the only person that hadn’t actually finished Pokémon. There was always a point in Pokémon games where I would just give up either because there I battle I just couldn’t get past or I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to do. I rarely finished games when I was younger and would just give up when the going got tough and played something else whereas now I would take a lot more to stop me playing a game altogether. My Gameboy pretty much served as the “Pokémon Machine” since I don’t remember getting much else.
I remember getting a PSone (the smaller version of the first Playstation) just as the Playstation 2 came out so it’s fair to say I was behind the curb and didn’t really know much about the gaming culture as a whole. At this point in time my twin cousins were living with my family and they were way bigger gamers than I was. Their arrival is probably what sparked a higher interest in games for me. They collected gaming magazines and were on top of things when it came to gaming. They bought the Playstation 2 when it came out and I think they bought Gameboy Advances at launch too. I was probably 10ish or something during this period and I’m guessing they were around 18ish. Most of my early serious gaming moments were experienced through my older cousins because if they weren’t around I doubt I would have gone out of my way to acquire any of those consoles. The first game I played on PS2 was Dead or Alive 2. I wasn’t blown away by the graphics or anything but that could be because I didn’t really have much to compare it with. I was actually a big fan of Dead or Alive and played it quite a bit but would always get my arse kicked by my older cousins. Button mashing FTL. Other notable “first times” with my cousins include the first time I saw Onimusha. I didn’t play though because I found it too intimidating but I enjoyed watching the cool battles as a kid. Seeing Timesplitters, SSX, Red Faction, Metal Gear and others slowly elevated my interest in games, shaping me. Eventually my cousins had to move away but they left me with more knowledge about games.
Shortly after my cousins left I started buying gaming magazines since my primary source of knowledge had left. The first magazine I bought exclusively was GamesMaster. I probably wouldn’t get a magazine like that nowadays but it was sufficient back then. After growing out of GamesMaster I started getting PSM2 (now PSM3) which was about PS2 and PSP at the time. My love for PSM is probably what made me get a Playstation 3 in the end just out of 
loyalty to my favourite magazine (I was young and naive). Reading PSM2 on a monthly basis and going on gaming websites helped me stay in the know and I really enjoyed reading the magazines even when they were outdated. I'm not really sure what happened to bridge the gap between how I was then and how I am now but I'm sure the transition had something to do with my discovery of gaming podcasts.
The first batch of gaming related podcasts I listened to were Gamespot's The Hotspot and the Gamespot UK Podcast. However, my subscription to Gamespot UK was short lived but I enjoyed listening to The Hotspot in it's hayday. I started listening to 1up Yours a while after subscribing to my first batch of gaming podcasts. I actually found a post on Neogaf that words how I feel about 1up Yours pretty well. “The only reason I'm a member of this board is because of 1up Yours. I just want to thank you guys for opening my eyes to our whole culture, letting me know that thinking the way I do about games is cool, and I am by no means alone. The last few years has been an unforgettable experience, and I'm just sad to see it end.” 1up yours helped me see the bigger world of gaming and connected me to the wider community of gamers. With 1up Yours came countless other podcasts and insights which I have posted about before so I wont go into it too much but what I'm trying to say is that by listening to people like Shawn Elliot on CGW/GFW Radio and watching the guys on the 1up Show helped me see and think about games in a different light and made me realise how influential they have been on my life even if I haven't been able to properly articulate that with these posts.
I think that pretty much brings us up to date. I play a lot more games myself now rather than watching other people play them for me and I avidly follow websites like Kotaku and Joystiq for any piece of gaming news I can get. I felt a bit lost after the 1up-pocalypse and even wanted to give up on the whole gaming thing. It hit me really hard for some reason, probably because I was really inspired by the people there but what they did next proved why I looked up to them so much. The 1up FM guys started a new podcast called Rebel FM at www.eat-sleep-game.com which managed to get to no.1 on the iTunes overall podcast chart, Ryan Scott and crew are over at www.geekbox.net with Geekbox Radio and the 1up Show guys have started up a new company at www.area5.tv which will produce their new show “CO-OP” . I hope my experiences and thoughts on games keep evolving and changing and that I keep having fun playing games so maybe in a few years time I can do another post like this and see how much I've changed.
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