Accidental Future

When I was small, before I can even remember, I was accidentally introduced to video games by my brother-in-law’s friend, Clint. My mother says I must have been about three or four, but I personally have no idea.

One day, my brother-in-law, Chris, took me over to his friend’s house to visit, and Clint was playing a game. I asked what it was, because I thought it looked interesting, I guess, and Clint told me it was called Resident Evil. I said I wanted to play, but Chris said I wouldn’t like it because it was scary and it had lots of blood and violence. He told me later that I got a big smile on my face and went to sit on the couch next to Clint, and I watched him play. After a while, I said, “I like Resident Evil!”

There is a place in the game called the Snake Room, and I didn’t like it. Whenever Clint would direct his character into that room, I would cover my eyes with a pillow and cry, “Don’t go in the Snake Room! Don’t go in the Snake Room!” Clint still uses that phrase when he doesn’t want to do something just because I amused him back then.

I don’t remember much between ages four and nine, but one thing I do remember, however vaguely, is the morning of my eighth birthday. I woke up and went into the living room, as usual, and noticed there was something purple plugged into the wall behind the rocking chair. I asked my mom what it was and she told me to unplug it, so I did, and found that it was a GameBoy Color with a battery pack attached to it. I immediately started playing it. I had all the Pokemon games and Pac-man for GameBoy, and I played them all the time.

The next year when I was nine, Christmas brought me another console. I open the armoire to find a PlayStation One plugged into the television. Small, sleek and light grey, it was beautiful to me. Beside it was a rental case. I thought nothing of it until my mother pointed it out to me and said I should look at it. Upon opening it, I found that it was, in fact, a set of game discs. Final Fantasy XI. For the following week, I played it like there was no tomorrow. I only got through the first disc, not even all of it, actually, but I loved every minute of it.

After we returned the game, I forgot about it while I was preoccupied with games like Spyro the Dragon and Pandemonium. Until eighth grade I had no other association with Final Fantasy, and I didn’t even think about it once. In sixth and seventh grade I started playing Xbox games like Star Wars and Halo, but I still had only my lovely PlayStation.

In eight grade PE class I met a girl who drew beautiful pictures and we became friends. She started talking about video games, particularly Final Fantasy. I thought it sounded familiar, but I figured it was probably just my imagination. Then one day I went to her house and we played Final Fantasy VII. To me, it was just the coolest thing, and I asked to borrow it, and she let me. After I beat it, I wanted to borrow another Final Fantasy game, and she let me borrow Final Fantasy IX. It wasn’t until I’d started playing for a while that I realized it was the same game I’d played all those years ago. The memories came flooding back, and I fell in love with the game all over again.

I think it was then that I decided I wanted to not only play the game, but be a part of it. I wanted to play a part in making the game that I loved so much. After that, I went in search of all the Final Fantasy games and started looking into ways that I could become a game designer. I aspired to go to Tokyo University so I could be in Japan where the games were made, but that’s a bit out of the question now, mostly due to money.

My search was rather fruitful, more so than I had expected it would be. I found Final Fantasy I and II for GameBoy Advanced, III for PC, IV, V, and VI for PlayStation, and later VII, VIII, and IX for PlayStation as well. It wasn’t until later that I realized how dedicated I was. Final Fantasy VII, to this day, is one of the hardest games to find for PlayStation One.

In tenth grade I finally saved up enough money to buy myself a used PlayStation Two. Along with the new console, I got Final Fantasy X and X-2. About a year later, I got Final Fantasy XI Online, and shortly thereafter Final Fantasy XII, the most recent product of the Final Fantasy Project.

Now that I will be going to college next year, I am looking to find the college with the best computer science degree program, and if possible video game design and development.