Seeing as Virtual Bastion has been going strong for more than a decade, with the same team of three since the very beginning, there must be a pretty good reason why we’ve kept chugging along all these years when many other blogs have long since closed their doors.  For me, I think I have to delve a little further into the past, before there ever was a Virtual Bastion, or a United We Game, to really help you, our dear readers, to understand just what video games mean to me.

Call it an obsession, if you will.  I grew up being told I was “obsessed” with video games by family and even classmates (how the latter came to this conclusion when they knew nothing about me other than my name, I have no idea).  But I think if people knew why video games became so important to me, perhaps they wouldn’t be so quick to judge.

When I was a duckling, I was an only child, never really knowing my half-siblings.  And we moved a lot.  I managed to make friends in state #2 after a rocky start.  But even when I did, I felt a deep sense of loneliness and isolation, whether it be at school surrounded by people or sitting alone in my bedroom.  My homelife was…odd.  I didn’t know what was going on at the time.  I learned years later just how…more than odd things really were.  But at the time, our family dynamics felt strained, but confusing, and I had nothing to really keep me company until the fateful Christmas where my parents bought the family a Nintendo 64.

I already loved playing video games.  It was a recent hobby that had started at my friends’ houses, particularly while playing Pokemon Stadium.  But now that I finally had a console at home, I could play games even in my lonesome.  Even if there was no one to play with.  The N64 was connected to the living room TV that the whole family shared.  I started waking up at 6 AM to play games before my parents woke up, and then I’d take any chance I could to play during the rare instances later in the day that no one was watching TV.  During those rare times that no one was telling me to be quiet.

Life got even better when the Super Nintendo was moved to a TV in the basement, and I could play whenever I wanted.  I had the TV all to myself, and no one could stop me.

We moved to three more states around the continental USA starting at age 12.  As expected, I struggled even more to make friends.  In state #3, I met someone after about a year and a half, and I knew him, and played GameCube games with him, for a few months before we left.  State #4 lasted 1 year, and I met one person who wasn’t very nice and never visited my house once.  To make up for that, we now had all the video game consoles connected to a spare TV, so every evening, after a hard and lonely day at high school, I would come home and play video games on the far end of the house.  It was the only time I felt happy.  And at peace.  By now, video games had become my only friend.

In state #5, getting to know people only grew more difficult.  But I still had my video games.  They kept me company, and they never judged.  They provided friendship, even if in an artificial way.

At one point, I started blogging to kill time.  I wrote about anything that came to mind, video games especially.  And then Hatm0nster was seeking people to join him in a little blogging endeavor.  I joined him.  Cary joined, as well.  And the rest is, as they say, history.

Am I obsessed with video games?  Yeah, I guess.  My life revolves around them, during the spare hours when I’m not spending time with my cats and whoever remains after I stripped away relationships that were less than healthy.  When I’m not playing games, I’m writing fan fiction, drawing fan art, and collecting various FNAF plushies to adorn my shelves.  We record games for our shared Youtube channel.  And yes, we blog.

Let me be honest with you guys.  After moving between five states by the age of 16, I had no choice but to accept the life of a loner.  I chuckle when games advertise their multiplayer modes.  Ha, I don’t see myself getting much use out of that.  No siree.  That’s what makes it all the more precious to have found, despite the circumstances, two other people that love gaming just as much as I do.  That’s why Virtual Bastion means so much to me.  I was lucky to have met Hatm0nster and Cary when I did.  And I would like to think I was fated to be one of the few people to respond to Hatmonster’s request to join him in making a blog that revolved solely on gaming, my greatest passion.  Although it may be across a wide distance, I am grateful that the three of us have this blog with which to share our love of gaming with the world!

To all the people from my past who said gaming was just an “obsession” to be ashamed of, just let me respond with this.  Many years ago, video games provided countless hours of comfort to a sad, confused child through many, many lonely and difficult years.  Maybe the thing keeping this child going seemed silly to people on the outside, but we all need a little light to dispel the darkness.  And if, in this instance, video games took on that role, I refuse to believe that’s such a bad thing.