One of my earlier memories is being at a house of a friend of my mother. He put me in front of a computer to play Super Mario World on a pc emulator, when I was FOUR, while they went and watched Star Wars the Phantom Menace. Ha I'm surprised I remember all that so clearly at such a young age, but my point is that I was playing video games since all the way back then.

As I got a bit older I had two heavily gamer uncles who I'd play on their computer or game consoles. One uncle introduced me to TF2 and Diablo 2, and the other I played Age of Mythology, Oblivion, and Fallout 3. Diablo was something I started playing when I was like 8-9 years old, and the others around 13ish.

From there it only exploded. I had access to a PC, I played on N64. Then later on a PS2, and my other uncle gave me his old original Xbox for Christmas. Giving me experience with all three major lines of consoles.

I'd then play ps3/ps4 on my friends systems, Xbox 360 on my uncles or mine later on, and the Gamecube or Wii at my family's house. My point being I played across the board, and across the "console wars". Not to mention playing on PC the whole time too. Being something of a gaming generalist.

In my earlier 20's I had this notion that "playing games is keeping me from being productive". Ironically I saw one of my uncles follow the same line of thinking before me, and he sold his console. Not to mention the rest of his gaming items, and then quickly regretted it. While I don't think he had too much self control, he was the type of player to pick up literally everything in Skyrim/Fallout type games.

The fact that he went cold turkey on gaming I think did his mental health worse, than if he just found some way to balance work and play.

To me the only two things that decompress me are gaming and karaoke. Literally nothing else really, not even movies or books, so without gaming I would just burn out.

In my later 20's I realized I made the right call not going as deep of a gaming detox as my uncle had prior. Eventually I regained or traded, or found something new to play as I got older. Now that I am in my 30's I find that its more of a matter of time or energy to do stuff.

If I was a parent it'd be even harder I know, and the cool thing about that is being able to introduce your kids into the games you like when they're old enough.

I find that the Lenovo Legion Go, and the Retroid Pocket, handhelds that I have are a great way for me to keep that habit going. Making it super easy to just pick up and play, especially with Steam OS and Android respectively. Windows bogs you down too much.

I'm making this post today because I have done the thinking about this. Whether it is my age, my previous endeavor to detox from gaming, or simply finding the convenient methods to make it easier to play.

Someone out there will read this and think of something that will let them play.

Whether it is the mental block of LETTING yourself play a game, or finding the method to squeeze a quick gaming session in between errands or family.