Ever since I was a kid, I always loved playing video games with my older brother. We had a NES and a Super Nintendo with a gazillion Mario Bros. games, bomber man, mortal combat and much more. Then, we got a Nintendo 64, followed by the Game Cube and the Wii. As you can tell, we have always been Nintendo fans.
Even though I spent a lot of my childhood playing video games, I was awful at them. I always died or lost in every single game, which is why my brother hated/loved playing with me. Recently he got a Play Station 3. Since I saw Pewdiepie [a YouTuber] playing “The Last of Us,” I knew I wanted to play it, so I bought it.
My experience playing this game (at which I totally suck) is what brought me to writing for you the five stages of being an amateur gamer (not in this specific order).
1. Disbelief.
You are making it! You are killing the zombies/soldiers or accomplishing whatever the game requires and you cannot believe your eyes! Did I really just kill 10 of them without getting hurt? Seems like luck is on my side.
2. Frustration.
This is the point in which you cannot pass the level. You try and try. Different methods, positions, paths and it all leads to the same destination: losing. You start screaming at your player, other players (I’m looking at you, Tess), the zombies, the guns, the controls and everything you can think of.
3. Anger.
Your frustration is taking you to a bad place called anger. This is the point where you simply turn off the console and retire to do something else in which you don’t keep on failing.
4. Insomnia.
After your anger, while you are trying to sleep, your mind keeps on wandering to the game. You think of new strategies on how to pass the level. Should I go this way? Should I hide? Shoot at them directly? Run away? When you realize it, it’s 3 a.m. and you’re still thinking about the game.
5. Pride.
After that long night of thinking and thinking, you decide it is time to try those new ideas. You keep on trying each of them until the point when you actually pass the level! You cannot believe your eyes, but that hard work (because thinking of those strategies and putting them to action is hard work) paid off, and you’re simply proud of yourself.
