And so it begins!

I have been asked "why are you starting a blog about the gaming industry's current events" by friends (and I've even asked myself the same question), and the answer, unsurprisingly, is very simple: because I love video games, and everything that goes into them. I've been a fan since the day I played an NES when I was four years old, and my passion for them has only grown since then. I've played Sonic with my little sister on the Sega Genesis and Star Fox with my best friend, handing the control back and forth as we tried to figure out how to go the "secret" route through the game to get to the true final battle. I've played online shooters with friends and anonymous people alike, and marveled at the increasingly incredible quality of both gameplay and presentation as gaming technology progressed. I've fought colossi with nothing but a sword, a bow, and an arrow, and I've wrestled with the choices both of a commander racing to stop a terrorist and of a man trying to survive any way he can in an underwater dystopia. My love for gaming comes as a natural progression to my others interests: film and novels. In movies, the viewer gets to watch a story unfold through the perspective of a protagonist; they get to observe their actions and the consequences. In a book, the reader gets to learn about those actions, about both the motivations and thoughts that drive that character. Video games take what these mediums accomplish a step further, by allowing the gamer to step into the shoes of that character, and make those decisions themselves, to experience what it would be like to be the protagonist in a story. Gaming is the literal adaptation of the expression "walking a mile in a man's shoes".

This looks to be the inaugural post of my blog; over the next few days the posting will likely be erratic as I find a good rhythm for my posting schedule and work out the design kinks of this thing. I want to get this thing off the ground in the right way, so it won't swan-dive into the forgotten depths of the Internet. The set-up is likely to change, but not significantly. As for my personal preferences in gaming? My current favorite game developer is Bioware (of Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect fame), for their continuously outstanding ability to develop and release successful new game franchises, while my favorite game, which persists to this day, is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time; really, ask anyone: is there a better game?

I've always loved gaming. I love playing them, learning about how they're made, listening to developers talk about them, and writing about them. I hope, through this blog, I can convey why they are so important, both to me and to the millions of people who play them.

Looking forward to the future!