A long time ago, I remember working a whole summer to buy my first computer, an Amiga 500, and despite what I told my mother, and most importantly myself, this was truly and almost uniquely a gaming machine. You had to swap up to 5 floppies to play some heavy graphic games, but I never really engaged in programming, or keeping track of my brand new bank account.
Before that, I have a vivid and caring memory for my first console, a Nintendo Entertainment System, aka NES. Christmas 1988, best present ever from my mom (I believe grandparents where sollicited, money-wise), a night spent playing Super Mario Bros which, ultimately, I would finish hundreds hours later.
Since this golden pre 90's days, I enjoyed Battle Isle on the college computers, then Civilization on my first very own Pentium 90 (sold from a friend who had it burglarized at its work as a vengeance).
But I scarcely played video games, and never again owned a console, mainly because I know I am a pathological player and that should I start, I would have all the problems in the world to stop.
So that spring sunny day I had one of my front teeth taken out and I had to make up for the loss. I entered the FNAC with a mission : buy Starcraft 2, which I had been playing from time to time on my former roommate iMac. I knew it was an addictive strategy game I should not even come close to, but this teeth gave me a perfect excuse that not even the bright sun and the short dresses would overshadow.I spent 60€ for this piece of software, not even a box with a DVD really, as you can download the whole thing on Blizzard's website... 60€ is for the battle.net code, that will allow me, when I have completed my training, to play on a Massively Multiplayer level ;)
60€ seemed pretty steep, then I reflected that it allows hundreds of hours of gameplay, so it does compare to a theater ticket (around 7€ in my small town) or a concert performance or a day skipass (30 to 40€ around here).
So far, I find I've been pretty moderate, and my girlfriend surprisingly so. I wonder how this will end, if there is an end...
