Miss T's Classroom.

My first major hobby started one sunny 2005 day, as Dad and I were driving home from the supermarket.  He had just come back fromAucklandand my uncle’s place; he had plenty to tell me.

‘While I was there I was playing a game with Uncle David,’ Dad said smiling.  ‘Jak 3 I think, on a Play-station 2.’

‘Cool,’ I said, ‘was it fun?’

‘Yes, it was awesome! I got to drive these buggy things in a desert, while he shot monsters.’

‘Whoa!’

Later we started packing to go and see my Grand parents, for a little holiday.  Being five years old, a trip toHamiltonseemed like a year in the car.  When we got there we unloaded our gear, and headed inside to greet Grandma and Granddad.

On the farm for the next week, we had a heap of fun riding quads with Granddad and playing games with Grandma.  One day Dad and I went into town, and went and had a look at some shops. We soon found ourselves in the Warehouse talking about Jak 3 again.  I later found that Dad had dragged me all this way to look at the new Play-station 2 console.  Dad soon brought Jak 3, and the console.  He took me home as I was getting tired, and then went back to pick it up.  The next day I woke up to see an awesome console staring at me.  I laughed with excitement, and then went to go and pounce on Dad, giggling.

The next day, we went home.  I was sad and missed my Grandparents, but I had the new console and that made me not sad, but happy!  Looking at the cover of Jak 3, I spent most of my time in the car predicting what playing it would be like.

A couple of days later, Dad set up the Play-station when I went to bed.  When I woke up, it was a school day (the holidays had finished) and I found the Play-station hooked up to the TV.  Since it was about six o’clock, I could only really see the red light shining onto the dark, cold floor.  I pushed the ON button, not knowing that I had, and suddenly, the scary red light turned to a green light, and the console roared.  I jumped, and ran into Mum’s room telling her what had scared me.

Looking back now, I laugh at myself!  Hello, my name isJordan, I’m five years old, and I have a phobia of the ON button!  Anyway, Mum took me up into the lounge, and showed me what I had done. My phobia was cured.

Later that day, when I got home from school, Dad, Mum and I, had a bash on our new Play-station.  Brooke, my sister, never had much interest until later on when she was about eight.  We played and played and came to a stage where we could go no further.

Wanting to impress Dad, I started practicing every day for an hour, until I had completed the level, and more.  I kept on playing, and in a year, with a little help from Uncle David, I finished Jak 3 and moved on to play the rest of the series, Jak and Daxter: the Precurser legacy, Jak 2, Jak X, and Jak and Daxter: the lost frontier.  I slowly moved on from Jak and Daxter, and onto other, more popular games.

If you haven’t played a game on anything, then where have you been for the last one hundred years!  Go out and find one!

Gaming can take you anywhere; it’s just like a book or a TV program, only YOU are the main character, and YOU have to use YOUR skills to complete the game.

I don’t think that Dad is too impressed, now that I absolutely love games, and I am addicted, but I’m sure that if he actually played for once, then he would enjoy it a lot.

For more on mine and my friends gaming journeys, you can soon watch: TheMashUps100 on You Tube.

by Jordan.

Image Attribution: image: ‘PS3 Controller‘ http://www.flickr.com/photos/36006949@N00/2536893598Found on flickrcc.net