Hi everyone, Luke here!

#include <stdio.h> int main() { // printf() displays the string inside quotation printf("Hello, World!"); return 0; }

Hello world!

My name is Luke S. I'm currently in high school and I love video games. I know that's probably not the most unique set of characteristics you've ever seen, but I like to think my passion for the medium is more than just a simple want for a fun activity to do. Now, don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with just playing games to have a fun thing to do; God knows I spend an ungodly amount of my free time doing just such a thing. But I've always been a champion of the belief, above all, that video games are art. Does that make me an overly pretentious nerd who takes things very seriously? Maybe, but be that as it may, I believe it all the same.

Hold on, let's take things back a second.

My history with video games

I've been exposed to this wonderful art form from a very young age, truth be told. Though I couldn't tell you my true first gaming experience, the first one I have distinct memories of was playing one of those crappy Plug N' Play joysticks with 5 arcade games on my old CRT TV. Even at my very young age and with the (admittedly not very good) setup, something about these games just clicked with me. I loved playing them, even for the simple high-score based arcade things they were. But everything changed when the Wii hit the scene. For you see, my family, much like every family to ever exist probably ever in the mid-to-late 2000s, ate the Wii up. Wii sports was a big part of my childhood for sure, but one of the most influential experiences in my entire life came soon after, when my dad bought me a little obscure indie game you've probably never heard of called The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

It's importance in my life really can't be understated. I'll spare you the details (for now...) but long story short I learned to read due in no small part to that game. Long story short, I fell in love with the game, as I came to with many games for the console including (but not limited to) Mario Party 8 and my beloved Super Mario Galaxy.

I'll spare you all the details of my history with games (though if any of you out there would be interested in the full story, I'd be more than happy to write about it!) Eventually, the thing that sparked my true interest in older games was a combination of 2 factors: Youtube channels I watched that focused on games (I was a fan of Rabbidluigi and the Normalboots network in particular,) and Wii Virtual Console. From there I learned about all the things this medium had to offer; the rich history that came before and what now existed due to it. This was a period of great intrigue for me in regards to my fascination: I could get a taste of everything, but I didn't really have access to all these games, I could only hear about them and watch

videos.

So, who am I now?

It's safe to say that since then, I've taken my passion truly to heart. I'm not breaking any records with my collection (I must reiterate, I'm a high schooler at the time of writing and we're not exactly known for our vast riches) but I like to think I'm a knowledgeable collector at the least. I have (at the time of writing) somewhere between 300 and 400 games in my collection, but the far more valuable thing in my opinion is my knowledge on video games, historically, artistically, and just from a pragmatic collecting perspective. Video game history is, in my opinion, just as rich as the history of other artistic media, though obviously there's less to pull from given the simple fact that they're a newer medium.

Admittedly, it's always been a dream of mine to create something to showcase my passion for this medium. For the longest time I had this dream of being a youtuber. As a younger kid I made a few channels, but none of them really took off or were good. I've tried to get into making videos again recently (because I do genuinely love film and video) but the problem arises in the fact that, if I make anything more complicated than unedited gameplay, it can take me months and months to make anything at all. I started researching and scripting a video on the video game crash of '82 at the beginning of this year, and I haven't even really began to edit it. I suppose the more practical work part of it is what gets me, but there's just so much that goes into making even one video that I just don't see it happening without a team, to be honest.

But from that experience attempting to make videos, I learned something I sort of already knew: I like writing. And from what I've been told, I'm pretty decent at it. When I was working on my attempts at videos, the part I always enjoyed the most was the writing. It never felt like work to me. Now, anyone who knows me might be very confused by that notion, since I am generally a very visual person and seeing and interacting with things does far more for me than reading them. And, with a few exceptions, I am not what you'd call the biggest fan of books. They, frankly, just don't do much for me compared to basically any other artistic medium. But with writing, I feel the magic of the creative process the most. The only other thing that comes close is drawing/ painting/ "medium on physical surface" art and I am just not very good at that.

With all that being said, I've decided that the way I'd like to express my opinions on the things I care about is through blogging. Don't get me wrong, if the opportunity came I would love to be a creative director of a film project or video game or other more complex artistic work, but I don't have the skill or mental strength to do so now. But I can write, and I can write quickly, so I feel this would be a better fit for me from a practical perspective.

The point

If you've decided you like me enough to read this far (thank you, by the way!) IWhat am I actually going to write about? I'm sure there's a question you might have: what do I actually want to do here? I mean, I'm sure you could take a guess based on my many long, winded rants about video games, but that's a broad topic in and of itself. Since this is an introduction of who I am, I've admittedly been a bit more all over the place and abstract than usual (though that almost winding river approach to writing is very typical of me, so don't expect it to go away.) But what specifically do I want to post about? I've been beating around the bush a bit but to be clear and concise, here's a few things I'm interested in posting about:

•Personal opinions on games. Think AVGN or Scott the Woz in written form but less funny.

•Interesting stories from video game history. I know, I know, history can be boring, but I promise I'll do my best to make it interesting. There's so many fascinating stories, be it development stories, rivalries between companies, or industry-wide rises and falls that I'd like to tell.

•Reviews. I know this seems the same as the first one, but a review is, in my eyes, generally a bit more informative and serious. I plan to focus on games, but if I watch a movie or listen to an album that I think warrants a review, you'll probably be seeing it here.

•Posts about collecting. This is really such a wide range that it could very well have it's own bulleted list. Collecting stories, the state of the market, talks about game room stuff, and even tutorials about things like retro console repair are all things I'm interested in writing. If you're a game collector like me, there'll probably be something for you.

•Other interests. I have quite a few things that interest me, and I do expect to at least write a one-off post in the future about them, if you guys would like that kind of thing.

I hope that's an adequate list of things to at least give you an idea of what I'm thinking here.

So, in conclusion:

I hope this first post was alright. I'm relatively new to the whole "writing for an audience" thing. (My youtube videos, even scripted, tended to be on the more improvisational end of things.) If you made it to the end of this post, first off, I just want to thank you. Knowing anyone would want to take time out of their day to hear what I have to say means more to me than you can imagine. Secondly, if you think you're interested in reading more from me, I should have a subscription box set up, so if you're interested (no pressure!) it'd make my day if you signed up. Either way, thank you, have a fantastic rest of your day, and go play some games!