I love games. I can’t remember the first time I played a game, but I do remember it started with my Pap-pa. Nanny didn’t like playing cards in the house. She thought it was some kind of sin — simply owning a deck of playing cards was bad. But Old Maid and Go Fish was allowed, and that’s where it began I guess.
Carl tells the story of how I would poke the Old Maid card up higher than the others, enticing him to pick that one, and turning that Old Maid card toward his fingers if he acted like he was going to pick a different card. I was too young to understand what a ‘poker face’ was — but I knew I wanted to win. We progressed to 500 Rummy after Nanny loosened up. She figured even that was better than TV because Rowan & Martin’s ‘Laugh-In’ was totally going to turn my brother and I into stoners who wouldn’t work.
Board games were a favorite too — I can remember playing Monopoly and Aggravation as I got a tad older, and then, along came Eucher and Poker. Many evenings, we would take a jar of pennies and divide them up — playing 5 Card Draw until one person ‘won’ them all. We didn’t tell Nanny about that — she wouldn’t have approved. As an adult, I’ve spent many enjoyable evenings playing cards and games with friends. But I like any game — Badminton, Croquet, Cornhole, and more! It’s all about good-hearted competition.
My son told me that he read some research article about online gaming, and how gamers studied were shown to have the same reaction looking at their online character as they do looking in the mirror. I promise you, I know that I’m not the chick in the center of the screenshot to to left riding the fat elephant who is a hunter with a spider that nets the opposing faction so she can shoot them with her trusty bow. I don’t look at the fat dude (also riding an elephant directly in front of my character) with a pet scorpion and think it’s really Perry. Jerilyn does NOT have a tail and cow feet; Ben doesn’t wear a robe and shoot frost bolts; and Amber doesn’t really heal people and ride a white cat.
It’s a game. And, I love games!