Secrets from a Gamer Girl - Part I: the early years

Here's the deal with this "Gamer Girl": I have been an observer more than an actual player. That's kinda my big secret when it comes to being a part of the gaming community. I am a part of the culture and understand gaming references, but the engagment is second to the observation for me.

I've never fallen into the typical gamer culture where I was directly involved in games that came out and gaming platforms that have been conceived. The most experience I had with games growing up was with Atari.

We had 41 game cartridges on our custom made Atari entertainment center. I wish I had a picture of this wood desk-like center. It had shelves on either side that turned so we could look at all the cartridges to figure out what we wanted to play. There was a slide out platform for the console, just like slide out keyboard shelves they have now. I don't remember the remote control area, probably because I never put them away. There was a corner of the room dedicated to Atari. I loved the paddle controls, but rarely used them. I was so proud of how many games I had (hence the exact number above) and was convinced we had the most out of anyone I knew. My favorite was one called Cosmic Ark, not one that I think many people think of when they remember Atari. Most people remember ones like my mom's favorite, Asteroids. Now that I think about it, Atari was really how I started my gaming interest, but after that my family never bought another console.

We did have computer games though. So I guess I'm more a PC gamer than a console gamer, if you count Apple games like Summer Games, Zork I, or Alter Ego (which I played in secret because it was too "adult' for us kids). I also played Myst when it first came out, but I played it as a two-player game rather than just a solo adventure game. Let me explain . . .

My sister and I were pretty close growing up. We are now in different countries, so we don't talk or see each other nearly enough, but we do keep in touch. Anyway, me being the younger sister I always wanted to do what my older sister was doing. We somehow acquired Myst to play on the computer when it first came out, before any of my friends knew about it (probably from the mystical ways of my dad buying it for us lol). We love mysteries and puzzles and this was a totally new experience from any other computer game we'd ever seen. My sister had a pretty busy social life, but we always took the time to play Myst together. By together I mean that I watched while she looked around and tried to solve the obstacles that came up. I was there to be another set of eyes because there was no direction or narration to help figure out this strange world. I think that started my endless observation of games. We would sit for hours just wandering around the Myst world trying to figure things out. I would literally just sit there while my sister controlled all the movement. I refused to play it alone. It was such a fun game for us to play together and experience it at the same time that it didn't really occur to me that it was actually a single player game. We explored as much as we could before the pull of friends and college became more pressing. when Riven came out we got that same excitement to play as with Myst, but no longer had the time to sit for a whole day in front of the computer to explore it together. As I look now, I think it would be fun to look at all the following editions of the Myst worlds to see how things have changed and reminisce about the fun times we had trying to figure out what was going on. Although it would still be really strange for me to be the "driver" when I play.

So there is a little look into where my gamer tendencies started. Tune in for the next installment - Secrets of a Gamer Girl - Part II: Gamer Cheerleader/Ice Queen.