Like many on GameSpot, I've always loved games. But there have been some key games and moments that really shaped my identity as a gamer.

I grew up with Atari 400, with old-school PCs, with arcades, with NES, SNES, and N64. Throughout, I've always been into games. If a friend had a computer or console, that's what I would want to play at their house. During the summer, I'd prefer playing games for an hour or two before going outside in the sunshine. Anything related to video games always caught my eye: cartoons, breakfast cereals, stickers, figurines. Revolutionary games like Street Fighter II and Doom astounded me and occupied my time and thoughts. But throughout these earlier years, I never consciously thought of myself as a gamer. (Maybe I just didn't know an identity could be formed on such a thing.)

But things have changed. And instead of growing less interested in games as I've gotten older, I've grown much more interested in them, to the point that I now feel they are a part of who I am. This increase really started in 2004. A major personal calamity involving a significant other (i.e. a really bad break-up) left me devastated. This was likely the lowest emotional point of my life.

In an attempt to lift my spirits, my dad got me a PS2 for Christmas that year with SoulCalibur II. It helped. It really did. Games were one of the few things that helped me find solace from my sadness, even if only for a short time each day.

But there was something about SoulCalibur II, and subsequent PS2 games, that pulled me in like nothing I had ever played before. The seemingly endless content. The detail. The depth. The feeling of immersion. The amount of stuff there was to know about each game. I had been playing games for over 20 years by this time, and the games were just getting more engrossing.

Along with SoulCalibur II, other PS2 titles, SoulCalibur III, Virtua Fighter IV: Evolution, then, later, Okami and Shadow of the Colossus (and, later still, WipEout Pulse for PSP) hit me like no other games had before. There was a sophistication to them that I felt never previously existed. Something that validated them for me, at long last, as something beyond just kid stuff--something that pulled down any mental block that might have felt that these things couldn't possibly be used as a basis for who I am. I was being reborn from someone who liked games into a gamer.

Around this time, another key experience reinforced this rebirth. In 2006, I joined GameSpot. Before this, I had always distanced myself from communities. I always kept myself on the outside of any group. But here, at last, was a place where I made a firm decision to join in. For the first time, I got involved. I posted on forums, reviewed games, helped run a union, and had found my home base on the Internet (which has remained my home base ever since).

In 2009, I got a PS3 and my sense of myself as a gamer keeps growing. Further amazing games keep reconfirming this: Portal, Street Fighter IV, Batman: Arkham Asylum. During this year, another key experience occurred: I took a workshop on RSS feeds. From this workshop, I created a list of game-related feeds on Google Reader, and my knowledge of to-the-minute information on games has exploded as I read hundreds of headlines and dozens of gaming articles daily.

And, still, my sense of self through games increases. This past year, GameSpot introduced Fuse, another outlet through which I build community.

Now, I begin 2012 feeling like more of a gamer than ever. I pore over gaming history and stay current on gaming's future. I thoroughly search out games I want to play next, but try to keep my knowledge as broad as possible, extending into genres I tend to not even play. I read gaming news every day. I think about games every day. I check in on GameSpot every day. I discuss games every day. I even play them too! ;)

I am a gamer. It was those early games on my PS2 that made me start to feel this way. I am a gamer. And I am grateful that I can enjoy the good fortune of being one. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Happy GameSpotting! Happy gaming!