Alright, I need to start by explaining something. I’m a huge nerd. If I would have been born in the 70s, I would’ve played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons. If I would have been born in the 80s, I would’ve been able to tell you the story of how I completely flipped when I got the NES for christmas as a kid. But, as it happens, I was born in the 90s. I remember a game I played with my older friend on his SNES but the nostalgia ends at that; I don't even remember the name. And before leaving the subject of Nintendo, I want to add that I find Mario games simply infuriating and they make me ragequit after about 10 minutes. That’s not to say I don’t respect the heritage of these games. I do.

I was born in the beginning of the 90s. I listened to Backstreet Boys as a kid, because I didn’t know any better. My reason for getting up so darn early on Saturday mornings was Pokémon, and while everybody else at school was completely content with playing Pokémon cards by throwing them as close to a wall as possible, I was looking for somebody who found the actual rules for the game as cool as I did. In fact, I would have been happy if even one person would show themselves aware of the presence of TCG rules. My nerd genesis console was definitely the PlayStation. That’s where I discovered the Final Fantasy games. Those games had actual, tangible depth. Even though I didn’t have the language skills necessary to understand what exactly that depth was, it was apparent that the people who created those games put a lot of thought into creating something that doesn’t only look cool, but is also satisfying on a conceptual level. Discovering the JRPG set me on a path to RPG fanaticism, enjoying the richness of some works as opposed to others. I played Diablo, Final Fantasy VIII (I know that’s just one vertical line too many for some of you) Morrowind, and Heroes of Might and Magic because those worlds were like something you’d find at the end of the rainbow. Doom, as far removed from RPG as you get, still had an incredibly atmospheric stage for all the face shooting.

We’re all much older now, I guess. Things happened to the industry in the beginning of this 21st century. The Wii came along, and even your grandma played it. I mean, motion controls are cool. We all thought it would be like Tom Cruise in Minority Report, right? But the Wii phase lasted only slightly longer than the actual touch-control scene from the movie. What it did do was introduce a whole lot of people to realise something: Playing games can be incredibly rewarding. I feel pretty safe saying that sports have always been (and still is) the chief form of entertainment for humanity, and there’s good reason for that: it releases chemicals in our brains. No matter what sort of game you’re taking a part in, a sense of accomplishment feels good. Video games are designed to make you accomplish things. It’s the very core of video games. So where did all those new converts turn when the Wii wasn't fresh out of the oven anymore? If my memory serves me right, the majority went for the Xbox 360. The gaming market was a-boomin’. Suddenly the term gamer got into the mainstream. E-sports started taking off seriously outside of South Korea (colloquially referred to as Crazy Town.) And we all go “Oh, great! Video games are finally being legitimised.”

"Doom, as far removed from RPG as you get, still had an incredibly atmospheric stage for all the face shooting"

I was having a conversation (not really) with a friend of mine (doesn’t exist). My friend is what I would call a 'gamer'. He plays a lot of League of Legends – which is admirable, because I’m shit at it and slightly jealous – and he’s bought every Call of Duty game to date. I mean, that’s a lot of games. We were talking about World of Warcraft. He’d started an account and got his character to level 90 and was now in a raiding guild. They hadn’t killed Garrosh Hellscream yet, but they were on their merry way. I was super excited about him getting into a game I had already been into for much too long of a time. So I asked him who his favourite character was, and he looked confused. I of course cleared up the confusion completely when I told him how Thrall is probably going to be more at peace with himself after he gets to meet his ancestors on Draenor; He might even put his armour back on and start to swing his Doomhammer again, which is going to be SO BADASS. End sarcasm.

I will freely assume that Nerds Like Us™ feel it made things worse. Earlier, we were confined to our nerdy little corner, and people were content with that. Now, we’re not even the cool type of gamer who goes to competitions and win money. End whine.