I can honestly say that I've been asked a million times why I play games. And I normally just shrug and say "It's a hobby.", but that's a lie. Because when I'm in game, I'm at home. From the flames of cataclysm to the icy mountains of Tamriel, anywhere I venture, is a place I love and know. My entire life people preach that I could be anything that I wanted to be. But when I told them I wanted to be the captain of a ship, a spaceship, THE spaceship that saves humanity. That I wanted to be Commander Shepard they told me I need to get a grip on reality. And to them to them a grip on a reality means the American dream, working nine to five crammed up in a tiny cubicle having two-point-five kids, a two story suburban house and a white picket fence. I divorce once, and I'd have debt into my early thirties because I took some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ university degree that's suppose to help me in the end.

This isn't reality, this is just a dull outlook on it. Now I understand it's human nature to achieve greatness, but I can do this as Commander Shepard, I don't need a degree. And if I want to go on an adventure I don't ever have to leave the comfort of my home. Yet, people spend an entire salary to travel and I can't help but laugh. I've single-handedly stopped a reign of ancient wyverns from destroying a nation, but before I could do that do I had to:

Learn their language. Become a master in Swordsmanship, Smithing, Archery, Defense, Magic, Speech, Hunting and Thieving!

Not to mention I had to take down an entire fleet of assassins along with a brigade of smugglers before I could even START my lessons in Dragon's Speak. I've always enjoyed an adventure, but I hated pawning my limbs to afford an eighteen-hour car ride. And aside from being told that I can enjoy a white-picket fence at the end of my career, all my years as a student was balance between Fractal Formulas and believing I never be able to love which is literal INSANITY. I've saved Princess Peach. I wanted to be the guy, and I became the guy. I saved Bandage Girl. And I've been Link for generations just to save Princess Zelda. But yet, I'm the eternal virgin, I'm the guy that's never going to love.

And sometimes this ♥♥♥♥ doesn't make sense to me, why people assume that I need to be out doing something and away from home to have fun when I have my own reality grasped between my hands. I have my own world at my fingertips, if I screw something up I can rewind time. I can't do that in real life, but when I'm in game I'm free to what I please, when I please, I'm free to enjoy things the way I want to. I can build my own Kingdom and lead my people to freedom because I'm the mind behind the game. I'm the one who enjoys these games.

I am a gamer. And I always will be.