Entering the World of Gaming

Who'd have thunk that I would ever be entering the world of gaming? By gaming, I mean video games. Yes, I have succumbed. Early in the summer, I ran into an old friend (well, more of an acquaintance really) at a store. Over the last few months, we have begun to spend more time one another. Of his many interests & hobbies, is his intense devotion to playing video games. Having never really played much, he's been kind enough (if that's what we should call it) to allow me to join him in playing. For someone who is an avid player such as he, having to play with someone who has not a clue about remotely anything has to be frustrating. Yet, at the same time, I think he is pleased to show me up as well as laugh at how pitiful I am. On our first night of game playing, we played Mario Kart.I am keenly aware that Mario Kart was designed with children in mind & that many kids play the game. I, however, might not learn as fast as most. While it is true that I drive a car nearly every day & seem to operate it just fine, managing a tiny steering wheel for a video game is a bit more complicated-at least it seems to be for me anyway. After not fairing well in Mario Kart, my friend allowed me to drive his Lamborghini in the game Need for Speed. He was quite amused that in a game requiring speed, I was finding it hard to move beyond 65 mph. Even at that, I felt a need to slow things down. In my attempt to play things safe, I managed to crash into the wall numerous times & go the wrong direction several times (I might add that I was not even aware that I was going the wrong way until my friend pointed it out to me). My first evening of "gaming" was less than stellar. Apparently my friend felt that I needed some more practice because he offered to let me return for more games. Last week was round two. For some reason, we did not play any racing/driving games...I wonder why? This time, he picked out games that he thought I might be more suited to. I do not think he would tell you that I was great but I do think he would say that I was better at some of the other games than that which we played the first night. In my second attempt at playing video games, we did Lego Batman...he was Batman, I was Robin. Good thing it was not real life because I did not make a very good sidekick to Batman.We played Peggle (which, in my friends words, was easy enough for me) & I absolutely loved it. As the night went on, we tried out some other games as well. While I am not going to be beating anyone in these games anytime in the near future (or ever more than likely), I am enjoying trying them out. Who knows, now that I've started on this ride, maybe I'll set out to watch Star Wars, Star Trek & jump into the world of comics next. Then, when the next round of Beauty & the Geek airs, maybe I'll be "geeky" enough to enter as one of the geeks...I'll walk in as a Superhero or something. OK, so perhaps that might be a bit overboard. I think Sci-Fi is out of the question for me-no one need fear that I'm going to be moving into the nerd-herd.