Tuesday
Jan132009
Xboxless - An introduction
January 13, 2009
Xboxless - a story of a year with no Xbox
An introduction
...
I'm a gamer at heart. Competitive in nature, fun at the core, I love to game. The original Xbox was my ice cream of choice. Halo 2 my only online flavour. I got deep into it, maybe even WoW deep (maybe not). Got my friends into it, LANed on long weekends. Played Xbox Live on weekdays. Then along came college. No internet at the place I was staying. Only my 13-inch TV/DVD combo to keep me gaming, and by now everyone was getting into the 360 and the Wii (no one over the age of 12 that I knew owned or wanted a PS3).
Naturally I started to game a lot less. I started focusing on my studies (Wife's note: Ha!) and started dating my wife. A wonderful woman who also shared my competitive nature and gaming love. She is more of a Call of Duty girl, but didn't mind the one-on-one challenge of Halo 2 I'd throw her way from time to time (never-ever beating me though). But those little one-on-ones seemed to be the end of my Halo 2 days as the transition from the Xbox to the Xbox 360 started to take over the world. And I, a poor and dating college student was not about to dropped valuable food/date money on a console with a limited selection of games.
The summer after I graduated, I got married to my beautiful bride in the gorgeous Rocky Mountains. One of the ideas we had as a couple was no Television (ie. TV shows/cable) for the first year of marriage. We still owned a TV, but for the most part it just sat there.
A couple months later Halo 3 came out, and as a surprise my wonderful wife bought me an Xbox Elite with a pre-order copy of Halo 3. I was extremely excited. With the new Stat system in place, the sheer scope of the game and the world wide release, who wouldn't be? Lots of people knew I was excited too. My boss made me take the day off. Seriously. My wife and I beat Halo 3 that day, then my brother and I beat it again (on a harder difficulty) that weekend. Then the Multiplayer universe kicked into high gear.
That year (remember that year that my wife and I promised no TV, ya that year) I was fully immersed into the Halo 3 world. Checking my stats from the night before at work. Taking screenshots of myself playing and making them my background on my computer. Playing well over 2 hours a night, every night. And not alone either, my wife played with me as well. We were a gaming force to be reckon with (Wife's note: again, Ha!). She seemed to be able to moderate herself a little more they I did. I'm not going to lie though, looking back on it, it got a little out of control.
So, almost a year exactly from when we got married, my wife and I threw down a challenge to each other:
One year with no Xbox running in our household. I'm 5 months in, and here on this blog is where I will tell you my story.
To Be Continued...
...
An introduction
...
I'm a gamer at heart. Competitive in nature, fun at the core, I love to game. The original Xbox was my ice cream of choice. Halo 2 my only online flavour. I got deep into it, maybe even WoW deep (maybe not). Got my friends into it, LANed on long weekends. Played Xbox Live on weekdays. Then along came college. No internet at the place I was staying. Only my 13-inch TV/DVD combo to keep me gaming, and by now everyone was getting into the 360 and the Wii (no one over the age of 12 that I knew owned or wanted a PS3).
Naturally I started to game a lot less. I started focusing on my studies (Wife's note: Ha!) and started dating my wife. A wonderful woman who also shared my competitive nature and gaming love. She is more of a Call of Duty girl, but didn't mind the one-on-one challenge of Halo 2 I'd throw her way from time to time (never-ever beating me though). But those little one-on-ones seemed to be the end of my Halo 2 days as the transition from the Xbox to the Xbox 360 started to take over the world. And I, a poor and dating college student was not about to dropped valuable food/date money on a console with a limited selection of games.The summer after I graduated, I got married to my beautiful bride in the gorgeous Rocky Mountains. One of the ideas we had as a couple was no Television (ie. TV shows/cable) for the first year of marriage. We still owned a TV, but for the most part it just sat there.A couple months later Halo 3 came out, and as a surprise my wonderful wife bought me an Xbox Elite with a pre-order copy of Halo 3. I was extremely excited. With the new Stat system in place, the sheer scope of the game and the world wide release, who wouldn't be? Lots of people knew I was excited too. My boss made me take the day off. Seriously. My wife and I beat Halo 3 that day, then my brother and I beat it again (on a harder difficulty) that weekend. Then the Multiplayer universe kicked into high gear.
That year (remember that year that my wife and I promised no TV, ya that year) I was fully immersed into the Halo 3 world. Checking my stats from the night before at work. Taking screenshots of myself playing and making them my background on my computer. Playing well over 2 hours a night, every night. And not alone either, my wife played with me as well. We were a gaming force to be reckon with (Wife's note: again, Ha!). She seemed to be able to moderate herself a little more they I did. I'm not going to lie though, looking back on it, it got a little out of control.
So, almost a year exactly from when we got married, my wife and I threw down a challenge to each other:
One year with no Xbox running in our household. I'm 5 months in, and here on this blog is where I will tell you my story.
To Be Continued...
...