In life there is no greater thrill than spending time with the person that you love the most. From the smallest moments to the biggest challenges, everything is exponentially greater. It is truly a life changing experience when you realize that the person in front of you is the one that you want to spend the rest of your life with. Video games have always been a huge part of my life and for the very first time I am getting to show someone I care about how great they really are and what it is about them that I love so much.
It all started with my love for the Mass Effect series. She would hear me talk about it, see how much time I have devoted to it and this really piqued her interest. She once said to me that if I loved the series so much that there had to be something special about it. We love the Thursdays that we religiously spend together and for months straight we spent them playing through Mass Effect 2 and 3. At this time the original was not available for PS3 so we played through the Genesis comic and began our journey together into a world that I am no stranger to. This time was different though, the choices being made were not my own, I was no longer in control of the path that Commander Shepard took and it was exhilarating.
She was a bad-ass renegade who had a soft side, the choices tugged at her heart-strings and really caused her to think extensively before deciding. She has been through the Omega-4 relay and lived to tell the tale, she has starred the Reaper invasion in the eyes and battled through to the end ultimately choosing to synthesize the galaxy. She was so open-minded and curious throughout the entire story, it reminded me of what it was like to play through the trilogy for the 1st time. While the moments in Mass Effect might have been the big draw for her it has certainly sparked a greater interest in games as a whole.
After playing Journey for the 1st time I was enthralled, it was beautiful and artistic and being that she loves art I knew this would be a game that would capture her. I turned on the PS3, loaded the game and handed her the controller she looked at me with a puzzled stare to which I responded… take your Journey. Watching her take in everything that this game has to offer and enjoy the incredibly different art style made me smile both inside and out. All of us who are lucky enough to have played Journey know that it is so different then what we are used to video games being and that in itself was one of the reasons I wanted her to experience it for herself. I didn’t want her to think that all games were 40+ hour RPGs, that there were compact and interesting stories out there as well. Journey was the perfect avenue for that and being able to show her a game that is near perfection was a great way to follow up the grind that we had just finished with the Mass Effect games.
These are simple moments that become so very special because the woman I love took an interest in something that is so important to me. Video games have long been the hobby that I have leaned on to keep myself on the right path. There are so many things that I appreciate her for, and her open-minded approach to this hobby is certainly one of them. While she is not a hardcore gamer herself she has opened herself up to a brand new world of storytelling and adventure and that is incredibly exciting in itself.
Thank you so much for your support baby, I wouldn’t be the man I am today if it was not for you, I love you!
