Opening remarks

     It's funny.  I grew up gaming.  I played tank and Pole Position.  I played Donkey Kong and Frogger.  I played Exitebike and Enduro Racer.  It wasn't until the Sega Genesis that I really came in to my own as a gamer.  I remember seeing Altered Beast in a Service Merchandise in Kansas City.

     It blew my mind.  Hearing "Rise from your grave" for the first time floored me.  The graphics were insane, I wanted one right then and there.  That Christmas, after driving my parents insane, We got a Sega Genesis.  The first games I played Christmas morning were Afterburner II and Arnold Palmer golf.  My dad hid them in the car, he told me to go outside and get the "Christmas tapes".  Back then our Christmas music was that years Dr. Demento Show. I went outside to the car and found them in the center console.  As I came back in my parents had brought out a last "secret" present.  My memory of the rest of the day is blurry.  Either way that memory changed my life.

     Through Highschool I gamed. Through my first marriage I played.  Playstation, PS2, Dreamcast, Saturn, Nintendo 64.  I loved all that stuff. The first game I played with my son was Soul Caliber, on the DC.  I reamember he was two and was saying"Soul Cowberrrr" every time the game would say it.  He used to love the Cut scenes.  That was a long time ago.  He is 14 now and plays on his own PlayStation 3 He lives with his mother in another city, but I still see him quite often and we talk about games all the time.

     The reason I'm here now is because I find myself, age 34 with two daughters, a wife, and games.  I started thinking to myself, "What is appropriate gaming for the girls?"  My oldest daughter Bianca is five years old, and my youngest Amelia is five months old.  I'm not so much concerned about Amelia... It's Bianca.  We've already played "Ocarina of time" together and some other things.  She likes to play "Toejam and Earl".  Thank goodness for the Wii on this one.

     Soo, in the future, this is what I will talk about.  Games, and, more specifically what's good for the girls and what it means to play games responsibly.  I play what I want after Bianca goes to bed, some of the games she can't play now are on the list for the future.  All in all, I'll see where this goes.  I know what I want from it now, so I've already got that going.  :)