I remember one of the first times I could easily say I was hooked on video games. That this was not a passing fancy. When I first beat Super Mario Bros 2-player without giving my younger sister a turn. Unlike Mario 3 forward, you wouldn’t switch off your turn when beating a stage, you kept going. This would infuriate my sister, who, at only a year younger than me, found nothing fun about sitting there and watching someone else play. I must have been about 6 and she was 5 then. When I finally beat that game without dying once, I felt so accomplished, so happy, and honestly couldn’t care less about her feeling annoyed that she didn’t get to play. It was never about spending time with my sister to me, it was climbing a mountain, achieving a goal. Granted I was only 6 and it was not a big goal, but that could not have felt any bigger to me at the time. It felt great. I then did it so regularly that my parents would demand I either die on purpose, or play as Luigi.
-Ray
