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Apr 28, 2008 at 05:22 PM CDT
View Comments: 22
Loki's Look: An Alternate Reality... what if?
Posted by: Goodeh
Written by Liam Loki Belcher; Staff Writer BirminghamSalvo.com
Do any of you remember the TV show, “Sliders”?
The reason I bring up this seemingly miserable outlook on life is because lately I’ve been looking at everything I’ve done recently. I asked myself a very big question (and a question that I’d love you to ask yourself if you’re brave enough to deal with the answer) – Where would you be if your life never had e-sports? I know that I would probably be somewhere very bad or rather somewhere that I wouldn’t have wanted to be. I can’t say that for certain, but I’m going to go ahead and take an educated guess as to what COULD have happened.
I’ll set the scene – I’m in my room and I’m talking to my older brother. He has in his hand a copy of the first Medal of Honour. It’s the first FPS that I’ve ever been told you can play “online”. “What the heck is gaming online meant to be?” I asked with a look of confusion and wonder. “Well you see, it’s kind of like when we used to play Goldeneye on the N64 years back, only this time you have to use a mouse and keyboard to move around and kill people over the internet”. Looking back on my brother explaining that concept makes me feel like Forrest Gump today when Tom Hanks says “Momma always had a way of explaining things so that I could understand them!” a truly embarrassing moment in retrospect. Ok, so to be fair I was about Thirteen or Fourteen at the time but a part of me still wants to just flat out laugh in my naïve face. It took me about 3 weeks to fully grasp WASD. My hand eye co-ordination was fine but why the heck was I using the W key as forward? Better yet, why was I starting to “strafe”? Seriously, who the heck walks like a crab in real life? All questions that looking back I have an answer to, and all questions that if my future kid ever asks me I will look upon with frustration and admiration. Of course, by the time I have kids they’ll be using their minds or something so that problem will probably never arise. Phew! Really dodged a bullet there eh? (If you’re still with my at this point then I’m honestly amazed).
Anyway, I’ll get back to my point. After I eventually mastered the WASD and mouse combo, I started to play quite well on the servers. Even to the point where my brother couldn’t keep up. I never knew what “clans” were or why they existed at this point, never mind what the heck professional gaming was. I got the point where online gaming wasn’t just a treat, it got to where I wanted to keep going and going. I was like the Duracell Bunny or gaming. I was young, impressionable and all about the boom headshots. A year later I discovered MSN. Boy did that help with my gaming addiction! /end sarcasm. However, I was still getting damn good grades in school and living with my dad who was still in the RAF at this point (for going on 22 years at that time of my life) really kept me on my toes. He’d never let me go on my computer until I’d done my homework. My older brother had left High School a year earlier and lived with my grandparents where he went to college. I was Fifteen now and because he’d left “home” to move to England (I was still in Northern Ireland) he had taken the one thing that I would miss…the computer. What? You think I should have missed my brother? If you think such a thing then you’ve clearly never had a sibling. This meant that I now had all the attention of my parents who, like many parents around the world, adored the older son that little bit more (but they always tell you it’s the same amount).
I know that sounds like a really bitter remark but it really doesn’t bother me because he was the first person in our entire family to go onto further education. I hadn’t quite had the chance to prove myself that far but it’s biologically impossible to do things like that before your older brother or sister…unless of course your cranium is just that little more fine tuned and you skip a year or two in High School. ANYWAY, back to the story. He’d take the computer with him and I now had to wait a year for my own one. What’s that Loki, you had to wait for gaming?! Yes indeed sir / ma’am. At the time I didn’t really even notice the wait to be honest with you. I was content with hanging out with my friends or simply watching the TV but when I eventually got my fix again, there was no getting this kid off the computer anytime soon.
“That’s fRoD. Can you believe that people get paid to play games?”
Source: LA Complexity
But what would have happened if I’d have gone “Haha, that’s just sad to be honest!” and moved on, never taking gaming to any other level? Well I’d never have known but like I said at that start, I’d give it an educated guess. By now, I’d probably be at University studying how people’s minds work and how to fix them. I’d be worrying about exams that I’d have to take to prove to people in seats of power that I can sit and write for hours at a time about things I already knew about but shouldn’t be put under pressure to tell them. The reason I took Psychology in the first place was because I had a medical condition that went on from the age of three all the way up until just before I turned sixteen. A child psychologist helped me to overcome this problem and I felt that I somehow needed to help someone in the same way. I could have gone on to do just that and it probably seems selfish to say that it wasn’t what I ultimately wanted but my destiny simply wasn’t to be a child psychologist. Very few writers get this intimate with their audience but I feel that the best way to connect with writing is to let everyone in just enough to let them see your intentions and motivations. I went through hell because of that medical condition and was rarely able to hang out with the other kids because of the embarrassing implications. It took until I was 16 to really live my life. Gaming was the first thing that never ridiculed me. It never said that I couldn’t do something because of my weight, height, gender, race, ginger hair or any of the other things that other kids would have denied me for.
Gaming is my history and will hopefully be my future. I don’t like to think that I’d have been stuck in University doing something that would have bored me. I didn’t want to constantly look over my shoulder and worry that I’d made the wrong decision, took the wrong path or said the wrong things. I still do these things now with other life problems but the path I’ve chosen is the path I plan to walk down, through good times or bad.
So I ask you, where would YOU be without gaming? You certainly wouldn’t be reading this, that’s for sure…
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jlake02
Posts: 2440
Location: Atlanta
Team GM
SCG-Loki
Posts: 5200
Location: Washington
Staff Member
AlbeL
Posts: 5704
Location: Outside Belfast
Staff Member
SLIDERS WAS EPIC! Great read. I would be in a dead end job doing hardware or programming.
Loituma Champion
Loituma Champion
Portland
Posts: 345
Location: Danville
Staff Member
Great read, I would probably have a social life right now if not for esports.
SCG-Loki
Posts: 5200
Location: Washington
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Coolsvilla
Posts: 340
Location: Tulsa
Pro Gamer
Sliders was a great show. ^^
Nice read.
Nice read.
Elimination
Posts: 68
Location: Washington
Great read loki (although i read it like a week ago and already told you what i think 
) but yeah keep up the good work.
And i'm guessing i'm too young to know what sliders is.
CS Source :)
^wotr^ eliMination
) but yeah keep up the good work.And i'm guessing i'm too young to know what sliders is.
CS Source :)
^wotr^ eliMination
Snuggles55
Posts: 684
Location: Gainsborough
My tip Loki is that when you make a life decision, don't ever regret it. You say it yourself "Regret is ultimately the thing that eats us away". NEVER regret. If you make a decision and later decide it was the wrong one, learn from it and move on. Nice article as always 
SCG-Loki
Posts: 5200
Location: Washington
Staff Member
Referenced post #8 by Snuggles55
My tip Loki is that when you make a life decision, don't ever regret it. You say it yourself "Regret is ultimately the thing that eats us away". NEVER regret. If you make a decision and later decide it was the wrong one, learn from it and move on. Nice article as always Wise words indeed
Bandare
Posts: 266
Location:
play more DOD Loki 
_____________________________
iRacing - Where Racing got serious!
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iRacing - Where Racing got serious!
j1nkz
Posts: 713
Location:
Go on my son, words of a god right there liam.
You are never a loser until you quit trying.
Mike Ditka
You are never a loser until you quit trying.
Mike Ditka
tgchan
Posts: 5385
Location: Radom
excellent read!
When fate throws a dagger at you, there are only 2 ways to catch it: by the blade or by the handle.
When fate throws a dagger at you, there are only 2 ways to catch it: by the blade or by the handle.
sMont916
Posts: 2376
Location: Grass Valley
good read
Proud to be an American
#duplicity
Proud to be an American
#duplicity
Dsantos
Posts: 756
Location: hollis
Staff Member
⥠loki
Yea I'm the #1 Fan *Sticks tongue out*
GO JOE+GEL!
www.meevent.com
www.survivemedia.com/
Yea I'm the #1 Fan *Sticks tongue out*
GO JOE+GEL!
www.meevent.com
www.survivemedia.com/
Stune
Posts: 730
Location: Dorchester
Pro Gamer
That was an awesome article Loki, a really good read!
Its tough for me to imagine where i would be without gaming, but i would probally be in a similar place in life without Esports. Having said that, i would be far worse off financially and may not of had enough money to continue Univeristy, Thats actually quite a scary thought.
Its tough for me to imagine where i would be without gaming, but i would probally be in a similar place in life without Esports. Having said that, i would be far worse off financially and may not of had enough money to continue Univeristy, Thats actually quite a scary thought.
Ne0phyt3
Posts: 1736
Location: Rotterdam
That was one long read boy. Fortunately you write in a way that keeps me reading
Now give me my shirt
And as the finishing touch, God created the Dutch.
Now give me my shirt
And as the finishing touch, God created the Dutch.
SCG-Loki
Posts: 5200
Location: Washington
Staff Member
NITRO
Posts: 5000
Location: Sydney
Staff Member
bery interesting
Reg Torr - Forum & IRC Moderator
[RAK] Random Acts of Kindness. Do your part!
3D Fan since 2003
Reg Torr - Forum & IRC Moderator
[RAK] Random Acts of Kindness. Do your part!
3D Fan since 2003
RattlesnK
Posts: 238
Location: Brighton
Pro Gamer
you better not go anywhere loki!
www.birminghamsalvo.com
www.birminghamsalvo.com
SCG-Loki
Posts: 5200
Location: Washington
Staff Member
mytronphe
Posts: 212
Location: Uden
"Gentlemen of the audience, I present to you the next character in this very long winded tale â Danny âfRoDâ Mantaner!"
Montaner*
Great read! I would still be at home though if I didn't game... Because I'm still 15 years old!
\"There is no love in an abandoned steel mill\"
Montaner*
Great read! I would still be at home though if I didn't game... Because I'm still 15 years old!
\"There is no love in an abandoned steel mill\"
SCG-Loki
Posts: 5200
Location: Washington
Staff Member
Oh my...I even copied and pasted that from his name on the coL site
*blames editor*
*blames editor*
Join the RAK movement!
http://lacomplexity.thecgs.com/Random_Acts_of_Kindness_-_2008