I’ve always enjoyed playing video games. My favorite genre are RPGS, and quite notably the Breath of Fire series, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy.
When my brothers and I were young, our aunt would look after us. With my brother Jake and I both having SMA our aunt would look after and help us before school, after school and during the summers. Meanwhile, we’d spend time with our cousins, Josh and Becky, who were a few years older than us. Josh loved sports, notably basket ball, and would try to get us to play. At the time Jake and I could get around by crawling on our knees, and we would play with an indoor toy hoop. Josh would even things out by only taking 3 point shots, as well as crawling around in the same fashion as we did.
However, in spite of all the fun, Jake and I would quickly tire. When I was 5, our aunt got a Nintendo for our cousins, also allowing us to continue playing together, even after Jake and I tired out. No longer did Josh have to hold back in basketball, as in the virtual world it was a competition of minds and skill.
As Josh entered his teens, and Jake and I became dependent upon our electric wheelchairs, Josh started coming to our house to help us on summer days. We’d play WWF games, Smash Bros, GoldenEye, and many other games for hours. Needless to say we became quite the adept gamers.
Lo and behold, in 2009 I came across the exciting opportunity to work for Raven Software as a video game Quality Assurance tester. It was a 6 month contract for a game they were going to be releasing. It was a first-person shooter, with multiplayer modes as well. While testing, I found that I had trouble competing with my fellow testers in Multi-Player while playing on the XBox, due to the tension on the trigger buttons tiring my fingers. However, when we switched to PS3, I could game with the best of them. The buttons and triggers flowed, smooth as silk. And in spite of my limited dexterity and slowed button presses my skill level more than made up for it.
The game came out in June of 2010. I got a copy of it in August. Excited, I threw the game in my PS3. I loaded up Multi-Player, welcoming the thrill and excitement of challenging the online community. I hopped into the first server I found, eagerly awaiting testing my mettle against my fellow gamers.
The game assigned levels based on kills, matches won, etc. Given that I hadn’t played yet, since my testing days, I was level 1. While the game was designed to even out the teams by level, it would let friends on the same team for the first match. I was sorted into a team of low level players: several 5’s, one 10. The enemy team was all level 20 friends. We entered the match.
It was a war zone. My teammates were being slaughtered. I’d get the drop on the other team, sometimes taking out 4 a pop. They’d eventually wear me down eventually, but I would always take some with me. The match ended. They had won.
The teams began to resort, and the level 20’s backed out of the server to play as friends on another (Trolls). While this is considered quite discourteous in the gaming community, it’s not unheard of. I continued playing, challenging the status quo. My team would often lose, but I was giving these Trolls a good walloping. Eventually the sorting algorithm sorted me onto their team, as a level 1. The chat cut in. “That guy’s obviously cheating” one of them said in reference to my playing, before realizing I had been sorted onto their team.
Nope, that’s just some good ole Quality Assurance folks!
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