I've never played. Nothing's changed. Trivia and word-puzzle-based games (Scrabble, Boggle) are the only games I've ever had/played on my iPhone. The whole "gaming" thing - even back in the day with Pac-Man, Frogger, Mortal Kombat, etc. - just sailed right past me. I just never got into it, for whatever reason(s). I was the only one in my group of friends who never wanted/asked for a Playstation or Gameboy(?) for their birthday or Christmas.
I remember the most irritated, impatient and pissy I ever got with my friends, we were around 14 or so at a local Pizza Hut (back when they were still dine-in (and it was the place to be on a Friday night). There were a couple of big game console(?) things in the lobby, some sort of Pac-Man variant and then one of those side-scrolling fighting games (Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, I'm sure). And they stood there and pumped quarters in for over an hour. I was done eating and wanted to go, but I wasn't driving, so I was stuck there while they kept playing and playing. I remember how mad/fed up I was getting.
I remember thinking "you two keep this up and you won't have to pay quarters to fight...we can all do it for free in the parking lot! Come on!!! Let's GO already!!" Top five "mads" in my life, easily. And directed at my own friends, which kinda scared me a little because after that night, I never quite viewed them the same way again. Weird, I know. Just being honest. And I'm sure it was mutual. We could've gone and played music at any number of houses, and wind up getting what any teenage boy wants on a Friday night (no, not large McDonald's fries), and here they were, chained to a video game. I questioned their intelligence, sexuality and everything else, in my anger/frustration. I wound up splitting off from them and hopped in a car with some other friends I didn't know/like as well, but at least they weren't standing in the Pizza Hut lobby, endlessly playing a video game, and it was my ticket out of there. We were never as close/tight after that night, as you can probably imagine. I showed my ass and basically lost two buddies as a result. But it didn't bother me because had we stuck to the original plan for the night, it likely would've been handjob city from some attractive female upperclassmen. When you're in ninth grade and a fully-developed 11th-grade cutie pie is showing you ANY interest whatsoever, you go with that, vs.
any video game, TV show or whatever else (Rubik's Cube, etc.). "The Melissas and Jennifers (our shorthand for the popular, pretty older girl cliques) wanna turn us into men tonight, and all
you two homos want to do is stand here and play this stupid video game all night!". I wasn't as tolerant and enlightened in my youth as I am today.
Now I'd just call them "idiots" and leave the other angle out entirely. What did I know at 14-15? "I had my Fender bass in the car, and was looking to get my knob polished before midnight. And those two were a barrier to all of it!" Yes, I took it quite personally. "You guys are putting a stupid video game ahead of the greatest night of my life. I resent you both
so much right now!" Payback was delicious. I was never in any sort of hurry or impatient again after then, making
them late/miss out on something they wanted to do by just dragging my feet or being into something else when they were ready to go. I went out of my way to return the favor, taking pride in messing up
their plans for the next few months, as they'd done mine that night. Petty, I know, but that's my middle/last name, when I want it to be, I fully cop to that.
Paul Petty.