My favorite genre of games is role playing games. I have also always been a huge fan of action/adventure games. I never used to like shooters, fighting games (with a few exceptions) and sports games. I wasn’t used to playing from a first person point of view. I had terrible aim in shooters. I’m just bad with the concept of fighting games. I was also never big into sports. I danced for 12 years of my life; sports were the last thing on my mind.
One sunny, not windy day at a bus stop in Buffalo New York, I met Ben. Two weeks later after much flirting, anger over him having a girlfriend, him breaking up with his girlfriend of two years, and a tiny bit of guilt on my part we became a couple. He’s a gamer and so am I. I never really had anyone to game with and he had never had a girlfriend as into games as I am. It was great at first until he wanted to play a game with me and suggested Halo; my response was to scrunch my nose.
He likes shooters and didn’t really like RPGs. I was the opposite. Unfortunately, the world of RPGs doesn’t offer much multiplayer experiences. We found ways around this little obstacle. I would bring my games to his dorm room and I’d play my RPGs on his roommate's PS2 and he’d play his shooters on his Xbox. Secretly, I longed for a game we could both enjoy, and one day at Game Crazy we discovered Tales of Vesperia.
We had found ourselves an RPG that was multiplayer. Despite the fact that it was an RPG, Ben was willing to try it. Something about it seemed to draw him in. I didn’t know what it was and I didn’t question it. He played as the rebellious hero, Yuri, and I played as the sweet, gentle Estelle. He controlled most of the action. He ran around the world map and the towns, while I sat and watched enjoying the story. When battles came into play, it was my time to shine. I was the healer and the supporter as he beat up all the baddies.
Sometimes it bugged me to not be the main person in control, but I was more thrilled that I was playing an RPG with one gamer who had been so against them. We strategized together as we battled and we laughed at the conversations that took place while exploring the world. At one point I never thought that this would happen, but we found something we could both enjoy and took full advantage of Tales of Vesperia.
We’ve both opened up to the different genres that we were once so against. I played Halo even though I was terrible at it. I’m still not a big fan, but I’ve grown to love other shooters. I could spend hours getting some headshots on zombies in Left 4 Dead. Ben still can’t play traditional RPGs, but he has shown interest in games like Eternal Sonata or any game with action/adventure qualities to the fighting system. Borderlands came out and combined the best of both shooters and RPG’s worlds.
We were two gamers who fell in love. Luckily, our gaming interests are no longer as segregated as they used to be. He can even stand to watch me play traditional RPGs. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to stick a classic Final Fantasy game in front of him and he’ll play it with glee. Until that day comes though, we can just replay Tales of Vesperia.
By Heather Aug
