Open Your Mind, But Don't Let The Ring Take Over

I have always told myself that I hate video games. I think that I have said this so many times before because I am terrified of what my life would turn into if I found that I actually liked video games. The only game I ever admitted to liking until last summer was Mario Kart on N64, probably because it was one of the only ones I had ever played. Every year when I was growing up I would ask my parents for a game system for Christmas, and every year I got a book instead. So a lot of my "hatred" for video games probably comes from a sheer lack of game exposure. 
I stopped asking for a game system after I turned 14, partially because I knew that my inquiry was useless and also because I did not care very much about getting one anymore. When I was 17, my childhood dream finally came true and my mom got me a Game Cube. I only ever bought one game for it: Mario Kart, of course. 

I never wanted to expand my horizons; I never really planned to. However, my perspective on video gaming changed slightly over this past Summer. I lived in a house with three boys who all shared a daily routine of going to work early in the morning and then coming home to play on their Play Station 4. I generally read or cooked while they played, and never had any intention of joining the "fun." One day, we all went to the mall and ended up perusing Gamestop. They went home with a number of games, one of them being The Godfather. I thought it sounded like a stupid game; they loved it. 

I remember a night when I could not sleep. I tip toed downstairs at 3am and picked up a controller. Two hours later, my bleary-eyed boyfriend came downstairs looking confused, and then startled when he saw me engrossed in a game he never thought I would try. 
I played a few times after that, but did not become permanently attached to The Godfather. However I learned then that there may be more games than only Mario Kart which I might actually enjoy. I was able to harness this open-mindedness when playing Lego Lord of the Rings for The Binge, and found again that when I set aside my normal "hatred" for video games, they can actually be fun!