Pap the Disney Gamer's Highlights: Pap's Christmas Story

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL!

I am very excited that a Gamer Tuesday takes place on Christmas, one of the best days of the year! But as excited as I was at this wonderful reality, I was also blocked, struggling for ideas. I had done a letter for Santa suggesting the best games to give as presents over the holidays, and the end of the year retrospective doesn't happen till next week. And I didn't want to do a standard article highlighting a game! I then realized something... Christmas is a holiday that inspires a lot of stories. Whether they'd be works of fiction or created by our own real life experiences, jolly or bitter, inspired or simple, we all love to share stories about the holidays. With this in mind, I decided to share a very special Christmas story (because it is likely that while you are reading this, A Christmas Story is still in its 24 hour marathon). This story may not relate directly to Disney, but it did have the stepping stone that lead me to become a writer for Gamer Tuesday. So without any further delay, let's tell Pap's Christmas Story...

One Christmas Eve, when I was young and very, very small, my sister and I were dreaming of the magic we would be experiencing on Christmas morning. In the middle of the night, I wake up with a desire to have a glass of water. As I made my way back to my bed, I hear something coming out of the living room. It was an odd mix of laughter and what seemed to be digital noise coming from the TV. Quietly, I go to the living room to see what was going on. The noise came from a video game system, and the laughter was provided by my parents, who were surprised to see me! I asked them what was the grey box on the floor and why were they laughing. My mother and father tell me that Santa had dropped off a present early, but he needed their help setting it up. I wanted to see more of it, but mom and dad sent me back to bed. 'You can see it in the morning'- they said. Knowing that Santa was still watching, I obeyed and went back to dream land.

On Christmas Morning, I rushed over with my sister to see what we had gotten, knowing that there was a grey box waiting to be explored. That box happened to be... A NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM! We had owned several gaming systems in the past, but it was the NES that caught my attention the best. At the time, I was too young to fully understand the games, but I had a blast watching my sister play Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt. As time went on, I started to play more and more of the system. The video stores in town carried NES games to rent, and almost every weekend we rented at least one title. We played all of the classics, like Metroid, Super Mario Bros 2 and 3, and all those old school Disney games you may have heard of recently here on Gamer Tuesday.

In a few year's time, the NES evolved into the Super NES, and the Super NES evolved into the N64, so on and so forth. The NES turned me into a gamer for life, letting me experience the ups and downs of the fandom. Thanks to that, I was lucky enough to see several game franchises rise and then disappear from the mainstream. I have seen games evolve both graphically and in terms of story and characters. But most important of all, gaming lead me to study the industry, to try and professionally write about them and share my findings with other fellow gamers. The experience lead me down to writing for several gaming websites, which culminates here, on our weekly Gamer Tuesday column.

I bet a lot of you have already seen very happy displays of joy around the Christmas tree like this one

I realize that gaming is something that not everyone understands or experiences on an extensive manner, especially in the Disney fandom. Yet a lot of children will be introduced to them this year alone. Just today, a child may have gotten a Wii U with a copy of Epic Mickey 2. The game might inspire him or her to become a Disney fan because of how intricate the story is and how rich it is in Disney history. Or he might become a gamer because he or she is impressed with how the game plays and may want to experience more of it, and become an artist, a designer or even a writer for the industry.

Disney and gaming lead me down the path I am at today, and my dream is to let people know of the experiences that are awaiting them in the limitless world of video games. And it all started one Christmas morning years ago with a little grey box and the TV.

Merry Christmas to all, and I hope you may be experiencing the best one yet! And, of course, happy Disney gaming!