"Dude, you've never played this before?" I stared at my friend Andrew wondering why he was so surprised that I had never played the game Command & Conquer before. Now I was a fan of video games, but what I chose to play was limited to sports games where I could lead my favorite college football team to a National Championship. I never considered conquering a fictional world as something I wanted out of a video game.
Andrew was able to convince me to try Command & Conquer. I purchased a copy of Command & Conquer Red Alert for the original Playstation console. Now this was before people could easily play games against each other online, so we had to get creative to play against each other since being able to see each others hidden moves would spoil a large aspect of the game.
Not only did I need to purchase the game at a physical store (do you remember those, before Amazon?), I also had to purchase a special adapter that allowed us to play against each other using two different televisions in the same room. This also meant I had to purchase another television, which I found for $20 at a local thrift store. Altogether I was out about $60 just to try a game that a friend had convinced me would change my life. Okay, he didn't try to convince me of that, but he was able to pique my interest enough for me to dish out what equated to a day and a half worth of work at my job as a pizza maker (Hungry Howie's Pizza, yes, this is a real place).
Before I get into the rest of my experience and how this changed me, let me quickly explain what the game is.
What is Command and Conquer?
Command & Conquer is a "real-time strategy" game series with over twenty different games dating back to 1995. You begin each game with the ability to build structures, an army, and the ability to earn additional funds to continue to grow your new empire. You are equipped with a radar, but until you explore the rest of the map, most of your radar is blacked out. While you're building a new civilization and preparing for warfare, so are several enemies, from one to five (newer versions likely included options for additional players).
The goal of the games is to destroy your opponents while protecting your base. The last player standing wins the game, since that's kind of how games work.
Equipped with food and drinks in my parent's basement, Andrew and I played Command & Conquer Red Alert for over six hours. I didn't win any of our first battles, but I was instantly hooked. While the graphics were lacking, the concept of the game and gameplay were fantastic.
In the weeks that followed, Andrew and I tried to convince others to play against us in teams, but it was hard to get anyone else to bite. What I didn't know was that there were millions of others just like us in other cities and countries looking for people to destroy in the same game. Thinking about this now; it amazes me that eSports did not take off sooner. It was a growing movement just waiting for technology to catch up.
Even after Andrew left our hometown for college, I continued to play the game against the computer, until one day several years later when I learned that you could play against others online using a computer. By this time, the game had been out for around 9 years. So those still playing this version of the game online were not casual players -- they were seasoned veterans unwilling to switch to a sequel. I would have conversations with them about how long they've been playing and why they were still playing Red Alert (all through text chat since no one had headsets back then).
As you can imagine, I did not win many of those games either, but my interest in eSports was born through these experiences. eSports is not just about playing games online -- it's about competition, community, and fun. Although I am not what you would call an eSports gamer, I still look for every opportunity to compete and connect with others online, whether through online poker in the SPL and Scorum Poker League or playing Chess or Risk (Conquer Club) against other Scorum users thanks to contests @tadas hosts right here on Scorum.
Regardless of if I know what League of Legends is or how to play the newest hottest game in eSports, I will never doubt the potential of gaming, thanks in large part due to my first few days playing Command & Conquer Red Alert.
This post was created for the Scorum eSports #myfirstgame writers contest. Read the entry post here.
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