What was your first ever videogame?
View all responses
My grandfather had the first computer in our family, so I think that my first game was Pong. But not Atari pong. The kind where you move the arrow keys on the keyboard back and forth, still the most comforting feel I know and why I have a gaming laptop and not a PS5. Typing itself is sensory repetition, so I like playing with WASD controls (the current version of arrow keys), because my fine motor control is just not good enough for controllers.
That being said, I game on my iPhone more than anything else. I like being one of those paid testers for new games, because I’ve found some fantastic ones. My current obsession is Idle World, where for five bucks I got an ad-free game that combines worldbuilding and killing zombies. But I don’t constantly zone out on games- they’re what I choose to do when I’m waiting for something else. It is nice to have a constant companion while I am on hold, because I get anxiety around phone calls and need a distraction.
I killed a lot of zombies while waiting to talk to the Social Security administration. I am trying to sort out which programs I’m eligible for and I believe it is both. I also want to write grants and start programs, which takes up way more of my time than gaming.
But interestingly enough, none of my dreams look much different than Skyrim, anyway.
A house with Nordic construction so that it lasts a hundred years, because maintenance is a neurodivergent nightmare. Meaningful work like a monastery that makes it self-sustaining. The classic example is brewing beer, but our craft could be fixing cars or finish carpentry. That part does not matter. What matters is productive work in an environment built for neurodivergent people.
Indian Head has the most funding available for what I envision, but in a coastal environment, the soundscape does the work when your system cannot regulate itself. Therefore, I prefer the idea of a build near the coast, but the river also has its charms.
So, the player home that I have in Skyrim, Morskom Manor, is actually an ideal version of what I would like to see near Ocean City. It’s a large house with outbuildings so the messy work is not where you sleep.
That is because there is no Protestant work ethic. The person that wrote about the experience is just as important as the person who literally did it. A haven for both makers and artists, 5-7 people at a time. There are so many government agencies that are looking for a program like this that I think it’s a pilot. Alternative housing for autistic people (and all those under the neurodivergent umbrella who struggle to live alone, but don’t need a full assisted living setup).
The garden matters.
The goats matter.
The garage matters.
Everything lives in cooperation with the land.
I didn’t get here by myself. I thought, “what would Lauren Olamina do?”
Lauren Olamina is another sacred preacher’s kid to me. She is the protagonist in Parable of the Sower, and started Earthseed. I do not want my group to have any religious affiliation at all except awe for the land and all it gives us. But it is not discriminatory against any religion- that is just personal practice, not a program value.
It needs to be purposeful work with room to breathe.
Again, there are grants for that. It’s time to dream big, which is where my mind goes when I’m mindlessly one-shotting zombies while waiting on a call.
