PSN Community Spotlight – Sony Is Where the Heart Is

Sat-ur-day, Sat-ur-day, Sat-ur-day is my favorite day. It’s time for another PSN Community Spotlight. For the unfamiliar, this is where PlayStation gamers tell their unique stories/experiences/thoughts, as submitted to this section in the PlayStation Community Forums. Those that make it all the way to the PlayStation Blog will receive a $50 PlayStation Store voucher.

Last week, the only writing requirement was that the story be related to PlayStation. Gamer HeathenAmerico wrote in to tell us about his happiest moments with the brand.

Sony Is Where the Heart Is

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little of a fanboy… Not that I find other systems lacking, it’s just PlayStation has always been the major “go to” experience of gaming for me. It’s been almost seventeen years since I first saw that iconic boot up logo along with his unforgettable jingle. I really can’t even begin to name all the iconic titles that absorbed hours of my life. Final Fantasy 9, Grandia, Wild Arms 2, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Chrono Cross, Legend of Legaia, Arc the Lad, Einhander… Good Kevin Butler’s father… I could go on for hours about all the experiences and memories I hold dearest because of the games I spent my youth playing. These were my fairy tales, the stories that I built my young childish imagination around. I could be a brave knight traveling the harsh wilderness to save a beautiful princess from a vile wizard, or I could be a giant robot blowing up other robots because… Well, who cares why? I’m a giant robot and that is RAD!

I’ve adored gaming from every side of the coin, but the fondest memories I have ever had were here on the PlayStation consoles. When I was eight years old, I was a small boy who would hide behind his father’s recliner as he played the Alien Trilogy, terrified of the scary creatures he battled in the darkness but bewildered by the experience he was having… I wanted to be just like him. I wanted to not be afraid of the creatures that went bump in the night. Now, at the age of twenty five, my life has drastically changed. I’ve moved from England to New Jersey to California, I have become an adult with a career and left the nest as they would say but I’ve never been without my PlayStation. The form may change but it’s always there. My PlayStation 3 is the center of my media hub, from gaming to movies and television. I now spend dark nights in my own recliner, battling those dark creatures at night now no longer afraid. These are the memories of my childhood, the experiences that I take with me everywhere I go.

It’s funny to think how my relationship with my father still has PlayStation at its core. Three thousand miles separate us and a normal father and son would probably talk on the phone but us? Never normal. My father is far over the hill and, before this year, online gaming was hocus pocus to him. He’s a stubborn military man who could probably build a fire and shelter out of a belt and a napikin but the concept of “online gaming” was always baffling to him. Once he found out I was moving though he forced me to teach him the basics of the magic you call the internet so we could do what we had spent so many years doing on a sofa next to each other… Play video games. We may be busy with work and our lives but we don’t let three thousand miles get in between us and our father-son-first person shooter time.

All these beautiful memories that come flooding back to me, there are so many that often a game will be brought up, one that I haven’t heard of in years but the simple mention of its name will bring back hours and hours of fond memories I felt like I had forgotten. It’s almost like meeting a childhood friend again. I recently came to realize that it has almost been ten years since Kingdom Hearts came out… Almost ten years ago that I spent an entire night with my best friend playing the game from start to finish. The countless times I battled Sephiroth in Olympus Coliseum and how the simple phrase “Descend, Heartless Angel” gave me goosebumps and stopped my heart.

It’s been over seventeen years of gaming, how could I possibly not have millions of memories? I don’t think there was a single title I missed out on playing, every experience was so amazing and surreal. Memories of playing Smuggler’s Run with my sister after we had beaten the newest Spyro and Crash Bandicoot. Memories of my friends coming over to battle it out in Tekken Tag Tournament or Destrega. Memories of how I would spend all of lunch and gym talking to my friends about our favorite RPGs. It’s funny thinking back how those discussions would become so heated. Arguments over which Final Fantasy was better, arguments over who would win in a battle… I mean we were gamers and we took it personally. Those games were such an important part of who we were and now are.

I love video games and they are as big a part of me now as they were seventeen years ago. Without you, my beloved PlayStation, I don’t know if I would have gotten there. Thank you for letting me pilot Orbital Frames and battle a telekinetic mantis, thank you for letting me perform Limit Breaks and operate powerful weapons called ARMs, thank you for letting me battle the Evil Koma Pigs, thank you for letting me exploring the world of Phantomile, thank you for Robot Alchemic Drive, and thank you for letting me seek out the one hundred and eight Stars of Destiny and save the beautiful Northern Continent.

Long. Live. PlayStation.

Thanks for writing in HeathenAmerico! It’s always nice to take a trip down memory lane. Continuing the “no theme” theme, you can still tell any story you want as long as it’s about the PlayStation brand for next week’s Spotlight. Click here to check out more info on this call to action.