(The Duck currently has a bunch of posts started but incomplete.  My brain is feeling lethargic today.  So I am posting below a recent post from my own blog until I get these posts done.  I have been writing different topics from the 100 theme challenge, and this is #6.  Behold!)

Okay, today’s 100 theme challenge topic is Break Away.  What in the world is that supposed to even mean?  When I think of those two words, I think of, well, breaking something.  Or possibly being in the grips of a kidnapper and breaking out of their hands with your swift, ninja skills!  Which luckily has not happened to me, but that is strangely on my mind when I think of this topic.  But, neither of those are good topics.  I don’t break things, and as I said, I haven’t had to “break away” from a kidnapper.  Or a duck-napper, either.

So what else can I write about then?  Break away also makes me think about change.  You know, I broke away from my old ways, kind of.  Okay, I’ve got one.  I was always a Nintendo fan growing up.  I played the Super Nintendo, the Nintendo 64, the GameCube.  And as it is in our nature to feel superior to others, I believed Nintendo made the best consoles and the best games.  I looked in scorn at Sega and PlayStation and XBox.  Pshaw, such consoles can never compete with the might of Nintendo!  (Just like how Pepsi is far superior to Coke.)

And then one day, things all changed for me.  Gaming-wise.  Despite my previous contempt for other consoles, which I’m not sure why it was ever even there, I saw several commercials for PlayStation 2 games that caught my eye (“Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy” and “Kingdom Hearts”).  I finally decided to buy the console, and I was introduced to a whole new library of games that were more wonderful than I ever expected.  The PS2 had some really, very, really great stuff (such as, you know, “Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy” and “Kingdom Hearts”, my goodness, they were amazing), and many of the games on this console remain to be some of my most treasured games of all time.  I had started to see the truth.

Nevertheless, I still had ill will towards the XBox (Look at me, I’m Microsoft, and I make console now!  Oh, and the name is simply the word “box” with an X in front of it!  Color me impressed!  Not!), until one day I decided to try it, too, and I found out how fun the “Halo” series was.  Finally, my long-held bias had melted away like the fat on your belly when you try a hardcore diet.  Actually, not like that in the slightest, but I realized something important that I think all gamers need to know.  No one console is superior to any other.  I mean, yeah, we have our favorites.  I absolutely love the PS2 and care for it above all my other consoles.  But, I see it now.  They’re all good.  They all have qualities superior to that of other consoles and flaws, as well, but in the end, they are all good.  XBox players are not better than those who love Nintendo, and fans of PlayStation are not superior to the Sega fans.  (I recently had been playing this Sega Genesis collection on the 360, and I am discovering that Sega had some fun games, too.)

So it’s funny how things changed.  I was originally loyal to Nintendo and Nintendo only.  I still love their consoles, as I grew up with them, but I am also a big PlayStation person, too.  And XBox has some good games, as well.  I just love “Halo”.  I still like some consoles and developers more than others, but I no longer have that silly arrogance I had years ago.  I see what makes every series of consoles great, and I am no longer in that little Nintendo-only box that I spent so many years in.  And I love being free now, to enjoy a much larger variety of games than ever.  And that, dear readers, is my break away.

Duck Away

[This post was originally published on The Duck of Indeed May 15, 2013.]