TALES OF TERROR

BRVR/Pokémon Dead Channel

I was introduced to the video game realm a tad later than most other people. For most, if not all, of my early childhood I was isolated from other kids, and I had next to no social interactions. My days were spent in a prison like school and my nights rotted away with mind-numbing TV. Life was dull and boring, and all I had were my stuffed animals and cheap, plastic toys to talk to. That's when I got a Gamecube.

It was the Christmas of 2003, I believe. I was overjoyed at having my own video game station. It came with the games Super Mario Sunshine, Pac Man World 2, and Pokemon Channel. Each of those games still hold a special place in my heart today. As soon as the Gamecube was set up and ready to go I began playing it immediately.

The first game I played was Super Mario Sunshine. This game is what got me hooked onto the Mario series. After playing it for hours straight, and finally finding a level I just couldn't get past, I turned to Pac Man World 2. Amazingly enough, I got stuck on level two. Infuriated that I couldn't find the way out even though the answer was literally right in front of my eyes, I quit and started playing my first ever Pokemon game:

Pokemon Channel.

As soon as I turned the game on I knew this game was going to be different from the other two. It didn't take long for me to fall in love with the game. When the time came for me to name my Pikachu I unwittingly named him BRVR, short for Brother. What compelled me to give him such a strange nickname that didn't even sound like a shortened version of brother, I'll never know, but regardless, I still enjoyed playing.

There is no way for me to describe the love I felt towards this game. It was everything that I had ever dreamed of. In this game I had a friend that I could play with. It all took place in the Pokemon world too, which I had already loved before I even got Pokemon Channel. I could watch TV with my best friend BRVR, go fishing with him, play tic-tac-toe with him, talk to other Pokemon with him, grow a garden with him, build a snowman with him, explore ancient ruins with him, play musicals with him, sit around camp fires and tell stories with him, gaze at the stars with him, all the things I never got to experience in real life, I was able to do in this virtual world with BRVR, the best friend I never had.

I was obviously overly addicted to the game, but I had nothing else to use up my time with, so instead I put it all into this game. Oblivious to all the things happening in the real world, I preferred to live my life in this Pokemon fantasy with my best friend, BRVR.

BRVR seemed like more than just a virtual animated 3D model forced to do his actions based on the programming of the game, he seemed real to me. If I was ever sad one day, he would appear to look and act depressed too. If I was ever angry, he would show and express my rage during that play of the game too. If I needed something to cheer me up, he would act silly and leap at me and do other idiotic things too. Later on, when I grew older and wiser I just assumed that all of these strange events never really happened and when I was younger I had just simply imagined it, but it was still fun to pretend he was real.

As the years passed, I got more games. I had acquired a Gameboy, which along with it came more Pokemon games, where I could have more than just a single Pikachu. My interests also floated to different series like Mario and Sonic. After playing Pokemon Channel so many times and doing the same things over and over again it starts to get a bit boring. I started playing it less and less and other games more and more, but I still gave Pokemon Channel a play every now and then.

Eventually I changed schools and my whole life changed. I was moved from a private, christian school to a public school and my eyes were opened to reality. I started to learn new things about real life which helped me enjoy it more. People weren't mean and cruel to me, they would greet me when I passed them in the halls. I discovered I could do more than just play video games, I could draw, there were thousands of songs I could listen to, and my grades started dramatically rising.