Someone said that we do not choose how we started in this life, and that true greatness is what we do with what is dealt to us.
Da when I heard this phrase I started reflecting on how much it applies to me and to the reflection in the mirror that I see every morning.
My name is Simon Larocca, and I am a videogamer, collector, and lover of pop culture in all its forms.
I go to the cinema whenever I can, I have been reading since I started wearing glasses, so basically forever, and I have a passion for storytelling in all its forms, so overwhelming that I turned it into a profession. But as Doc from Back to the Future would say, there would be no present if we did not look at the past with respect and admiration, and it is the child Simon of more than thirty years ago, give or take a year, who, breaking open the piggy bank and going to the Toy Center in Asti, secretly bought from his parents that wonderful dream machine called NES.
And from there, it all began.
So what is your job, Simon?
I am an editor and proofreader, I am the water bottle that recharges athletes, known in real life as writers, and revitalizes their manuscripts, giving them more than one reason to be submitted to publishing houses.
I handle words, work with stories, and seek within them the sacred fire of storytelling, the very same flame capable of igniting Link's adventures in The Legend of Zelda and that makes you jump out of your seat every time Ellie in The Last of Us finds herself fighting for her survival.
Yes, because in addition to being a professional editor, I also create worlds, as an author.
And these worlds would not exist if video games had not existed, one of the tools with which boys, often lonely and misunderstood, still today manage to process their fears and step outside their room, to face the most complex and difficult level of all.
But what does it mean to you, today, to be a collector?
A question as simple as it is complex. Let’s define the term collector: as I see it, to collect means to preserve.
Giving an object and what it means to me a way to get back on track, to become something more than a “thing” to touch and see. In fiction they are called Mementos, objects that at first glance awaken memories and emotions, lying dormant in the sands of time, as in Prince of Persia.
But like all magical artifacts discovered in a video game level, they need a temple to preserve them and do them justice. In Retroedicola Videoludica Club, in fact, the association in Bergamo of which I am a member, I found the ideal place to share, live, and pass on the passion that burns inside me.
Perhaps it is also because of this tendency of mine, this need to imprint meaning and value onto objects and what they represent at all costs, that I decided to follow very closely a project linked to the world of video games.
You talked about the world of video games, what do you like most about this strange, weird nerd universe?
First of all, my dear reflection in the mirror, nerds do not exist. Yes indeed, a shocking revelation, right? The term nerd is an ad hoc invention created by those who do not understand what it means to devote yourself to a passion capable of entertaining and teaching something, between a roll of the dice and a monster to defeat on a screen full of pixels! What do exist instead are people with substance, moral and emotional, people who still know how to dream and imagine. That said, what I love madly about the video game planet is Sharing. The beauty of being together and playing, near or far, exchanging opinions and having fun by sharing, precisely, many moods, as well as the subtle pleasure of teasing after a thousand hardships. I may be being banal, but the truth is contained in the word itself. 'Game'.
And what could be more serious, motivating, and educational than playing and learning?
