How has gaming changed your life?

Alright, so I came to the United States in 2000 when I was 10 (which means im 20 now) and before that in my country, I had a pentium one and played bootleg PC games like 12-in-1 star wars games.. stuff like that. I also learned MS-DOS by myself lol (now i forgot everthing about it like the commands etc.)

anyway, I came here and my first games here were the PC port of Tomb Raider and Sonic 3 (the platformer). Then like in august of 2000, I learned of online gaming and what it is. I also learned that there was a game in the star wars cd i had, that can be played online. the game was Jedi Knight Dark Forces 2. the problem was, was that i couldnt get online since it was bootleg, so i bought one from compusa for like $15 i think and played online via MSN gaming zone! :D

interesting enough, i loved playing online that chatting with other players helped me improve my english. my parents were rarely home since they're diplomats so i was like pretty much a loner haha. after school i would go home and play. every single day until the end of junior high. when a new fps comes out, i would buy it; yes i was spoiled.

i played soldier of fortune 2 double helix, thief series, jedi outcast, call of duty (1st one), battlefield 1942.. anyway yeah.

also i forgot to mention that i learned about computer hardwares because i learned about how having more RAM and a better video card can imiprove the performance of your games. i built my first computer in 2005 for Half life 2, it felt like an amazing accomplishment.

also since i played so much war fps, it got me really interested in war history so i ended up watching the History Channel a lot when i was 12-16.

fast forwarda little, and when the idea of college came up in high school; i thought of majoring in history. but my parents were like, what can you do as a historian? just because you watch a lot of history channel doesnt mean you know history xD

so anyway, they chose a major for me and now i major in Finance in a B-level college in new york.business is sooo boring. the school i go to wants their students to get into wall street so all i learn in school are things on investment banking, sales and trading, investment management, stuff like that.

then came my first internship. it was with The Weinstein Company, its a film distributor and production company (they made scary movie 3,4, date movie, inglourious b@sterds and the reader etc..) and i loved it!. so i was like hmm maybe i should do film finance. but then i figured; you know what? if finance can be applied to films maybe i can perhaps go into video-game finance. so i thought about it bla bla bla, and after a couple of networking, sometime early december i will be having lunch with the CFO of nintendo.

i really hope my dream career becomes a reality :)

ugh writing this makes me feel so nostalgic..

so anyway how has gaming changed your life?

Welp, it's wasted a massive amount of my time since I was 3 yrs old, which could have been used for something more useful.

On the other hand, it's given me a significant amount of good experiences. It's also become a good way of relaxing and calming the mind after a stressful day.

Overall, I'd consider it a good thing. In any case, I don't regret starting so early.

Online gaming has allowed me to "hang out" with high school buddies and my brother, more importantly, more often that I could if we weren't gaming. We all live over an hour away from each other and we have kids.

So that is cool... I guess...

I guess that still falls in the "wasting time" category, but at least we aren't spending a ton of money getting drunk at bars and barely making it home behind the wheel.

That's a positive angle of gaming.

There's an old saying for bad kids... "keep idle hands busy..."

Games did have its negative effects on me when i were young,i lost alota lunch money on arcade games and stuff.

On the positive side,games saved me from the brink of suicide.I was at Uni and the work was loadz n stressful,i barely did anything else than school,eat,sleep and that was depressing me alot combined with the fact that all wasnt so bright like i wanted at school so it really really sunk me into depression.I became very less social and unorganized,at a point i started feeling as if i was torturing myself going tru wit life,dat it didnt mean anytin,not until i playd PS3 (its sounds unbelievable but its true ) i started to get a feeling of happyness and a reason to live.I made some friends online and local for games...........it was my life saver

I've been a gamer for most of my life since I was about 6 years old. There was a time in community college where I quit for a few years, but then I got back into it when I got cancer-- I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in May 2007. I asked my parents if they would buy me a used PS2 at a local Gamestop, since one of my dad's friends had given me a get-well card with a Gamestop gift card in it. So I got the PS2 and some games for it-- my first two games were Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid 2.

My PS2 was extremely helpful when I wasn't feeling well for a few days after each dose of chemo, and so that's a big impact games have had on my life. I'll be three years cancer-free next month, actually. And I'm still gaming! The PS2 got me back into it. Right now I have a Wii and an XBox 360. I also like hanging out with and talking about games with my gamer friends.

Games did have its negative effects on me when i were young,i lost alota lunch money on arcade games and stuff.

On the positive side,games saved me from the brink of suicide.I was at Uni and the work was loadz n stressful,i barely did anything else than school,eat,sleep and that was depressing me alot combined with the fact that all wasnt so bright like i wanted at school so it really really sunk me into depression.I became very less social and unorganized,at a point i started feeling as if i was torturing myself going tru wit life,dat it didnt mean anytin,not until i playd PS3 (its sounds unbelievable but its true ) i started to get a feeling of happyness and a reason to live.I made some friends online and local for games...........it was my life saver

megaspiderweb09

lol good to know youre still here :D

I've been a gamer for most of my life since I was about 6 years old. There was a time in community college where I quit for a few years, but then I got back into it when I got cancer-- I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in May 2007. I asked my parents if they would buy me a used PS2 at a local Gamestop, since one of my dad's friends had given me a get-well card with a Gamestop gift card in it. So I got the PS2 and some games for it-- my first two games were Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid 2.

My PS2 was extremely helpful when I wasn't feeling well for a few days after each dose of chemo, and so that's a big impact games have had on my life. I'll be three years cancer-free next month, actually. And I'm still gaming! The PS2 got me back into it. Right now I have a Wii and an XBox 360. I also like hanging out with and talking about games with my gamer friends.

MathMattS

wow, sorry to hear about your past condition; but im glad you got through it :)

Saved me from hours of boredom and helped me after a stressful day. Also gave me stuff to talk about with people who share the same interests. Not had any major impact though. Wouldn't say it's "changed my life".

It helped me escape from the boredom of reality, and definitely helps me suppress my anger and depression.

Saved me from hours of boredom and helped me after a stressful day. Also gave me stuff to talk about with people who share the same interests. Not had any major impact though. Wouldn't say it's "changed my life".

KlepticGrooves