So why did you start playing video games and when? Why do you still play them?

[Nexus-77]

So why did you start playing video games and when? Why do you still play them?

I'd like to know why you ladies and gentlemen started playing video games and when.
I mean, if a reason is even necessary.

In my case it was mainly because of my uncle and my brother.
My uncle bought us (me and my brother) a Master System in 1992 because that's all my brother wanted for his anniversary since I don't know when. We had a lot of fun trying to play Golden Axe Warrior and that other game in which a little man runs on blocks of ice (what was the name? I don't know).


Than we both bought a SNES with our 'savings' and became fans of Mario, Castlevania, etc.
SNES was an important thing in our house because while the world was collapsing (some really bad things happening during that time) I (and my brother) could escape to those little virtual worlds when we had to be at 'home'.
Thankfully it is all in the past now, but let me tell you... the things children/teens endure without knowing how hard they are.

I remember playing Resident Evil in the first PlayStation and I pretty much stopped playing games during high school and college, with the exception of The Longest Journey in 2002, in my boyfriend's pc. My brother kept on playing, I remember watching him playing Never Winter Nights once in a while during that time.

After ten years without playing, in 2011 I remembered games existed, because I've read somewhere the Prime Minister of Poland gave Obama a little game for him to play. I remember I smiled and thought: "this game has to be good". But I didn't give The Witcher much attention, I just begun searching about games on google and wow, they have evolved. So I started playing Adventure Games mainly (Syberia, etc.). And in 2012 I decided to buy a good processor and a video card so I could play Mass Effect Trilogy (and I loved it with all its flaws). Then I played DAO, then TW 1 and TW 2.

Funny thing: I think I'm more obsessed about games now then when I was a child. Go figure.

I still play games because they are somewhat 'comforting' for me, besides being such an interesting media. I'll be playing while I can and while there are interesting titles out there. Hope they evolve until they are also considered an art form, because they're fun, but also an art form in my view.
Besides, I want to be like this old lady when I'm 100 years (if I get there and the world doesn't end before I get there, of course):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nawe7F8cZ_U

So... you don't need to be all confessional, but why and when did you start playing games? Why do you still play them?

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Games were always an art form, at least good ones. I liked games since I was a child. My parents gave me some DOS games to play on a PC, when they used to bring me to work, since I didn't have a computer at home at that time. Those included the same Golden Axe, Gobliiins and other classics. Some other notable games I played at that time include
Warlords and 4-D Sports Boxing (sample of a soundtrack: https://youtube.com/watch?v=felxIBtjzB8).

But before that I had to write some programs (at that time it was in BASIC). After I did that I could play That added to my interest in computers and programming.

 

[Cs__sz__r]

Played the NES and SNES in the 90's when I was still in one digits. The most memorable moment for me though was the release of the original Xbox. Not because of the console itself but because of the complete idiotic fool my father made of himself on launch night.

Sometime before the now old gen I started playing pc games. Guild Wars, WoW, and various strategy games among them. I reverted back to console play when Gears of War came out and I was always playing Xbox 360. Eventually I just got bored with gaming altogether and if I recall correctly the only game I played while on hiatus was "Viking". I was high as a kite.

Then came the new year of 2008. Another friend of mine was having much regret after a Steam Sale and he had bought the Witcher. Sounded okay so I went over and played, and holy hell I was sucked right back into gaming. Looking forward to future games and games I had missed. No matter the system, I'll always live gaming and probably play until the end.

 

[vivaxardas2015]

I got my first PC sometime around 1988-1989, and I had to do something with it. So I looked around and found out there were quite a few interesting games. I tried them out and got hooked for life.
First my preferred genre was pint-and-click adventure (unlike today, with a walkthrough already built into the game itself, and unlimited hints they were pretty hard), then I turned to RPGs and RTS. Later I sort of abandoned RTS because in the games I mostly look for a good story.
My old all time favorite point-and-click: Broken Sword series, Gabriel Knight series, Myst series
Old RPGs: M&M series, Gothic 1-2
I bought my first console, xbox 360, 4 years ago, and bit later ps3 as well.
I got my first tablet couple of years ago, and I returned to point-and-click/HOGs and logic games. Nonograms are the best invention since sliced bread, you know.

 

[ReptilePZ]

First my preferred genre was pint-and-click adventure

Yep.

 

[volsung]

I first played video games at friends' houses since I never owned a console (and my parents didn't like consoles). I remember playing games like Pac Man and Double Dragon on the NES, Mario Kart, Star Fox and Mortal Kombat II on the SNES. At my dad's office I would play QBASIC games like Nibbles and Gorilla. Eventually my parents bought a computer with DOS and Win 3.1 and that's when I started playing PC games. My first PC game was Prince of Persia, followed by the likes of Prince of Persia II, Day of the Tentacle, Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis, Comanche, Sim City 2000 and Mortal Kombat II & 3

I was always fascinated by the animations and the ability to control a character. With the use of the computer, I became fascinated by the function and operation of the computer, and still in elementary school I read through some books and tech manuals and taught myself some basic script programming and "advanced" DOS. I was always a geek (before the computer I would read science books for fun) and loved playing with Legos. After the computer, I could do the same (learn and build) in the digital world.

In middle and high school I started buying CD's with shareware games (of which I never ordered any ) and I was exposed to tons of new genres. I became addicted to LucasArts adventure games, I liked racing games and enjoyed the occasional action thing like Duke Nukem 3D. Later on I found Baldur's Gate and have since then become a huge follower of traditional computer RPG's, going through the entire Infinity Engine catalogue and NWN and so on.

During college I stopped playing excessively and eventually went back to regular gaming with The Witcher in January 2008. Ever since I've been playing a lot due in part to the fact that now I can actually afford to upgrade my computer and purchase games anytime. The reason why I still play is because, well, it's FUN. I feel other types of entertainment have gone down in quality, especially movies, while the game industry has become particularly strong and creates some very interesting cinematic experiences that I can share with my wife. I currently work in research (scientific computing and cognitive modeling) and I basically get paid to solve complex problems with any (well, mathematical) solution I can create. I am addicted to problem solving and it gives me great satisfaction. Games provide a channel to solve easier problems with a quick sense of reward, while (sometimes) exercising similar analytical reasoning skills. Other games are simply intense and fun and a way to chill down and relax.

Currently I am mostly interested in games that provide intense tactical scenarios for deliberate (not perceptual), logical decision making and planning. I am currently working on models of decision making in uncertain environments and I like its applications to games of logic and perfect information. In other words, I try to look for well balanced turn based games, and I like to read so I prefer good stories. I won't turn down a really good action game either, because well, I just like games.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

At my dad's office I would play QBASIC games like Nibbles and Gorilla.

I remember those. I still have QBASIC Gorllia code backed up. At one time I even modified the original game to allow throwing sand bomb bananas which created protective barriers Compiled it works even now in DosBox. Tinkering with that code was really fun.

My first PC game was Prince of Persia

Ah, I've forgotten all about it. I played it at my friend's house as one of my first games too.

 

[dragonbird]

"Adventure" on a mainframe, and then later on Apple II, Space Invaders at the pub, Pong on the very first Atari consoles (that got boring fast), First addictive game was Lode Runner on a Mac. First RPG was Wizardry.

I wrote a version of Star Trek to run on ZX81 (for my own use only), and an Othello game on an Olivetti computer at work while we were learning how to code for computers that had monitors.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

@dragonbird: I once tried to make a text adventure game, and made a few "rooms" (i.e. locations) where some NPCs even wandered around. But it don't go further than that. The hardest part wasn't even coding, it was making some original settings which is a fun process.

 

[volsung]

computers that had monitors.

what manner of sorcery was that?!

 

[dragonbird]

what manner of sorcery was that?!

A true novelty. When I started at Olivetti, the display was a one-line prompt to the operator, around 16 characters I think, just above the keyboard. Then they brought out monitors that had 24 lines, but you could still only enter your response on the line at the bottom of the screen.

Oh, and my Othello game won against everyone in the office.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Oh, and my Othello game won against everyone in the office.

Reminds me the story of Mel: http://jargon.net/jargonfile/t/TheStoryofMel.html

 

[dragonbird]

Reminds me the story of Mel: http://jargon.net/jargonfile/t/TheStoryofMel.html

Yup, pretty accurate.We weren't quite at the machine code level, but we wrote in assembler, and knew the numeric values for most of the instruction set. But my Othello never cheated

 

[volsung]

Yup, pretty accurate.We weren't quite at the machine code level, but we wrote in assembler, and knew the numeric values for most of the instruction set. But my Othello never cheated

You youngsters and your mnemonics...

The only thing I ever wrote in assembler was a Sokoban clone and some 3D rotating figures but it was kind of fun.

 

[Senteria]

My parents bought an atari 2600 in 1992 for 25 guilders back then. Which is about 12 euro's. The games were only 5 guilders each. I was 5 at the time and I really enjoyed it. My older brother bought later on an atari XE and we got our hands on a commodore 64 and a sega. I remember buying a ps1 in 1998. I had saved up half the money needed to buy it and my brother the other half. I know I played a lot on it since my parents often didn't want to play games with me. (not as often as I'd like them to) So it was a way to entertain myself. =)

My first game I played was Circus on the atari. Even my parents liked that game. I also remember Dig Dug among others but the first game I bought myself was Skullmonkeys for the ps1. A great platformer by Doug TenNapel. My brother rather wanted the first game to be this RTS game but I was against it. The 2nd game bought by my brother was command and conquer, which my parents thought it was way too violent. Third game was Jurassic Park - The Lost World and after that it was Final Fantasy VII. I tried convincing my brother not to buy it as I thought it was only going to be a movie.

To explain: We had demo's back then that you would get by buying a magazine. They had both videos and playable demos. Well they only showed a video and not a playable demo, so I thought the game was just a movie or something. I was 8 years old and I did not know a whole lot. I mean I did not even understand Final Fantasy VII much at all as it was completely english subtitled of course. I kept asking my older brother to translate the text but he was never in time to translate. He often translated a tiny bit of a conversation, but way later. This way I had to learn English in order to follow the story. I did understand the general idea. In 1999 I could read some of the english texts from Final Fantasy 8 and in 2000 I could understand everything and played Final Fantasy 9 myself.

 

[Gr3aves]

I've been playing video games since right after i was done with Lego's. I remember my parents bringing home CD's with 99 games on them. Those were the times.
Then my brother got some Dutch racing game for his birthday. (A2 Racer 4)
It was the first game i played where you could ram other cars, and break them down bit by bit. I think i was 6, or something.

I started playing a lot of games. Boat races with guns, Lego racers, Lego Island, etc.

I had a mate who's big brothers played Age of Empires, and Age of Mythology. I was hooked. Got the game from my parents, and i played the shit out of it.
(I remember coming home from school, and my mom was kicking some ass on AoE, so she must have liked it as well.)

When i grew up (age 10 - 13) we moved to the country side. I lost all my local mates, and started gaming a lot more, cause you didn't need mates for that. I played Need for Speed (Hot Porsuit, Underground, Carbon), and started playing my first 3D shooter, Rayman 2. Thats when i got into the FPS genre, (i was around 14-15 by then) and i started playing Call of Duty 1 and 2. Loved them. When i was 15, i broke my shoulder from falling of my Puch and i had to stay home for 6 weeks. This was exactly 6 weeks before the summer vacation, and i was very happy about my prolonged vacation. I played Age of Empires 3 and the Sims 1 for that entire time.

Then came the era of my brothers LAN-parties. I could tag along with all the big guys. We played Battlefield 2, Call of Duty 4, Age of Empires 2, and we had a blast.
I also remember playing the shit out of Farcry 2 at the time.

When Modern Warfare 2 came out, i got it the day of release. I was introduced to Steam for the first time. It is in that game where i met most of my current mates. We even fly to each others countries and hang out once a year.
They introduced me to RPG's, the genre which became my favourite. I played Dragon Age: Origins for 800 hours. Then came the Mass Effect series, Fallout series, Oblivion, Skyrim, and eventually, the Witcher 2. The experience was amazing. I always avoided MMO's, but Guild Wars 2 pulled me over the line by eliminating monthly fees. I was hooked to that as well.

I hardly touch Shooters anymore, but strategy games like X-Com and Dota 2 are still quite fun.

I'm currently doing my 5th playtrough of the Witcher 2. Having a blast.

 

[gedierond]

Well, I´ll have to try and remember...

I started playing before I even learned how to write.
My family had both an Atari 2600 and a Talent MSX computer back then, and I used to play with my older brothers, so you could say it was because of them that I started playing games. My memories from those days are fuzzy, but I remember playing Track & Field, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, all the classics...

Then we got our first IBM PC when I was about 7-8 years old (it had DOS and a Hercules monochromatic monitor). The games I remember from that time are Prince of Persia and Nuclear War.
Not long later my parents bought the not-so-legal version of Famicom that could be obtained here in Argentina, called Family Game. That´s when my passion for videogames really started, with games such as Super Mario Bros., Contra, Loony Toons, Die Hard, etc.

From then on, I´ve always had a gaming PC, following the evolution of the industry very closely, and always upgrading it as first my parents, then me and my brothers, then just me, could.
I´ve played the first Civ and all of its sequels, Maniac Mansion and most of Lucas´ adventure games, Dune 2 (which absolutely blew my mind back then), the first Warcraft and many of the RTS that followed them, the X-Wing series, and many, many more.

Regarding consoles, when I was just starting high school my parents bought a "Songa" for me (the again not-so-legal version of the Sega Mega Drive), which was just a blast. Sonic, Aladdin, The Lion King (games inspired by movies were good back then!!), Battletoads & Double Dragon, Earthworm Jim, Ecco the Dolphin... There are so many memorable games from that time that I just can´t name them all.

I played the "Songa" for a long time, having skipped the first PS generation (I always had my gaming PC, though...). However, it eventually fell short on new games, so I just focused on my PC games for quite a few years. During that time I played mainly strategy games... Age of Empires I & II, Command & Conquer I, II and Red Alert, Total Annihilation, Warcraft 2 & 3, the Civ of the moment (must have been Civ III around that time...), Master of Orion 1 & 2, Starcraft (to this day probably still the best RTS ever, IMO), etc.

It wasn´t until 2005, when my brother bought the Playstation 2 slim, that I returned to consoles. I don´t think I even need to mention the good times I´ve spent playing that little console...

After that, I bought a Xbox 360 for myself in 2008, after I got my degree. It has given me good times... It was there that I played the entire Mass Effect saga, the Arkham games, Red Dead Redemption, and many more excellent games.

My current gaming PC is the first one I bought entirely by myself from scratch, and it´s about 4 years old. I know I´ll have to upgrade it soon, even though it pains me to do so.

Maybe you´ve noticed that I haven´t mentioned many RPGs in my personal gaming history. And that´s because I didn´t get hooked up by RPGs until quite late, actually...
The first "pure" RPG I played was Neverwinter Nights, but not when it first came out... It must have been around 2005, and I loved it back then. From then on I´ve played many RPGs, but I still are quite lacking in that area (right now I´m completing my first Baldur´s Gate II + ToB playthrough).
Needless to say, I loved the games starred by our most awesome Geralt of Rivia, and I can´t wait to see how The Witcher 3 is going to rock this year!

As to why do I still play games... I can´t single out one reason. I guess it´s mostly because it allows me to forget about my real-life problems and worries, but really, I enjoy different genres for different reasons.
One thing I do know: I´ll never stop playing games, and I hope to enjoy the hobby along with my kids some day.

 

[Nexus-77]

"No matter the system, I'll always live gaming and probably play until the end".

Ditto.

 

[Cheylus]

1) I started to play video games with Alex Kidd and the miracle world.
The best era for video games was the Playstation era for me. When I played Final Fantasy VII and got out of Midgard I didn't know a game could have scale like this. Metal Gear Solid was the next big thing to me. I played a lot of JRPGs (Castlevania SOTN, Xenogears, Chrono Cross, Valkyrie Profile, Vagrant Story) for a while (they were mostly not available in my country, I had to hack my console to play those games, which made them even greater), and a lot of point-&-clicks. I bought the Saturn (for Radiant Silvergun and Panzer Dragoon Saga), the N64 (Goldeneye, Mario 64), the Dreamcast.
I started to play on PC with Half-Life I think, but I wasn't into PC games at that moment. My interest for PC gaming grew with Steam and began with Half Life 2.
I played a lot of "mainstream games". I'm not ashamed: I played A LOT of different games. Developers tried to deal with 3D back then: it created monstruosities and started some interesting things. I played and enjoyed car games, combat games (Soul Edge), skate games (Tony Hawk 2), snowboard games (can't remember the name), soccer games (even if I don't like soccer!), FPS (Medal of Honor), etc.; that's not the case anymore. I play mostly "adventure" games or RPG.
I played a lot of PS2 games but wasn't as impressed by games from this generation than I was with 32bits games.
I gave up on video game for some years (between 2008 and 2011) because I wasn't interested in the new generation of games and didn't have the money to buy new rigs, consoles or games (also, personal reasons).
I came back to video games with Mass Effect 2. The idea of going on with my previous save from Mass Effect was very interesting to me. From then I started to play a lot of PC games, buying (or downloading...) a lot of them. That's when I became interested in "western" RPG and that's when I discovered The Witcher.

2) I don't think I'll still play video games in some years. The more I'm trying to follow some future releases, the more I'm tired of watching the same thing over and over, playing the same things over and over, the same characters, the same stories from a serie to another. I'm playing to be entertained and cleverly challenged and I have to say I'm hardly entertained anymore; I don't treat video games as a serious matter. A part of me still thinks games are for children or for those people called "young adults".
Books are better to change a man and make him think. Music is stronger to make me feel something. The craftmanship of movies is a billion times better than it is in video games -- which have a hard time at becoming something else than boring interactive movies or tv shows in my opinion. I was fine when most games were made to be enjoyable and entertaining. Since games are trying to compete with common form of arts the pleasure isn't that immediate for me: I'm playing a lot of semi-interactive movies. I expect good games to put the gameplay and every player input at its core. I understood that by playing The Wolf Among Us recently: the final scene of episode 2 doesn't give you any choice but clicking on an item to go on: I wanted to go back and continue my investigation but it was impossible -- it wasn't a game anymore.
I don't think video games have much "artistic potential" to be something else than what it is nowadays. I'm rarely amazed, inspired, or thrilled by a game. On the other hand, I've been completely moved by books, movies or even paintings.

I understood I was going to dislike video games last year for many reasons. I didn't understand the praise Bioshock Infinite or The Last of Us got. I played The Stanley Parable and loved how it crushed games stupidity. I read forums hyped about Watch Dogs, Titanfall or other games (like Ryse...) and I didn't understood how people can be excited by a game they already played a million times before (the E3s and new generation conferences helped me to dislike video games even more). A majority of gamers nourrishes trends I tend to despise. I also don't like games made to have sequels, I can hardly stand cliffhangers or the post-credit scene meant to build the excitement for the next opus of the serie. I don't understand people asking for neverending stories and "licences" or "IP" (gosh). I was kinda interested by The Walking Dead concept before they hurt it with "400 days" and a sequel. I realized I'm tweaking/modding my games myself or cheating to get rid of annoyances because I can't stand some stupid game design decisions made to expand length. Oh, and I tried a MMORPG and some mobile games -- no comment. I play more and more casually: a short game of Civ5, Chivalry or ME3 with friends. Sometimes I buy on sale games between 5$ or 10$ on Steam to kill some time. Finally, I went back to reading more and... mediocre books are simply better than excellent games in my opinion.
The same year I gave up on following some tv shows I used to watch; I think my distaste came from the fact I like when things aren't milked to death and when conclusions are not made up as the serie goes but sharpened since the beginning.

I'm still following some interesting ideas on Kickstarter or "indie" games for instance (but a lot of "indie" games look alike: platformer/2D "pixel art" with a twist/intimist story). I'm still looking forward to No man's sky) for instance, and I'm very curious about the Occulus Rift. I'm also looking forward to the games I backed on Kickstarter (PoE, Torment, Broken Sword 5, Unsung Story, Kingdom Come: Deliverance), but I realize I'm only backing games that makes me feel nostalgic about past games. I am waiting for The Witcher 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Dark Souls 2. Sequels... because I was hooked some years ago by other games. "Nostalgia" again.

Basically I'm torn between my hate for "sequels" in general... and my love for "sequels" for a very selected number of games. Luckily I'm now absolutely hermetic to new series.

Yep, I think my days as a gamer are almost over, but hey, you can't be certain. Maybe I'll come back with the next TES or the next Civ. Or maybe... Cyberpunk? Or better: something else.

 

[Dona.794]

I don't think there's a reason beyond "I liked it". The first time I ever saw a videogame was on my friend's father's work computer (they had an office in their home and he'd let us play sometimes), where she showed me games like The Lost Vikings, Commander Keen, Aladdin, Doom. It was mostly her playing and me watching, but I knew I wanted to play games... and also that there was no way in hell my parents were getting me a computer. So when another friend showed me her shiny new Sega and Super Mario, that's what I asked for my 8th birthday.

Then later on I nagged and nagged for a PC to play Tomb Raider to help me with school, until I got one for my 13th birthday. Yay for birthdays! What I like about games hasn't changed all that much, for me it is mostly about the story and atmosphere. Gameplay is really the last thing I think about, unless it's something horrendously unplayable. These days I tend to go for more experience-oriented indie games, or the ones with lots of stealth and sneaking.

Also, yes, much love for point-and-click adventures! Although Tomb Raider was the first to make me consider playing 3D games, it was Broken Sword 2 that made me keep gaming.