Gaming
Please note that this text is sorely out-of-date. You’ll find me on the PlayStation Network under the name “SnarkHunter”.
I’ve been a gamer ever since my family got an Apple IIgs. I fondly remember the many hours spent on King’s Quest I and II, Space Quest, and Silpheed.
When I started playing MS-DOS based games, most of my initial gaming hours went into X-Wing, Civilization, and the Goodbye Galaxy series of Commander Keen games.
My introduction to the FPS genre came after a band practice one day – a couple of bandmates were playing Doom. Since I’ve never been a fan of gratuitous blood and gore, I was rather repulsed by my initial encounter with the game. Nonetheless, the technical achievement of a three dimensional game environment impressed me. (I later used DeHackEd to create a ‘censored’ version of the game, which I often played cooperatively with my brother via a null-modem.) I didn’t actively enter the 3d gaming world until sometime later, however, when I started playing Descent and Dark Forces.
I also spent a lot of time playing door games on the Reality Bytes and Bill’s Place BBSes. I played Legend Of the Red Dragon (LORD) a bit, as well as LORD2 (which I liked much better). My first favorite, however, was Planets: The Exploration Of Space (TEOS). I fondly recall taking over the entire galaxy with another player. The Sysop then began taking our planets from us, since we started trying to enforce parking fees on all the other players.
For a few years, I focused on LAN party-friendly games, such as Enemy Territory, Counter-Strike, and Battlefield 1942 (along with its many different mods). I was especially delighted to discover the unique, free FPS called Cube, along with its younger brother Sauerbraten.
Most recently, I came to realize that I was no longer interested in the games themselves. Rather, I was interested in the storyline, and in creating a cinematic experience for myself. In essence, gaming had become my visual artistic outlet. Once I realized that filmmaking was what I was really trying to do, my interest in gaming diminished substantially. (Although I still have visions of dabbling in game development someday.)
