| I am 22 years old. I have a very good job as a | | | | made in graphical effects. |
| Field Engineer with a very large, well-respected | | | | So what is it that makes a good game? What |
| company. I have responsibility now, and I guess | | | | has kept me coming back for more when so |
| it's time to start growing up. However, there is | | | | many other fads and hobbies have come and |
| one vise that I hope I will never abandon, and it | | | | gone? More importantly, why do so many other |
| started back when I was only a few years old. | | | | people not understand my passion, and see it only |
| Sometime in the late 1980's, my father brought | | | | as a waste of time? |
| home an Apple II GS, and it came with a huge | | | | A good computer game will trick us into believing |
| stack of 5.25inch floppys loaded with some of the | | | | the impossible, in the same way that a scary |
| best entertainment I had ever experienced. | | | | movie leaves us afraid of the dark. Whether we |
| Mission Impossible, Conan, Wings of Fury, Marble | | | | are commanding an army, blasting demons back |
| Madness, Olympic Winter Games, and BounceIt | | | | to hell, or slashing our way through a medieval |
| were just a few of the games that molded me | | | | village, there is always one place that we should |
| into a 2D gaming aficionado. | | | | never be...and that's sitting at a desk watching |
| In the mid-1990's, our family purchased a | | | | pixels move on a screen. The realization that a |
| computing powerhouse in the IBM Aptiva, which | | | | group of coders has predetermined the outcome |
| sported a Pentium II processor and Windows95 | | | | of every choice we could possibly make can be |
| operating system. I still remember trying to wrap | | | | the ultimate disillusionment to our electronic |
| my head around that 4 Gig hard-drive. More | | | | daydream. |
| important than the computer was the game that | | | | And why can I spend hours immersed in a |
| came with it. Mechwarrior II Mercenaries was my | | | | game-world. That's easy. Imagination. Those of us |
| first 3D game, and it remains to this day one of | | | | with strong imaginations, those of us who played |
| the most well-designed and enjoyable games I | | | | outside as kids instead of watching TV 24/7, |
| have ever played. I was immersed in the game...I | | | | those of us who lived as Robin Hood, Batman, |
| really was a mercenary, piloting my "beer-can of | | | | and Davy Crocket as children have no problem |
| a mech" to earn cash and salvage. The storyline, | | | | becoming Gordon Freeman (Half-Life), |
| the voice-acting, and the gameplay were so good | | | | Master-Chief (Halo), or the Supreme Commander |
| it almost hurts me to think of the potential such a | | | | (Supreme Commander) in our computer games. |
| game would have today with the advances we've | | | | |