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