Why Do I Love Computer Games?

I am 22 years old. I have a very good job as amade in graphical effects.
Field Engineer with a very large, well-respectedSo what is it that makes a good game? What
company. I have responsibility now, and I guesshas kept me coming back for more when so
it's time to start growing up. However, there ismany other fads and hobbies have come and
one vise that I hope I will never abandon, and itgone? 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 broughtas a waste of time?
home an Apple II GS, and it came with a hugeA good computer game will trick us into believing
stack of 5.25inch floppys loaded with some of thethe 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, Marbleare commanding an army, blasting demons back
Madness, Olympic Winter Games, and BounceItto hell, or slashing our way through a medieval
were just a few of the games that molded mevillage, 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 apixels move on a screen. The realization that a
computing powerhouse in the IBM Aptiva, whichgroup of coders has predetermined the outcome
sported a Pentium II processor and Windows95of every choice we could possibly make can be
operating system. I still remember trying to wrapthe ultimate disillusionment to our electronic
my head around that 4 Gig hard-drive. Moredaydream.
important than the computer was the game thatAnd why can I spend hours immersed in a
came with it. Mechwarrior II Mercenaries was mygame-world. That's easy. Imagination. Those of us
first 3D game, and it remains to this day one ofwith strong imaginations, those of us who played
the most well-designed and enjoyable games Ioutside as kids instead of watching TV 24/7,
have ever played. I was immersed in the game...Ithose of us who lived as Robin Hood, Batman,
really was a mercenary, piloting my "beer-can ofand 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 goodMaster-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