Games that ruined me as a human being.
Okay, so gaming doesn't make you a bad person, per se. But it can lead to a pretty antisocial lifestyle.
I grew up an only child, so I was used to entertaining myself. I'm a lot more sociable now, but there are still times where I just want to hunker down for a weekend with my girlfriend and play video games.
Either way, when I was growing up, I wanted to be involved in the games industry. Still kinda do, but that's another story for another time. Looking back on it all, though, the two things I really loved as I grew up were books and video games.
I did other stuff, hung out with friends - y'know, the whole normal growing up stuff.
Either way, it was both a love of stories and narrative that had me follow a career in English, but as the years go by, I keep returning to video games as a singular mode of storytelling - capable of delivering some incredible memories that leave an incomparable emotional resonance that lingers for years. These aren't things that happen to a character you identify with, these are things that happen - in part - to you.
The games here aren't definitive exemplars of how it should be done, but the glimpses of brilliance I've experienced through them have set me off on this foolhardy path. Charging at windmills, trying to make a living in one industry where defining your marketable skills is almost impossible (English/Lit) and people are lined up 10 deep to break into to the other. (Video games)