Games
Lovely video games. Once my biggest past time. Growing up, video games had a big part in my life as entertainment. I was only ever into console games, the arcades never really thrilled me, mainly because I hated the controls and the paying part. I'm a Nintendo enthusiast; always have been and always will I'm sure. Like Apple, Nintendo has great creative imagination. They put out great technology, but don't seem to get the respect and appreciation they deserve. Nintendo has done things right because they have concentrated on the gaming experience and not on making it a home entertainment system. I don't want my console to play DVD's, that's why I have a DVD player, duh. Playstation is a pretty good machine too with a few games that I like, but it was never enough to get me to buy one. Though I do now have a Playstation 2, five years after it came out. The Xbox, well I treat it like I treat all Microsoft products, I step on it whenever possible. I'll be honest, I never really gave it a chance because of the Microsoft name, but I have played it a little and hated it. The controller was awful and awkward, and the games are just mediocre. Sure Halo was ok, but that was the most it had to offer and that wasn't enough for me to even play the game again on my friends system.
Not only did I love playing games when I was growing up, I was also quite good at it. My mom was always surprised when I told her I had beaten a game only a day or two after getting it. I just have a natural knack for games and have the patience to figure them out. It was also this love of games that got me interested in creating them. I came to college as a computer science major hoping to learn the trade that would let me make games. Boy was I wrong. You really have to find a school that specializes in video game education. General programming just isn't enough. I was pretty good at programming, much for the same reasons I was good at games, I had the patience for it. I eventually taught myself some game programming using some books and finding information on the wonderful Internet, but don't make great games like you would buy in the store. My best result has been a space invader-like game, but it used a bit of code from a book. It's now just a hobby though since I changed my major to Psychology and do more research type stuff now, but still do some programming when I can.