This may come as a shock, but I happen to be something of a nerd/geek. I know, I know, it's beyond belief, yet it's true, and one of the things that has been particularly geeky about my life is the games I play. Granted, nowadays certain games are less geeky, and more mainstream, mostly video games, but way back when, gaming of any sort was geeky.

My introduction to games (outside of candyland, monopoly, etc.) came in the form of mazes. I had seen a map of a dungeon from my mother's D&D game, and when I was told about it I wanted more. Being maybe 5 at this point, my mother got me a book of mazes. This lead to my first interest in Greek myths (which fit right into D&D as I would later discover) starting off with the myth of the minotaur.

After that came the Nintendo Entertainment System. I'm not quite old enough for the Atari systems, but the NES grabbed my attention like nothing else. I finally got it for my 8th birthday (I think) after a whole lot of time spent enticing my parents with stories about how it helped increase hand-eye coordination. I never had a lot of games for the NES, but I didn't tend to get too bored with the ones I had either. Super Mario Bros. was a game I could go back to again and again!

My first computer game was Kings Quest III. My 5th grade teacher had it on the computer in her classroom. Unfortunately the copy of the spell book for the game that she had contained a typo, and so no one was ever able to cast one of the spells needed to progress off the island that you start on. Rather then being put off by this fact I explored that island, and every little nook and cranny on it for both 5th and 6th grades, often at recess.

When I hit Jr. High School (grades 7 & 8) I had a friend named Ayo who had a computer at home! And on this amazing computer was a game called Civilization. Now here was a game! Matching wits against a strategic artificial intelligence! This was good stuff!! Unfortunately it was on his computer, so I didn't get to play it nearly as much as I would have liked.

High school found me moving away from computer games (though I did end up with a Sega Genesis, mostly because they put out a Star Trek game for it) and into role-playing games. However I did discover that a new game had been put out called Civilizations II. I even bought a copy of it from someone, even though I didn't have a computer. See, I was a wanna-be computer geek. The only thing I was missing was the computer.

Get to college, and I'm too busy to spend much time playing, though by that point we finally had a computer, and off and on I would play Civ II. I got to be fairly good at, almost always winning by peaceful means. I even learned some cheat codes, and a bit about how to modify the game somewhat.

A little while ago, when I was thinking about getting Knights of the old Republic (still might) I won an auction for The Sims for Tigs. I think I've played it more then she has, and it's really right up the same alley as Civilization, ie making sure you buy the right things, research the right things, befriend the right people, and keep the people you play happy. The sims has less violence, and is on a smaller scale. I've also once again gotten back into Civ II. Seeing as Tigs has Civ III I really ought to give it a try, but I just enjoy Civ II so much.

(The videos I mentioned in my previous entry are here.)