My Gamer Bibliography

On the drive to work one morning I had some time to think about being a gamer.  It amazed me at how long I have been playing and the types of games I have played in my time as a gamer so much that I tried to chronicle when I started gaming and what I played throughout the years of my life.  I came up with the following list.  The list is by no means complete nor accurate but gives a sense of what I have been playing all these years.

• ~1987 - Board games - I think my first board game was Snakes and Ladders.  Then Chess and gradually more complicated ones like Monopoly.  Basically most of the Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers games.  I didn't start playing less mainstream board games until much later.
• ~1988 - Atari 2600 - First exposure to a video game when I was like 6 or 7 I think.
• ~1988 - Arcade games - Things like Mercs, Street Fighter II, and other classic arcade games from the late 80s early 90s.  I probably spent a small fortune in quarters playing those games.  I did get good enough at fighting games that I actually succeeded in beating one (Marvel vs. Capcom) by spending only 4 credits (back when it was two quarters per credit, so $2 total).  Hardly an impressive achievement by today's standards, but back then it was quite a feat for me.
• ~1989 - NES - I was a little late getting this gem of a machine.  I think I picked mine up after Mario Brothers 3 and around the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game (originally released as an arcade game but ported to the NES later).  Most of the games I enjoyed on the NES were platformers like Mario Brothers and Mega Man.  RPGs on the NES weren't very good (story was non-existent and game play was generally difficult) so I didn't play many of the NES ones.
• ~ 1991 - Dungeons & Dragons - A cousin gave me his AD&D 2nd edition books (Players Guide, DMs Guide and Dieties and Demigods) and the contents of the original Red Box.  I didn't actually know what it was until a friend in elementary school wanted to play.  Lots of fun but we had no idea what we were doing other than here's rules to make a character then lets fight monsters.  Most of our games ended up being us wandering a map and rolling on random encounter tables and fighting whatever came up.  It wasn't until much later when I picked up the rulebook for RIFTS (around 1997) that I finally figured out what an RPG campaign was and how to run one.  Since then I've been my group's DM for many epic campaigns (lasting anywhere from a few months to a few years).
• ~1992 - SNES - I picked this up fairly early when it got released as a cousin had shown us the system when we visited him and we somehow convinced our parents to pick one up for us the following Christmas.  Such a great system and introduced me to some of my favourite genres of gaming.  RPGs like Final Fantasy 2/4 and Final Fantasy 3/6 and more fighting games like Super Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat and of course action-rpgs like Zelda (although Zelda first came out on the NES, I liked the SNES one the best)
• ~1992 - PC Gaming - Around the time of the SNES games like Wolfenstein 3D started coming out.  This was when my brother and I started PC gaming more.  Prior to Wolfenstein 3d, most PC games were text based or had very poor graphics (even compared to Wolfenstein) but things were looking better every year.  Then came Doom and Doom 2 and it just got better from there.  So many good games from back then.  So much time spent playing them.  Warcraft 2 and Starcraft were amongst my groups favourites especially since they supported online gaming.
• ~1994 -  Magic: The Gathering (wiki) - Got introduced to this in late elementary school.  Was very fun and I remember many lunch hours spent casting spells and rampaging monsters throughout high school.  Never did play competitively at the beginning and most of the decks I built (as well as my group) focused on getting out giant creatures or giant armies as quickly as possible.  None of my friends had an interest in competitive MTG but that was ok in high school.  We just played for fun for the most part.
• ~1995 - Warhammer Fantasy  - I started playing (4th edition at the time) when some of my friends at school showed me their armies.  My first army ended up being an Undead army back when the vampires and mummies were in the same book and that edition of Warhammer was dominated by 500point characters on giant monsters.  The good old days of Herohammer.
•  ~1997 - Warhammer 40k - I started in 2nd edition but didnt actually play many games until 3rd was released.  I liked 3rd edition much better than 2nd, but can't decide if I like the new edition (6th) better than the last.  Haven't played enough games of 6th edition but I still have my army.  My Dark Angels army is the longest standing army I have of all the armies I have played in both worlds of Warhammer.  Mind you most of the models have changed since my first army, but there are still some original members of my first Dark Angels army from almost 15 years ago present in my collection.
• ~1997 - Sega Saturn - The upgrade I chose when the 32-bit systems came out.  A friend got the N64 and another picked up the Playstation One.  Between the three of us we had all 3 big 32-bit systems.  We would often pack up one of the systems, bring it over to someone's house then spend an ungodly amount of time playing some game only found on that system.  One of our favourite games for our video game nights was Goldeneye 007 for the N64.  I also liked the Virtua Cop series and House of the Dead for the Saturn.  On-rail shooters were lots of fun playing with two light guns.
• ~2000 - I skipped the PS2, Gamecube and XBox systems in the early 2000s but I still played a lot of video games (either with friends or on the PC).  I didn't get one of those systems mostly because I had left my parents house and had more important things to spend money on (like university text books and food and more Warhammer).  During this period I did spent a lot of time and money wargaming.  I ended up playing click games like Heroclix and Mechwarrior: Dark Age, and went through several Warhammer and Warhammer 40k armies.  I did start playing competitive MTG somewhere in this time period as one of the stores in town was hosting FNM at a time I could play.  School and then work did limit how much gaming I did but I did not completely give it up.
• Some time in the 2000s I was also introduced to less main stream tabletop games like Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Killer Bunnies.  Really broadened my scope of what can be done with a board game or card game.
• ~2005 - Guild Wars -  Played this before World of Warcraft as Guild Wars did not require a subscription.  Visually a better game than WoW at the time and the mechanics were different (only 10 skills as opposed to 20+ and each adventure was instanced).  Some friends and I played for a bit but I don't think we ever got through the whole campaign.  I still have the discs so might go back one of these days to finish the campaign.
• ~2006 - World of Warcraft -  A classmate from my teacher program convinced me to start playing this game.  Spent a year or two playing but stopped after I finished the Burning Crusade expansion.  Didn't stick around for anything else and haven't gone back.  Not a bad game and was a pioneer for the MMORPG genre that many have tried to copy.
• ~2008 - Wii - Bought one because I was able to convince my wife of its utility.  We both had a lot of fun with Wii Sports (and Sports Resort later) and she even found a few games she enjoyed (the two Harvest Moon games).  It was such a fun system that we bought a Wii for my father in law so we could play over there without having to pack up our own.
• ~2009 - League of Legends - I don't remember why I started playing this game.  No one referred me to it or anything.  I think I must have clicked on an ad or something.  Great game and I still play it today.  Glad my friends started playing it.  For a free game it's pretty darned good.
• ~2011 - Star Wars: The Old Republic - Picked this up on release as a few of my friends had done some beta weekends for it.  Played for about a half a year and had lots of fun.  Although I never did finish any of the Imperial story lines (I did the Jedi Knight and Jedi Consular stories and most of the Trooper story).  Even though it's free to play, I still haven't gotten around to finishing the Imperial side.  Not a bad game overall but not significantly different from WoW.

And that does it for my gamer bibliography up to this point.  I've probably left out a bunch of things (namely all the PC games and other video games I've played) but I'd challenge any gamer to list all the games they have played.