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I'm a math teacher by day and a gamer by night.
[Update:] Well, I was laid off in the mass firing of teachers due to "budget cuts." I teach college math at night now, so my new mantra is:
I'm a gamer by day and a math instructor by night! Funny how things change!
(BTW: I love my new job: more time to play games and less prep time spent at home!)
How I Got into Gaming:
I cut my teeth on Pong and Atari 2600 games. My dad would buy them at Goodwill for cheap when I was a kid. I was always a system behind all my friends growing up, but I'm not complaining! It just meant I could get lots of games and get them cheaper after all the hype has faded, or I could buy them off of friends for cheap since they got the new system. With that said, I didn't fall in love with gaming until I played Final Fantasy VI. (The purple FFIII as it was sold to us back in the day for the SNES, and I'm still waiting for my retro re-make!)
I completely missed the Playstation 1 and 2 and all the awesome RPGs because I was in college and didn't play games b/c I was focused on my studies and working to pay for college. After I was settled in my teaching career, I jumped back into gaming at the tail end of the original Xbox. I was overwhelmed by the graphic jump from my old SNES to the Xbox! I think my favorite game on the origianl Xbox was A Bard's Tale. I had a blast playing that game; the goofy songs were the best!
I currently play Xbox 360 and have 20K+ achievements! My plan is to get the Vita and go crazy downloading all the old-school RPGs that are on PSN that I missed out on while I was in college.
What Games I Play:
I love RPGs and Third-person shooters! I am terrible in any game that is FPS, although Borderlands is the exception. I attempted Morrowind one time and my guy got stuck on a rock with the camera angle stuck twirling around up in the air. That's when I pretty much called it quits for any game in the FP perspective.
I don't really care for MMOs; I just can't commit to one game and pay a monthly fee to play it after I've already bought it. I recognize that free-to-play is very popular now, but they just want you to buy the special money to do anything fun. As far as East vs West in the RPG arena, I love both! JRPGs are nostalgic to me, and I love that the East is catching up. I do hate that Japan gets all the best ones first, but I figure we might as well let them filter out all the crummy ones and only the cream makes it to the US. Although, how did Catherine make it stateside....? I'm just kidding, but that really isn't my kind of game.
I subscribe to several game magazines, and I read Internet articles on GI and IGN everday!
Now that my new job has afforded me more time, I am going to attempt to develop a game with XNA. Major Nelson said that it was "so easy that a high schooler could do it," so I'm setting out to prove him right or wrong. Look out for posts and updates on this adventure!