What influenced you to become a geek/nerd?

[RetroMelon]

Since I'm sure you are all well informed and intelligent people, and you are all members of a community revolving around programming/game development, I would like to know what you think influenced you (be it during childhood, or at a later point in your life) to become a geek/nerd. I am writing a "personal reflective essay" for english at school, and I have chosen to discuss what I believe influenced me to become interested in computers/programming. Unfortunately my story is unremarkable -I simply enjoyed drawing pictures as a toddler on MS Paint, and when I was 7 I discovered the internet- but I'm sure many of you will have much more interesting/humorous stories to tell .

[N64vSNES]

Geeks play with action figures, nerds watch star trek.

I am neither.

[dandymcgee]

I like to take things apart and learn how they work. I tried to do this with a computer as a very young child. What I found has led be to become a programmer. Simple really.

[Gman]

It was a 4th grade field trip to the local bank to see it's new main frame computer and playing tic tac toe on a paper terminal.

History comes full circle, taking the advice of Falco Girgis's video on how to develop a video game.
My first attempt to a write game is a tic tac toe game that is head to head between two computers.

[short]

It was a 4th grade field trip to the local bank to see it's new main frame computer and playing tic tac toe on a paper terminal.

History comes full circle, taking the advice of Falco Girgis's video on how to develop a video game.
My first attempt to a write game is a tic tac toe game that is head to head between two computers.

That's the coolest version of tic tac toe I've ever heard of.

[EccentricDuck]

Growing up playing games with my friends from a young age, a love of music, having a father into technology and business, a mother who believes strongly in higher education, pokemon, a profound tendency to ask "why", and a resentment for undeserved authority.

Growing up with games because I have a lot of positive memories formed around games with my friends and it served as a source of fun, competition, and exposure to deep levels of design and narrative.

Music partially because it was a pursuit that often bridged the gap between games, school, and life; and partially because it was a deep and enriching pursuit which I learned I could get a lot of joy from when I really applied myself to it.

Having a father into technology and business because he gave me a head start on working with computers, he appreciated my ability to use them, and as I grew up allowed me to see their applications (as well as instilling a healthy interest in science and emerging technologies).

Having a mother into higher education because she taught me to strive to be a professional at something (despite likely being part of the source of my resentment of authority).

Pokemon because it was an obsession of mine for a few years growing up where I felt like among those I knew I was the master in terms of knowledge (like being at the peak of your field of work in a sense). I have many fond memories of it and the world I explored with deep curiosity and passion.

A profound tendency to ask "why" because I was never satisfied with the answer "because..." which usually led to find out one way or another.

And last but not least (and probably most disturbing to many of my former teachers and bosses) a resentment for undeserved authority. I cannot accept having someone who I don't look up to telling me what to do... and even if I do look up to them I cannot internally accept cop-outs (like "because I am your <insert title>"). I will not accept the fact that someone needs to be my direct boss. This drives me to obsess over certain concepts, ideas, and projects as a way of creating something amazing I can feel personal pride in and/or knowing something in a deeper way than others will choose to as a way of being able to take action on it. I'm not going to explain that last point further (you can psychoanalyze it all you want) but I know internally why I feel that way and I've come to accept it as being a generally good thing. Needless to say, those tendencies drive me to the next level in the things I do and lead me to obsess over things others might consider minute.

[RetroMelon]

Geeks play with action figures, nerds watch star trek.

I am neither.

Interesting. In that case, what do you consider yourself to be? Just a games developer?
I don't generally invest my time in "geeky" endeavours beyond programming and technology. I do not collect action figures or pokemon cards, and I am not able to recite the teachings of Yoda. However, if asked i would proudly proclaim that I am very much a geek. :P

Also, the desire to take things apart, ask how things work and "not to take because for an answer..." seems to be a common factor in many people's stories. This is probably why we exist on this particular forum.

[JamesParkes]

Answer: Nintendo 64
Time: Christmas 1996
Game: Super Mario 64
Explanation: I always loved playing video games growing up. I could literally not get away from them. But, the first true system I ever owned (when I say owned shared between myself and two brothers) was the Nintendo 64. However, the first time I saw it in all its glory was Christmas 1996 when my cousin Brian got one as a present from the grandparents. Brian and my older brother Luke stayed up and played Super Mario 64 all night long (for like a week straight) and since Jarrod and I were the youngest we had to just watch. I stayed glued to the TV. I wanted my cousin and brother to get the stars just as bad as they did. It all started there for me ... my path to geekdom. After that a slippery slope of N64 Classics, Runescape, Diablo II, Warcraft III, Age of Empires, Neopets, Halo ... the classics could go on forever. Honestly, when I think about games today as a 21 year old adult, I will give any game a shot. I love everything that goes into a game, the people behind, and the infinite creativity that comes from artist, writers, programmers, etc. Games are a work of art to me that takes extreme dedication to make.

[Benjamin100]

LOL. Well yeah, I probably used Paint as a kid a lot myself.
I recall using computers from a young age.

My first obsession with gaming was probably SNES. I wasn't much of an N64 kid, as I didn't get it right when it came out.
I had Super Mario World SMRPG. I also recall enjoy some of Yoshi's Island.
And of course the NES and the 3 mario games there.

I guess a lot of people around 20 now started with the N64, but I didn't. I started with the SNES and didn't get the n64 till way later, though I do recall playing 64 on a friend's system.

So I played a lot of SNES, and honestly, I think it was greater than anything to follow it.


Oh, and I liked Morrowind, which got me hooked on that series.

EDIT: And of course the gaming is what brought my interest in programming.

[Van-B]

A couple of places, well people influenced me to become a programmer, I don't subscribe to preset labels that define my personality in a 4 letter word :D.

My uncle was always into computers, C64 especially, and we'd visit most weekends and end up playing C64 games like Frak and Summer Sports all night.

But my main influence is Roy Carnell. He had a software company with Stuart Campbell, one of the first software companies in the UK, and Roy lived across the road from me. One day, he game me copies of all his games, and his book about creating adventure games (St Bernard, Wrath of Magra, Black Crystal etc etc). He's awesome, his parents were awesome as well, some of the nicest people I've ever known. I read in a magazine long after, that he was one of the first people to make a game with D&D style rules, in other words he trailblazed the RPG genre back before most people knew what it was.
Back then computer magazines would publish game code - assuming there were no bugs, we'd type it all out, would take most of the day usually, then we'd have a pac-man clone, or a basic shooter. These listings tended no to teach a lot about programming though, and Roy's book was more about writing a specific, hugely complex dungeon crawler - but the 'get it done' attitude was really inspiring. I have to show the cover for Black Crystal, it's so 80's awesome...


That wasn't the original packaging, that's the Mastertronic budget re-label - the original packaging was a fancy plastic injection moulded case, his games had an extra quality about them.

[Falco Girgis]

I became a gamer extremely early in my life. At around age 5, thanks to this beautiful machine:


...but it wasn't until much later in my life that I decided to pursue programming and game development with all of my existence. That was thanks to this beautiful machine:

[JamesParkes]

My Precious

[JarrodParkes]

This....

Wheeeeel

dn17640-1_300.jpg (13.74 KiB) Viewed 5344 times

Ha, but honestly, to name a few... Super Mario 64, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Pokemon Blue/Red, Age of Empires, Runescape. I played all of those as a young lad, and still enjoy them today.

[EdBoon]

I had 3 brothers growing up, had most of the systems so I played Atari, NES, SNES a ton but i would say what really got me into gaming was pc gaming, which is weird because now im pretty much all console. But it was Dune that started it, then Age of empires, Unreal Tournament, Red Alert, Quake1&2, Diablo1, Tribes1 that i was first addicted to. We didn't have a pc so i would have to play at my friends house. Soon after I got my own n64 and goldeneye, that started my console kick. soon after i got mario64 which was incredible, then ps1 + resident evil was the deal breaker. Still one of my favorite games of all time. invested a lot of time into Diablo2 and CS on pc as well, probably too much. so overall, hard to pinpoint

[szdarkhack]

Well, my first game system was the Gameboy Color (i know, kinda sad having missed the NES era...). My first game was Pokemon Gold, i really enjoyed it. What got me interested in programming, though, were some glitches in the game (i'm sure most of you remember the cloning bug). I was very interested in finding out why this happened.

Fortunately, a cousin of mine, a couple of years older, was also into programming so i learned the basic stuff from him over the summer before junior highschool (literally, the (q)BASIC stuff ). After that i've been hooked both in programming and in gaming, and finally around highschool i brought the two together and kept going ever since.