Posted by Steve, gamura arcitectus.
Hello, World.
My introduction into gaming was to those games typical to the 70s and 80s, such as cards, dice games, and board games like Monopoly. Rather early on in my middle school years, the Apple ][ was introduced and I was immediately hooked. I had played video games in the local arcade, such as Pong, Battle Zone, and Missile Command, but when our school got its first Apple ][, the thought of creating my own games was born. Do you remember the red Apple ][ Reference Manual from January of 1978? I still have one. From it, I learned Basic Programming and 6502 Assembly language. I created my first video game while in high school, but it was never published. It was written entirely in Assembly, as that was where you could really get the speed you needed on the one Megahertz 6502 inside the Apple ][. Many of the skills I learned back then would later transfer to my future career.
Fast forward to today, and I am back where I started: Using my skills to write games, only now on mobile devices.
What Do I Play Today?
High school was also where I was introduced to the game Dungeons and Dragons. My friends and I spent many hours reading the Player’s Manual and the Dungeon Master’s Guide. We created worlds of adventure and spent our time exploring these worlds. For the 
gamer in me, this was a game with endless possibilities, a game with no winners or losers, and a game that you could play over and over again. Today, I play Dungeons and Dragons Online, or DDO, and I am still at a loss for words to describe what happened when my wife asks, “Did you win?” after playing with my friends. My group, or guild, plays just once a week, though any member can play at any time. The guild is guaranteed to have a few members every Monday, our guild’s game day.
With the exception of DDO, I play mostly board and card games, and a smidgen of miniatures, especially at the yearly trek to Gen Con in Indianapolis. You can find me playing Carcasonne, Settler’s of Catan, Munchkin, Fluxx, Puerto Rico, Power Grid, and Dominion, to name a few of the games.
I also play billiards in a Pool League, and have played in one state tournament with my team. We lost, but had a great time playing!
Once a week I also host a gaming session that I like to call Friday Night Game Night. I will expand upon that in a future post.
Short Bio of the Author:
Steve lives in the frozen tundra of Minnesota with his wife and four kids, all 6 years old or younger. A serial entrepreneur, Oblique Diversions is his 6th company, but not his last, as he has already started another. Besides gaming, his other passion is biking, having ridden 1400 miles this calendar year and looking forward to an even higher goal next year.
