My love for gaming started in the 80's. Family had a Commodore 64 and Atari 2600. I remember playing Asteroids. Was a favorite of my uncle's. Used to play frequently with him as he was about 10 years older than me. His style of games and the ones he played in turn influenced me as I went through flight sims in the late 80's, to strategy games, to FPS games. I acquired others from other relatives. My grandfather instilling a love for managerial games. A friend's father teaching me and him adventure games (Sierra especially). My uncle purchasing a NES and getting me into console gaming and platformers. My family and friends were there every step of the way. My coming to GOG was to relive those memories and experiences I had playing all those games from the PC all those years ago.

My love for gaming began when I watched others play video games.
As a little child, I was surrounded by young gamers, including one around my age next door.
I became curious watching the older children going crazy over this piece of plastic.
What are they doing? Oh they're fighting over that piece of grey thing.
What is this grey thing? *Puts it in my mouth*
Nope, doesn't taste great.

Watching the older kids continue fighting over the grey thing that is filled with my slob now and watching the adults walk past and happily focused on their own work, I was lost in thought...

"Hey! Do you want a try?"
"Sure!"

And that was how it began...
The little grey thing was magically moving the red hat man in blue overalls and his little car on the pixelated track...
Then a green dinosaur overtook him!!
Then there was a similar looking man with a green hat instead!!

I was astonished...and before I know it, I started fighting over that slob filled grey thing too!

Years later...

"Who's up for a round of another race tonight?!"

Im one of these heretics who got into vidya via mmorpgs. I think many of us did, whos "better years" has been at the middle of 2000th (unless you were able to afford ps2. I couldnt).
It wasnt my first time tho. My introduction to video game world has happend via sega mega drive (or genesis, if you were born in western country) I've got from my older brother, and chinese famicom clone we've played by my friend's house. These were fun times, but nothing has really hooked me in, coz none of the cartridges we had contained any deep mechanics - just mindless action. And it was like that till my friend got his first pc and invited me to show some cool game he has found.

The game in question was Ragnarok Online, and... you know, I felt like I've discovered something magestic.
First of all - I've never seen anything 3D thus far. Thus the difference between what I knew about video games and what they were technically capable of, at this time and day, was insane. Even if main characters were in 2D, I was shocked by the fact that something like this can be made.
Secondly - this was the first time I got introduced to the whole "roleplay" thing. You see - I never played DnD (and, to be fair, it still remains kinda true - I've got tru Neverwinter, I've played Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale - but I never got a chance to play the original thing). I spent a lot reading fantasy books, but it always felt like being a spectator - the idea of creating your own character and then deciding their fate has never crossed my mind... until that moment.
Since that very moment, I couldnt wait for the time I finally got my own pc, to be able to dive in by myself.

Yall know mmorpgs as genre that usually force players to do repetetive tasks, buy lootboxes and all that stuff. But it wasnt like that... or at least to me.
I didnt understand a thing about character building. I didnt know anything about minmaxing. I didnt know what "grind" means. I just discovered the whole digital world beyond and had all sorts of fun that have no sense to average player, but meant a lot to me. I explored the world with my nearly naked underleveled character. I've discovered things that were documented in some online wikis long time ago and didnt have any real purpose, but to me they were awesome. Towers and forests, oceans and deserts. You know how people make fun of those (usually either their parents or younger relatives) who join WoW and instead of leveling or crafting just wander around and do screenshots? Yep, I was like that. And it was AWESOME.
As said, I didnt know a thing about how to build character. I didnt understand stats and thus made what people call a "glass cannon". I didnt understand what matters about equipment and thus got scammed many times, selling things for cheaper than they are. But it didnt bother me. I had fun.

Later I've encountered Final Fantasy series (and whatever people say, FF2 (the real one, not FF4) is the best one. At least in my heart) and discovered the whole genre that was so appealing to me, years before I found about it. JRPGS, TRPGS, CRPGS - I went all the way.
Surely I tried other games too, coz they were popular at times (such as CS 1.6). But I never had as much fun as when I got to dive into whole new world, with its own stories to listen to, characters to talk to, things to discover.

Thats basically it. To sum things up, I'd say that my interest in videogames, in rpg videogames in particular, has affected my life more than anything else. In some other MMORPG I've met someone I felt in love with (it didnt end well, but we were together for almost 4 years and these memories are still dear to me). All the people who became (and remain) my friends, came either from videogame communities or were friends with those whom I met there. In videogames I've learned english (its still terrible, I know - but Im trying my best), and videogames made me whoever I am. Not kidding - even my whole job right now is related to all this stuff (with my lifetime goal being the naive childish dream about reviving the old feelings I've had when I first got into that). And, while I dont have as much time anymore to spend on vidya - Im trully glad that I've got into it

My love of gaming started with Super Mario Bros. and Sonic when I was young. The first games I played was Super Mario Bros. and Sonic at a cousin's house. From then on, games became part of one of my favorite pastimes. I loved playing Super Mario Bros. at that time it was a good addiction. And I enjoyed every level I completed. :)

It started with playing on a classmates C64. Can't remember what game it was but it was probably a flight simulator.

My video game birth certificate says Star Wars Dark forces in 97. I played before (gameboy, a little bit of amstrad) but after rewatching the trilogy in theatres, a friend suggested I play SW video games and. I. LOVED. IT.
I wanted to play all SW games, then I started to play other games and it became a real hobby. I'm 36 and still plays every day (almost)

It probably started with the Atari 2600 as my first exposure. It probably went to level 10 when I discovered puzzles games of the Genesis and SNES. It has devolved into casual puzzle games like Opus Magnum

My love for games started playing with my dad, my younger brother and my cousins with the VIdeopac G7000 with games like Stone Sling, Gunfighter and the bundle Race/spin out and Cryptogram.

It then evolved to the Spectrum 16/48K where we would organize tournaments between ourselves of World Cup Carnival, Chuckie Egg or just to see who could go further in Manic Miner or DeathChase.

The funny thing was that the machines could be extremely fidgety and between the 6/7 of us we could spend more time setting things up than actually playing.

Specially since we could only play on weekends and on vacations, for a limited time. The follow/up of going to play outside, was something just as great or sometimes even better.

Just to see how much of an old grognard I am ;)

I grew up playing games with my friends, but it was a passing interest. Two games really sparked my love of gaming, Final Fantasy VII and Half-life. From there, I have saved the world, slayed dragons, cast magic, and revived the dead; all from the safety of my home office.

I remember playing NES games before I could read... In hindsight I don't know how we got through so many of them without knowing what any of the text said!

My love of gaming began at school playing "educational" games like Gizmos & Gadgets! and Carmen Sandiego on the library computer during lunch breaks (because I didn't have a computer at home).

I would also spend my afternoons browsing PC game magazines at the local news stands and begging my parents to buy them for the demo CDs, which I would play with my cousin every weekend on their family computer.

When I got my first (second-hand) computer I was ecstatic and would try every game I could possibly get to run and immerse myself in a new world every day. The rest is history.

It was a Christmas morning, I woke up and opened up a wrapped Game Boy Advance and a cartage of Pokémon Sapphire. Right when I pushed that game in and the music started, man was I hooked. It was an amazing gift I received, as well as a addiction to get Pokémon games. The authentic sound of the gameboy adv booting up is the start of my gaming love adventure.

My first handheld was the Game Boy and the SNES my first home console. In 1996 my parents and I took a 3 week trip to Florida. I was thirteen and I was hyped for Disneyland. And then the magic happened.

I found the N64 booth with Mario 64 and Star Wars Shadows of the Empire. I fell in love with the console and the games. I visited it every day as long as I could and my Parents always asked me where I have been.

Back in Austria I was frustrated, because the N64 Release in Europe was 6 months later, also I couldnt afford the System. So I sold my SNES and my games, which was a very bad decision.

But back in the day I was so happy to play Super Mario 64 again that I didnt care for other games. I have the
fondest videogame memories of my life playing Zelda OoT, Banjo & Kazooie and Goldeneye. Also Blast Corps was so underrated!

Being born in a very poor household in the crime-infested slums did not really afford me an opportunity to go out and make friends and do normal kid stuff.
My parents would take me to crappy small government funded school and take me back home. No going out and playing with kids on my own for safety reasons.

At the age of 10 in 1995, my mother got me a nintendo with mario games in it. Thats when my love for games began.
Video games became a great substitute for real life friends. As I got older, I found the immersive power of video games to completely take away my feeling of pain, suffering and loneliness.

Years have passed, people have come and gone in my life, but my love for video games is persistent and will not fade away until my last breath.

My older family member owned an old Commodore 64, and we played games together; at first I just watched my family member play, and later on I joined in commenting and suggesting what to do, and eventually I took turns playing and then played on my own.

There were many great games. I particularly remember being excited by Uridium - it was probably the first shoot-em-up game I had ever seen. Later on I was fascinated by RPGs including Ultima III, Ultima IV, and the first Gold Box dungeons and dragons games - Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, and Champions of Krynn.

But it was not only international games - we also played "Uuno Turhapuro muuttaa maalle" (Uuno Turhapuro moves to the countryside), a Finnish side-scroller about a popular fictional antihero. I was amazed that a Finnish character could have his own computer game - the game was fairly difficult for me, but I got pretty good at it with practice.