I began programming in 1994 with a procedural language used to program robotic legos. I found a fascination with it and began to program in True BASIC in 1995, teaching myself how to use a functional language. My first game was around 1996, coding a choose your own adventure game. It was poorly designed, but it was a playable game with a branching storyline.
In 1996, I began to teach myself C++, creating small console-based programs here and there, learning functions and the basics of classes. I began receiving formal training in 2001, learning commenting styles, data structures, diagramming, UML, and general better coding habits. Once I dipped into the C++ world, I became more interested in other languages and soon began to learn Java. I also began to learn how to improve my webpages by teaching myself CSS. In 2006 I taught myself C#/XNA.
My family brought home a Nintendo console and Super Mario Bros. in 1987. My sister and I played the console into the ground, playing mostly Tetris, Pac-man, and various Mario games. For a long time, that NES and the Super NES were played into the ground. After playing Playstation as well, I would occassionally return to the NES to analyze how the game worked and try to understand how the game was put together and what exactly made it fun (and why people keep returning to the old classics when there are so many new games available). Currently both the NES and Super NES are still working and playable. As is the Super Scoper.
Currently, I spend a good majority of my gaming time playing Guild Wars, analyzing the dynamics of the game, the AI, what sort of underlying data structures power the game, and how all of it travels across a network. I also greatly enjoy the strategy involved to beat the games.