It was the excitement of discovering new worlds and mastering skills that drew you to PC gaming and building.
It was the excitement of discovering new worlds and mastering skills that drew you to PC gaming and building.
I first started playing games around 2005-2006 on my parents' Windows XP system. Later, I bought a PS2 and spent hours playing Ratchet and Clank, trying to learn English along the way. Around 7th grade I began building PC hardware and attended a university course on that topic. I met my best friend there, with whom I communicated in teamspeak for three years until he faced legal issues. Most of his friends formed their own groups and left him out. We still exchange messages occasionally.
I've mostly been a PC gamer all along. I've switched to console games and bought a few consoles, but PC has always been my favorite. Especially multiplayer FPS titles. I began with Unreal Tournament 1999 as a kid, then inherited gaming rigs from my older brothers whenever they upgraded or bought new ones. I didn't assemble my own PC until Battlefield 3 (around 2011, when I was 19 or 20). That setup was perfect for running Battlefield 3. A fellow forum member assisted me with the build—his name is unknown, but he's still active here. Thank him!
The earliest exposure to PC gaming likely came during elementary school when there was a computer lab—possibly using original Apple II machines—and my parents had a computer at home. At that time, PC games were essentially another type of game, and they weren't significantly better than console titles. I remember playing titles such as Crusader: No Remorse, One Must Fall 2097, and Quake. These games really started to gain popularity around 2001 when I got my own personal PC. Before that, I experimented with them for a while, and later my friend in high school sparked my interest in building custom PCs.
What drew me to PC gaming were Minecraft and my old laptop, which could only run games like CSGO, but it was still a lot of fun.