The Games People Play - Part I

The cool thing about working at a video game company for over 20 years is that you meet a lot of likeminded nerds who love games as much as you do. And during that time, different games have captured my imagination and I've played them to death. Some of the more notable ones take me years to get out of my system - I'll play them with friends until we suck the very marrow out of them. Here are a few that had real staying power:

MAGIC THE GATHERING

I can still remember when I got my first Sengir Vampire and Lord of the Pit! I made about 35 decks and had boxes and boxes of cards. I favored black and red - and loved to cast fireballs and bring out hypnotic Spectors ... ah, those were the days. I had my favorite deck of Black Vise with Hypno Spectors. Every day at lunch a group of us would bring out our decks and have at it. It always amazed me how many different strategies people would come up with to try and destroy me. Mike Crowns had a red and green deck that was REALLY annoying; it was designed to get out as many 1/1 creatures as possible and overwhelm me while throwing lightning bolts and fireballs on top of it. Wizards of The Coast really tapped into something special by creating packs that made you so excited when you opened them to see which special cards you got. But it wasn't just the cards, it was the fun of figuring out how to build decks using those cards. Genius.