As we approach the end of this learning experience, I thought I'd post my earliest thoughts on gaming as a look back to the beginning:

Feb 2009 

"Here begins a new level in my gaming experience.

I have always had an affinity for solving puzzles, and I was drwan early on to cryptograms, wordgames and even the “choose your own adventure” series of books, where you read a bit of the story, decided on the best path and flipped to the relevant page. Such stories were often fantasy literature, and perhaps a precursor to the modern Roleplay digital games.

In this realm of digital gaming, my experience is much more limited, having begun and ended (for years) in the golden era of Atari and the precursors to arcade and handheld machines with such classics as Pacman, Krull and Dungeons & Dragons.

Much later, I had brief encounters with the Supernintendo (8 bit) and only recently rediscovered digital gaming through the Xbox. The Wii with its virtual reality concept is still foreign to me.

My interest in digital gaming was actually rekindled while working as a schoolteacher, seeing the impact gaming had on my students, and the way in which even the dullest content could be modified to be more appealing.

Even more interesting was the fact that the enjoyment they derived from our digital sessions seemed to spark their understanding and creative thinking with reference to topics that were not included in the games.

In my own thoroughly un-scientific self-observation, I've found that interspersing reading and written studies with half hour of gaming seems to rekindle my ability to internalise notes (though an hour or more has the opposite effect, dulling my senses).

I see a great deal of potential in channeling positive and imaginative content using this exciting medium. "