An old school gamer, of sorts... I cut my gaming teeth on Acquire and other 3M games and Mah Jongg before I hit double digits. I encountered my first Avalon Hill and SPI games shortly after that. Both companies filled the bulk of my gaming into the 1990s, apart from a stint in role-playing games. Through AH, I found my first "Euro" title when AH put out their edition of Kreml(in), and this paved the way for Adel Verpflichtet, Settlers and the many that followed. I got out of board gaming for a while (computer games and LAN parties were the focus of my group for several years), but I have been back playing boardgames for a few years now. I've been working hard to catch up on the titles I missed while I was away - most of them have been added to my collection, but there are a couple still eluding me.

A short form of my gaming history (at each stage I continued to play the previous, unless otherwise noted):
3M (proto-Euros)-> wargames -> RPGs -> Euros -> CCGs -> computer games - with computer games, all other gaming ended for a while. Now, I am content to play Euros and 3Ms and the occasional wargame, while steering clear of RPGs, most computer games and CCGs...

Outside of gaming, I am a Catholic deacon (hence the hacked church office avatar from Kingmaker...) and a network administrator.