Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Gaming Made Me: Brian Mitsoda, Annie Carlson

So, Fallout wasn’t a revolution or the most popular game ever when it was released, but it had a profound impact on me, as it directly contributed to my career in the game industry. It’s not the first RPG I played by any stretch, but it was the first one that made the main character feel like a normal person rather than the activation switch in a predestined, very linear path. Not only was it wide open as far as play-styles went, but it was stunningly written with people over the age of twelve in mind. The combination of lax narrative and open world design made me reconsider a career in movies or TV and made me think gaming was going to be where it was at as far as developing new ways of creating and experiencing story.
At the time of its release, I was working on the fringe of the movie industry in Los Angeles. Looking up Interplay, I found out it was close enough (Orange County) to give it a shot, and they were hiring for testers at the time. I applied, got the job, and was on my way to becoming a designer of many cancelled titles and one that actually got out – well enough received for you to be reading this today, how ‘bout that? Perhaps if not for Fallout, I would have never thought my love of games, design, and writing could be combined and instead I’d be getting into the head of the Monopoly thimble, trying to figure out its motivation in the script while attempting to drink myself to death.

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LuckyCarbon said:

Interesting question. It made me ask myself, what games am I?

Wasteland - my first rpg, still one of the best. Every now and then I tell myself I'm going to rewrite this in flash so it's "playable".

Pool of Radiance - I still love the premise, you're just a schmuck looking to make a few bucks, not the foretold heroes.

Betrayal At Krondor - One of the best ever, I had just finished reading the books when this came out, I'm still totally in love with it . This is in essence my kind of RPG, good story, turn based combat, exploring, upgrading equipment and less blah blah blah.

Fallout 1/2 - Need I say more?

NWN - This is the first (and last) time I really cared about the D&D rules, studying the manual and planning a character. It's my favorite hack'n'slash, Diablo with complex character creation.

Unreal Tournament - Our college favorite FPS

Total Annihilation - Still the best RTS though it's age has forced us to move on to SupCom.

There are others of course but I think those are the games I most identify with and the standard I hold all other games to.

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