Has a video game ever influenced your career decision?

[1upmuffin]

As a lot of games recently incorporate aspects of real jobs, has a game ever influenced your career path?

Examples of what I'm talking about:
Driving - Euro Truck Simulator
Engineering - Factorio, Kerbal Space Program
Programming- TIS-100, Human Resource Machine, Minecraft (redstone)
Farming- Farming Simulator, Stardew

Really curious if a game has swayed any of you to take a different path in life.

 

[Cordy]

Not necessarily. I mean videogames have helped my career in that they've allowed me to be more creative than ever. I wouldn't be as creative and experimental as I am now in my career path without videogames but that's it.

 

[Datajoy]

The opposite actually. Based on my time with the Sims franchise, I made the decision not to ascend to Godhood. Too much responsibility.

 

[low-G]

I was coding trivial games on a TI994/a when I was 7-8. If not for the game part I can't imagine I would have been as interested... Not a game but video games existing at all.

Hard to say as the influence was when I was so young. My mom coded on punch cards in the 60's and she would program in Basic later, but if it wasn't showing something cool on screen... if it was coding spreadsheets or something... I naturally wouldn't have been very thrilled as a little kid.

 

[Deleted member 8861]

In before we get Ace Attorney-inspired lawyers

 

[JB2448]

Metal Gear Solid 2 and 4 solidified my decision to major in economics.

 

[Okabe]

I have opened my own Demon Hunting business

 

[Cipher Peon]

Pokemon Red/Blue version inspired me to become a game designer way back when I played it for the very first time.

Two decades later and... well... :)

 

[Strat]

When I was a teenager Mega Man Maverick Hunter X influenced the decision my boss made to fire me for sneaking away and playing in the break room!

 

[Zacmortar]

Silent Hill(3 specifically but all played a part) influenced pretty much everything I am as a person now, so yeah? I'm working to be a horror author as well, and that's a pretty direct result of Silent Hill's influence on me.

 

[Why would you do that?]

Not quite in the way you describe OP, but my interest in video games and technology has gotten me into programming.

 

[Wulfric]

Warcraft inspired me to become an artist.

 

[Dest]

Unreal Tournament 99 got me addicted to using a computer and now I've got a job in IT, so I guess that, indirectly, it has.

 

[Mechaplum]

Flight sims and Ghost in the shell, not strictly games.

 

[1upmuffin]

Not quite in the way you describe OP, but my interest in video games and technology has gotten me into programming.

Click to shrink...

It's funny, my enjoyment of computers actually scared me away from technology related careers for awhile, my thought being "I like using a computer for fun I don't want work to ruin that for me". But here I am now, going into a technology field lol, and excited to be starting it.

 

[kittens]

Playing video games so much made me avoid desk jobs, because I was already sitting too much. An overall wise choice, I think.

 

[Sectorseven]

Not personally, but I've heard about people getting jobs operating fork lifts because of Shenmue.

 

[antitrop]

When I enlisted in the Marine Corps, my decision to choose Infantry Rifleman as my MOS was based at least in part on growing up with first-person shooters like Rainbow Six and Counter-Strike. A mix of curiosity and a cavalier disregard for the value of my own life at the time. I had never even fired a gun before boot camp, so it was an earth-shatteringly new experience.

I wasn't into sports or physical fitness or anything like that in high school, I just played a lot of video games. I was more suited for an admin desk job, but I wanted to do something crazy after a boring high school life. None of my family has any military history at all, so it's not even like something I wanted to do since I was a kid.

I got what I wanted, I didn't re-enlist. I sure learned a lot, though.

 

[cashiusprime]

When I moved to a new school during the 4th grade I was presented with a test the first day and I was able to answer a difficult bonus question because of an item description from Star Ocean 2. Doing well on the test resulted in me being placed in a grade higher. Not directly my career but definitely my education experience going forward.

 

[Worthintendo]

There is a Pokemon Go gym within range of my desk at work. This was one of the things that made me decide not to take redundancy earlier this year at work.

 

[srtrestre]

Literally influenced me to enter the gaming industry. Before that I was probably going to be an accountant just to please the fam.

For the record, Robotron was my first video game, but, while lots of fun, it didn't influence shit (for me careerwise).

 

[Theswweet]

The Trails/Kiseki series inspired me to learn Japanese, and is why I'm training to get into localization.

 

[virtua_44]

Wind Waker makes me want to drop out and explore the world on a tiny sailboat.

 

[Kumomeme]

due to certain videogame, i now become phantom thief

 

[matimeo]

Literally influenced me to enter the gaming industry. Before that I was probably going to be an accountant just to please the fam.

For the record, Robotron was my first video game, but, while lots of fun, it didn't influence shit (for me careerwise).

Click to shrink...

Same. Mario made me decide I wanted to make video games and luckily it all worked out once I grew up.

 

[Glass Arrows]

A lot of videogame art has influenced my own drawing/painting, and I've gotten paid for it a few times. Does that count?

 

[NickatNite]

Sort of.

Got into skateboarding from playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater. From there drew skate brand logos, band logos, did some graffiti, took more art classes in middle & high school.

Now a artist and graphic designer.

 

[jotun?]

If I had played Kerbal Space Program in high school there's a good chance that I would have gone into aerospace engineering. But it came much later

Video games in general contributed to my interested in computers and programming, so there's that, but I don't think any specific game had any career influence.

 

[iksenpets]

Videogames convinced me not to pursue any career that would get in the way of playing videogames.

 

[KillLaCam]

When I was a kid Deus Ex made me make sure I get a job that won't be replaced.

 

[werezompire]

Retro Game Challenge inspired me to be an indie game dev. I saw the mini RPG in that game & thought, "I could make something like that."

 

[Deleted member 8752]

My never-completed video game convinced me not to make video games.

That said, they caused me to get into an Information Systems major in undergrad, which helped me secure my current employment. So, it all worked out in the end.

 

[Robert]

A common one is probably that a video game has influenced players to want to work on video games (or not). Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 made me want to mod video games and therefore start that journey into the games industry. Thanks Rollercoaster Tycoon 3.

 

[norealmx]

Not in the way OP thinks, but yes.

I worked in a video game studio once.


Never again.

 

[Strings]

Something like VLR encouraged me to write a certain type of story, but it didn't encourage me to write in the first place (that was movies).

 

[petethepanda]

I've wasted countless hours of my life to meaningless and ultimately unsatisfying games that are only engaging on a moment-to-moment mechanical level that simply make time pass easier (Fortnite being the big one over the last year and a half), and that's pretty much what my work life has amounted to so far, so yeah