I got my first computer when I was 3 years old. The year was 1991, and it was an Amiga 1200. I suspect it was an attempt by my parents to pacify an energetic child with a short attention span, while they managed the challenges of caring for my disabled younger brother. Little did they know, they were laying the foundations for a lifelong passion; one that would shape my career in ways no one could have predicted.

Before I could even spell "troubleshoot," computer games had already taught me how to fix computers and software. That early exposure became the basis for everything I would come to understand about how machines work. But more than that, it introduced me to a world of strategy and simulation that would stick with me long after I'd finished "playing."

Between 1995 and 2001, I hoovered up every issue of PC Gamer I could get my hands on, reading it cover to cover. Those were the glory days of gaming—Diablo, Baldur's Gate, Half-Life, Starcraft, Age of Empires... But beyond the entertainment, these games were educational in ways I couldn't fully appreciate at the time.

For someone like me, strategy and management games weren't just pastimes, they were simulations of real-world systems. SimCity, Civilisation, RollerCoaster Tycoon - these weren't just games; they were training grounds for thinking critically about how systems operate. I didn’t know it at the time, but they taught me to balance resources, plan for growth, manage crises, and achieve long-term goals. Skills that, while not directly transferable to academic subjects, were invaluable nonetheless.

Admittedly, games did get in the way of schoolwork. But somehow, I always managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat, scraping through not only school but eventually my degree as well while managing a pretty serious string of addictions to Eve Online, World of Warcraft and Ultima Online.

That childhood fascination with simulation never left me. First, it led me to finite element analysis with Ansys for mechanical design engineering. Later, I found myself working on something akin to Railroad Tycoon when I helped simulate parts of the London Underground with SimPy in Python. From there, I moved on to a mix of SimCity and The Sims with Improbable, and most recently, something more like Factorio while working with Anglo American - all this before GTA6.

The skills carry across, or at the very least, the interest does. There's an undeniable overlap between strategy or management games and real-world simulation. After all, both are about creating systems, solving problems, and optimising outcomes. In that sense, I’d argue that playing games as a child laid the foundation for everything I do today. Computer games were my gateway drug to a career in simulation, and I’ve never looked back.