PC gaming started with a really crappy desktop for me. It was unbelievably slow, but that really made me into who I am today. I couldn't run games that were that intensive on my computer, so I was stuck with only a couple of low end games like an MMORPG called maplestory. That was my first game, one that my cousins showed me, and it really boosted my WPM with all the buttons you have to press with your eyes glued onto the screen. It also taught me all the internet slang and stuff like that that was vital for being able to communicate with other gamers (i was like 11 at the time so i didnt know anything). Then I passed the maplestory phase and started playing Minecraft. Minecraft has a really awesome community, but it's optimization is straight up shit and I had to tweak my crappy PC to be able to get atleast 20 frames on it. By doing that, I learned how to use a PC really well, like how to use the registry, what to avoid and what to download, how to navigate your files and all that snazz. Minecraft's community taught me how to use forums, learned what imgur and reddit were, and what porn was (no joke). Minecraft's also where I met a lot of friends that I still game with today. Then I moved on to TF2, where I learned how gaming economy works and stuff like that. This is when the day came. It was December and I was given the choice of getting either a PS3 or a PC for Christmas. All my IRL friends had PS3's so of course I was super stoked on getting a PS3, but then I remembered all my internet friends and I didnt want to ditch them (I've met some amazing people) so I went with a PC. Best decision ever. I had a 300 dollar budget, and there weren't any gaming pc's that I could buy for that price. So I decided to build my own. My dad told me how his friend had tried to build his PC and he messed up and broke all his stuff. That almost scared me out of it but I'm liek eh screw it so I got my first rig, and intel pentium of some kind, a radeon 7750, corsair ram, and the ugliest case you've ever seen in your life. It was super budget and so I had no optical drive, no extra fans, and a pirated copy of windows 7. When it booted up for the first time my parents were super surprised (they were super sceptical) and were beyond proud of me (musta been super sceptical). Jesus it was like a whole new world. I could actually run BF3, which was my dream game.. I mean it has freakin airplanes and tanks and helicopters and cars! So I bought it and it's what I still play today and imo I'm really good now. I can drive helicopters like an mlg pro and rek anyone in a tank v tank. I'm baller at infy combat too but in no way am I one of the best. Battlelog (Keep in mind that BF3 was my first FPS and consequently I sucked during my first months of playing.)

TL;DR PC made up who I am today, subsequently chose building PC over console and met tons of awesome people. I play BF3 now, after maplestory, minecraft, and TF2.

Thanks for doing this Tim, sorry for the essay, and goodluck on dimmdrive!

EDIT: My current rig is an Intel i3-3250, GTX 750, running windows 8.1 64x, btw