User:Cromag/Personal

This page lists a bunch of personal information of the generic kind, so to speak, such as interests and education. Much of the content of this subpage has been moved from the main user page. Note that as of 2007, much of this is severely outdated; I do not plan to update it regularly.

Computer games
Though I play console games on occasion, I've been a fan of those available on PC since around 1993. The first computer game I ever played was Prince of Persia and it was truly an unforgettable experience. Since I purchased PoP and The Roberta Williams Anthology at the same time, I began to take interest in adventure games immediately after I had completed PoP; it was, without a doubt, one of the decisions that had the greatest influence on my life (as some will tell you, the influence is negative, I myself am not sure). Because almost twenty games were included, I quickly became completely immersed in the games' universe, my all-time favorites from the collection being King's Quest V, King's Quest VI, The Colonel's Bequest, The Dagger of Amon Ra and the underrated Phantasmagoria. I soon discovered the excellent Gabriel Knight series as well and found all three installments very fulfilling near-masterpieces, with Sins of the Fathers becoming probably my favorite game of all time. In the past twelve years, I've played most of the adventure games Sierra has released to date, with regrettable exceptions such as Space Quest V. I also discovered the phenomenal, atmospheric and unique Legend of Kyrandia series from Westwood Studios; I've always admired the music in those games, because it adds so much to the general atmosphere (not that the games were lacking in that aspect to begin with). Finally, I played and enjoyed many LucasArts releases (see LucasArts adventure games), though I still have a lot to uncover when it comes to that specific group of games. This includes the acclaimed Monkey Island series as well as Outlaws, Loom and Grim Fandango, not to mention the Indiana Jones series, Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max Hit the Road.

I am not able to play many of the games that have been released lately for two main reasons: first, my financial situation isn't very good at all and second, my computer's hardware capabilities are quite pitiful in today's standards; an 800 MHz CPU, 128 MB of RAM and a 32 MB graphics card just can't handle today's obscenely huge system requirements, even for adventure games. I still play many older games besides graphic adventures and happen to own several extremely obscure games; Rebel Runner, for instance. I do enjoy first-person shooters which do in fact have a point other than annihilating everything in your way, though I understand how some shooters that don't require the use of brains can appeal to the mass market. However, I am very much opposed to games containing a great and certainly unnecessary amount of violence; though I cannot find many examples (when the violence is in abundance, but not distastefully so, I don't see a problem in playing the game), the Postal series is an excellent example, particularly the second installment. The greatest, most expansive and atmospheric FPS I have ever played is most certainly Deus Ex, one of the only games that truly and skillfully combine various genres to form a stable end result. Others I enjoy to play - though I do not own all of them - include Soldier of Fortune, Wolfenstein 3D, Quake III, Unreal Tournament and the outstanding No One Lives Forever, among others.

I enjoy playing individual games from other genres as well. I do not like complicated games representing the RPG genre, though I very much enjoyed several of the less complex ones, including Diablo II (which by some is not considered a role-playing game), Evil Islands (a very underrated Russian RPG) and Arcanum, which I consider an excellent game partially spoiled by annoying bugs; this is in spite of the fact that I usually do not like games with a learning curve this expansive. Age of Mythology was quite an enjoyable experience as well, just like Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption and the often-criticized adaptation of Wild Wild West. There's a lot more, but I don't want to bore you further with my preferences in computer games.

Sports
I usually enjoy most kinds of physical activity. However, as with practically all people, there are some sports that interest me more than others. This includes football (though most of my education went by in an American school, I still think this is the correct word for it), basketball, baseball, ice skating, swimming, tennis and volleyball. I'm not perfect at any of these, though in the past I was offered a place in an Israeli junior swimming team. I'm not physically fit for basketball, partly because I'm 5'8", but also because of lack of a location where I could refine my skills. Football has been my favorite type of physical activity for some time now, though lately I've lost interest in watching it live on television; this was probably after the 2002 Football World Cup, which in my opinion didn't compare with its excellent and emotional 1998 counterpart. I do not have a favorite team, player or club, though naturally I support the Polish national football team. I used to be a fan of Internazionale and Real Madrid as well. When it comes to the other sports that were mentioned here, I played in my middle school baseball team in the American International School in Israel, though I was unfortunate enough to not be able to take part in an actual game against another school. I did swim a lot back in the day, yet various factors, including my financial situation, contributed to my abandoning the sport; this is also true for ice skating. In my childhood, while living in the United Arab Emirates, I frequently played tennis and found that the practice was very beneficial; when I moved to Israel, I was able to play rarely and stopped altogether upon moving back to Poland, though I head over to the tennis courts once in a while. Although I do like volleyball, I am only able to play it occasionally.

Education
My education, right up to and including secondary school, saw me studying in schools in three different countries (not anything one can boast about, as it is relatively common today). I began my education in 1993, in the International School of Choueifat in Abu Dhabi, where I remained until second grade, whereupon my family moved back to Poland. I studied in an elementary school (the Jan III Sobieski Elementary School #307, if I'm not mistaken) for about a year and subsequently moved to Israel. There, I studied in a Russian school for a year, then in the Walworth Barbour American International School in Kfar Shmeryahu for three years, and in the Polish embassy's pseudo-school for the whole duration of our stay (four years). After returning to Poland, I studied in a Junior High School (#9) in Lublin for a year, got into Stanislaw Staszic High School No. 1, and joined the International Baccalaureate program, which was introduced in our school two months after we began classes. After many adventures - some positive, some negative - I graduated with a total of 37 points (including three bonus points) in July 2006, which was much better than I expected, yet still several points short of the best possible result. Regardless, this year I'll be studying in a local university on a course I'm not sure about - it might turn out to be a bad idea (though it is not essentially my idea), but one thing I'm sure I will acquire is experience.

Mes voyages
Thanks to Angr for the above template, which was shamelessly stolen from his user page due to a complete lack of template-creating skills on my part.