abaww wrote: I think it was around 2004/2005 when I played Shenmue for the first time. I'm one of those who played Shenmue2 first because I owned an Xbox back then. I remember I was amazed by the Shenmue2 demo that I found on a magazine..
So then I bought Shenmue2 and a Dreamcast on ebay to play the first one. I was at high school at the time. Now I've got a degree in Japanese language and culture and I'm doing a master's degree, and I hope to find a good job soon, either here in Italy or in Japan.
I'm 25 now and I'm still a gamer as I was in my childhood..
During this time I''ve also been playin a lot of instruments and gigs in small venues and music remains one of my biggest passions. The 3 months I've spent in Japan (mainly Kyoto) last year were awesome as well. I'll be back in Japan next month but just for a couple of weeks, as a tourist this time..
Auguri, signore.
As for me, first played 'mue in January, 2006, as I got my DC in October, '05.
I was so cheesed that the game ended with Chai as I didn't know the backstory behind Shenmue (which is VERY unlike me; I research things to death before getting into them). Then got 'mue II in 2008 (a story I like to tell a lot) and have never looked back!
In the past 14 years (I was 12 when it 'mue II came out), a ton has happened. High School was great and despite graduating a semester before everyone (Summer school FTW!), I stayed an extra full year because a lot of my grade 12 marks were shitty.
Went to University and got kicked out of one of my majors (Communications, the reason I went to Uni in the first place) and got a job at the supermarket by my house. Loved both Uni and my job and after 2 years, got back into Comm and graduated a year later, like high school, I left a year after my peers, with more credits than necessary to graduate lol. Uni was awesome, but I had a lot of hardship to go with the highs; I got cancer, a chick I was seriously pursuing chose another guy over me when I was in hospital during that time (which is fine by me now, but at the time I took it super hard), travelled to Italy which was lovely but then got treated like crap at my job when I got back, for about 6-7 months and my sister got divorced (after we dealt with the loser for almost 11 years), which was hard on the family.
Did a post-grad certificate for Social Media and just finished that, plus I quit the supermarket job after 7 years, 6 months (I DID have future prospects there, but things went sour the last 2 months I was there), as I was approached for my current job right now, at the HO of a bank.
Met my future wife in 2009, at said job and started dating her in 2012. I'm going to propose to her next year, when we go to Japan (in July). Life has been interesting and a MASSIVE learning experience, these past 14 years!