#atari65xe

Kala, a Poland native, relates how games have guided her life professionally, helped her learn English, and taught her to manage her anxiety. 

The whole three-month period before my holiday leave, which ended a week ago, was like one long bad day. My work sucked all energy out of me. I felt like I was facing professional burnout and I was on tenterhooks waiting for my last day of work. But, on my first day off, I received a phone call asking me if I would like to translate a GAME! This was HUGE for me, as I have always wanted to get closer to the game industry somehow, but a) I can’t do programming, b) I can’t write fiction, c) I can’t animate, d) I totally suck at drawing.

And here I am today, playing Settlers VI for the nth time, this time for reference purposes, and working on my browser-based strategy game. And this is how a game saved my life (professional life, this time) in my twenties, just like other games would save my life earlier.

I know exactly at which moment my tendency to experience anxiety appeared in my life. I don’t know why it did. No enduring family or health problems, I guess it’s just innate in some of us.

To cut a long story short, nothing could alleviate my school panic attacks except for getting engrossed in a game. I guess it started when I was 4. I was very sick and my dad would entertain me by playing his Atari 65XE games for me - River Raid, Hyperblast, and so on. I learned to love this platform, as the games relaxed me. Then, when I got my first PC at 14, I had only a few second-hand games, as they were not very common (and very expensive) in my country those days. This was when I discovered Police Quest 4 and it woke up my desire to be a homicide investigator ;)

But at that moment, my duty was to learn hard to get to high school. I participated in many school contests, which was really stressful stuff. After school, I would inject GTA into my veins as a tranquilizer ;) I can still remember the exact routes I took to complete the missions, as I’ve played it a dozen times.

After I managed to win a tough biology contest, I was sick as hell from nerves. I got a monetary award from my parents and bought my first game, Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo. This was a great inspiration for me, I started learning advanced English then, as I wanted to understand EVERYTHING Holmes and Watson said. Learning English took my mind off other school subjects because it was something I was able to excel in without suffering from anxiety caused by science subjects. All my games were in English, always. I think it is fair enough to say games saved me from studying medicine. I got admitted to a medical school, but decided to withdraw my papers before the academic year started, and started studying languages instead. The best decision ever.

Although my studies had nothing to do with gaming, I would like to pursue Ph.D. studies on games someday. Don’t know the exact area - maybe translation or a more sociological point of view. I’m gathering materials and thinking on how games influenced my life, e.g. I know that I probably would have not met my husband if it wasn’t for my (and his) craze for games.