In order to do that I will poll some friends and ask gamers in general on several boards about thier outside of game activities.  In the meantime, I can at least cover myself.

   I was born the child of poor yuppie wannabees...okay, thats not true.  I was in fact born to parents who almost always had enough cash to give the kids an allowance and buy us pretty amazing christmas gifts. 

    (all except for that one christmas when I found all the presents marked 'from santa claus' in my parents closets.  That christmas my parents gave us COAL as presents.  Not your average chunk of barbecue coal, but actual honest to god 'my pop stopped at a train yard and got us mineral' coal.  He decided it was a wasted effort when we were all excited about the cool looking shiny mineral coal chunks and built a fort out of couch cushions and seet them up as Star Wars figurine forts....with the coal as our power supplies)

     I have always been attracted to games, loving scrabble, monopoly, chutes and ladders..you get the picture.  I was a bad winner and a poor loser, but I loved to play.  I discovered gaming at about the age of seven, in middle school.  I got that awful three book set of Basic D&D.  I remember being punished for saying the word 'Bastard' and having to explain that it was in reference to a type of sword in the game.  The teacher who scolded me was slightly embarassed and explained what a bastard really was.  Then I was confused and embarassed, as he explained that he had been a child of a single mother.  Talk about the guilt trip.

     So activities in RL that added to the excitement of the game, that somehow tied into the gamer experience.  Well, it did not get tied to real life until I started to read books,.  yeah, I know, reading a book is most likely the single easiest thing to write about, but give me a break, the site is free to read and I update it fairly regularly so far.

     I started to read books about ninjas and Karate, I started to kick and punch things.  As many who have kicked and punched as a hobby know, its not always wise to go around kicking and punching things, you tend to attract unwanted attention. 

     So, back into books I would go for the next seven years, occasionally poppling out to play Intellivision, Nintendo, Apple computer games, Atari, Super Nintendo....

     At about 15 I had already learned archery and shooting as hobbies, attending the obligatory shooting and hunting safety classes, though I never was on a succesful hunting trip.  I also started to learn a bit about Karate for real, attending a school that my younger brother and sister had attended and quit,(I used up the majority of the time they had left)

     Over the next 15 years, (from then to now) I both did alot of growing up and expanded my gaming experience to a higher art.  I joined an extemporaneous gaming group at the local College Union and learned alot about gaming from my good friend 'Derus' and the game he had run there for almost 15 years when I showed up.  I think his game is going on 20 years or more at this point, same world, continuous storyline.  Players come back from all over the world to play in it.  It really is that addictive and immersive.

     During this time I started to learn about combat handgunning and how to actually use a knife in close quarters, my martial training took a turn for more realistic content.  I started to fight full contact at as many schools locally as I could, meeting in the parks when the schools were not open.  I travelled to Chicago and Massachussets to train under masters of various martial disciplines, taking a little nugget of knowlege with me each time.

     I bought a PC computer and started to play even more immersive games, Lands of Lore, Ultima and more.  Each time I took a hint from the games that seemed to fit with my life.  Zork taught me not to charge into the darkness...there might be Grue there.  Ultima taught virtue as a moral principle, I studied world religion.

     For me, gaming has been tied to my practice of martial arts and weapons.  They sparked my interest in real world things, I wanted to BE the swashbuckler in the Lion, Witch and Wardrobe, not merely read about him.  (sweet reepochee!)

     I will try to get some peeps to give me what things gaming has had an impact on in real life, post em here.  Till then, I hope you enjoyed reading.

Mowgley