Do you still remember the first time you set foot in a gaming store? Quite honestly, I don't. I know it happened something like seven years ago, but since I was still living on the countryside, there was no local store. I always had to travel at least fifty kilometers, but I'm not even sure in which city I first visited a gaming store. Fortunately, it doesn't really matter as you can also get into gaming by playing in your living room with your friends. Or, in my case, in the local youth club where we played two on two duels of Yu-Gi-Oh! with our very own set of rules. Those were the times – winning wasn't very important, gaming was all about the fun.

Fast forward something like seven years; I'm still into gaming and I'm still having a blast playing. However, if you meet me at a bigger tournament, I'm most likely there to take some sort of a prize home with me. I turned gaming into my occupation as I'm making a living, writing articles about games and working for stores and companies that are somehow active in the gaming industry. Things change. In fact, over the course of seven years, things change quite dramatically more often than not – that's not only true in my case or when we're talking about gaming; I guess it applies to almost all things in life.

Even if you didn't turn gaming into your main occupation, it can and will have quite an effect on you. This is what I would like to talk about today.

I think when he first set foot in a gaming store (which must have happened something like two years earlier), he was one of the kids that you would consider an outsider in school. I'm not saying this to make fun of him; quite the contrary, I think that's rather sad. Lots of kids like him have or had troubles in school and the fact that yet another "don't be a bully" campaign (powered by WWE / insert random worldwide operating company) spawns almost every other week is painting a pretty dire picture indeed.

His temper didn't really work for him when it came to making friends. His background as the youngest member of a family that changed countries to provide the kids with more opportunities didn't impress his classmates either. Don’t get me started on the parents of his classmates. In other words: he was familiar with the feeling of getting rejected. This might have lead to him becoming a bitter kid. Maybe he even stopped trying to make friends at some point. After all, there are only so many setbacks you can deal with, right?

His life was shaken up significantly when he first visited the "BB Land", a local store in Berlin with a welcoming store owner that makes it his business to introduce his customers to Yu-Gi-Oh! and turn them into Duelists. It proved a concept that works as his store is still around today, but I don't want to digress too much. For a kid that's used to getting rejected or worse, that's already expecting to get rejected before even starting a conversation, the door to a gaming store is like a magical portal that leads you straight into a whole new world. It really doesn't take a vivid imagination and a book like Narnia to have that feeling. All you need is a door to a gaming store. It will straight lead you to a world full of, well, games and, more importantly, friends.

If you've reached the point where you don't like to say "hi" any more, knowing that the person you're approaching shares a passion with you – which means you'll have something to talk about with that particular person – can work wonders. Even though greetings that tend to be considered "ordinary" have to make way for a more direct approach (e.g. "Do you have cards for trade?"), you suddenly turn into what can be described as a "social person".

For the first time in his life, Vittorio was easily making new friends. Plenty of them, actually. He was feeling the admiration of others when he pulled that "Jinzo" fresh from a booster pack or once he got his game going and came out on top of local tournaments. This is all stuff that can really turn a person around!

If you don't know about his background and meet him today, you wouldn't think that this is a kid that struggled at school. He comes across as a self confident person that seems to know exactly where he wants to get in life. He decided to start his own company together with a friend and he's well aware of the challenges that lie ahead of him. Granted, he still has a little temper, but it doesn't surface as often as it used to do. He doesn't need this sort of defense anymore; he rarely finds himself in a situation where he used to apply it.

So basically, what I'm saying is this: gaming can do a lot of good things for you. Although few players are like Vittorio and go on to become National or even European Champions, all of them grow as persons. Very often, gamers don't even take notice of the changes that are taking place, but it's easy for people who only see them once a month or so to tell the difference. In a way, it can be compared to a three year old growing up that you only get to see once a week while you're paying one of your friends a visit. You miss the date with your friend for two weeks straight and when you see her again the following week, her son learned a few new words or how to draw a particular letter. It's simply amazing and will often leave you in awe.

While self confidence is easily the most recognizable new feature of a hardcore gamer in the making, there are a number of other abilities young kids learn when they first get into gaming: they learn how to make friends. How to stay focused in challenging scenarios. How to cope with your world getting turned upside down after you lost that all deciding last game in the last round of a tournament which in turn caused you to miss the top 8.

Some even go so far as to make a little money trading cards with other players and although they might not share the fascination of their teachers when they're trying to explain them the basics of supply and trade, they know exactly what they're talking about. I've heard of math teachers explaining addition and subtraction working with Life Points and Yu-Gi-Oh! monsters. Heck, I even know a (back then) six year old player that knew the effect of every more or less playable card simply by looking at the card's artwork – he couldn't yet read at that point. I know a million players that improved their English skills after collecting more English cards and traveling to tournaments that were held on British or American soil.

Please don't read over this article quickly and leave it thinking: "That dude just claimed all TCG players were outsiders when they were young?! He can't be serious..." Likewise, thinking that gaming turns every "nerd" into a self confident entrepreneur is a little over the top. However, I think that somewhere in between those two extremes, there's a fascinating truth.

The first thing my father's new girlfriend noticed when she first stepped foot in a tournament venue was the fact that the dominating color was black. She's teaching younger kids that have troubles learning as fast as their peers. Many of them are also considered outsiders. She went on and pointed out that 50% of the younger kids kept on their jackets although the temperature inside was something around 20 °C / 68 °F. These are some of the indicators that tell you that you're not in a room full of actors or superstars.

However, she noticed a rather different picture when she looked at the players that had been staying with any particular game for more than three years. Many of them were wearing bright colors, they had fancy haircuts and they sometimes even came across as cocky. Three or so years ago, many of them preferred a black jacket to an outfit that screamed: "Look at me, I'm famous!"

What's your story? Did you grow up with games and how did it affect your life? Did you ever take a few minutes to reminisce and remember the day you first set foot in a gaming store and the way you looked at the world back then? Believe me when I say you really should. Even though you might have not won a huge tournament yet, you'll find out that your very own story of your "evolution as a gamer" is a lot more exciting than you thought!