You know, for some of the C-E staff here this is more than just a bit of fun. It's practise for our future career. And even if we're not lying awake at night dreaming about a future at NGC, we might be imagining working with Shigeru Miyamoto. Stop laughing. It could happen.

Are you hoping for a future in gaming? Making them? Writing about them? Or something else?

Franklin: Making games? No not at all. My parents sometimes say that to me, I play them so much maybe I would like to make them. But not really, I just want to play them when I got nothing else to be doing. Playing games is what interests me mot making them.

Writing about them? Well seeing as I write here at C-E some might think my answer would be a definite yes, but they'd be wrong. Yes I do enjoy writing reviews and walkthroughs here but doing it professionally for a magazine or something, not really something I see myself doing. But having said that if a magazine did offer me a chance I would give it a try, but i doubt that'll ever happen anyway.

Jayseven: Despite my GCSE results, A* for english language and B for english literature, I don't think writing is my forté, so my "childhood" dreams of writing for N64 magazine will never come true. Ever. As many C-E forum regulars may know, I'm not too shabby with the ol' Photoshop, so i guess my aim in life is to progress with this. I would absolutely LOVE to work with games in any way with any artistic skills I have. My concept art is not too brilliant, but I've sometimes caught myself daydreaming of being the guy who designs and makes those game covers, the guy who sorts out the layout of the instruction books, sometimes the Art Monkey for a games magazine.

Blackbird: Programming games. Been there, tried it, didn't work out. The best things I managed to create were 'Shoot the Chicken' (with the sequel 'Shoot a Pikachu-like-critter') and 'The Shop'. First game just showed a moving picture, which you had to shoot using the mouse. Second game was ascii based (on C64) which made you the owner of... a shop!

However, I can see a future with games in it for me: Blackbird, 88 years old, sitting on a sofa in a house for the elderly. In his hands, he's holding a 'GameBoy Elite 22' and he's having the best time ever!

Playing the games will be my future in gaming, but for now it's playing them, writing about them and trying to create them...

Dominic: I would really like to have some kind of career with games. I am really addicted to gaming, so I guess writing or play testing them would be the career for me. I wouldn't mind working in a company who was like the guy who came up with the ideas (Ed: designer), but didn't have to do much programming (since I know nothing about it mostly).

I think in the future I'm going to try find some places that will let me test their games out, maybe I could get in to the gaming world that way.

James: Writing about games is what I want to do for a career. Perhaps working for the legendary NGC, or perhaps some other mag. I hugely enjoy writing game reviews, and I can see myself doing that in a few years time.

Ash: I have two main ideas of what I want to be. One of them is a games journalist. Anything to do with games journalism, as it seems more "fun" as so to speak that news journalism (in the sense of I would prefer to write about games than George Bush's latest speech). It also means being in the industry, going to events and such. NOM would be best as they're official. My friend went to a Mario Kart tourny before the GameCube came out and they had two there and they knew the date when the Cube would come out here (think this was a month or so before it was announced).

The other thing is be a TV writer/producer kinda person, for those interested.

Svt4Him: No I'm not, although if a gaming company wanted a CEO, and were willing to pay me enough, I'd gladly tell them how much money it cost to develop a game. Otherwise I am finishing my accounting designation.

Freddy: I used to want to be a programmer, but then I started my computing AS Level...how boring! I understand that it was just pascal and VB to start off with, but I couldn't sit through two years of that just to go to university and do computer science for a further three years.

However, I do have the creative talent to be able to conjure characters, storylines, surroundings, subplots and so on and so forth. Of course, I'd not be able to draw them myself, but I suppose I could be the creative spark at a development studio if I really put my mind to it. I am easily talented enough to be a writer for a games magazine, but then that's quite a fickle business, and a certain amount of luck is needed to crack it.

Not that it has anything to do with the topic at hand, and I doubt it will interest you, but I have my heart set on becoming an English teacher in Japan. I'm teaching myself Japanese with the help of a book and cassettes, and I plan on going to Leeds University to study English and Japanese once I get three A's at A Level. After that, I'll take a teacher training course, my mum will be able to help me as well (she's a teacher, strangely enough) and then I'll make my way over to my spiritual homeland. You have no idea how much I love that place.

Link: Right now my hope is to become a software engineer for Silicon Knights. I've started Uni this year and I'm majoring in the Software Engineering stream of Computer Science. I'm also taking courses in Physics, Philosophy, and Ancient Roman Civilization all of which I think will help me when working with Silicon Knights. I'm also hoping that at the end of my second year of Uni, when I get to do Co-op (where I go out in the work force) I can get a placement with Silicon Knights. I'll have to do some things to arrange that, but that's my hope. If I don't end up becoming a software engineer for Silicon Knights I might try to pioneer my own games company or, if that's not possible I'll have to satisfy my gaming desires by...well...playing games.

Tim: Actually I am hoping for a future in gaming. After graduating my Master in Informatics and Economics, hopefully somewhere in 2004, I will definitely try and get a job at a company related to video gaming. My ideal company would be of course Nintendo of Europe. The job itself I don't really mind what that would be. Journalism is great, but I would not mind to manage certain department in a company or do the public relations.

And making games... I do not know if I would have the talent required. However if I'd be asked I would definitely not hesitate! So my answer is yes. My goal is to stay in the industry I love - Gaming.

Ben: Ever since I set my hands upon my second-hand mega drive my parents bought me; I knew gaming was for me. A few years, and two consoles later; the advent of the internet in my house gave me the chance to fulfil my dream of being like Kittsy- who works for NGC (or N64 as it was then).

I love gaming- and everything which goes with it- the journalism, the industry- the events. So as the career monkeys tried to pursade me to become a barristor- I told them I was going to be a games journalist. And that's what I'm going to do. I'm glad to be working at Cube-Europe- and over the moon to be part of the relationship we share with NOE and Nintendo Official Magazine. I hope CE opens many doors for me; and I'm sure it will.

Conor: Definitely, no two ways about it.

In my younger years I knew I wanted to do one of them, but wasn't sure with. Well, there was sure sorted out when I discovered how inept I was at the whole programming lark. Besides, I wasn't a tech kind of person, I was a writer. I primarily began this whole games writing thing because I wanted to get involved in games journalism, I wanted to have something to impress my future potential employers. I love what I do here at C-E, just imagine getting paid for it!

With good GCSE grades in English Langauge and Literature (A* and B), I am now doing A-Level Literature. Hopefully, I'll do well in it; if I do I'll be heading to university for a degree in English. After that I'll be writing novels anyway, but will try to get into a games magazine (or pofessional site). Even I don't, I'll still be doing amateur games journalism (C-E probably). But I'm optimistic about my chances.

So when I've got my name in Edge, remember the lowly depths I started from. :)

What about our readers? Is a future in gaming coming?