[LeftHandPath]

I played RuneScape daily from 2005 - 2009 (I started playing with a friend after school every day when I was in 2nd grade).

Definitely gave me a leg up on things like spelling, social interaction, learning not to trust strangers who promise to guard you through the wilderness, etc. Arguably guided, subconsciously, some much later intuitions I had about psychology / economics / game theory. And it was probably also responsible in getting me interested in computers.

I could see it being part of a funnel that makes people more likely to wind up on HN.

[LazyMans]

It exposed me to scripting early on (13), when I started trying to figure out how to bot making bow strings or whatever. Computer club was lit in middle school…