1. Actually, I'm more inclined to believe that video games have stifled my 'personality'. I don't play to socialize, I play to escape into a world that provides the illusion of authoritative control, or at the least the ability to manipulate autonomous processes to some degree. I still occasionally enjoy booting up the old Halo 1 disc and jumping onto one of the Race servers for a gritty competitive/cooperative Hog-fest, particularly when I'm lucky enough to have a teammate who's a good Hog gunner. 9 years of practice has allowed me to achieve a high level of skill, and it's the only game I'm good enough at to get my rocks off by shameless grandstanding.
2. Political and social views? In the unlikely event I happen to be carrying such burdens, I leave that shit at the door when I'm gaming. Actually, that's likely to be the reason why I'm gaming to begin with...immersion within an alternate reality is a central draw of gaming for me.
What I've learned from video gaming? The best thing I've learned is that warthogs can fly, but I've also gained advanced hand-eye coordination, gained understanding of effective management in stressful/distracting situations and environments, gained a practical/working understanding of cooperative tactical planning and execution (playing capture the flag and other squad-based game forms in games like Halo). I'm also REALLY good at analyzing AI script and developing enhanced styles of play that milk every last drop of sustained replayability from my pitifully small video game investment fund. I'm also a shameless mod slut and love to experiment with every third party app I can get my hands on, which is another way of saying that I'm fairly skilled at file manipulation and have dabbled to a degree in things like custom map and object creation. If I ever develop a fundamental understanding of code, PC games will be my classroom.
Games I like, taking into account that what I play is highly dependent on what I can successfully rip (I'm poor).
I love games like A-Train, Sim City, Roller Coaster Tycoon and to a lesser extent The Sims. RCT3 is a personal favorite...I could have built a real theme park with the hours I've burned on that game.
Real Time Strategy ie: Command and Conquer, Warcraft/Starcraft and Warzone 2100.
Anything vehicular based, though linear NASCAR-esque racing sims have limited appeal. I love sprawling open-ended free range exploration-based games like Interstate 76, Mafia, Driver and GTA. Vehicular combat ie: Twisted Metal, Vigilante 8 and others of their ilk is a platform I can't get enough of. I endured the pain in the ass process of setting up a functional PS1 emulator strictly so I could play Twisted Metal 2 again, and I still play it, despite the medieval graphics and my severely retarded controller to keybord transfer abilities.
Turn-based Strategy ie: X-com, Panzer General and similar grid-runners.
FPS...I love STALKER, though I've never completely warmed up to their physics engine, weapon ballistics, or user interface, those minor annoyances are barely noticeable due to the fact that the environments and atmospheric elements are the most immersive and realistic I've ever seen. If I were forever banished to a virtual environment of my choosing, I'd be more than happy wandering the Zone for eternity. Also, the mod community supporting the STALKER games is the highest caliber in terms of quality I've yet to encounter. STALKER oozes everything I love about Russians, and I'm stupified at the levels of passionate intensity coursing through the veins of this series.
Half-Life 2 and it's equally impressive third party mods run a close second. Halo, strictly in terms of it's FPS elements, runs a distant third place, though I think it's vehicular aspect is Halo's greatest virtue. Halo 1 race mode is a monument to eternal replayability.
I've played too more FPS games than I can remember, or maybe just played too many that were forgettable in comparison to the above-mentioned three, but there are some gems out there...Dues Ex, Thief, Call of Duty, Goldeneye...
I also like the Resident Evil games, though third person games like Tomb Raider are not my forte. Zelda annoys me for some reason, Final Fantasy's perpetual chatter openly provokes me to eject it's CD's and grant them new lives as high-velocity projectles (excluding Final Fantasy Tactics, which is another old PS 1 favorite)
Games I've loved, lost and intend to love again if I can ever find fucking replacements include Sea Dogs and Wargasm.