Reason magazine has dubbed Rep. Jared Polis the “Gamer Congressman,” an honor earned by virtue of a lifetime spent mercilessly battling one’s way through fantasy worlds and virtual war zones.  

The Colorado Democrat touched on a few of his favorite virtual pastimes — “I don’t really watch much TV. So, it’s a much more interactive thing, I think, to do with your spare time,” he told the interviewer — during a discussion that also touched on intellectual property rights, cyber-regulatory issues and blah-blah-blah.  

We here at HOH were much more interested in getting to the bottom of the role-playing and online strategy games that have kept Polis glued to glowing computer screens for approaching four decades.  

2000s

• Age of Mythology
• Rome
• Later versions of Civilization

• Diablo and Diablo II
• Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights II
• Defense of the Ancients
• League of Legends (which he still plays)

• Heroes of Might and Magic (later editions)

1990s

• Warcraft and Warcraft II

• Heroes of Might and Magic (earlier additions)

Late ’80s/’90s

• Dungeons and Dragons Pool of Radiance and sequels (Commodore 64)

• Mail Order Monsters (C64)
• Civilization (early editions)
• SimCity

1980s

• Battle of Britain
• Wizardry

• Ultima
• Elite
• Bard’s Tale

Very first game

• Dungeon! (on Apple II+)

Make sure to drop us a line (hoh@rollcall.com ) if you stumble across the seasoned adventurer in any MMORPG environments (That’s massively multiplayer online role-playing games to you and me, Russ.) any time soon.