how long did you learn and practice, whatever language or art form you do, till you could, alone or with a partner, make a game thats worth playing?

worth playing, meaning, a bit more than a game like asteroids...

but doesnt have to be as in depth as AOE or civ or something :P... something that continues on, has a story line or some kind of changing continuous play, thats at least a little involved...

may it be hours, or days or weeks worth of playing time.

also what kind of background did you have... like what kind of professional or non-pro teaching did you have? were you tottaly self taught?

Learning a thing is just the tip of the iceberg. You need to practise a lot and need even more experiences to successfully finish a game.

It is really hard to place a time tag at such a thing. It depends on a lot of factors, e.g. when working in the game industry you will learn much faster, whereas learning from a book or self-taught might take some time. From my personal experiences I would say 3-5 years basics and 1-2 years in game projects. As background, I've a degree in CS and worked for 1,5 years in the game industry, started 'programming' with 10 years blah blah... Eventually I think (which seems to be quite common), that your first game title will not be that good or a success at all, just for the lack of experiences and making too many errors.

thank you and yes i know it depends on alot of factors, which is why im asking on a personal level, of what kind of experiences you have had, and how it effected your progress in the field.