What you played can make a difference if your goal is to be a game designer, but as a programmer it makes very little difference. Programming games is radically different from playing games. 

Programming is about algorithms and data structures, about manipulating data, moving data from files to memory, then from memory to video or audio or simulation processing, moving data over the wire to be processed by servers. 

While many programmers can be inspired to create games that are 'spiritual successors' to games they have enjoyed, and while creating games is a great career, please be careful that you aren't equating the programming of games to the playing of games.

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I recommend starting with cloning a Guess The Number game, then Tic Tac Toe, then Connect Four. All are text based, have no animation, have no data, but they introduce concepts of random numbers, AI processing, and running a simulation.  After you've got a bit more programming experience, a Pong clone is an excellent goal as a first graphical game, followed by the fairly similar Breakout style game, adding levels, a variety of blocks, and power-ups in Arkanoid style.

Do those in whatever language you like. Python and C# are both well regarded as beginning languages for their easier learning curves, their libraries available as you create more advanced games, and their applicability to game development long term as they are both used in nearly all studios and projects.

That is what I noticed when I created my own personal Win 32 command script. I like the C# because of how you can get very specific, without having to put your mind into translation hell. I just discovered that the hello world app is the "static" page for new projects. But being able to change the text color is something new for me.

(It's a lot of fun programming now! Where as in C++ I kept getting errors when I was trying to adapt a value the user inputs into the system to be generated in the middle of a sentence. Which I learned that C++ is more like: Call functions, then if the function requires the data to be placed in a sentence, you do not need to write out the cout again, and just use the "" to type in what ever you want.")

But back in the day I remember when I would give anything to beta test a game. I was lucky enough to be in a few different beta tests already (One more notably would be beta testing the game HATRED, the controversial game by destructive creations. I found out a bunch of glitches and bugs in my first play through of the game, including some game breaking glitches and, well... hacks. Hack in the sense that I did not manipulate the code but instead found out some advantages by simply changes a few values in the game and leaving them there.)

But back as a child I just wanted to play the game before everyone else. Now when ever I hear someone say "I want to beta test the game," what they are really saying is: "I just want to gain an advantage over other players super early in the game! Possibly hide a secret or two that I found so no one knows how I just insta 1-shot them from inside an object no one else knows how to enter." I know several people who fit into this category. But I was very honest and forth coming with detailed information that I gave back to the developers of the games I beta tested more recently. Finding all kinds of bugs and glitches. Reporting them properly. Even some steam games where I was able to show the developers a glitch that allowed me to explore the vast void of nothingness to the end of time (BSOD.)

But I want to create a game that I want to play. And I want to build a skill around it. And possibly apply it to real life situations. I will send you a copy of the first text based game I've wanted to create for a while when I finish it. (Hint: It is all about detecting deviation, or deception.) This text based game is all on personal experience. It is rather difficult to lie to me. And it is even more difficult to not insult the person who create's the lie, and to bring them back down to earth so they understand you, while also understanding where they went wrong WITHOUT being embarrassed by it.

But no my drive is strong. Like I said I have hit a slump in my life once again where the games that are out currently just do not entice me enough to even look at gameplay of them. If something plays like another game.... I quickly start making assumptions, though they are dangerous, as to how the game is going to play out. For example: The game Stories, the path of Destinies took me by surprise, while a game like 3D Dot game: Heroes reminded me too much of Zelda, or untold legends.

but back to the topic at hand. I am thoroughly enjoying C# right now. Everything is just so... elegant. It all makes sense. I've had no issues with launching anything I create in them. So I will be saving these C++ books for something else. I feel like the pages in this book are just being absorbed into me before I even read them. Where as in C++, the three books I own felt like a gigantic wall of bricks stood in front of me and I had to climb over them somehow.

Once I have gotten past this second chapter, it mentions the numbers game so I believe I will be making that pong game eventually.

Hi mate.  I'm self taught in Unity over the past year.  Let me know if i can help.

Two things you need to grasp with unity is moving/manipulating sprites and collisions.

Once you have those two things down you can start to make anything.

Here are two games I've recently made which are basically just moving a sprite and collisions.

Golforama

Balloon Boy

Once you get a couple of weeks into learning C#/Unity, i could teach you to make both of those games with a half hour each 1-on-1 lesson.