What is your most important game?
I was talking with a friend not too long ago about this, and I'm curious what others have to say. For me there were a few, specific games that ended up playing a big role in my personal history, but one in particular that I can say had an immense impact on who I am today.
The game was STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. In 2007, I graduated high school and got a new laptop. Prior to that, I had a WinXP desktop from...at least 5 years ago, which was never really built for playing games. I really didn't know anything about computers in general, besides some basic maintenance - I genuinely just didn't comprehend "hardware requirements". With the new laptop, I guessed (somewhat correctly) that I could play new things, so I went out and bought a bunch of games I'd always intended to play. Among those, was STALKER.
I didn't know about that game at all, at the time. I saw it in a Walmart, looked at the back of the box, and it was so neat and strange that I figured I had to try it, not knowing at all whether my computer could even do it. Turns out, it couldn't, or rather, it could, but performance was really poor. ~10-15fps when trying to play in any of the dx9 rendering options. The game worked great in an unlit, dx8 mode, but it looked terrible, so I was determined to see that game the way it was intended.
Thing was, I had no background knowledge. What do I do? I trial-and-error'd my way through some of the graphics options, but couldn't really connect the dots on which settings did what/how to go about targeting better performance. I started exploring the computer itself, learning the basics of how games work on a PC (the real basics, I mean - as in, what does a gpu do, why does RAM matter, etc). Through that I landed on a first step.
That was to do a RAM upgrade. I had never done that before, but looked up what all I'd need/how to do it, and from there started really getting in deep to figure out what I could do to get the game to work. I trawled forums and asked folks - what does [this setting] do? Can I change it in the game's files? Which setting has the biggest effect? What effects could I live without?
That experience, over the course of that last grade-school summer, set up knowledge and skills I would use pretty much all throughout my life from then on. I learned so much, about what different rendering options did, the effects of different things on system performance, how to optimize windows itself a bit for playing games - I explored every avenue. I don't remember the hardware exactly, but the machine I had was not a gaming machine - a Dell Inspiron, it had a 40gb hdd (2007, mind you, low end even for then), and some sort of AMD integrated chip.
After much time, much trial and error, and even some game modding, I finally got STALKER to run at what I then could consider a playable framerate - a solid 24 lol. At the time, learning about framerate, I came to learn that's what movies run at, so I figured if I could hit that mark it would be good enough. I had saves set up to place me in the most intense areas I could find, and worked to try to get it to 24 in those areas. The end result was something akin to a portable version - lower resolution, some effects disabled, but generally the same look, same game. And in learning how to mod it a bit, I also got to tweak the game a bit to suit my preferences.
From there I started tinkering with every game I could, and with that computer. Even got to the point of making modified drivers for the integrated GPU - how exactly I couldn't tell you today, but I did squeeze out another 1 or 2 fps doing that (who knows what I must have borked deep down lol). The skills I picked up trying to get this game to run on my computer, opened up the whole world of computers to me, and so this game has a very special place in my memory.
Do you have a game like this, for you? One which ended up playing a big role for you? Or on a different track, is there a game which to your mind could serve this sort of purpose for a lot of people? I'm curious what you've seen and what you think.
Probably Starcraft.
One night, my mom came home with two blank CD roms with a bunch of letters and numbers sharpied on top of them. She said her coworker (whom I never met before) heard that my birthday was coming up and he had copied some video games for me to play. Up until that point, I would say I didn't know or care about computers (or computer games at all). The family computer was slow and noisy, but after a lengthy installation it was able to run the games on the disc, which was Starcraft and the Brood War expansion. Needless to say, that was the start of the rabbit hole that lead me to being proficient with computers and all that entails.
That whole era of rts was really fun to me. I too played StarCraft, and had Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun on that old xp machine. In retrospect they just barely ran but I didn't know the difference back then. I had fun trying to see what I could do in the map editors and set up skirmishes.
Similiar story here. OG Starcraft had LAN mode, where you could install the software on 8 machines if the registered key was hosting. That was such a great feature.
It's probably both my most-pirated and most-purchased game, due to losing CD keys and frequency of hardware updates and formatting in those days. Prior to StarCraft 2, I think I bought Broodwar like 4 times.
Spawn install! Thanks for the nostalgia bomb
Diablo and warcraft for me.
We had a old pacard bell that we upgraded to win95. It wasn't good enough so I worked with my dad all summer and saved up for an HP.
I eventually needed more power, but didn't know shit bout shit as there wasn't YouTube or anything back then.
Trial and error like OP said. By a stroke of luck a new friends grandpa took us to the "computer show" (basically a tech bazaar set up twice a month at convention centers) and taught me how to build. Thank god for that man.
Half-Life
FPS games were the same before Half-Life: You're a super god murder machine. alien-demon-zombies are attacking <your planet/ship>. Find the keys to the level, shoot the bad guys, open the exit to the next level.
Half-Life was different. Deliberately so. You're a every man character in a story with enormous sci-fi set pieces. You start the day going to work and moments later are struggling with survival as the very fabric of reality begins to shred around you. You end up traveling on sprawling journey to understand and fix a catastrophe you happened to be a part of.
...the story telling alone was a quantum leap forward. It didn't feel like I was Duke Nukem, I felt like me experiencing these things from the main characters point of view.
Bundle that with ground breaking technical steps forward. Enemies that took cover, coordinated to corner you, and tried to get you out of cover with grenades. Not to mention the physics, graphics, guns, or the decade defining multiplayer and mod scene.
Half-Life changed games forever. It capitalized on so many different opportunities to innovate and did it simultaneously in one title. Valve raised the bar so high that every subsequent FPS was measured against Half-Life to a point that Half-Life today feels reductive.
25 years later I still have a visceral reaction to this title. I see its impact in my career and a good chunk of my hobbies.
This was exactly the game I was going to mention. Other than it being groundbreaking, it was also important for me personally because it showed me a whole world I had been missing out on. Even though I had been playing games since I was young, I had migrated to sports games, especially football (soccer) games, and had left all other genres behind. But then a friend gave me his copy of Half Life to try. I was so hooked and realized that I was more than just a sports gamer. Ever since I have always made a point of trying a different genre to the ones I'm used to before automatically dismissing them. And of course, I got hooked on other genres too.
That seems like a kind of unfair characterization of games before Half-Life. Shogo was a contemporary and it was so easy to die in that game. If you passed a corner and weren't looking for bad guys you'd die in about 3 seconds. And there were games like Ken's Labrynth which came out much earlier and was relatively laid-back.
Not going to disagree with you that Half-Life was incredibly influencial though. There was a definite change between the games that were coming out earlier and the games that came out later.
Unreal was also a huge deal and came out 6 months before Half-Life did.
Played it. Liked it. For whatever reason it didn't have the same impact.
I do remember running into the first enemy without a weapon though. That felt high-stakes and drove up the anxiety at the beginning of the game. Seems entirely possible Valve was inspired by that encounter to also make your first tangle with an enemy in Half-Life one without the means to defend yourself.
To each their own, I played Unreal first and was blown away by it. It's still more impressive to me, technically speaking. The level editor for it was also fantastic and of course launched the immense popularity of the Unreal Engine.
Not to say HL wasn't great in its own right. I just always preferred the games that came out of HL's existence and GldSrc (Counter-Strike especially, I was a huge fan from the very early days through to CSGO's early years when I stopped playing), as opposed to HL1 itself.
Which we still see today.
I, somehow, never had that with Half Life. Now Counter Strike on the other hand was the groundbreaking thing I latched on to.
I'm glad you mentioned the AI in the game. Moving through the different setpieces/parts of the story you encounter different things and experiences but most became staples for modern games. Then you get to the part where they send the army after you. You go from monsters that follow basic behaviours to having opponents use cover, try and draw you out, as well as call back. Half-life was one of the only games I've played where the opponents behaved exactly like online human opponents. I remember playing counter-strike frequently online and people's reactions/behaviours mirrored the in-game experience of half-life.
Because I've been gaming for about 40 years, there have been lots of important games for me. Here are a few that come to mind:
There's a part of me that wishes I could have seen stuff like Space Invaders when it was current. I only ever experienced that game (and others like it) as little curiosities, stuff either built into other software or as one of those liquid-crystal display games you could get in the toy aisle.
I did have one of those, a Tetris clone with some absurd number of variations. Actually played a lot of Tetris, and I feel like through that I understood a teensy bit what it must have been like for those things to be new. I just had to see if I could score higher lol
The original x-com ufo defense was a revelation for me. I had no idea what I was getting into when I bought it. It was so damn difficult and unforgiving that I was initially put off by it. It was also scary af … it had such a great way of building tension during the enemies turn. You can’t see the enemies move unless they are directly in your line of sight, so you just hear the footsteps and doors opening / closing and of course the screams of victims being mowed down. It really gets the heart pumping to know your squad is in constant danger and there is permadeath. And then after getting beaten down over and over, eventually you get better and start winning. You level the playing field. And near the endgame, if you play your card right you start feeling unstoppable and can really unload on the aliens and make them pay. Such a great payoff!
I loved Pariah. I very rarely hear about it, but I even played the multiplayer for awhile
Yes, it didn't get much attention at the time, although those who played it really liked it. It was one of the first FPS games I played after Half Life, and I was hooked from the start. Don't remember much more about it now though. I rarely see it mentioned so it's good to hear from someone else who knows it.
Chrono Cross
I was thinking about it a while ago and I realized that the game was so influential to me that it affected my personal philosophy in some ways. The game's scenario writer and director has gone on record saying that he writes his plot based on what will be the most fun, so it's surprising to see that this game has such strong themes and ideas that are put forward in such an interesting way. Chief among them is the concept of harmony and balance; although there are concrete personalities to fight against, in some ways you're actually fighting against conceptual forces like nature, fate, order, history, and so on. And through the whole thing the message it leaves you with - assuming you get the true ending - is "the jewel that cannot be stolen": the bond you have with other people.
What happens in the true ending is that you reunite two broken worlds to create a brand new world - one in which you don't exist in anymore. And the result is put together in one of the most beautiful ending credits I've ever seen anywhere. As the credits roll, there are small windows showing a real-life Kid walking through the streets alone. There is a hauntingly beautiful guitar piece playing in the background with a female singer who's lyrics talk about her searching for you even though she does not know who you are or even your name. And the most beautiful thing about this is that there was never any romance between you and Kid; you're just good friends. To a very lonely young me, that was an extremely powerful message.
Chrono Cross is one of mine too, but I'm still trying to articulate beyond "baby's first fandom."
This is the first I've seen someone write this way about Chrono Cross, so I think I'll go check out what I can with it. Thank you for writing about it, this was a cool read/I'm excited to take a look
Chrono Cross was big for me too. I picked it up because I thought it looked interesting, and I got an amazing game that remains one of my all-time favorites. I still pull the soundtrack up here and there for a few tracks that stuck with me.
When older games started getting remasters, this and Legend of Dragoon were the two older PlayStation titles I immediately thought of. The talk around Chrono Trigger made me think we’d get that instead. I gave up hope after no news for a long time, but it looks like they finally released the Chrono Cross remaster on the Switch last year.
More than anything I wish that more games would adopt its approach to gameplay. Particularly in regards to battles and leveling.
For those not familiar, Chrono Cross doesn’t really focus on levels much. Instead, winning battles can directly improve your stats. You generally don’t need to grind because there is a fairly consistent level of difficulty that grinding not only isn’t necessary, but cant actually be done for the most part. There are difficulty spikes with bosses but you don’t get that part in the endgame with a huge dungeon filled with ultra-tough battles that can beat you down with every encounter.
It also does a lot of streamlining in a number of other respects, which gives it the best balance of story-combat-adventuring of any RPG I have ever played.
I'm an old git. So here we go:
Horace Goes Skiing, Paperboy and similar. Gaming on a ZX Spectrum 48k was mind blowing, back in the day. Followed up with the Commodore 64, life was great playing simple games loaded from tapes.
Then, Lemmings. What a discovery! On the Amiga, of all computers. I spent hours playing that game.
On the SNES, Super Mario and Super Mario cart opened up a joy of "fun" and laughter style of gaming.
Doom! That was just the best. Playing that on my 386DX with 4MB ram loaded from a specially crafted floppy disk, oh, my love for computers was cemented there.
Once we hit PlayStation years, it just flows game to game, along with Dreamcast. There's just so many, but the ones that pushed my brain were Gran Turismo, Crazy Taxi, Street Fighter II, Crash Bandicoot... Okay. There's too many.
I suppose it's all of them. SIM City helped me structure things. Civilization, economics and strategy. It's only this past decade, games just haven't hit the same. Nothing can beat the first few years when everything is new and games are first iteration. Oh, the sole game I play now on PS4 is The Division 2.
As someone who grew up with PC games starting in the mid 90s... the early 90s games I was still playing years later show just how good they were if they managed to hold up thru that period of rapid technical innovation.
Lemmings and Wolfenstein 3D even after later FPS games came along... those two held up amazingly well. Still fun for me today.
Give Pingus and Hedge Wars a try too.
Trust me!
Those both look like they're much newer, never heard of either though. Will check them out. :)
Foss versions of the originals.
Paperboy, wow that game is imprinted in my memory because it was so hard. But once you managed to get that "hidden" BMX track after a certain level, the adrenaline you got was just crazy. I was literally shaking when I first got to that part. There was always an old granny rushing out with her bunch of flowers that got me...
Doom would run on my 386DX/40 in a window the size of a large postage stamp. You must have had some better video card than I did!
That's exactly how I played it, postage stamp size. It took me leaping up to a 486DX before it was playable at over a standard coaster size.
Then along came Quake and Heretic...
For me, it was Duke Nukem 3D. I played that like crazy. And by that time, I had a decent enough computer to run it at full screen!
Doom was actually the first game I ever played, my dad had it on his machine and what little kid doesn't want to check out dad's game lol. For the longest time I cheated just so I could explore levels and find all the stuff. Doom II I remember my dad and I going through level by level, he made me play it "for real" doing that. We got to the Icon of Sin and spent much time just being frustrated with it, until I cheated and explored the level a bit to figure out the trick with that level.
Up until the story I wrote above, doom/quake were just about the only PC games I had/played. For the most part I had consoles and then portables until the laptop story happened. Been way cool to see portables "come back", especially in the form of portable PC gaming machines.
I have a list of Important Games to me, but I'll highlight only a few:
Super Mario 64 playing at my best friend's house. While I was familiar with the Sonic franchise (the games, and the cartoons, and the comics, and the books, and--) it was this 3D landscape that enraptured me. It just looked so amazing! I was a passive enjoyer of games then, but after a few rounds of Mario sliding around I was hooked. Like a lot of 90s tech, it was all rapidly developing into something grander and vast. Spyro the Dragon gave me a similar feeling; it was the first game I owned along with my first console, the PlayStation. Again, absolutely adored the 3D worlds as I jumped around and just explored.
Other people had their "video games as storytelling mediums" a little early with Final Fantasy 4(?) or 6(?), but I was late to the party with Final Fantasy 7. But if I had to pick one from the lineup, that honor would actually go to Final Fantasy X. It was a codifier of how I ended up seeing the world and how to interact with it.
And lastly... Bejeweled. No, seriously. It was the game on our first computer that everyone took turns playing on and enjoying-- and why I go so hard against the "filthy casuals" angle. Why don't you want the whole family to enjoy video games, even if they aren't hardcore as Duty Calls?
Ocarina of Time, for being the game that turned me into a gamer. I was young enough that the Forest Temple was so scary I had to ask for help from older folks around me, but even still, I don't think I could have had a much better introduction to gaming than that!
I would discuss with my friends all the crazy stuff. I'd go on GameFAQs to try to find cheats. Some of my favorite memories are discussing (and creating) some of the fake cheats, like how to make Link run away screaming from Ganon in the final fight. My mom had a friend who I borrowed the game from originally. She had a guide book, and I had a photocopied version of that guidebook in a binder stuffed to the brim with extra papers like GameFAQs printouts, notes, etc.
I was so obsessed that even 20+ years later, I can probably tell you what's in almost every chest and around almost every corner. In college we did speedruns of OoT, with 3-5 TVs all set up in one room, each competitor playing side-by-side.
That game got me in to gaming, and gaming got me into tech, and tech got me into hacking, and hacking became my career. It's not an overstatement to say OoT is a critical component of what makes me who I am.
I have a couple of really important games, but the most important one has to be Diablo 2. In my opinion it is still the best ARPG ever made and I still love it.
As a kid I got into PC gaming through Blizzard games and Diablo 1 was my favorite. I played it online and even though I didn't really know what I was doing but I had fun chatting with other people and getting overpowered duped items from them (Godly Plate of the Whale, Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, Archangel's Staff of Apocalypse etc.). I played Diablo 1 for years until I heard Diablo 2 was coming and I was hyped beyond belief. I noted the release date on my calendar and tried to get it the moment it came out. Unfortunately due to being a kid and not having money I was unable to do that but about six months later I finally got my hands on it and I was hooked. It was everything I could have wished for, the perfect sequel. Better in almost every single way. I played the game so much that eventually the disc broke, the ring at the center started getting brittle and at some point the disc exploded in my CD drive. Not only did I lose the game, the drive was busted as well! It took almost six months for my dad to replace the drive and for me to get another copy of the game and by that time the expansion was already out. I got that for my birthday and played it for years, I also played other games in between but Diablo 2 was always my main game. I must have logged several thousand hours by now because I still play it off and on as an adult.
When Diablo 2 Resurrected came out, I was impressed with the remake, but it still couldn't beat the original, especially when played on era appropriate hardware. I have a retro PC setup that I use to play Diablo 2 and other games of that era and it just scratches that very particular itch that no other game can.
Warcraft 2 is another one of those games for me but to a lesser extent. I love that game more for the music than the gameplay. I played it a lot as a kid but the thing that stuck with me the most is the soundtrack and I know every note of every song by memory. One of the best soundtracks in any game.
I came to D2 by way of playing some games which aped its style, namely the Dark Alliance/norrath games on PS2. Ended up finding a modded package for d2 that had controller support, I don't remember what that was called but it worked great and I completed the game with it.
I wish Diablo hadn't gone as far down the path of monetizing every aspect of its gameplay, because I really do enjoy that style of game but get very tired of the psychological prodding.
Agreed. I hate that modern games are full of psychological tricks to get you to part with your money. It's not fun anymore.
I'm gonna throw CircleMUD in the ring.
I was introduced to MUDs as a genre by a friend in middle school who introduced me to one called StuphMUD. While Stuph could have easily been my answer to this question based on time spent playing, friends made, etc., it ultimately led me to spinning up my own version of CircleMUD. Having only experience with QBasic, this whole new world of C was fascinating to me.
The story goes the same as many of you -- this was my foray into C programming, which led me to computer science classes, and on, and on, and on. My business is only where it is today because of my programming experience.
And here I find myself, tinkering on that old CircleMUD codebase again tonight...
Probably Dark Souls. It came at a time in my life where I was uncertain about my career path and changed the way I think about games. I had always been a gamer, but I never really thought I could make a career as a developer. Now I work at a AAA studio doing something I didn't even realize would be my dream job. Dark Souls also taught me patience in overcoming great challenges. Idk I just really like it.
Hyper Light Drifter also played a similar role after I graduated uni. A couple of the developers who worked on that game have a very educational presence in the industry, they've given talks and make youtube videos about their design philosophies and what not. It helped a lot when I was trying to find my first job.
Honorable mentions go to Pokemon and Halo for playing a big role in my socialization during my younger years, as well as Kingdom Hearts for being one of the first big console games that I truly owned.
And it goes without saying but the games I've worked on have of course been very important to me haha
I've read countless stories of how Fromsoft's games really landed with folks and it's so cool to see. They're easily my favorite developers at the moment, and I admire greatly the clear effort in how their stuff looks and behaves. Just watching some of the models do their animations in a viewer, there's so much attention to details folks are highly unlikely to see, and I tend to read that as "whoever made this, really loved doing it". Dunno for sure, but it's hard to imagine some of those details being there if the person doing it wasnt hugely invested.
Totally agree. I often watch people fight bosses with cool weird builds, but with Elden Ring I've been getting distracted by hitbox porn. The closeness with which you can dodge some attacks is nuts.
On a less fun level, I do hope the devs are treated well. I worry there is an unhealthy level of crunch at Fromsoft.
Elder scrolls Oblivion. I still had a regular old Xbox. But my friend had a 360. So he invited me over. I had never really been into RPGs. My older brothers mostly played shooters and sports games like wrestling and football.
So he shows me oblivion. I start the game around 7 pm that night. Everyone is around me watching. But eventually they fell asleep. But I wasn't tired. So more oblivion. Next thing I know the sun is coming up and I've played for almost 13 hours straight.
I will always have a special place in my heart for that game.
This is an interesting question, and my answer could go a few different ways. However, I am going to settle on a game that quite literally had a direct impact on who I am today.
During the summer of my transition from middle school to high school, I discovered a game called Dark Throne (Beta). I played this game into my mid-college years. Dark Throne was a text-based MMORPG which featured a thriving forum. Players literally spanned the globe. Along side the game maintained forum, in-game alliances often kept out-of-game forums for covert planning and general discussion. This was also the time when MSN, AOL, and Yahoo messengers ruled the land.
During those years, I learned how to design and manage forums, which meant learning basic PHP coding and photoshop skills. I also encountered people that were smarter than me and thought differently than me. Many of these people became long time friends, with two of them from Canada meeting with me in person during my college and post-college life. Discussions with people while I played this game directly lead me to a career in science (I'm back in school now pursuing a PhD in cell biology). This was something I even mentioned in my entrance interview. I gained confidence and became a person that was no longer afraid to challenge my own beliefs, and I fell in love with the idea of becoming a seeker of truths.
Looking back, there isn't a video-game that has impacted my life the way Dark Throne did. I talk about the experiences I had with people to this day, and I believe I will for the rest of my life. I wonder how I might have turned out differently if I never found Dark Throne.
Oh, wow, Dark Throne is certainly a blast from the past. I remember trying a bunch of text MMOs in the mid 2000s, and even trying to develop my own with a few people I played with. I spent a bit of time playing Dark Throne, among other games in that space, but I eventually focused on Hobowars with a bit of Torn City on the side.
I wonder if simple text based games like that would ever proliferate again due to the rise of mobile phones.
By "text-based MMORPG", do you mean it was a MUD?
For me I would have to say Earthbound was probably one of the most impactful games for me, at least in terms of how I think about different kinds of art. I had played Final Fantasy and other JRPGs at the time and enjoyed them, but Earthbound took a lot of the tropes and ways we think about a hero on a quest and turned it on its head. It was just so unique from anything else I had played and I fell in love with it. It encouraged me to pursue media that wasn't as popular, to give that weird book a shot or watch a foreign film just to see something different.
I also believe the music really influenced my taste as well. The score of the game is just so amazing with engaging, memorable songs that I sometimes listen to just to have something pretty on in the background to this day. As I got older and started exploring the sounds I like, I feel as if a lot of what I appreciate in songs harkens back to the music from Earthbound. I'm a big fan of lo-fi, downtempo electronica - primarily instrumentals with beautiful melodies, unique sounds and instruments, and a feeling that builds a setting.
I think I'm gonna have to listen to some Earthbound right now.
Just loaded the full soundtrack from YouTube after reading this comment. So many good memories. Really love this game.
Going to give it another playthrough on my miyoo mini+
Oh my goodness I've never heard of this device, but it looks adorable! I've tried emulating games on my smart phone and I just cannot stand the layout on the phone screen, particularly when I am playing a game that uses L+R trigger buttons.
I have one question for you if you don't mind: does the screen and controller layout feel too small for you? It looks a little cramped but I'm not sure if it's just the pictures. Some games I could see it being fine with, like Earthbound for instance, but I wonder about PS1 games or things like that.
Personally I really like the Miyoo Mini+ for it portability. The size does feel a bit crammed at times. I'm mostly playing GBA, SNES games which usually don't require much R/L use. I'm also playing some PS1 but mostly turn based rpgs so dont need any quick reaction time or use of L2/R2. I'm usually only playing for an hour or so and that's fine for my hands. I bought it mostly for short spurts of gaming on the couch or when commuting on the train.
That said, there are plenty of bigger devices that may suit you better. Just saw this video the other day: https://youtu.be/GRWvXiwTn-w. (PowKiddyX55). Looks promising and also can play N64.
The channel I linked above does some great reviews of similar devices. Depending on your budget, you can also get devices that emulate PS2/Dreamcast and maybe GameCube?
There's of course the Steamdeck from Valve as well but that'd a whole other size and budget category. It can emulate basically everything as well as play nearly all PC games.
Overall I'm very satisfied with my Miyoo Mini+. The custom OS 'Onion OS' works great. You can start stop/load games quickly. Swapping games is also very fast. The nostalgic feeling of playing on something that looks like a gameboy is also nice.
Came here to say this, for all the same reasons.
This was the first (and possibly only) video game that felt like it was made just for me. It had my sense of humor and my musical "style" as a 12 year old kid. At that age not a lot of things resonate, but Earthbound did.
It's also been wild over the years watching it go from this totally unknown game, to a secret classic, to a cult classic, to so many younger generations finding it later on.
A couple that come to mind.
Breath of the Wild is huge because it salvaged my gaming mindset. For over a decade, I played WoW for almost exclusively because a) I didn't have a console, b) I couldn't afford a console, and c) embarrassingly enough, I didn't know Steam existed until like 2018. I grew frustrated with it, however, as Legion progressed and actually quit for a while. I came back for Battle for Azeroth and quit 2 weeks in because it dawned on me that the game would essentially just be another time-gated grindfest like Legion.
A couple weeks later, I remembered that there was more to gaming than MMOs and so I bought myself a Switch and Breath of the Wild because I had heard so much about it. I actually first approached the game similar to how I approached WoW - pick up quest, go to area to complete it, pick up next quest, go to area, etc., which worked for the Plateau but getting to Kakiriko Village was such a chore initially that I gave up on the game for a few days.
I came back to it a few days later and took a different mindset - I'm just going to run around and go wherever I want. I basically had to wean myself off the WoW mindset of mindlessly jumping from quest to quest and once I did that, I found myself immensely enjoying the open world exploration. I don't think I did a single quest until at least 50-60 hours in because I was having so much fun just running around.
Basically, it reminded me that games shouldn't be a hamster wheel and this freeform gameplay changed my mindset on how I approach certain games.
And, of course, there is Nier Automata, which gets a mention because it was the only game that left me completely shaken by the end. There are a ton of great games out there but this was the first (and as of now, only) game that can be considered ART. For most other games, I play them, I beat them, and that's that. I might engage in a discussion or two on Reddit or whatnot but that's about it. Automata is the only game where I went out of my way to find as much supplemental material as possible because I just had to have more.
It also inadvertently led me to Final Fantasy XIV, which I picked up because I was so starved for Nier content, and I ended up staying because it had a great story. Not as great Automata, mind you, but still a great story.
I have a couple, but Pokemon Silver probably. It's one of the few gifts I really liked as a child that my parents got me (along with a Gameboy) and one of the few moments of my childhood I remember vividly
Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. That will probably be the game I'm buried with when I die.
It was one of the first games I ever beaten, and is probably the game I have played through the most times. It brings me straight back to my childhood whenever I play it, bringing back to summer trips to Michigan, that winter we spent in Colorado, and various places I have been throughout my life.
It is my ultimate comfort game. It has gotten me through grief, and always feels like a welcoming world to dive into despite the bittersweet tone of the game.
Given the nature of the game's story, I figure as long as I come back to play the game, the world and its characters are never truly gone forever. They'll be there waiting for the next time I decide to play.
Two games that were truly impactful to me growing up was Quake III Arena, and Rock Band Unplugged on PSP.
Quake III Arena was the first PC game I've ever played and is the entry game that got me into video games as a hobby. Rocket jumping as Sarge is something I enjoy to this day as I have it on Steam now but I love this game and it has followed me as I've grown up.
Rock Band Unplugged won't be mentioned much, but I always had a PSP nearby until this year when I sold both of my PSPs. This game was the perfect example of focusing purely on the main game concept and not overcomplicating things, you got to customize your band, you picked the songs available, the controls were easy to get an understanding for, and you were off into a fantastically made game. Hours would go by for me, and I chased earning 5 gold stars (Which was the highest rating you could get on each song) on every song and I'd do it all again because of how simple the game's replayability and flow is.
X-com Apocalypse. I had missed the releases of the first two, because 1993. I had a decent enough Compaq in '94 that I could play it. It was the most complicated game I had ever played, and I still do, occasionally through DOSBox on Steam now.
Persona 4: Golden
I actually played the og version on ps2 when it came out but I had my save corrupted about 30 hours in and never restarted it, I enjoyed it at the time but was probably too young to really get it anyways.
Cut to years later and I had graduated high school earlier that year and was feeling kind of lost and lonely seeing as most my friends were continuing on to college but I had no idea what I wanted to do. I ended up getting Golden for christmas that year and was completely obsessed with it. In my loneliness I found myself getting really attached to the characters, and loved the overall message about friendship and accepting your true self.
I think I played through it 3 times in one year, just playing it and restarting it right after I beat it, collecting all the personas and getting all the social links (using guides of course). I didn't realize it at the time but I think the game really helped me through a rough spot in my life. To this day if I want to feel happy I just need to toss on the soundtrack.
I too really, really liked Persona. I played 3 first, and got lost in it for a very long time. Ended up checking out SMT in general afterward and had a tremendously good time. I can agree too with the social aspect being meaningful - I think having those sorts of experiences, where you're figuring out a person and trying to understand them can be really good for folks, as you laid out. It's a fine line between that and gamifying a relationship, and I felt persona did a pretty good job of keeping it relatable if that makes sense.
I really wanted to like it, but that game just wasn’t for me. I could almost stand it but it just got too repetitive.
But I can absolutely see why it would be precious to someone.
Ouch, this is exactly what happened to me in Persona 4 Golden on PS Vita. It was an outstanding game until my save for corrupted, but I haven't had the heart to restart it from scratch.
Haven't seen them mentioned so I'm excited to share mine:
[PC] Warcraft: Orcs and Humans
Probably the first actual game I played apart from some puzzle stuff. It came installed and was an option in the boot menu on our family PC. I wasn't really good at it but I loved the art style and kickstarted my love for Blizzard games all the way until Mike Morhaime left the company.
[PC] Tyrian
Lovely shoot em up that really captivated me. Brilliant music by Alexander Brandon. It has some amazing in-depth customization and unlocks. Boss fights are memorable and tricky. Bonus levels and lore is just the cherry on top. Pun intended.
[PC] Rollercoaster Tycoon
A culture classic and well-known gem. First game that got me into management style games. Simcity 2k, 3k, 4 and Cities: Skylines came after. As a bonus I'd like to shout out Parkitect as a true spiritual successor. Infinite replayability! Highly recommended.
[GBA] Golden Sun + Golden Sun: the Lost Age
First Japanese RPGs that really sucked me in, lore is amazing, world building is top notch but not original, plenty have gone before, Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger and the likes. This one just has really solid combat systems, puzzles and character development along with class synergies along with very, VERY visual summons.
A few come to mind.
I played Mirror's Edge on release, but when revisiting around 2013 something pushed me to pick it up as a speedrun game. I had comparatively piss poor English proficiency at the time, but entering that community had forced me to interact with people in other countries for probably the first time in my life. Broadening my perspective like that essentially made me who I am today, and I have to appreciate the other runners tolerating a 14 year old kid with bad English whose communication style comprised of adding Kappa to every chat message — although I doubt many remember me now. Also co-organizing a 32-man tournament helped me learn some production skills.
In 2014 I picked up osu! and it pretty much shaped a half of my current music taste. Learning about Japanese music has lead me to finding many new artists whose work helped me through a pretty depressing part of my life and some of whom I still follow to this day. Being fascinated with Japanese lyrics also gave me a kick up the ass to start seriously learning the language, which helped me broaden my worldview once more. I'm still not great at it to this day, but know enough to read books with some help from the dictionary and be otherwise dangerous. I also met a good online friend through that game who helped me start programming and do what I now do, as well as make a few other friends through him. We're still chatting daily and collaborating on projects nearly 10 years later.
An honorable mention goes to Nier: Automata. I didn't have any particularly life-changing experiences with it compared to the other two, but it is the most important game to me and the first thing that comes to mind when I think about video games. It showed me what kind of experiences the medium of video games could truly be possible of. It is one of those things I wish I could erase my memories for to experience for the first time again. Drakenier music has hacked my brain and I get immediate goosebumps after 2 bars of any track from the OST. Ending E is beautiful and Yoko Taro is a genius. I wish the church was real. Please remake Drakengard for PC. Fuck the Replicant's flower gardening side quest. Glory to mankind.
The first Nier (Gestalt/Replicant) really affected me, too, though not really in a way that made a permanent change. One of the endings literally gave me short-term depression; I had to lay down for the rest of the day. I couldn't even get started on the "final" ending until quite a while later.
Any of the BASIC games on the Apple ][ that I typed in from code listings or just hacked on my own. Lemonade Stand is much easier when it's hot every day. Oh, and Typing Tutor or whatever it was called that was basically Space Invaders/Missile Command where you had to type the letters/words that were descending on you.
A not very well known and not particularly well made or well run free-to-play multiplayer first person shooter called War Rock saw me through some tumultuous years of my childhood, and through which I made online friends that I still know to this day — 15+ years later — and while we only talk ever so often now, at times they were the best and closest friends that I had.
Same can be said for RuneScape and then Old School RuneScape. This was the first computer game I had ever played starting in elementary school, and later in high school this game helped get me through my mom’s illness and passing.
This is the sort of story I most enjoy seeing. I think games are capable of doing a lot for folks, if the experience can be tailored in the right sort of way, and it's similarly amazing to me how really any game can fulfill such a purpose if the circumstances are just right. Making friends who stick together like that is very special, and I'm grateful for how stuff like gaming can make it happen.
I can't tell you how many hours I spent in Fally pasting
cyan:wave:SELLING X, where X was feathers, then coal, then various types of logs....oh boy.Dark Age of Camelot
This was my jam. Spent just shy of 10,000 hours playing it back starting in 2001. Best MMO to date, no question. Nothing has come close to the PvP in this game.
A link to the past is up there, pokemon and world of warcraft
Red Alert 2. That whole game is a core memory.
The first time I ever did any practical programming was when I wrote a macro for my Quake config file. In 2013, I changed careers and became a software developer. This change completely transformed my life.
I had dabbling in some programming before, but Quake made it real for me that it could be useful and valuable, even though that was only in the context of a video game. In fact, maybe it's because it was in the context of a video game that it was so powerful, since that's what was most important to me at the time.
I almost went game design when I discovered the Doom WAD editor and level designer.
Then I did something that would put me on a watch list today, and designed my school in the best detail possible. The science labs had one of the biggest bosses in there and if Miss LeRoy is still around, you was an awesome teaching and damn right scary!
Two big ones for me. First is very jocky but the MLB The Show series. Baseball has been my favorite sport and I burned so many hours on building teams and such - a large part of me knowing who played for what team comes from so much time wasted on roster menus, lol.
Second is Gran Turismo. It’s why I love cars and motorsports today. Getting exposed to worldwide brands and circuits as the series developed has made me the car nerd I am today. The variety in the older games especially, from street to legit racing cars was amazing too. Only game I’ve gotten every single iteration of.
GT introduced me to the world of motorsport as well, and is always a guaranteed day one purchase. I definitely wouldn’t have any interest in cars if 7 year old me didn’t play that GT1 demo at a friends house
Same man. It’s fun now that I’m older and I know more and more about cars I can think back to those old GT games and how I got introduced to them. Like the JGTC cars, the GT-ONE, the 787B(!!), all of those classics.
The original Ninja Gaiden for NES. Never have I been more frustrated at the challenge of a game and simultaneously as relentless in my persuit of beating it. I suffered so many deaths at the same points over and over and over again...and no way to save the game at all except the auto-save at checkpoints so I had no choice but the constant repetition.
Looking back it's nothing but fun, fond memories and learning experiences but at the time it was pure love and frustration.
Had so many good times replaying snes super mario and DKC 1-3 with my wife, it's hard not to place those up there.
My favorite personal time wasters as a teen: civilization 2, chip's challenge, sims
The most modern one that sparks joy: portal
Also, I'd love recommendations on things to check out! I feel the world of video games has left me as FPS games and graphics-focused design took over.
Edit: also loved final fantasy x....but the newer ones are garbage. They're just mashing a singular button to basically play a movie.
First up, Minecraft. At the time, everyone around me was playing different Call of Duties (mostly Modern Warfare 2 and BlOps) which really wasn't my style. Then one day someone brought in Minecraft and it redefined what games meant to me. The enjoyment I got out of even just watching people play it almost forced me to reinvent how I approached social interactions during a pretty formative time in my own life. Then getting my own account and playing online gave me a space to try being more social in a space where I could just dip out at any point and join a new server if I messed up. I also wouldn't have realised I could go into software if Redstone didn't make that kind of thinking useful and practical.
And secondly Divinity: Original Sin II. This game single-handedly carried me through my Honours year. At the time I was pretty much done with playthrough number I-forgot-how-many of Skyrim and playthrough 3 of The Witcher 3 (which I nearly 100%ed, all quests and locations except mutually exclusive quests and the boat symbols in Skellige). I'd seen everything those games had to offer, and there was no real point in playing them again. Then I picked up D:OS2 and my experience with RPGs was never the same again. The thing I like to focus on when telling people about it is that the combat never gets boring. In other isometric CRPGs the combat can get very same-y very quickly. Playing Pathfinder: Kingmaker after a D:OS2 playthrough makes this painfully obvious. No two fights in the game have the same composition of enemies. When they are similar, then the area you're fighting in makes them play out completely differently. I can talk with the friends I've done co-op with and just mention "that Blackpits fight", The S****w Man, the Fort Joy frogs, the gatehouse to Arx, or any others to instantly be on the same page. The game is memorable because its core loop of exploration, dialogue, and combat never gets old. Exploration always has something new around the corner, the writing and world-building keeps up right to the very end where it wavers but you're at the end of the game so it's not that bad, and the combat stays fresh because you're always put in new situations where you have to be tactical about your decisions. I am glad this game exists, and that it existed when I needed it. I am so excited for Baldur's Gate 3, being developed by the same company.
If I were going to play both D:OS2 and Pathfinder: Kingmaker, what order would you recommend them in? It sounds like you like the former a lot more, but is that reason to play it after so I can enjoy Kingmaker more?
I honestly don't think it matters in which order you play them. My point was more about the shock of going from one philosophy of combat design to another (is it a puzzle or a challenge?).
I think the decision of which to play first should more depend on whether you want to go straight from Kingmaker to Wrath of the Righteous, or have a little break in-between. (Side note: I haven't played Wrath of the Righteous yet, but one of my RPG-loving friends really enjoyed it and I'll be picking it up when I find room in my games schedule. This has been a good year for games)
I have a couple major and a few minor ones:
Donkey Kong Country - Not my first video game, but the first one I remember and the first one I actually played by myself with the intent to complete. I’m not sure what possessed my parents to buy a SNES for me because I don’t think I had ever expressed interest in games. Maybe they just figured “hey endyfrs is almost 5, maybe they’d like this popular game/console”, but the rest is history. I have such weird core memories of playing this late at night with my mom and my older cousin, getting reasonably deep into the game and staying up way later than any of us should have. It is also the first game I beat. DKC is solely responsible for starting my gaming journey.
Gran Turismo 1 - Similarly, playing the demo of this at a friends house hooked me on the racing genre. I’d played Top Gear on SNES beforehand and loved it, but GT ignited an interest in cars that I’m not sure would’ve happened otherwise. Immediately after playing this demo I wanted a PlayStation, and it continued my journey. I would become fascinated with cars and motorsport, a love that lasts to this day. GT remains one of the few series I will immediately buy on launch.
Metroid Fusion - Introduced me to my other absolute favorite series. I somehow skipped Super Metroid growing up, so this was my first introduction. I fell in love with the gameplay, the atmosphere, the music, everything. Despite being a mostly quiet protagonist, I looked up to Samus. She is exactly what I wanted to be, the badass space bounty hunter that can handle anything. I knew I’d be stuck on earth but 12 year old me dreamt of having the adventures she had. I’d later learn how to emulate games to experience the three previous ones (and thankfully play Zero Mission before getting too frustrated with the first game). Metroid Dread’s announcement and positive release made me the happiest I have ever been in recent memory.
Roller Coaster Tycoon - Made me into a coaster nerd, simple. Also taught me how to alt-tab. Yes, I know that’s a weird fact.
Einhander - Reinforced my appreciation of my parents. I wanted the game, but it wasn’t exactly common even close to when it released. My dad hunted everywhere and my mom scoured eBay. She finally sniped an auction and I got my prized copy. It sits among my copies of Tomba 1 & 2 and Megaman Legends 1 & 2 as “games that I wanted on a whim that my parents got not knowing how rare they’d eventually be”. I still refuse to sell any of them even as I see their value climb because of the personal value they hold
It's hard to pin down because there've been so many. I'd be tempted to say Mass Effect or KotOR because I love them and have played them a tonne. Or Halo as it was my first FPS, and I'm pretty damn good at it.
But honestly it has to be either RuneScape or World of Warcraft simply for the sheer amount of social development I attained in the years I played them. I was a very shy and socially anxious kid, and meeting people through those games, talking, making mistakes, learning from them, losing friends, gaining friends — all these things that happened in a safe, virtual environment made me the person I am today: a socially confident chatterbox who doesn't know when to hold his tongue.
Final Fantasy VII. I had just begun reading fantasy novels a few years earlier and Final Fantasy VII seemed like a digital epic novel to me with surprises and unexpected twists and turns. Aeris' death gutted me. I thought it was my fault because I liked Tifa better. I did not know this series before VII. I didn't know Final Fantasy was on Nintendo. VII was one of my first games on Playstation. This was the gateway to the world of role playing games for me, my favorite genre.
Two, for different reasons.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker marked a transitory time of my life where I stopped reading manuals and focused on playing games. I actually didn't finish this game as an adult, but a major goal of mine at 14 after most of my life playing games out of manuals was to do it myself. I got pretty close to the end and, frankly, don't remember why I never pushed on, but it stuck with me. I think Twilight Princess was the first Zelda game I ever finished, but I played everything but Zelda II up to then. Wind Waker opened a door and helped change how I play games. I did finally beat Wind Waker in 2020 with a graphically enhanced emulated version on Dolphin, and it was worth the experience, as well.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Growing up my one-year-older brother got this funky game called "Morrowind", but he didn't let me or my twin play it more than a couple hours. Then he got Oblivion. I'd played less than ten hours between both games but their gameplay left a mark, and I'd been thinking about how combat works in those games. I eventually tried playing Oblivion and Skyrim on PS3 and found them super boring. Then in 2021 I was watching a streamer on Twitch talk about Skyrim with his chat, defending the vanilla game and how good it was, which convinced me to give it a try. I forced myself to play for four hours because I know games can start slow, and that seemed to be what got me bored and unwilling to play.
It worked too well, and I only played Skyrim for a month, instead of other games. I'd planned to work my way backward through the series as far as I reasonably could, which sort of worked, but I powered through the main quests which sort of impacted my enjoyment in ways that I definitely knew were my fault.
This led me to the Fallout games which are also brilliant, I started at 4, beat New Vegas first, then 4, and finally 3 (as well as Broken Steel and The Pitt). However FNV and FO3 exposed an issue that was worse than expected: A sort of misophonia triggered by interior building noises, and a fairly intense radiophobia specifically surrounding nuclear incidents (even Wikipedia articles would cause me to shake. I consciously knew I was safe, but tended to experience an intense physical fear response). I wanted to enjoy these games, so I wound up focusing on FO4 to get used to the world these games take place in, and focused on short, targeted FNV sessions to try to overcome both of these fears and progress in the game. It mostly worked to get over the radiophobia, and I just lean into the ambience as part of the experience. I was actually able to go through FO3 and two of its DLCs with no issues (I played the TTW version, but it's mostly the same content). I picked up FO4 again and was kind of re-conditioned, but it fell away quickly.
Trying to play the original Fallout games led me to isometric RPGs, specifically Obsidian's DnD licensed ones. These were sort of archaic on top of the general learning curve, so I wanted something newer and found Pillars of Eternity on sale, then Tyranny, which are both excellent games.
Skyrim was a huge development in which games I was interested in, and got me extremely interested in this sort of RPG genre, and some isometric RPGs in general, and I'm kind of grateful to it.
I am hopelessly addicted to World of Warcraft. I have quit it twice in the last 19 years but I always return. I doubt I’ll ever fully leave - ever.
Is that bad? I dunno, I like having something that requires no thought. Like I wanna relax then I will go play WoW. I have tried other things but they just don’t stick.
RuneScape, but not because of the game.
When I had just started I was about 8 or so. I found a friendly stranger, who showed me how to bury bones for prayer XP. Then he very generously gifted me 1k (!!!) Gold! (Note: for any non-runescape players, 1k is a pittance, big purchases endgame are regularly in the millions to billions). But as a new player, 1k seemed like a huge amount.
Then, he dropped this wisdom on me: "There are enough bad people in the world, try and be one of the good ones".
The profundity combined with the generous gift was literally formative for me. It shaped my life philosophy, and is why I am the way I am today. This random RuneScape player who I don't know the name of and never will, is the reason I am kind and generous and caring today. Small actions really can make big impacts
Pokémon Yellow because it was the first game boy color game my mom ever bought me and Mario Super Sunshine.
I spent countless hours playing Pokémon games with my mom. We played through Yellow - Emerald together. Those will forever be some of the most important memories to me with my mom. 20+ years later I still play every Pokémon release and every few releases my mom who is almost 60 will pick up the current console so she can play Pokémon and Mario.
Mario Super Sunshine is for basically the same reason. I spent hours playing that game with my mom, and it is an important memory to me.
Splatoon 2. It's nowhere near my most played game, and not really a favourite either even though I do like it a lot. It's just that Splatoon introduced me to friends who, though I've since stopped speaking with almost all of them, I feel eventually lead me to a lot of the circles and groups I'm in today. My (online, at least) life would look very different without it.
Do you play Splatoon 3 by any chance?
Sometimes yeah. I don't play Splatoon nearly as much as I used to, but I still pop in every now and then for Splatfest and whatnot. I just don't think I'm as big of a fan of the direction 3 is taking with the catalog and everything.
Far enough. I mean I've enjoyed the magazine so far, but I guess it's because I don't get hit by fomo as hard as some people do. I already got everything I want for my avatar, and I mostly ignore the lockers. I'm mostly in it to try the new weapons, to play some turf and tower control and for the rotation of events. I just wish the challenge stages were at more regular times.
The only thing I don't really like about 3 is the stage layout, and even then it makes sense because 3 is meant to be a faster pace and more confrontational game than 2 or 1. I still go back to 2 if I'm more in the mood for the old style of gameplay (or 1 until nintendo yanked the servers for "maintenance")
Bio shock was the first game that I was fully invested into the art of story telling, world building, and environmental depth.
Knights of the old republic was my first foray into rpgs.
Ultima III / IV pretty much invented the turn based RPG.
For anyone interested in a take on this topic, the Triple Click Podcast (hosted by Jason Schreier from Bloomberg, Maddy Meyers from Polygon and Kirk Hamilton formerly of Kotaku) recently did an episode on "The Games That Shaped Our Childhoods" in which they talked about the "most formative" games for their lives. It was a really interesting episode to listen to and think about, although it's unfortunately for Maximum Fun subscribers only.
This is the list I came up with for myself afterwards:
The first two are games I played a lot as a young child and really defined the games I would play going forward. Star Wars Galaxies is a really unusual pick, but it started my interest in roleplay and was a huge part of my early teenage years. The latter two would go on to cement story-driven RPGs as my favorite genre of game.
I played Link to the Past first as well. Zelda has been my favourite game for pretty much entire life - in the last 5 or so years, FromSoft earned a spot at the table too.
Oblivion is on my list as well - can't wait for Skyblivion
Less so about the game, but darkest dungeon. I watched a lady with only a couple viewers on twitch play the beta. And I ended up coming back for more stuff, eventually becoming friends with someone in her community. And that friend led to about 10+ more people who I've become pretty close with.
Beyond Good And Evil
Whenever someone asks a question like this I always find myself thinking of Beyond Good And Evil. I think I just really connected with the characters and the universe. At the time it felt like a huge world that you could explore and find interesting secrets. All the characters were flamboyant and interesting. I really loved that game. The storytelling was wonderful.
Among many awards “The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated the game for "Outstanding Achievement in Character or Story Development" at the 2004 Interactive Achievement Awards.” from Wikipedia
I hear a sequel is coming out soon! I hope it's good.
strained breathing and teeth grinding sounds intensify
Kind of a tough question, but it's between two. I'll go with one for brevity.
Super Smash Brothers: Melee. It has very varying reputation depending on who you ask, but I got into it as a teenager and it was my first "real" competitive outlet when I decided to go to tournaments for it. Prior to that, I don't think I understood my competitive side very well.
Beyond how fun the game is (and how great the people are that I've met through tournaments!), the reason it lands this spot in my heart is because of how much I've grown alongside it. It has been almost 10 years since I first decided to attend my first tournament, and I've become a very different person multiple times through that time. I graduated highschool, went through all of college, and found my passions and values during that time. I don't think I could effectively be the same person if the competition provided by these events didn't force me to take close looks at myself. Thanks to Melee, I understand myself, how my brain works, and the learning strategies that work for me. These are lessons I'll almost certainly hold on for a very very long time and I appreciate it deeply.
As of late, my passion for playing the game has died down, and I don't enter events as much anymore. My skill has declined, and damnit, these new kids are too good. But I'll always be thankful for the "me" that Melee helped me become, and I'll likely move on from this game, but the wisdom I've gained will remain.
my most important game would probably be chicory: a colorful tale. everything about it just feels important
it's not a hard game and is mostly just an interactive coloring book but the story really resonated with me, and it ended up being a space where i could draw a trans flag on a virtual id in the game and that helped a lot at the time
its themes of trying to be somebody are executed very well and the music from lena raine is just top notch
Genshin Impact.
playing from December 2020, still going strong. I went through some tough times IRL in between, and this game never failed to give me that sensation of magic every time I logged in.
3 years in, this game still never ceases to amaze me. On the other day, while running some errands I came across this hostile mob. They attack the mc on sight, but when none is around, they were feeding a duck in a pond! I observed from far a bit, and left them in peace.
It's got to be Skyrim for me. I've been playing for 10 over 10 years. Its the only game I have ever returned to over and over. I mod it now but something about playing Skyrim just feels right. I've played ghost of Tsushima, god of war and other amazing games that I love but Skyrim is the only one that pulls me back.
This is going to be niche. Deadlock: Planetary Conquest (1996). It wasn't my first game, it wasn't my favorite from a gameplay perspective (though still very fun, but at the time I preferred Z), it wasn't perfect. So why Deadlock?
It had amazing lore presented in a fantastic handbook, and I loved how battles played out. It made me want to make something like it. While I coded and experimented with game design before, Deadlock really gave it a push. It made for some of my most cherished memories and friendships.
Honestly, there's a lot of games I could think of that would fit the bill here - but thinking about it, I have to go with a little puzzle game called Wonderland. The original trilogy is a very Chip's Challenge/Sokoban-esque puzzle game, with pushing boxes and making bridges and such. The second trilogy, the Adventures games, are a bit more RPG-esque, with NPCs to talk to and an overworld to explore.
I joined the community waaaaaaaay back when, mid-2004, when I was just seven years old. I, uh. I'm a bit too embarrassed to try going back through my old posts or anything like that, haha - but the games and the community forums introduced me to some of my best friends. I can't imagine how different my life would look if it weren't for them - a mutual friend (who's since left, sadly) even introduced me to my first boyfriend, and the emotional support they've given me over the years has been invaluable. (hi wing, hi samuel, in case either of you end up reading this <3)
I could probably cite a lot of other games that'd fit this list too, for various reasons - Umineko, Half-Life, Outer Wilds, Super Mario World, Minecraft, Sonic, Chip's Challenge - but when it comes right down to it, I don't think any of those games have had as distinct and long-lasting an impression on me as Wonderland has.
except maybe umineko but i'm not counting it since it's a visual novelAlthough I no longer play, it's without a doubt World of Warcraft. Nothing will ever come close, I lived and breathed WoW when I was younger.
Learned english, met lifelong friends there, had laughs and nerd-screams, 1 year
/playedwell spent.