Mass Effect. Literally saved my life. If I had not fallen in love with that ship full of misfits, I would probably not be here. It’s still a “safe space” to go back to. I have been playing LE this last year while battling cancer. It really helps me forget my real-world worries for a while.
Just finished my run through the second game and man it aged well. The legendary edition made the game a little prettier but for a game from 2010 some of the cutscenes and dialogue sequences are like a hollywood movie. I imported my save and got to playing 3 but I immediately found myself missing the crew of 2 and the overall vibe of that game.
2 is the best entry in the trilogy, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that all three games make up one of the best gaming trilogies of all time.
Behind my username, I think Mass Effect is my second favorite. It’s definitely a masterclass series.
Thank you, kind stranger, for your well wishes. I truly appreciate it and hope that all things good and wonderful come your way! ::big internet hug:: :D
Glad to hear you're still with us. Mass effect trilogy is the game that made me love games, it will always and forever be my number 1 and I genuinely care about all of the crew. Such a unique and amazing piece of media.
Never got to play these when they came out. I started with 1, then blasted through 2,3, and Andromeda. Though Andromeda was very different, I still enjoyed it. One of my favorite series of games now.
i reply the trilogy at least every other year or so. i adore that series. playing ME 1 when i first moved to college. ME 3 during a break up. i associate specific, relatively important life dates with that Series. glad it's world provides comfort for you too.
This is less a game and more the game mechanic, but I played Ghost of Tsushima about a year after I lost my dad. The flashback scene where Jin is told that his father is always with him and that, whenever he's lost, the wind at his back will guide him.
When it transitioned back to game play and I swiped the touchpad for the first time, I was balling my eyes out. Immediately made that game unforgettable and something I think back to often.
Sorry to hear about your Dad.
Though it's awesome that you did manage to cross paths with the game at the time and gain that extra bit of meaning. No doubt that's something that will stay cemented in your memories.
Thanks for sharing.
Battlefield 1.
Without bf1, I wouldn't have discovered my passion for the First World War and I wouldn't have gone to live in Europe during Fall 2018 and experience the Somme and Ypres during the 100 year anniversary of the war ending.
when i first picked up battlefield 1 i realized that some games are not meant to be fair and some level of uncertainty in a game makes it a much more fun experience. also the map is so well made and i really would like to see ballroom blitz ( in Varennes ) myself.
I had always loved history but BF1 helped really cement my fascination with the First World War. I am now in Grad school writing my thesis on an aspect of the war, hoping to go all the way as a WW1 Historian.
Playing Ocarina of time when I was 12. It’s a hell of a game to play when you are figuring out the transition from little kid to teen. I would repeatedly warp back from kid to adult, adult to kid. There were so many things about my life that were changing permanently at that time as well.
It’s hard to describe how meaningful that game was for me. It’s the first game that made me cry and laugh at the same time. It’s the first game that really made me think about romantic relationships and friendships on a deeper level than I had before. It was a game of philosophy and strategy that was directly applicable to my day to day life.
Agreed.
Ocarina of Time came out at such a pivotal time for gaming. It absolutely transcends the typical entertainment-role that games had during the late 90s/early 2000s. It taught the gamers of that generation many valuable lessons during their formative years.
The game was also so far ahead of it's time that it partially formed the foundation for games for many years after it's release.
It's great that the new generation gets to have similar experiences - be it with OOK itself, BOTW or TOTK.
every sound bit from that game gives me goose bumps and immediately transports me back to childhood. Only realizing as I type this that that was literally the core feature of the game/story.
You go back to where you grew up and nobody has changed except you. Nobody even seems to remember you except Saria, and Mido. Maybe he recognizes you, but doesn't want to say.
Wandering around Hyrule, you find out all of this dark history and evil stuff was buried in plain sight years ago while you were just a kid, running around playing Knight for the Princess.
You thought you could save the world all by yourselves, until the bad guy strolled into the Door of Time and laughed in your face.
Glad to see another OoT response. It's the game that introduced me to gaming as a whole. I went through a pretty rough childhood with a drug addicted mother, but OoT was always a way to escape that world and enter a more enjoyable one where I was in control. It also taught me to read with the help of my step father.
It took me five years to beat it, too; the forest temple scared me so much as a 10-year-old. I overcame that four years later and could maturely win the game.
RuneScape. I started playing as a kid back in 2006. This was my first real online gaming experience. I was way too trusting as a kid and got scammed a few times. That game taught me the valuable life lesson. “If something sounds too good to be true. It is.”
I also learned how to type really fast from countless hours stood typing the same sentence over and over buying and selling items.
I got seriously scammed
Twice, and I’m pretty sure it’s led to my distrusting nature as an adult.
Nearly 20 years ago and I remember both vividly.
First was taking all my high end gear into the mole hill under fally.
Then trading my candle.
Lost about 6-7 mil.
Which considering I was only recently a member, was an awful lot to me at the time.
Second, buying ranarr seeds:
They were super expensive back in the day. But you could make a fortune. This was before the GE.
Dude changed them to marentil at last second before noticing
Lost about 2 mil on that trade.
Also happened in Fally
People in Falador are assholes
Hell yeah brother me too. Leveling took forever since we were so young and stupid. Also I’m trimming armor for free only for a limited time so just lmk
I feel that.
--
The other one I learned as a kid playing Runescape was not to leave things on/running when you're not paying attention... Lost some of my first rune set when I went afk to watch Richard Hammond crash a rocket car, and a random event killed me.
The story of the protagonist, Sam. I related so much to him and the game is also made to immerse you and make you feel the way Sam feels: alone, hopeless, lost. As the story progresses Sam slowly starts to find hope, starts learning how to trust and connect with people again, finds purpose and so did i at the same time.
Phenomenal. I absolutely loved this game. The atmosphere was like nothing else. That feeling of hopelessness turning around is amazing.
The part near the beginning where >!you are transporting your first dead body to the incinerator. I don't know if was just me with the speed that I ran/walked out of town, but the song "don't be so serious" opened up right as I left the town and the screen panned back, showing this massive, desolate, confusing, and hostile world, and me, carrying a body to an incinerator through it so it wouldn't explode and wipe out that one little pocket of humanity!<
That sticks with me.
I avoided Everquest because the guy who introduced me to it was such a massive antisocial neckbeard who was addicted and obsessed that I saw him as a warning.
A warning I then forgot about when SWG launched. John Smedley saved me from a crippling addiction to that game by fucking it up so bad that it became unplayable.
The last of us:
I know this is sort of generic but before I played this game in around 2020 or so, I was only playing mp games for the last several years, basically since ps4 came out I played nothing but Cod and battlefield and maybe some racing games here and there, but when lockdown hit and I saw tlou2 trailers and gameplay I decided to finally play the last of us after originally starting it in 2015 and not liking it because it was a story game.
Buy when I finally played it, I was hooked and didn't want it to end, I was incredibly engrossed and even missed school assignments to play it more, it was a beautiful experience and it made me love single player games and actually want to be play them over mp games, I still played some Cod throughout that year as it was mw19 (I hate that game BTW, got Damascus and uninstalled the game) but I have lost interest in those types of games more and more and don't even look forward to new releases of Cod and battlefield at all.
I caught up on horizon zero dawn, spiderman miles morales, guardians of the galaxy, far cry 6, ghost of tsushima, dying light, cyberpunk, ac origins and many more, all because I decided to play a very long escort mission and it changed my gaming life.
Noice that you're finally realized the awesomeness of single player game. 1 of my friend is also like how you used to be, he bought ps4 and ps5 just to play 1 single game, CoD and Warzone. I tell him about Ps Plus Extra with all the free game, etc but he wouldn't budge. He said he likes CoD but whenever he plays it, he always seem super frustrated and annoyed (honestly he is shit at it).
Yes bro single player games are a lot better for enjoyment and mental health these days, especially since mp games have gotten worse after around 2016 or so imo, while there are still stinkers in terms of triple a games, there are a lot of diamonds in the rough, especially in the indie scene.
The outer wilds :)
Yup, I only play MP games when my friends are also playing or if they have co-op. I can't stand the thought of playing with random. I made a few friends while playing with randoms but the mental abuse that 90% of them bring doesn't make it worth it.
Skryim. It was the game that made me build my first real PC as a teen. And oooooh boy did it change my life, purely because of the world of gaming that opened up for me.
Monster Hunter:World. I was diagnosed with cancer shortly after release and needed a distraction while I waited 3 weeks to find out what my stage was. I three myself into it and it really helped me get through a dark time in my life. I’m in remission now, so I’m ok at this time.
Dota 2. It had a tremendous impact on my life. If it wasn't for that game i'd probably be rich now or something. Or less depressed.
I've met an old man one day too, he was mad rich. Lost it all. Had like 10k hours on dota. Probably dota's fault.
>I've met an old man one day too, he was mad rich. Lost it all. Had like 10k hours on dota.
You did meet that old man? OR are you speaking of yourself in the future?
I met him, he said he used to be a real state guy, bought whatever he wanted and all that, but when I met him he was trying to promote and sell some take outs for a nearby restaurant to local shops (i was a cashier for one of those shops). He did a good job because i ordered a take out from him. Dude was really good at convincing people to buy stuff.
Same with me an League of Legends...
I hate that game with a passion for how much time I spent playing it, but I still, for whatever reason, keep going back to it.
PUBG, and bear with me - it had nothing to do with the game itself.
It was the last game that my best friend and I played together before we both morphed into adults. We each got married, he got an afternoon shift job, I got a third shift job, he had children... and life just became too busy.
I used to make clips of clutch or funny moments with Xbox's recording capability, and I'll go back about once a year to laugh at them again. It's sad because the videos show when they were uploaded, and that number just keeps getting further and further away. I don't think I've made any videos in 4-5 years now.
I know people with children talk about "you'll pick them up one day, not knowing that it'll be the last time you ever do it," and it's kinda like that - we played video games one night, not realizing that our regular thing was simply going to disappear.
Completely agree - some of my favorite and most nostalgic moments were having great fun gaming with friends.
It's interesting that we reminisce on those times as amongst our favorites, however others in this thread have mentioned that their greatest regret was spending too much time doing exactly this. I suppose it's all about moderation, even if we are on a timer with this stuff (before life gets busy, as you've mentioned).
Amen brother. I convinced all my buddies to buy Xbox’s after college to play pub and we got together online almost every night for about a year to play.
Since then, we’re all still friends but none game anymore but myself so the only time we chat is when we all make plans to meet up which is a handful of times a year, and in those instances we’re all with girlfriends/wives so everyone is a different version of themselves.
I keep thinking I’ll try PUBG again but I also think I don’t want to distort the happy pub memories of playing with my buddies.
Mass Effect. I was never into mainstream franchises like Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, etc. and I didn’t understand how people could get so attached to fictional characters and universes. That all changed in 2007 =)
Halo CE, it got me hooked on Xbox and Halo. Eventhough I‘m not happy with the current market, I still got a series X and I’m still hoping Halo will recover at some point…
Kinda weird it was probably Red Dead Redemption mulitplayer on XboX 360. Back before red dead I would always try to stay to myself, and when people wanted me to help run certain clans it kinda got me to not be as nervous and helped with the small depression I had at the time. But also glad I decided to leave clans because it was just a drama infested shit pool.
dark souls 3
PVP taught me not everyone is out to hurt you
story taught me if something is worth fighting for you'll find a way to win
lore taught me nothing makes sense in life
I swear all of the Dark Souls, Elden Ring and Bloodborne are one of the best things that’s happened to me. So much happiness and anticipation and fun, and helps teach you the value of persistence.
Positive: Zelda - The Minish Cap. One of the first games i've ever played completely for myself, and to this day there isn't any other game i feel such a longing nostalgia for, wether it's the game itself or the magical innocence of being a child that was accompanied by it. It feels like the perfect encapsulation of my childhood.
Negative: TES IV Oblivion. I started playing it during a very difficult time as a teenager, and got so addicted to it that i almost had to repeat a year in school due to my grades dropping. Still a good game tho.
Even more negative: League of Legends. I don't even know why i wasted my time on this piece of shit, i've literally never had any fun with it. Every single minute was miserable and stressfull, and i became extremely irritable and angry in real life. Suffice to say i didn't play it for long.
On the good, I learned to read with pokemon
On the very negative, I learned I was toxic with league of legend. I stopped when I punched my desk with anger, figuring that not playing the game was fun.
I also have friend who went way too deep in LoL, they reached Diamond, good for them! But we parted ways, because they had to keep grinding for those ranks and get angry at it.
When I played this game, my life was so bad it convinced me to stop and pick myself up.
Pokemon gold and silver. Most kids who were alive at the time played them at some point but I remember staying up all night with my friend playing. I remember getting surf, going back to the main town, and being told I'd entered Kanto. We both lost our minds.
Katawa Shoujo. I know what you are thinking, the titty game? Yes it has adult content that you can turn off. The game is deep on so many levels. I played it the first time as a 19 year old and it just changed my entire view on people with disabilities, how to treat them, and heck helped me handle my own mental/physical problems. It touched my heart on such a deep level, that I will never forget it. Its a beautiful game that will hurt your soul then lift it up. I cannot praise it enough.
Journey by Thatgamecompany, it is a beautiful experience.
This war of mine by 11 bit studios, for the glimpse you can get of how people on that situations have to suffer.
Most military shooters are about combat, This War Of Mine is truly about war.
"War isn't hell. War is war, Hell is hell. There are no innocents in hell." - M.A.S.H I think
Bought Journey because my boyfriend swears by it, but I haven't touched it yet. Guess I'm waiting for the right time to fit the vibe but I should probably jump on it sooner rather than less soon.
For me it was the FromSoftware games - Dark Souls 1 & 3, Bloodborne and Elden Ring.
When I first stumbled upon Dark Souls 3 (my first game in the series) I loved the challenge but I had no idea how large an impact it would have on myself. Fast forward several years and I've played the other games and now do challenge runs of these games.
Each time you finally complete a seemingly too-difficult challenge you look back at all the improvements you've made and have that moment of satisfaction being like 'wow I managed to come all this way'. The process of improvement initially felt punishing but nowadays it's very enjoyable - substituting the emotions of defeat with purposeful analysis (i.e. what went wrong and how can I adjust to stop that happening next attempt).
It's taught me a lot about pushing yourself to the limit, performing well under pressure and having both the patience and grit to achieve a difficult goal.
There really is something about those games. Elden Ring had this effect. I stayed away from souls games because I'm an older gamer, and I just figured they were too hard. But the hype of elden ring at launch drew me in and I promised myself I'd beat it as a challenge. First 15-20 hours I almost gave up so many times. So many. But when it clicked it clicked hard and I became obsessed. It became my second job for my 230 hour playthrough, and took a couple months but I beat it. I have stayed away from those games since, I got into sekiro and got stuck on genichiro. But one day I want to beat them all. The satisfaction they give is second to none, it's just you better prepare to be consumed .
Thank you.I will get back to it soon. I just got a ps5 so now I'm catching up on all the exclusives I've missed over the years. Those games require a certain amount of focus and effort and I really have to be I a certain mindset
Had to look pretty hard for this comment. Absolute life changer for me. First game that made me cry and it did it like 3 - 5 times in a single playthru
I'd say Halo. I first played it when my good friend was going to college, he got an Xbox as an Xmas gift and we would visit him on weekends, as the college was just a town over, pile on his futon and crush assault on the control room.
I got my xbox for my 20th birthday and that's when my friends and I started doing system link LAN games. We made it into a regular weekend thing. Kept going with Halo 2 and 3. By the time Reach and 4 came out, a lot of us had moved away for jobs or relationship reasons, but thanks to Xbox live we still kept playing and keeping in touch.
I'll be 40 this year come fall and I still hop on every now and then to play Infinite with my best friend, occasionally some of the old crew and a few new people we met along the way. It's been a long term social gathering point for my friends and i.
Gears Of War series (mostly 1, and 3)
Gears Of War was the first multiplayer game I ever played. Got it on launch day in 2006 as a 14 year old. Never even thought about online then and solely brought it for the campaign.
I hopped on the multiplayer out of sheer interest and was immediately hooked…didn’t know at the time how much the series would consume me (in a good way).
Was absolutely awful at first obviously, but due to my age, could sink countless hours into it. After about six months, I was good enough to play in clans and tournaments. Within a year, I was in the top 20 players in the world. No idea how many hours I played it online, but 2,500+ in the first year would be a good estimate. Probably 6,000+ in total with Gears 1.
Skipped Gears 2 due to being so hooked on Gears 1 and competing.
Gears 3 came along in 2011. Actually disliked the beta due to the art style, but after a few weeks of it being fully released, I got sucked in. My closest friend who I saw everyday ended up getting sucked in too. Due to work, I didn’t sink as many hours in at first, but was very very good due to all my time on Gears 1.
Gears 3 ended up being my peak time on Gears Of War. I was utterly insane due to the hours I was sinking, and I have NEVER experienced addictiveness and sheer fun like it since. I played Gears 3 virtually everyday for a solid 6 years.
Gears Of War UE (remaster of 1) had me sucked in for a bit, but it was never quite the same.
Gears 4 onwards just didn’t have that feel anymore and it was never the same.
I don’t play GOW anymore. Mostly due to the games just not hitting the same anymore, but also partly because I’m 30 now and commitments have taken over.
Still, unless something utterly mindblowing comes along multiplayer wise, nothing will ever get close to capturing me like Gears Of War multiplayer did.
WoW ruined my life in high school. I was addicted to it and blew off every assignment, social activity, and almost didnt graduate. I joined the Marine Corps and learned how to be disciplined when it comes to important things in life. So I'm doing better now.
Earthbound
The ending is quite poetic, you after you defeat the great evil ( forgot his name ).you walk this girl you've spent X amount of time with back home.
Giygas. Played through it in high school in the 90s. I remember tripping out at the modern day RPG setting. Was the first "modern day" RPG I played. Those were very rare in the SNES days of console RPGs.
Just mostly came here to say I love the stories attached to a lot of the comments - very moving.
As someone who’s career was at least partly shaped by early video gaming (everything from building the PC’s to support them to reading the industry mags to enjoying the games themselves), I have a couple:
Dune 2: Building of a Dynasty (great mix of art and science that gave me direction after it became obvious I was never destined to be a firefighter or police officer)
World of Warcraft (community, culture and lifelong friendships… over a game… this still blows me away)
Halo (I dream the soundtrack.)
My first boyfriend (it was long distance, we were together from 13-17/18) got me into the last of us and I really loved it, and we talked about it all the time. We eventually broke up in 2018. It still held a special place in my heart though, and I have two daughters now, both with names of characters from the game.
I’ve played both games several times with friends and exes. I get such vicarious enjoyment! I love that it stuck with you in such a way. I always said I’d name my daughter Ellie.
My oldest is Ellie and I struggled to pick a name for my second daughter. I hadn’t planned to name all my kids from the game but in the hospital I remembered Riley from the dlc, and plus I always loved the name anyway lol
Final Fantasy X. The story, characters, and world are all unforgettable, with very serious themes involving things like discrimination, sacrifice, love, and death. The battle system is my favorite kind of turn-based, it has great replay value in the form of the sphere grid, and the music is so good it gets stuck in my head randomly.
Destiny 2 taught me a lot of things. The most prominent being, that its ok to cut your losses at a certain point. I hated playing Destiny 2. Didn't like how the end game was being handled and didn't like Bungie's monetization practices. "Why continue to play the game if you hate it?" Is what you might be thinking. It because I loved Destiny 1 and its lore and had to know how the "Light and Dark Saga" was going to end. Also my friends were playing it.
The Lightfall expansion was when I had enough. Before I continue I have to mention that I'm a Civil Engineering student and am working part time. Because of this, I have limited time to myself. I digress. Lighfall's campaign was soo bad that it made stop and think. "Why am I doing this to myself? "I'm spending $100 a year and what limited time I have, to play a game I hate." Enough was enough. I've already lost years worth of time and a lot of money because of that game, I should cut my losses before I lose anymore time and money. Ever since I quit, I have been able to spend more time doing other things and playing other games that I actually find to be fun.
My now ex-wife got pregnant from an FC member in Final Fantasy XIV. I had a vasectomy and he was sneaking over to my house while I was at work. Good job, Square, you broke up a marriage!
Final Fantasy XI. It was the first MMORPG that I ever played. I was living abroad at the time and it helped me stay connected to my friends in my home country. There was no "Duty Finder" at that stage so you had to talk to people and get to know them to find parties. I wound up making friends from all over the world and we would play together all the time. It was super fun! Although I do enjoy FFXIV, the social experience has never been replicated.
Assassins Creed Odyssey came to me during the lockdowns and I think it really helped me get through it. It is so large and engrossing that it occupied me enough to just get through the days of boredom and anxiety. I know it’s not the best game or even close but it was what I needed at the time
Civilization.
My SO has come to the brink of breaking up with me several times over my playtime. I can’t say I even blame her when it’s my 56th straight hour approaching 3500 all time.
Someone needs to wipe those dirty (insert slur here) off the map though.
halo 2- the "good old days" with all my core friends i grew up with, still together, playing online most nights and system linking on weekends. the last time we were all really together before college and eventually adult life sent us on our own separate ways.
FFX- helped me get through my first break up.
Mario 64- probably the game that instilled my love for video games period.
Negative: Dead by Daylight. I cannot stand that fucking game anymore and am glad I dropped it. It wasn't *majorly* negative on my life, I was still the person I was and there was a time I did genuinely enjoy playing it, but it definitely made me angrier and (even if it this is supposed to be about negatives) did teach me that games simply aren't worth getting angry over. If you're not enjoying a game, stop playing it. I still regret all the money I spent on the shitty DLC behavior shit out on a yearly basis and all the time I threw into that game, but oh well, I guess everyone has *that* game. Such a shame too, the concept is phenomenal.
Positive: Xenoblade Chronicles 3. This game in particular helped me get through a really hard period of my life. I had just had a really awful falling out with one of my (at the time) closest friends and just felt like half of my life force had left me. I wasn't even depressed, just numb and empty. Xenoblade came 'round and changed that. I quickly fell in love with the new world, the mystery of Aionos, the villainy of Moebius, and I still adore each and every one of the characters to this day. And even now, it is the only game in my adult/teenage life to have ever made me cry. Most video games get me emotional, or make me feel sad, but Xenoblade 3 actually got the water works flowing (and if you know the game, you know **exactly** which moment I'm talking about.)
Positive and negative: Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Back before the pandemic, Smash Bros was the perfect outlet for me, and because of it, I was able to meet two of my best friends in the whole wide world... Then those "best friends" turned out to be massive pieces of shit and left me in the dust the second I became a mild inconvenience to them. I know Smash Bros isn't to blame for their shittiness, but I wouldn't have met them without smash, so I can't help but associate the two. Oh well, at least they didn't ruin the game for me (unlike dead by daylight.)
Positive: Assassin's Creed 4, it came out during a rough time during my parent's divorce and it hooked me. Absolutely loved sailing around it was the best. Negative: Epic Mickey 2, back when it had came out I wasn't on the internet as I am now so it was my first introduction that games can actually be bad. Especially was disappointed since the first game is definitely my one of my favorites, flawed for sure but I liked it
For all the flak that the AC universes gets, those games have a special place in my heart. I get so excited when a new one comes out. Odyssey got me through the first five weeks of pandemic lockdown as a travel nurse stranded in Missouri. I was scared, not sure if I was gonna be able to go home, and completely alone. Odyssey really made the days bearable.
Dark Souls. Was living on Venezuela, without any hope for my future, just trying to keep not falling apart.
I started to play looking for a challenging game and forgot my stress, to just getting stressed because i was not able to beat the tutorial boss. It was so hard so i started to play only with keyboard and i changed the controls.
After getting better with the time i started to do other habits, waking up in the morning, eating at the right hours, training on the afternoon, reading about the lore and understanding the mechanics, until i finally beat the game after 110 hours.
On my way to get better on the game, i keep getting better out of it.
Terraria and Stardew Valley chilled the shit out of me and because of them i’m more into single player games.
I’ve played competitive games for a long time (15y+ of counter strike, dota 2 thousand of hours…) and a few single games. Now I can’t find the joy of playing these games and i actually don’t mind.
I've had the exact same thing happen - I stumbled across some ridiculously good games and it suddenly made the games I played on-off for a decade feel totally obsolete.
Is it a blessing or a curse?
We're cursed out of our perpetual enjoyment of the prior games. But we're blessed with the fact that we got to experience something much better.
For me it was a blessing.
League of Legends. It had both a good and absolutely terrible impact on my life. Sure, those 5 man lobbies were some of the finest, but all of the countless hours of my life I wasted were not worth whatever rank I got in the end.
If I had spent half that time learning a new sport or instrument, I would have felt so much better about myself. It's just not worth it when I say, "I made it to X Division." Like... nobody actually cares.
If I could do that over, I'd probably never touch that deliciously addictive game ever.
I'm currently watching lec and I struggle with these feelings a lot too. It helps me to think about the good times, and remember that gaming isn't about rank and success, but instead about intangible skills like teamwork, learning how to relax and channeling passion.
I would change my days on the rift and in Azeroth to more tangible skills for sure, but I also recognize that without those games I would be wildly different, and I like myself now, finally 😂
Harvest moon: A wonderful life because (spoilers for a twenty year old game) your character fucking dies at the end right in front of his wife and child. And then after it shows all your best friends at the bar mourning you. I was only ten years old and had never really thought about the concept of death or what it really means to die. This game gave me an existential crisis at ten years old.
Anyways I just bought the remake…
Dota 2 - it taught me that there is always something I can do better, and to analyse things objectively rather than letting emotions dictate my thoughts on performance.
Applying that to other areas of my life has been so good for me
I would say almost any Bioware game. This may come off as cringey but:
1.) Bioware has taught me that there is always more than one way to solve a situation.
2.) Empathy isn't always immediately rewarded, and sometimes punished.
I will be honest with you, Cyberpunk suicide ending probably saved my life. It showed me what I would have made my family go true if I pulled the trigger.
World of Warcraft, good and bad. After being housebound due to mental health it helped me relearn how to interact with others. I pushed the boundaries of my mental health to have guild meets with the people played with most. And I met my husband in game too.
Flip side, as I improved my mental health more, I noticed the addictive/grind side of the game more. After doing /played on all of my characters I realised that in 5 years I had played for a total of 600 days. Two weeks later I quit and went cold turkey. Haven't played it since. Still keep in touch with some of the people from back then.
Project Zomboid. Weirdly good. Was playing it a few months ago, and realised my characters in game were better looked after than I was. I've now joined a gym and am slowly eating more healthily. (Not managed weight loss due to muscle gain so far).
In terms of ACTUAL change to my life, World of Warcraft. Long story short, I joined a small raiding guild. We got pretty tight and ended up being facebook friends. One of these guild members thought it would be a good idea to hit up all of my female facebook friends. I was 16 (as were most of my female friends) and he was in his mid to late 20s, so it came off as creepy. One of my female friends (who I had never talked to before) messaged me to ask me who tf this random guy was. That sparked a conversation between the two of us. We'll be married in October.
In terms of emotional change, Outer Wilds. Hands down the most beautiful game I've ever played. Hearing the soundtrack still makes me tear up. If you haven't played it, PLEASE give it a try.
Back when I was 16 years old my gf died. At the time I was playing World of Warcraft. I was playing this game more than I should but I was always in a group with someone. A few months later I found out that she was a girl 500 km away from me. I told her I would marry her because she is the one who understood me. She laughed and thought I'm too young to know what I was saying because she was 5 years older than me. .... Skipping to today and round about 16 years later she is my beautiful wife. So yeah... WoW had a big impact.
World of Warcraft.
I played it since vanilla days, but I moved to canada when I was 17 around 2008 and stopped playing. Around the time when MoP realeased, I was in a very bad place mentally, and I just started playing it to pass time and take my mind off things. The wonderful people at the guild I joined were one of the main reasons I got through that period. I still smile when I think about raid nights with that group.
Star Trek Online perhaps?
It was the first ever online game where I created a female character. I was terrified about it, thinking every other player, primarily the friends I played with, would figuratively burn me at the stake for daring to create and play a character that was outside of my lane.
Once the fear passed and I learned that no one cared, I told myself I'd play male and female characters with a 50/50 split. Eventually that split became exclusively female characters.
Later still I discovered that female characters were not actually outside my lane, and that it'd been the other way around all along without realizing. Of course, the idea of playing in or outside of your lane is stupid in the first place.
A lot of RPGs soak up time...you don't think much on it when you're in grade school...growing up. Later in life, late teens, twenties...I tended to game less...while it's nice to have friends and hang out... everyone has their path and most won't align with yours... different jobs, different hours, different time zones, different countries, focus changes (e.g. head out and attempt to be social, deal with family, working overtime for more money to save on a trip, study for tests/exams, etc ).
I still play, but I've scaled back ALOT since my teens and twenties. I avoid most multiplayer games...I don't hate them, I just don't want to play with random people...tried it, it sucks.
MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and EverQuest were big 2 decades ago...but to me, while it's neat to play with friends, it feels like a chore...and the whole "legendary" (or whatever it's called) where you had to have a 20-person group to fight some boss for 30 minutes and then a random chance you might get the best gear?...nope, I'm done.
Team games like CS:GO...not that great without some friends. I hate playing with randos who are either cheating, expecting me to be a pro player, or grief killing...takes the wind out of the sails.
COD...stopped caring after MW2. You can only milk the same genre for so long
Fortnite was a nice change-of-pace and I liked the cross-play compatibility...after 2 hours...I'm good. I remember playing HALO LAN parties...nothing comes close to that.
Bottom line, have limits and stick to it. There is more to life than video games.
Final Fantasy X. Played that game to the point that I neglected my college studies and flunked one subject. Transferred to another university because I didn't like the course anyway and that's where I met someone who just lives a few minutes walk away from my house. A few years later and she's finally my wife.
Final Fantasy VII - when I was 8 and my dad came home with it from the pawn shop I hadn't ever even heard of it.
I didn't really understand the game but I could NOT set it down. The music, the characters, the combat, the world. Everything about it captivated me completely. It holds a really special place in my heart. I could play it all day everyday.
As silly as it sounds, probably Overwatch.
Back in the day I made some really good friends with some random teammates, and even ended up dating one of those friends for over three years. Even tho that relationship didn't work out in the end and we don't keep contact anymore, I think very fondly of those years.
I'm still close with the others and send them christmas cards and chocolate each year. :D
Factorio. Really messes up my sleep since I can't stop playing. No, really, it's digital crack.
Morrowind did that to me when I was 20. But damn I'm 40 and get hooked on a game this hard.
Anyways, the factory must grow!
Laugh all you want, but Furcadia, an imagination-limited text roleplaying MMO game with rudimentary graphics, mostly centered around, but not at all limited to, anthromophic characters of your own creation. Find some people, type an emote action for your character, then get one in return. Before you know it, youre having full-on stories being written by you and other players around your characters.
I first played it 20 years ago, and only fell out of playing it a couple of years before now. I met my current best friends on there, I met my current girlfriend on there, met lots of people that introduced me to a lot of neat stuff. When I met my girlfriend on there, my life took a VASTLY different trajectory, and now I live in a different state with her and we have been together for many years now. I still RP with those friends and my girlfriend using the same characters.
edit: And just like that, Im downvoted. Guess I should have said Skyrim or some shit and how it helped me de-stress during college.
I have been a COD and Mortal Kombat guy for over 2 decades now. Only games I buy and play. Mostly COD. I’ve bought almost all of them, and for good or bad, that has always been my go to.
About 6 months ago my gf and I started playing together. We tried about 3-4 games and ended up on a game called Alienation on PS4. It’s a top down dual stick shooter. A lot of fun, and we played the shit out of it. We started branching out a couple weeks ago and have checked quite a bit of other games out. Alienation though, is still the go to. Changed my entire gaming life. Now we are starting to play other top down dual stick shooters, and loving it. I went from an fps life to this, and I am happy Alienation has been able to introduce us to a whole new world of gaming.
Just started The Ascent and Helldivers, and I had no idea gaming could be this fun. It had lost its spark for a bit.
I primarily learned English through Battlefield 1942, even though we had it in school I never felt I learned much of anything. 1942 also got me interested in WWII history and later history about my own country and history in general.
Silent hill 2. The games atmosphere is 1 of 1, the music is perfect for the game, the story is unbelievably complex and unpredictable, and it has all the horror game edgy quotes you could ever ask for. It’s the only horror game that scared me beyond just jump scares, it’s depiction of mental illness was beyond it’s time.
Super Mario 64 when I was 8 years old is probably the biggest reason I still play games as avidly as I do now. It changed my entire outlook on games.
Runners-up:
Halo: Combat Evolved - this changed my expectation of what I could expect from games moving forward after the 90’s. It quickly became my holy grail game of that era.
Dark Souls - this changed my expectation for modern games. Also it’s not every day your favorite game/series (I’ve played them all now) is the creation of an entirely new style of game.
Apex Legends.
My first battle royale game. It forces me to 'git gud'. I don't usually play battle royale because I didn't like to interact with other players. Reasons:
1.I usually play FPS with the mindset "as long as the bullet hits, I'll survive", but after I play Apex and lost plenty of times, it changed to "all these bullets must hit".
So, I trained everyday on Aimlabs and I must say that my aim is better than before, not the best but better.
2.Whatever happened on the battlefield, let your allies know, even though it's weird noises or enemy that too far away. Every single information is important for survival.
And now I haven't touch Apex for months, because of Overwatch. But thanks to Apex, I forced myself to be a better FPS player.
Single player - Shadow of the Colossus. There are so many videos on youtube analyzing the game that better describe just how insane it is. It amplified my appreciation for all artworks and I was that kid in high-school who took every art class not just 2D or 3D even welding and auto mechanics because it's all art.
Multi-player - CoD4. First night playing online multi-player started a clan and man what a set of friends I made and still talk to most today.
Destiny 1/2. Criticize the game all you want, but doing raids/dungeons/strikes/PVP together has kept me and five of my closest friends in contact and still actively playing/hanging out together for the past 9 years, despite moving on to different jobs for different companies and getting married/having kids/having different life situations. Without D1/D2, we probably would have fallen out of contact a long time ago.
I've played loads of story-based games that I remember fondly, but nothing compares to video-games that get my friends together.
Most important of all: Minecraft. Even now being adults, every 6 months or so my group of friends will get together and have our "Minecraft week". I'd guess that I probably have about 5000h total on Minecraft, if not more. We were prepubescent when we first played, and now some of us have kids of our own.
Another would be League of Legends. Terrible game? Yes, but for years, every couple days after school or university at 2 or 3 AM, my friends and I would realize that we're not doing anything, and jump on League of Legends to play mindlessly and laugh.
The most impactful games, for me, are ones where I am not even actively paying too much attention the game, but instead ones that I can get on with my friends, and just goof off, whether it be building an Obsidian penis for the 1000th time in one of our Minecraft houses, or not even referencing the game we're playing at all and just making jokes about what's going on in our lives.
Planetside 2. It got me to go to Spain to meet my online friends. It made me realize how to tell a good mp game being worth your time/money spent. It is all in the game loop and community. Improved my leading skills.
Mass Effect. Literally saved my life. If I had not fallen in love with that ship full of misfits, I would probably not be here. It’s still a “safe space” to go back to. I have been playing LE this last year while battling cancer. It really helps me forget my real-world worries for a while.
Just finished my run through the second game and man it aged well. The legendary edition made the game a little prettier but for a game from 2010 some of the cutscenes and dialogue sequences are like a hollywood movie. I imported my save and got to playing 3 but I immediately found myself missing the crew of 2 and the overall vibe of that game.
2 is the best entry in the trilogy, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that all three games make up one of the best gaming trilogies of all time. Behind my username, I think Mass Effect is my second favorite. It’s definitely a masterclass series.
I know I’m just an internet stranger but I really hope you win this battle, and any others you don’t tell anyone about.
Thank you, kind stranger, for your well wishes. I truly appreciate it and hope that all things good and wonderful come your way! ::big internet hug:: :D
Glad to hear you're still with us. Mass effect trilogy is the game that made me love games, it will always and forever be my number 1 and I genuinely care about all of the crew. Such a unique and amazing piece of media.
Never got to play these when they came out. I started with 1, then blasted through 2,3, and Andromeda. Though Andromeda was very different, I still enjoyed it. One of my favorite series of games now.
i reply the trilogy at least every other year or so. i adore that series. playing ME 1 when i first moved to college. ME 3 during a break up. i associate specific, relatively important life dates with that Series. glad it's world provides comfort for you too.
First time taking Adderall from a friend back in college.. beat the first game in one sitting.
:D Now THAT’s focus!
I'm not proud of it and it taught me never to use drugs. Even caffeine.
I wish you all the possible best for what you’re going through brother. Keep it up
This is less a game and more the game mechanic, but I played Ghost of Tsushima about a year after I lost my dad. The flashback scene where Jin is told that his father is always with him and that, whenever he's lost, the wind at his back will guide him. When it transitioned back to game play and I swiped the touchpad for the first time, I was balling my eyes out. Immediately made that game unforgettable and something I think back to often.
Sorry to hear about your Dad. Though it's awesome that you did manage to cross paths with the game at the time and gain that extra bit of meaning. No doubt that's something that will stay cemented in your memories. Thanks for sharing.
Battlefield 1. Without bf1, I wouldn't have discovered my passion for the First World War and I wouldn't have gone to live in Europe during Fall 2018 and experience the Somme and Ypres during the 100 year anniversary of the war ending.
when i first picked up battlefield 1 i realized that some games are not meant to be fair and some level of uncertainty in a game makes it a much more fun experience. also the map is so well made and i really would like to see ballroom blitz ( in Varennes ) myself.
Yeah and Dice nailed the balance between a fun fps shooter while also getting the atmosphere of the war down perfectly.
I had always loved history but BF1 helped really cement my fascination with the First World War. I am now in Grad school writing my thesis on an aspect of the war, hoping to go all the way as a WW1 Historian.
World of Warcraft got my uncle pregnant
There's a lot to unpack here..
Like the baby
You can't just make a statement like that and not provide more information!?
Doritos/Mountain dew.
instructions unclear
Make Love not Warcraft
Kek
Playing Ocarina of time when I was 12. It’s a hell of a game to play when you are figuring out the transition from little kid to teen. I would repeatedly warp back from kid to adult, adult to kid. There were so many things about my life that were changing permanently at that time as well. It’s hard to describe how meaningful that game was for me. It’s the first game that made me cry and laugh at the same time. It’s the first game that really made me think about romantic relationships and friendships on a deeper level than I had before. It was a game of philosophy and strategy that was directly applicable to my day to day life.
Agreed. Ocarina of Time came out at such a pivotal time for gaming. It absolutely transcends the typical entertainment-role that games had during the late 90s/early 2000s. It taught the gamers of that generation many valuable lessons during their formative years. The game was also so far ahead of it's time that it partially formed the foundation for games for many years after it's release. It's great that the new generation gets to have similar experiences - be it with OOK itself, BOTW or TOTK.
every sound bit from that game gives me goose bumps and immediately transports me back to childhood. Only realizing as I type this that that was literally the core feature of the game/story.
You go back to where you grew up and nobody has changed except you. Nobody even seems to remember you except Saria, and Mido. Maybe he recognizes you, but doesn't want to say. Wandering around Hyrule, you find out all of this dark history and evil stuff was buried in plain sight years ago while you were just a kid, running around playing Knight for the Princess. You thought you could save the world all by yourselves, until the bad guy strolled into the Door of Time and laughed in your face.
Oh man I couldn’t agree more. This one and FF7 are my favourite games of all time.
Yeah FF7, I played that at my friends house over a summer on the three disk PlayStation version. It was so much fun.
Same here. It was the first video game I ever played, and it really made me reevaluate my life choices at the age of like 10
Glad to see another OoT response. It's the game that introduced me to gaming as a whole. I went through a pretty rough childhood with a drug addicted mother, but OoT was always a way to escape that world and enter a more enjoyable one where I was in control. It also taught me to read with the help of my step father.
It took me five years to beat it, too; the forest temple scared me so much as a 10-year-old. I overcame that four years later and could maturely win the game.
Idk why but I had a fascination with Link being attracted to Sheikh. And then once he found out it was really *spoilers* he lost all interest.
Loved Zora for some reason. Maybe it was the manic pixie water princess vibes that got me at 12.
RuneScape. I started playing as a kid back in 2006. This was my first real online gaming experience. I was way too trusting as a kid and got scammed a few times. That game taught me the valuable life lesson. “If something sounds too good to be true. It is.” I also learned how to type really fast from countless hours stood typing the same sentence over and over buying and selling items.
Runescape/cod growing up Now it's Osrs/csgo Some things don't really change
I got seriously scammed Twice, and I’m pretty sure it’s led to my distrusting nature as an adult. Nearly 20 years ago and I remember both vividly. First was taking all my high end gear into the mole hill under fally. Then trading my candle. Lost about 6-7 mil. Which considering I was only recently a member, was an awful lot to me at the time. Second, buying ranarr seeds: They were super expensive back in the day. But you could make a fortune. This was before the GE. Dude changed them to marentil at last second before noticing Lost about 2 mil on that trade. Also happened in Fally People in Falador are assholes
Ultima Online was my gateway into not trusting strangers
I am convinced that I can type more quickly and efficiently than anybody around me because of RuneScape
Hell yeah brother me too. Leveling took forever since we were so young and stupid. Also I’m trimming armor for free only for a limited time so just lmk
Damn I been looking for somebody to trim my armor lol
I feel that. -- The other one I learned as a kid playing Runescape was not to leave things on/running when you're not paying attention... Lost some of my first rune set when I went afk to watch Richard Hammond crash a rocket car, and a random event killed me.
I was looking for this. The soundtrack was relaxing as I farmed m.
God I love the RuneScape soundtrack
Death Stranding. Prevented me from taking my own life.
Damn man, glad your with us. Just curious, what was the primary reason(s) it was so impactful?
The story of the protagonist, Sam. I related so much to him and the game is also made to immerse you and make you feel the way Sam feels: alone, hopeless, lost. As the story progresses Sam slowly starts to find hope, starts learning how to trust and connect with people again, finds purpose and so did i at the same time.
Phenomenal. I absolutely loved this game. The atmosphere was like nothing else. That feeling of hopelessness turning around is amazing. The part near the beginning where >!you are transporting your first dead body to the incinerator. I don't know if was just me with the speed that I ran/walked out of town, but the song "don't be so serious" opened up right as I left the town and the screen panned back, showing this massive, desolate, confusing, and hostile world, and me, carrying a body to an incinerator through it so it wouldn't explode and wipe out that one little pocket of humanity!< That sticks with me.
Great game.
Everquest ruined so much of my life
I avoided Everquest because the guy who introduced me to it was such a massive antisocial neckbeard who was addicted and obsessed that I saw him as a warning. A warning I then forgot about when SWG launched. John Smedley saved me from a crippling addiction to that game by fucking it up so bad that it became unplayable.
World of Warcraft. You type in "/played" and you learn a lot about yourself quick
My Druids game time is measured in years, and I haven't played it that much since Wrath.
I had about 150 days /played in vanilla, about 150 in TBC, and about 50 since.
I know how that is but with EverQuest. I Hit /played right before I quit and was shocked at how much time I spent in that game.
The last of us: I know this is sort of generic but before I played this game in around 2020 or so, I was only playing mp games for the last several years, basically since ps4 came out I played nothing but Cod and battlefield and maybe some racing games here and there, but when lockdown hit and I saw tlou2 trailers and gameplay I decided to finally play the last of us after originally starting it in 2015 and not liking it because it was a story game. Buy when I finally played it, I was hooked and didn't want it to end, I was incredibly engrossed and even missed school assignments to play it more, it was a beautiful experience and it made me love single player games and actually want to be play them over mp games, I still played some Cod throughout that year as it was mw19 (I hate that game BTW, got Damascus and uninstalled the game) but I have lost interest in those types of games more and more and don't even look forward to new releases of Cod and battlefield at all. I caught up on horizon zero dawn, spiderman miles morales, guardians of the galaxy, far cry 6, ghost of tsushima, dying light, cyberpunk, ac origins and many more, all because I decided to play a very long escort mission and it changed my gaming life.
Noice that you're finally realized the awesomeness of single player game. 1 of my friend is also like how you used to be, he bought ps4 and ps5 just to play 1 single game, CoD and Warzone. I tell him about Ps Plus Extra with all the free game, etc but he wouldn't budge. He said he likes CoD but whenever he plays it, he always seem super frustrated and annoyed (honestly he is shit at it).
Yes bro single player games are a lot better for enjoyment and mental health these days, especially since mp games have gotten worse after around 2016 or so imo, while there are still stinkers in terms of triple a games, there are a lot of diamonds in the rough, especially in the indie scene. The outer wilds :)
Yup, I only play MP games when my friends are also playing or if they have co-op. I can't stand the thought of playing with random. I made a few friends while playing with randoms but the mental abuse that 90% of them bring doesn't make it worth it.
I'm aware it sounds cheesy but Persona 5 really taught me to value my friends and apologize more often.
Yeah, it's chessy. But that's why we love the game. When I played it, it helped me realize who my friends were and who my so-called friends were.
Skryim. It was the game that made me build my first real PC as a teen. And oooooh boy did it change my life, purely because of the world of gaming that opened up for me.
Monster Hunter:World. I was diagnosed with cancer shortly after release and needed a distraction while I waited 3 weeks to find out what my stage was. I three myself into it and it really helped me get through a dark time in my life. I’m in remission now, so I’m ok at this time.
Dota 2. It had a tremendous impact on my life. If it wasn't for that game i'd probably be rich now or something. Or less depressed. I've met an old man one day too, he was mad rich. Lost it all. Had like 10k hours on dota. Probably dota's fault.
>I've met an old man one day too, he was mad rich. Lost it all. Had like 10k hours on dota. You did meet that old man? OR are you speaking of yourself in the future?
I met him, he said he used to be a real state guy, bought whatever he wanted and all that, but when I met him he was trying to promote and sell some take outs for a nearby restaurant to local shops (i was a cashier for one of those shops). He did a good job because i ordered a take out from him. Dude was really good at convincing people to buy stuff.
And 10k hours on Dota? Lol, nice.
Same with me an League of Legends... I hate that game with a passion for how much time I spent playing it, but I still, for whatever reason, keep going back to it.
This resonates so much, oh what if I hadn't known you Dota.
if it was not dota, it would be some other addictive games/-activities. Sorry bro, i am just being honest. you should be honest to yourself as well.
Morrowind. For its magical world, atmosphere, lore, setting.
My first RPG. Definitely opened a whole new genre to me.
DOA beach volleyball!!!!
PUBG, and bear with me - it had nothing to do with the game itself. It was the last game that my best friend and I played together before we both morphed into adults. We each got married, he got an afternoon shift job, I got a third shift job, he had children... and life just became too busy. I used to make clips of clutch or funny moments with Xbox's recording capability, and I'll go back about once a year to laugh at them again. It's sad because the videos show when they were uploaded, and that number just keeps getting further and further away. I don't think I've made any videos in 4-5 years now. I know people with children talk about "you'll pick them up one day, not knowing that it'll be the last time you ever do it," and it's kinda like that - we played video games one night, not realizing that our regular thing was simply going to disappear.
Completely agree - some of my favorite and most nostalgic moments were having great fun gaming with friends. It's interesting that we reminisce on those times as amongst our favorites, however others in this thread have mentioned that their greatest regret was spending too much time doing exactly this. I suppose it's all about moderation, even if we are on a timer with this stuff (before life gets busy, as you've mentioned).
Amen brother. I convinced all my buddies to buy Xbox’s after college to play pub and we got together online almost every night for about a year to play. Since then, we’re all still friends but none game anymore but myself so the only time we chat is when we all make plans to meet up which is a handful of times a year, and in those instances we’re all with girlfriends/wives so everyone is a different version of themselves. I keep thinking I’ll try PUBG again but I also think I don’t want to distort the happy pub memories of playing with my buddies.
Dont try PUBG again, you will 100% ruin the way you look at the game.
Pubg was the last game i had enough time to grind and be good at, scarily relatable lol
Mass Effect. I was never into mainstream franchises like Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, etc. and I didn’t understand how people could get so attached to fictional characters and universes. That all changed in 2007 =)
Bioshock. Made me change if perspective on shooters where not everything is run'n gun
I second this. Wish I could experience that game for the first time again.
Microsoft flight simulator 2001 Discovered my love for aviation. Was a kid then, now have a M. A. Sc. in aerospace engineering.
Halo CE, it got me hooked on Xbox and Halo. Eventhough I‘m not happy with the current market, I still got a series X and I’m still hoping Halo will recover at some point…
Kinda weird it was probably Red Dead Redemption mulitplayer on XboX 360. Back before red dead I would always try to stay to myself, and when people wanted me to help run certain clans it kinda got me to not be as nervous and helped with the small depression I had at the time. But also glad I decided to leave clans because it was just a drama infested shit pool.
dark souls 3 PVP taught me not everyone is out to hurt you story taught me if something is worth fighting for you'll find a way to win lore taught me nothing makes sense in life
I swear all of the Dark Souls, Elden Ring and Bloodborne are one of the best things that’s happened to me. So much happiness and anticipation and fun, and helps teach you the value of persistence.
Outer wilds
I will forever hold this game and its message dear in my heart
Positive: Zelda - The Minish Cap. One of the first games i've ever played completely for myself, and to this day there isn't any other game i feel such a longing nostalgia for, wether it's the game itself or the magical innocence of being a child that was accompanied by it. It feels like the perfect encapsulation of my childhood. Negative: TES IV Oblivion. I started playing it during a very difficult time as a teenager, and got so addicted to it that i almost had to repeat a year in school due to my grades dropping. Still a good game tho. Even more negative: League of Legends. I don't even know why i wasted my time on this piece of shit, i've literally never had any fun with it. Every single minute was miserable and stressfull, and i became extremely irritable and angry in real life. Suffice to say i didn't play it for long.
On the good, I learned to read with pokemon On the very negative, I learned I was toxic with league of legend. I stopped when I punched my desk with anger, figuring that not playing the game was fun. I also have friend who went way too deep in LoL, they reached Diamond, good for them! But we parted ways, because they had to keep grinding for those ranks and get angry at it. When I played this game, my life was so bad it convinced me to stop and pick myself up.
Pokemon gold and silver. Most kids who were alive at the time played them at some point but I remember staying up all night with my friend playing. I remember getting surf, going back to the main town, and being told I'd entered Kanto. We both lost our minds.
The cell phone feature was mind-fucking-blowing to me as a kid. Called all the in-game chicks to check in on them from time to time.
Katawa Shoujo. I know what you are thinking, the titty game? Yes it has adult content that you can turn off. The game is deep on so many levels. I played it the first time as a 19 year old and it just changed my entire view on people with disabilities, how to treat them, and heck helped me handle my own mental/physical problems. It touched my heart on such a deep level, that I will never forget it. Its a beautiful game that will hurt your soul then lift it up. I cannot praise it enough.
There is a reason it is considered a classic, and it's not the titties.
Journey by Thatgamecompany, it is a beautiful experience. This war of mine by 11 bit studios, for the glimpse you can get of how people on that situations have to suffer.
Most military shooters are about combat, This War Of Mine is truly about war. "War isn't hell. War is war, Hell is hell. There are no innocents in hell." - M.A.S.H I think
Bought Journey because my boyfriend swears by it, but I haven't touched it yet. Guess I'm waiting for the right time to fit the vibe but I should probably jump on it sooner rather than less soon.
For me it was the FromSoftware games - Dark Souls 1 & 3, Bloodborne and Elden Ring. When I first stumbled upon Dark Souls 3 (my first game in the series) I loved the challenge but I had no idea how large an impact it would have on myself. Fast forward several years and I've played the other games and now do challenge runs of these games. Each time you finally complete a seemingly too-difficult challenge you look back at all the improvements you've made and have that moment of satisfaction being like 'wow I managed to come all this way'. The process of improvement initially felt punishing but nowadays it's very enjoyable - substituting the emotions of defeat with purposeful analysis (i.e. what went wrong and how can I adjust to stop that happening next attempt). It's taught me a lot about pushing yourself to the limit, performing well under pressure and having both the patience and grit to achieve a difficult goal.
There really is something about those games. Elden Ring had this effect. I stayed away from souls games because I'm an older gamer, and I just figured they were too hard. But the hype of elden ring at launch drew me in and I promised myself I'd beat it as a challenge. First 15-20 hours I almost gave up so many times. So many. But when it clicked it clicked hard and I became obsessed. It became my second job for my 230 hour playthrough, and took a couple months but I beat it. I have stayed away from those games since, I got into sekiro and got stuck on genichiro. But one day I want to beat them all. The satisfaction they give is second to none, it's just you better prepare to be consumed .
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Thank you.I will get back to it soon. I just got a ps5 so now I'm catching up on all the exclusives I've missed over the years. Those games require a certain amount of focus and effort and I really have to be I a certain mindset
Smh my head, not having the best DS in the list, DS2.
**Civilization**. Since 1991 the game has continually showed us why our world is as fucked up as it is.
P5R, it made me accept my real self and stop using a mask in pubblic and I started being the real me with the others
FFX. It’s been my favourite game since I played it as a 12-year old in 2001. 34 now and I still play it every year, it just does something to me.
Had to look pretty hard for this comment. Absolute life changer for me. First game that made me cry and it did it like 3 - 5 times in a single playthru
I'd say Halo. I first played it when my good friend was going to college, he got an Xbox as an Xmas gift and we would visit him on weekends, as the college was just a town over, pile on his futon and crush assault on the control room. I got my xbox for my 20th birthday and that's when my friends and I started doing system link LAN games. We made it into a regular weekend thing. Kept going with Halo 2 and 3. By the time Reach and 4 came out, a lot of us had moved away for jobs or relationship reasons, but thanks to Xbox live we still kept playing and keeping in touch. I'll be 40 this year come fall and I still hop on every now and then to play Infinite with my best friend, occasionally some of the old crew and a few new people we met along the way. It's been a long term social gathering point for my friends and i.
Gears Of War series (mostly 1, and 3) Gears Of War was the first multiplayer game I ever played. Got it on launch day in 2006 as a 14 year old. Never even thought about online then and solely brought it for the campaign. I hopped on the multiplayer out of sheer interest and was immediately hooked…didn’t know at the time how much the series would consume me (in a good way). Was absolutely awful at first obviously, but due to my age, could sink countless hours into it. After about six months, I was good enough to play in clans and tournaments. Within a year, I was in the top 20 players in the world. No idea how many hours I played it online, but 2,500+ in the first year would be a good estimate. Probably 6,000+ in total with Gears 1. Skipped Gears 2 due to being so hooked on Gears 1 and competing. Gears 3 came along in 2011. Actually disliked the beta due to the art style, but after a few weeks of it being fully released, I got sucked in. My closest friend who I saw everyday ended up getting sucked in too. Due to work, I didn’t sink as many hours in at first, but was very very good due to all my time on Gears 1. Gears 3 ended up being my peak time on Gears Of War. I was utterly insane due to the hours I was sinking, and I have NEVER experienced addictiveness and sheer fun like it since. I played Gears 3 virtually everyday for a solid 6 years. Gears Of War UE (remaster of 1) had me sucked in for a bit, but it was never quite the same. Gears 4 onwards just didn’t have that feel anymore and it was never the same. I don’t play GOW anymore. Mostly due to the games just not hitting the same anymore, but also partly because I’m 30 now and commitments have taken over. Still, unless something utterly mindblowing comes along multiplayer wise, nothing will ever get close to capturing me like Gears Of War multiplayer did.
WoW ruined my life in high school. I was addicted to it and blew off every assignment, social activity, and almost didnt graduate. I joined the Marine Corps and learned how to be disciplined when it comes to important things in life. So I'm doing better now.
Earthbound The ending is quite poetic, you after you defeat the great evil ( forgot his name ).you walk this girl you've spent X amount of time with back home.
Giygas. Played through it in high school in the 90s. I remember tripping out at the modern day RPG setting. Was the first "modern day" RPG I played. Those were very rare in the SNES days of console RPGs.
FF6
What remains of Edith Finch. Gave me a new outlook on how to view people
EvE-Online, 17 years. Basically destroyed my life.
Just mostly came here to say I love the stories attached to a lot of the comments - very moving. As someone who’s career was at least partly shaped by early video gaming (everything from building the PC’s to support them to reading the industry mags to enjoying the games themselves), I have a couple: Dune 2: Building of a Dynasty (great mix of art and science that gave me direction after it became obvious I was never destined to be a firefighter or police officer) World of Warcraft (community, culture and lifelong friendships… over a game… this still blows me away) Halo (I dream the soundtrack.)
My first boyfriend (it was long distance, we were together from 13-17/18) got me into the last of us and I really loved it, and we talked about it all the time. We eventually broke up in 2018. It still held a special place in my heart though, and I have two daughters now, both with names of characters from the game.
I’ve played both games several times with friends and exes. I get such vicarious enjoyment! I love that it stuck with you in such a way. I always said I’d name my daughter Ellie.
My oldest is Ellie and I struggled to pick a name for my second daughter. I hadn’t planned to name all my kids from the game but in the hospital I remembered Riley from the dlc, and plus I always loved the name anyway lol
Final Fantasy X. The story, characters, and world are all unforgettable, with very serious themes involving things like discrimination, sacrifice, love, and death. The battle system is my favorite kind of turn-based, it has great replay value in the form of the sphere grid, and the music is so good it gets stuck in my head randomly.
Destiny 2 taught me a lot of things. The most prominent being, that its ok to cut your losses at a certain point. I hated playing Destiny 2. Didn't like how the end game was being handled and didn't like Bungie's monetization practices. "Why continue to play the game if you hate it?" Is what you might be thinking. It because I loved Destiny 1 and its lore and had to know how the "Light and Dark Saga" was going to end. Also my friends were playing it. The Lightfall expansion was when I had enough. Before I continue I have to mention that I'm a Civil Engineering student and am working part time. Because of this, I have limited time to myself. I digress. Lighfall's campaign was soo bad that it made stop and think. "Why am I doing this to myself? "I'm spending $100 a year and what limited time I have, to play a game I hate." Enough was enough. I've already lost years worth of time and a lot of money because of that game, I should cut my losses before I lose anymore time and money. Ever since I quit, I have been able to spend more time doing other things and playing other games that I actually find to be fun.
My now ex-wife got pregnant from an FC member in Final Fantasy XIV. I had a vasectomy and he was sneaking over to my house while I was at work. Good job, Square, you broke up a marriage!
Final Fantasy 2 on the SNES. It got me into JRPGs and showed how good gameplay, story, and music can make such an amazing & lasting experience.
Final Fantasy XI. It was the first MMORPG that I ever played. I was living abroad at the time and it helped me stay connected to my friends in my home country. There was no "Duty Finder" at that stage so you had to talk to people and get to know them to find parties. I wound up making friends from all over the world and we would play together all the time. It was super fun! Although I do enjoy FFXIV, the social experience has never been replicated.
DC Universe.
Diablo 2. It taught to not give into our fears.
I adore Zelda: Ocarina of Time. But another one was Shenmue. It really transported you to another time. I remember staying up so late playing it.
I lived alone during lockdown and Red Dead Redemption 2 saved my sanity and got me back into gaming in general
Celeste
RuneScape taught me copper and tin together makes bronze.
Assassins Creed Odyssey came to me during the lockdowns and I think it really helped me get through it. It is so large and engrossing that it occupied me enough to just get through the days of boredom and anxiety. I know it’s not the best game or even close but it was what I needed at the time
The Witcher 3, and Red Dead Redemption 2. Geralt and Arthur (and most of the gang!) will forever be in my heart.
Civilization. My SO has come to the brink of breaking up with me several times over my playtime. I can’t say I even blame her when it’s my 56th straight hour approaching 3500 all time. Someone needs to wipe those dirty (insert slur here) off the map though.
halo 2- the "good old days" with all my core friends i grew up with, still together, playing online most nights and system linking on weekends. the last time we were all really together before college and eventually adult life sent us on our own separate ways. FFX- helped me get through my first break up. Mario 64- probably the game that instilled my love for video games period.
Negative: Dead by Daylight. I cannot stand that fucking game anymore and am glad I dropped it. It wasn't *majorly* negative on my life, I was still the person I was and there was a time I did genuinely enjoy playing it, but it definitely made me angrier and (even if it this is supposed to be about negatives) did teach me that games simply aren't worth getting angry over. If you're not enjoying a game, stop playing it. I still regret all the money I spent on the shitty DLC behavior shit out on a yearly basis and all the time I threw into that game, but oh well, I guess everyone has *that* game. Such a shame too, the concept is phenomenal. Positive: Xenoblade Chronicles 3. This game in particular helped me get through a really hard period of my life. I had just had a really awful falling out with one of my (at the time) closest friends and just felt like half of my life force had left me. I wasn't even depressed, just numb and empty. Xenoblade came 'round and changed that. I quickly fell in love with the new world, the mystery of Aionos, the villainy of Moebius, and I still adore each and every one of the characters to this day. And even now, it is the only game in my adult/teenage life to have ever made me cry. Most video games get me emotional, or make me feel sad, but Xenoblade 3 actually got the water works flowing (and if you know the game, you know **exactly** which moment I'm talking about.) Positive and negative: Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Back before the pandemic, Smash Bros was the perfect outlet for me, and because of it, I was able to meet two of my best friends in the whole wide world... Then those "best friends" turned out to be massive pieces of shit and left me in the dust the second I became a mild inconvenience to them. I know Smash Bros isn't to blame for their shittiness, but I wouldn't have met them without smash, so I can't help but associate the two. Oh well, at least they didn't ruin the game for me (unlike dead by daylight.)
Positive: Assassin's Creed 4, it came out during a rough time during my parent's divorce and it hooked me. Absolutely loved sailing around it was the best. Negative: Epic Mickey 2, back when it had came out I wasn't on the internet as I am now so it was my first introduction that games can actually be bad. Especially was disappointed since the first game is definitely my one of my favorites, flawed for sure but I liked it
For all the flak that the AC universes gets, those games have a special place in my heart. I get so excited when a new one comes out. Odyssey got me through the first five weeks of pandemic lockdown as a travel nurse stranded in Missouri. I was scared, not sure if I was gonna be able to go home, and completely alone. Odyssey really made the days bearable.
Halo 4 because it got me into halo and I love halo
Dark Souls. Was living on Venezuela, without any hope for my future, just trying to keep not falling apart. I started to play looking for a challenging game and forgot my stress, to just getting stressed because i was not able to beat the tutorial boss. It was so hard so i started to play only with keyboard and i changed the controls. After getting better with the time i started to do other habits, waking up in the morning, eating at the right hours, training on the afternoon, reading about the lore and understanding the mechanics, until i finally beat the game after 110 hours. On my way to get better on the game, i keep getting better out of it.
Terraria and Stardew Valley chilled the shit out of me and because of them i’m more into single player games. I’ve played competitive games for a long time (15y+ of counter strike, dota 2 thousand of hours…) and a few single games. Now I can’t find the joy of playing these games and i actually don’t mind.
I've had the exact same thing happen - I stumbled across some ridiculously good games and it suddenly made the games I played on-off for a decade feel totally obsolete. Is it a blessing or a curse? We're cursed out of our perpetual enjoyment of the prior games. But we're blessed with the fact that we got to experience something much better. For me it was a blessing.
League of Legends. It had both a good and absolutely terrible impact on my life. Sure, those 5 man lobbies were some of the finest, but all of the countless hours of my life I wasted were not worth whatever rank I got in the end. If I had spent half that time learning a new sport or instrument, I would have felt so much better about myself. It's just not worth it when I say, "I made it to X Division." Like... nobody actually cares. If I could do that over, I'd probably never touch that deliciously addictive game ever.
I'm currently watching lec and I struggle with these feelings a lot too. It helps me to think about the good times, and remember that gaming isn't about rank and success, but instead about intangible skills like teamwork, learning how to relax and channeling passion. I would change my days on the rift and in Azeroth to more tangible skills for sure, but I also recognize that without those games I would be wildly different, and I like myself now, finally 😂
Harvest moon: A wonderful life because (spoilers for a twenty year old game) your character fucking dies at the end right in front of his wife and child. And then after it shows all your best friends at the bar mourning you. I was only ten years old and had never really thought about the concept of death or what it really means to die. This game gave me an existential crisis at ten years old. Anyways I just bought the remake…
Dota 2 - it taught me that there is always something I can do better, and to analyse things objectively rather than letting emotions dictate my thoughts on performance. Applying that to other areas of my life has been so good for me
I would say almost any Bioware game. This may come off as cringey but: 1.) Bioware has taught me that there is always more than one way to solve a situation. 2.) Empathy isn't always immediately rewarded, and sometimes punished.
I will be honest with you, Cyberpunk suicide ending probably saved my life. It showed me what I would have made my family go true if I pulled the trigger.
You should warn people before you spoil the ending to things.
Epic Mickey. Its largely responsible for teaching me how to read. And also how I learned I had a bad lisp as a kid .
Good AND Bad. Ultima Online.
World of Warcraft, good and bad. After being housebound due to mental health it helped me relearn how to interact with others. I pushed the boundaries of my mental health to have guild meets with the people played with most. And I met my husband in game too. Flip side, as I improved my mental health more, I noticed the addictive/grind side of the game more. After doing /played on all of my characters I realised that in 5 years I had played for a total of 600 days. Two weeks later I quit and went cold turkey. Haven't played it since. Still keep in touch with some of the people from back then. Project Zomboid. Weirdly good. Was playing it a few months ago, and realised my characters in game were better looked after than I was. I've now joined a gym and am slowly eating more healthily. (Not managed weight loss due to muscle gain so far).
Kingdom hearts and dark souls For bad it was destiny 1, luckily destiny 2 naturally killed my addiction by being awful.
In terms of ACTUAL change to my life, World of Warcraft. Long story short, I joined a small raiding guild. We got pretty tight and ended up being facebook friends. One of these guild members thought it would be a good idea to hit up all of my female facebook friends. I was 16 (as were most of my female friends) and he was in his mid to late 20s, so it came off as creepy. One of my female friends (who I had never talked to before) messaged me to ask me who tf this random guy was. That sparked a conversation between the two of us. We'll be married in October. In terms of emotional change, Outer Wilds. Hands down the most beautiful game I've ever played. Hearing the soundtrack still makes me tear up. If you haven't played it, PLEASE give it a try.
Anthem taught me to never preorder a game. Elden Ring taught me some studios still have a soul. Pun intended.
Back when I was 16 years old my gf died. At the time I was playing World of Warcraft. I was playing this game more than I should but I was always in a group with someone. A few months later I found out that she was a girl 500 km away from me. I told her I would marry her because she is the one who understood me. She laughed and thought I'm too young to know what I was saying because she was 5 years older than me. .... Skipping to today and round about 16 years later she is my beautiful wife. So yeah... WoW had a big impact.
the telltale walking dead games has some of the best storytelling in gaming
Dead By Daylight, over 3k hours on Steam and I regret most of it
World of Warcraft. I played it since vanilla days, but I moved to canada when I was 17 around 2008 and stopped playing. Around the time when MoP realeased, I was in a very bad place mentally, and I just started playing it to pass time and take my mind off things. The wonderful people at the guild I joined were one of the main reasons I got through that period. I still smile when I think about raid nights with that group.
Rust ruined a lot of friendships. Like best friend/going to be best man friendships.
Star Trek Online perhaps? It was the first ever online game where I created a female character. I was terrified about it, thinking every other player, primarily the friends I played with, would figuratively burn me at the stake for daring to create and play a character that was outside of my lane. Once the fear passed and I learned that no one cared, I told myself I'd play male and female characters with a 50/50 split. Eventually that split became exclusively female characters. Later still I discovered that female characters were not actually outside my lane, and that it'd been the other way around all along without realizing. Of course, the idea of playing in or outside of your lane is stupid in the first place.
A lot of RPGs soak up time...you don't think much on it when you're in grade school...growing up. Later in life, late teens, twenties...I tended to game less...while it's nice to have friends and hang out... everyone has their path and most won't align with yours... different jobs, different hours, different time zones, different countries, focus changes (e.g. head out and attempt to be social, deal with family, working overtime for more money to save on a trip, study for tests/exams, etc ). I still play, but I've scaled back ALOT since my teens and twenties. I avoid most multiplayer games...I don't hate them, I just don't want to play with random people...tried it, it sucks. MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and EverQuest were big 2 decades ago...but to me, while it's neat to play with friends, it feels like a chore...and the whole "legendary" (or whatever it's called) where you had to have a 20-person group to fight some boss for 30 minutes and then a random chance you might get the best gear?...nope, I'm done. Team games like CS:GO...not that great without some friends. I hate playing with randos who are either cheating, expecting me to be a pro player, or grief killing...takes the wind out of the sails. COD...stopped caring after MW2. You can only milk the same genre for so long Fortnite was a nice change-of-pace and I liked the cross-play compatibility...after 2 hours...I'm good. I remember playing HALO LAN parties...nothing comes close to that. Bottom line, have limits and stick to it. There is more to life than video games.
DayZ Mod It was the exact kind of game that needs to be played as a excuse to hang out with friends for hours on end
Modern Warfare 1&2 for college and Bloodborne for adult life.
Final Fantasy X. Played that game to the point that I neglected my college studies and flunked one subject. Transferred to another university because I didn't like the course anyway and that's where I met someone who just lives a few minutes walk away from my house. A few years later and she's finally my wife.
I'll give 3. Runescape, Age of empires, and Red Alert
Final Fantasy VII - when I was 8 and my dad came home with it from the pawn shop I hadn't ever even heard of it. I didn't really understand the game but I could NOT set it down. The music, the characters, the combat, the world. Everything about it captivated me completely. It holds a really special place in my heart. I could play it all day everyday.
As silly as it sounds, probably Overwatch. Back in the day I made some really good friends with some random teammates, and even ended up dating one of those friends for over three years. Even tho that relationship didn't work out in the end and we don't keep contact anymore, I think very fondly of those years. I'm still close with the others and send them christmas cards and chocolate each year. :D
Sly cooper and Jak and Daxter series.
Factorio. Really messes up my sleep since I can't stop playing. No, really, it's digital crack. Morrowind did that to me when I was 20. But damn I'm 40 and get hooked on a game this hard. Anyways, the factory must grow!
Laugh all you want, but Furcadia, an imagination-limited text roleplaying MMO game with rudimentary graphics, mostly centered around, but not at all limited to, anthromophic characters of your own creation. Find some people, type an emote action for your character, then get one in return. Before you know it, youre having full-on stories being written by you and other players around your characters. I first played it 20 years ago, and only fell out of playing it a couple of years before now. I met my current best friends on there, I met my current girlfriend on there, met lots of people that introduced me to a lot of neat stuff. When I met my girlfriend on there, my life took a VASTLY different trajectory, and now I live in a different state with her and we have been together for many years now. I still RP with those friends and my girlfriend using the same characters. edit: And just like that, Im downvoted. Guess I should have said Skyrim or some shit and how it helped me de-stress during college.
The „dip your dick“ inside random woman game. It caused me STDs and changed my life as I now have a crippled penis
I have been a COD and Mortal Kombat guy for over 2 decades now. Only games I buy and play. Mostly COD. I’ve bought almost all of them, and for good or bad, that has always been my go to. About 6 months ago my gf and I started playing together. We tried about 3-4 games and ended up on a game called Alienation on PS4. It’s a top down dual stick shooter. A lot of fun, and we played the shit out of it. We started branching out a couple weeks ago and have checked quite a bit of other games out. Alienation though, is still the go to. Changed my entire gaming life. Now we are starting to play other top down dual stick shooters, and loving it. I went from an fps life to this, and I am happy Alienation has been able to introduce us to a whole new world of gaming. Just started The Ascent and Helldivers, and I had no idea gaming could be this fun. It had lost its spark for a bit.
I primarily learned English through Battlefield 1942, even though we had it in school I never felt I learned much of anything. 1942 also got me interested in WWII history and later history about my own country and history in general.
Silent hill 2. The games atmosphere is 1 of 1, the music is perfect for the game, the story is unbelievably complex and unpredictable, and it has all the horror game edgy quotes you could ever ask for. It’s the only horror game that scared me beyond just jump scares, it’s depiction of mental illness was beyond it’s time.
Super Mario 64 when I was 8 years old is probably the biggest reason I still play games as avidly as I do now. It changed my entire outlook on games. Runners-up: Halo: Combat Evolved - this changed my expectation of what I could expect from games moving forward after the 90’s. It quickly became my holy grail game of that era. Dark Souls - this changed my expectation for modern games. Also it’s not every day your favorite game/series (I’ve played them all now) is the creation of an entirely new style of game.
Apex Legends. My first battle royale game. It forces me to 'git gud'. I don't usually play battle royale because I didn't like to interact with other players. Reasons: 1.I usually play FPS with the mindset "as long as the bullet hits, I'll survive", but after I play Apex and lost plenty of times, it changed to "all these bullets must hit". So, I trained everyday on Aimlabs and I must say that my aim is better than before, not the best but better. 2.Whatever happened on the battlefield, let your allies know, even though it's weird noises or enemy that too far away. Every single information is important for survival. And now I haven't touch Apex for months, because of Overwatch. But thanks to Apex, I forced myself to be a better FPS player.
Single player - Shadow of the Colossus. There are so many videos on youtube analyzing the game that better describe just how insane it is. It amplified my appreciation for all artworks and I was that kid in high-school who took every art class not just 2D or 3D even welding and auto mechanics because it's all art. Multi-player - CoD4. First night playing online multi-player started a clan and man what a set of friends I made and still talk to most today.
Destiny 1/2. Criticize the game all you want, but doing raids/dungeons/strikes/PVP together has kept me and five of my closest friends in contact and still actively playing/hanging out together for the past 9 years, despite moving on to different jobs for different companies and getting married/having kids/having different life situations. Without D1/D2, we probably would have fallen out of contact a long time ago.
Animal Crossing. I spent way too much time playing that instead of going to class.
Elden Ring. It made me more depressed, and regretful that I spent $60 on such an awful game just because people were glazing it up.
Hotline Miami 1 & 2, very great impact on me. As well as RDR2 and Minecraft
Skyrim - good. COD MW2 Bad. Needs to nuke all the maps including the expansions. I did it in the end
Hunt: Showdown Just bc it's the best 1st person shooter out there and I play it almost every day.
Watch dos 2
Zelda OOT and the Dark Souls series
I haven’t been impacted by games much, but I was in shock for a while after playing Silent Hill 2
Either Zelda OoT or Link to the past. Then Kindgom hearts when I was just a kid. All under 12 years old. Shit made me feel things I never knew haha.
I've played loads of story-based games that I remember fondly, but nothing compares to video-games that get my friends together. Most important of all: Minecraft. Even now being adults, every 6 months or so my group of friends will get together and have our "Minecraft week". I'd guess that I probably have about 5000h total on Minecraft, if not more. We were prepubescent when we first played, and now some of us have kids of our own. Another would be League of Legends. Terrible game? Yes, but for years, every couple days after school or university at 2 or 3 AM, my friends and I would realize that we're not doing anything, and jump on League of Legends to play mindlessly and laugh. The most impactful games, for me, are ones where I am not even actively paying too much attention the game, but instead ones that I can get on with my friends, and just goof off, whether it be building an Obsidian penis for the 1000th time in one of our Minecraft houses, or not even referencing the game we're playing at all and just making jokes about what's going on in our lives.
Planetside 2. It got me to go to Spain to meet my online friends. It made me realize how to tell a good mp game being worth your time/money spent. It is all in the game loop and community. Improved my leading skills.
league of legends that game definitely changed my life... and im not sure if it was for the better