Name a game that changed your life

Started by milkanannan, Sat 10/10/2020 19:32:04

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milkanannan

I’m interested to hear about games that deeply resonated with AGS members and/or provided them with what might be described an almost spiritual or deeply emotional experience. I don’t think this necessarily is the same thing as a ‘favourite game’. I’m more interested to hear about a gaming experience that deeply connected with you in some way, regardless of whether you think the game, as a game, was good or bad.

In my own case, and I’m aware this is a bit cliche, I’d have to say the Minecraft demo, where you essentially have five ‘days’ to build a little shelter and explore/carry out simple errands before the narrator announces you last day as you watch the sunrise. The whole thing opens some sort of emotional connection to the tree fort building days of my childhood, especially when you can do things in the game like build a little shelter and then rest in it and watch the afternoon clouds float by from you window, then swim way out in the water and look back at your shelter as the sun sets.

I also found the plot and character depth of Lisa: The Painful to be something I will never forget. I’m really not crazy about the game, but the way it grapples with the subject of redemption, and the truly tormented, self-loathing protagonist is really unique compared to anything I’ve seen elsewhere.

Finally, I’d list Fez only because I got so invested in the Phil Fish drama long before I ever played the game (the game is excellent, btw). I got to have this very meta experience while playing such a great game which was deeply enjoyable in some weird way I have not encountered with other titles.

How about you? Are there games you would say changed your life?

KyriakosCH

Not sure if "changed", but I was utterly fascinated with Another World (by Delphine).
I would keep playing, making sure never to lose 1 life in the entire game, and identified with the protagonist (I was 12 at the time).
This is the Way - A dark allegory. My Twitter!  My Youtube!

Mandle

#2
Unreal Tournament.

Not only did I play this game for about two years, almost exclusively, but it was the first time I experienced modding and map-making as it was one of the first major games to be shipped open-source: An absolutely genius move as it's longevity ran way past what the norm for an FPS game was back then.

This was the first time since I was a kid that making my own games did not seem out of reach.

Made some friends that I'm still in contact with to this day also. Good times!

Olleh19

Quote from: Mandle on Sat 10/10/2020 22:45:21
Unreal Tournament.

Not only did I play this game for about two years, almost exclusively, but it was the first time I experienced modding and map-making as it was one of the first major games to be shipped open-source: An absolutely genius move as it's longevity ran way past what the norm for an FPS game was back then.

This was the first time since I was a kid that making my own games did not seem out of reach.

Made some friends that I'm still in contact with to this day also. Good times!

I have to go the opposite. Quake1, Omg! When seeing Quake and being used to Doom2 it was like "holy cow!" This is epic! (laugh)

Stupot

Different games have affected me in different ways at different points in my life.

Fantasy World Dizzy was the first game that I got absolutely hooked as a little boy. My whole family did. My mum remembers it as fondly as my sister and I do. It was also the first time I had a notion that these things were made by normal people. There it was on the title screen “the Oliver Twins”. I’m a twin!

I didn’t own a Sega or Nintendo during the first couple of Generations, but friends did. I vaguely remembered half playing something at a friend’s house with blue speech boxes and turn-based battles. It clearly didn’t change my life much. But when FFVII came out on PlayStation and I started her up, I had a flashback and realised This was like those games, only better. Final Fantasy 7 absolutely took over my like for the several months that I played it. The music, the story, the action sequences, the battle animations, the music again, the atmosphere, the freedom, the characters, the humour, the pathos. It was like nothing I’d played before.  I still remember that feeling and it fills me with joy. Ironically, I have never actually finished it. My last did got scratched and then when I bought the platinum version (first time I ever bought a game I already owned) that third disc wouldn’t work again. I’m planning to buy it in Switch when I’m less busy and give it another go (I won’t be buying a PS4 just for the remake).

My old man and I used to play a lot of games together, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Silent Hill Etc and they all changed me in different ways too but none had the impact of FF7.

This post is long enough, but I also want to say: “Ocarina of Time. Thank you, Nintendo.”

Olleh19

Quote from: Stupot on Sun 11/10/2020 00:47:42
Different games have affected me in different ways at different points in my life.

Fantasy World Dizzy was the first game that I got absolutely hooked as a little boy. My whole family did. My mum remembers it as fondly as my sister and I do. It was also the first time I had a notion that these things were made by normal people. There it was on the title screen “the Oliver Twins”. I’m a twin!

I didn’t own a Sega or Nintendo during the first couple of Generations, but friends did. I vaguely remembered half playing something at a friend’s house with blue speech boxes and turn-based battles. It clearly didn’t change my life much. But when FFVII came out on PlayStation and I started her up, I had a flashback and realised This was like those games, only better. Final Fantasy 7 absolutely took over my like for the several months that I played it. The music, the story, the action sequences, the battle animations, the music again, the atmosphere, the freedom, the characters, the humour, the pathos. It was like nothing I’d played before.  I still remember that feeling and it fills me with joy. Ironically, I have never actually finished it. My last did got scratched and then when I bought the platinum version (first time I ever bought a game I already owned) that third disc wouldn’t work again. I’m planning to buy it in Switch when I’m less busy and give it another go (I won’t be buying a PS4 just for the remake).

My old man and I used to play a lot of games together, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Silent Hill Etc and they all changed me in different ways too but none had the impact of FF7.

This post is long enough, but I also want to say: “Ocarina of Time. Thank you, Nintendo.”

FF7 was amazing, what an beautiful world to get into. I loved it! 99+ hours on the save files was the norm! (laugh). Totally agree. I've yet to have played a game that is at that level of brilliance in the RPG world.
I also forgot about Goldeneye, my funniest memories with multiplayer in a room with other friends, and Resident Evil 2 playing that dark in a room by myself! How afraid i got when the *spoiler* Crocodile or whatever you wanna call it showed up, nearly shit my pants.  :-D

FormosaFalanster

Suikoden I and II.

Sorry for point and click lovers, but the two first Suikodens are the ones that changed my life and I still consider them the best narrative games ever made! They are deeper on many levels than any novel I ever read. And that influenced a lot of things for me.

milkanannan

Kyriakos - oh yeah, I should have listed that, too. I finished the game as a kid (with the help of a tutorial I found online), and I think there may have been a bit of dust in my eye when they sailed off on the back of that dragon-thing in the end.  :~(

Mandle - I remember the days when you couldn't open a gaming mag without seeing an ad for Unreal. I never played it, but it sounds like it must have been an early mover in the modding world.

Stupot - Alright, I've heard enough about FF7 ~ I got to try this! Looks like it has a Steam version, so maybe I'll finally have the experience for myself. Thanks for the recommendation. Yes, my brother and I played Ocarina of Time, too. Like you said, games will resonate in different ways depending on when you play them, so I think I sort of missed the boat on this one as I was transitioning to university at the time and was having deep and lasting emotional experiences outside of gaming, but I could totally see how this title would end up on someone's shortlist.

Olleh - If I had a dollar for every time someone told me Resident Evil made them 'sh*t their pants', I'd have around, well, maybe 8 bucks or so (but that's seriously high on pants sh*tting scale! (laugh)) I've only sat in on friends playing it, so I barely remember anything from the games. Never played them myself.

FormosaFalanstar - I've never heard of those, but my wife is a Mainlander so we're familiar with the Water Margin story (I'm just reading in the Wiki that the game is based on this story). Thanks for sharing ~ I'll check it out.

FormosaFalanster

Quote from: milkanannan on Sun 11/10/2020 05:37:46
FormosaFalanstar - I've never heard of those, but my wife is a Mainlander so we're familiar with the Water Margin story (I'm just reading in the Wiki that the game is based on this story). Thanks for sharing ~ I'll check it out.

I read Shui Hu Zhuan because of Suikoden  :) But seriously, these two games have the most emotionally impacting stories I ever saw through videogames. They remained in me for long. Play they, you will not regret it.

milkanannan

I will~ thanks very much for the recommendation. Random: are living in Taiwan?

Hobo

I always find these type of discussions interesting, because for me it's fascinating to see people pinpointing out exact experiences and games from their past. I don't have anything like that myself, looking back at all the games I've played, I can't really say that any of them had a big impact on my life or resonated very deeply on an emotional level. Collectively yes, I can see how I've learned a little bit from a bunch of them and games as a whole have certainly had an influence. But a single game? No, not really.

That actually applies to all types of entertainment I've consumed in my life, I've never been a die-hard fan of anything or obsessed with a particular piece of media, never been a part of a fandom, never had a single poster on my wall, never bought any related merchandise. Currently I'm trying to keep my eye on the new console launches out of professional interest and it's very weird to see how much passion some have for these things and how engaged they are. All that hype and excitement, as well as the negativity and toxic behavior, is kind of unfathomable to me. Or like how some people are playing one game for thousands of hours or replaying their old favorite for a tenth time already, can't ever imagine doing the same myself.

Olleh19

Quote from: milkanannan on Sun 11/10/2020 05:37:46
on when you play them, so I think I sort of missed the boat on this one as I was transitioning to university at the time and was having deep and lasting emotional experiences outside of gaming, but I could totally see how this title would end up on someone's shortlist.

Olleh - If I had a dollar for every time someone told me Resident Evil made them 'sh*t their pants', I'd have around, well, maybe 8 bucks or so (but that's seriously high on pants sh*tting scale! (laugh)) I've only sat in on friends playing it, so I barely remember anything from the games. Never played them myself.


There is that classic scene also that is taken from a horror movie, i do not recall the name right now. "Dawn on the dead" perhaps, i don't know. Where you walk into a room and hands grab you, omg that was so scary!!! (laugh)

KyriakosCH

Quote from: milkanannan on Sun 11/10/2020 05:37:46
Kyriakos - oh yeah, I should have listed that, too. I finished the game as a kid (with the help of a tutorial I found online), and I think there may have been a bit of dust in my eye when they sailed off on the back of that dragon-thing in the end.  :~(



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqz5nfocLrA
This is the Way - A dark allegory. My Twitter!  My Youtube!

FormosaFalanster

Quote from: KyriakosCH on Sun 11/10/2020 18:58:23
Quote from: milkanannan on Sun 11/10/2020 05:37:46
Kyriakos - oh yeah, I should have listed that, too. I finished the game as a kid (with the help of a tutorial I found online), and I think there may have been a bit of dust in my eye when they sailed off on the back of that dragon-thing in the end.  :~(



((ending video of Another World))

What a game... and to think Eric Chahi did that all by himself. The timing in this game is fantastic and the narrative is entirely driven by the gameplay with not one line of dialogue. This is very inspirational.

I have this theory that a narrative game should add the rule "play don't tell" to the rule "show don't tell". You have to communicate through the gameplay itself, primarily. Text and images should only come second to this. It's extremely hard to acheive and I have huge respect for those who maximises this rule.

heltenjon

I guess I have a few.

The Golden Baton: This was my first adventure game experience, IIRC. So then, my first time drawing a map and learning how to think in the terms of those games, always with a dictionary at hand, learning lots of English in the process. This process continued in other games, so it was more the game type that made an impression than that particular game.

The Pawn: This was the first time I remember spending a lot of time on the easter eggs. (I didn't know the term back then.) There was this wise man or monk in the game, and my friend and I would sit the entire evening coming up with subjects we could ask him about, just to see if they were implemented in the game.

Elite: I played this space game on a Commodore 64 with a cassette tape deck. I remember sitting up late in the summer nights, waiting for my ship to approach some planet or being attacked. I would have something to read in the meantime - there really was a lot of waiting while flying through space. I imagined this was how it would probably be to sit in that cockpit, too. A lot of waiting.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood: When a kid, I would make up stories that connected all my games in some sort of conspiracy that I could unravel only by playing the games. One of the games that had the leader of the bad guys (in my head) was Frankie Goes to Hollywood (I guess it was the Soviet President I thought about - the game really lacks a villain). My friends and I were stuck at 98% for so long before we discovered the last task by accident.

Wing Commander: I remember skipping some university classes in order to play and beat one of these games. Afterwards, I thought that that behaviour wasn't productive - I had stayed away from other people for a couple of days just to blow up an imaginary space station, and I hadn't been doing any studying either. So I decided to quit studying and get a job.

Diablo: I'm not sure if this was game 1 or 2, but I spent 10-12 hours playing, neglecting to eat or sleep. The next day, I decided that this wasn't healthy, and I couldn't keep up with work if I started doing this. So I quit the game. Never touched it again. I try not to get involved in any games that I suspect will be time thieves and have stayed away from a lot of Internet gaming for this reason.

Angry Birds - I think this was the first game I played that had bonuses if the player checked in regularly. This is commonplace nowadays, of course. Identifying this as a pattern behaviour was useful - I've never cared for having a snap streak, but I understand how that mechanism works.

WordFeud - The game that got me into some sort of social gaming (through WF League of Honour) at an acceptable pace for a family man.

Yatzy World - The game that made me start designing rules and tournaments. Through the Yatzy League of the mentioned WFLOH, there was an established base of players who were already interested in playing Yatzy cups/tournaments through their mobile app. And then I started making new rules, some times introducing the new concepts gradually, one in each tournament, before arriving at the complicated design I had had in mind without scaring off the potential participants.

Oh my. Sorry for writing a whole essay. I'll go start a blog now.  :-[  (wrong)

JackPutter

The game that truly changed my life is a game that is almost universally agreed to be a "bad" game, and that's Driver 3... Or Driv3r if we're to go by the way it's spelled on the box. I was a really big fan of the first game on PS1 and I spent many hours of my childhood smashing into cop cars, ramping over bridges, and sliding sideways around corners.

I was never able to afford brand-new games growing up, I always had to buy them pre-owned, but when I heard that there was a third instalment of Driver coming out, I knew I had to have it. So I saved up, pinched every penny, and I got it pretty much on the day of release. I remember in those days my parents limited me to one hour of PlayStation a day, and I foolishly used up my hour BEFORE going to the store and buying my new game! I have a vivid memory of sitting on the curb outside my house, reading the instruction manual cover to cover, over and over. I doubt I slept at all that night, I was so excited to play my new game!

When I finally got to play it, I was so impressed. The cutscenes and story were just SO COOL! The graphics looked amazing! You could steal ANY car you saw! The cities were so detailed! You could SHOOT GUNS! I blasted through the story and spent day after day exploring the three maps in the "Take a Ride" mode. I perfected each course of the minigames section, I memorised the perfect route for each of the story missions. Name a secret car, easter egg, or gameplay exploit and I would have been able to tell you exactly where it was or how to trigger it. I was so infatuated I even bought the soundtrack on CD, which is actually a real hidden gem. (It's presented like a radio station with Iggy Pop as the DJ!)

None of the things I've mentioned are reasons why this game "changed my life" though. The life changing moment came when I first opened the "Film Director" mode. Basically, in Driv3r, after you finish a mission you get the option to view a replay of what you just did, with the view cutting from angle to angle like a movie. This was amazing to my little brain, but my mind was truly blown when I selected the "Film Director" option. In this mode, you got to pick the camera angles. At any time, you could pause the action and place the camera angle anywhere you wanted. It allowed you to decide when to cut from shot to shot, zoom in and out, add slow motion... I'll never forget the first time I paused the replay while my car was doing a jump, and I got to fly the camera around in 3D space. Seeing the car hovering there, sparks and broken glass floating, while I could freely move all around and examine it from every angle... that was almost a transcendental experience. When I later saw The Matrix, that's what I imagined "seeing the code" felt like.

I started creating my own little mini-movies with the "Film Director" tools. I would attach stories to them, despite there being no in-game dialogue. I had always loved action movies but I could never make one myself, not when my only resources were my reluctant friends and my family's budget-price camcorder. This game allowed me to make all the spectacular action movies I wanted though. I used to drag my parents away from whatever they were doing so I could show them my latest car chase, excitedly narrating the story to them as it went along. I filled up memory cards with save files of these replay movies.

After a while I started making my own short films in real life, and eventually decided to study the subject in college. I'm not saying I wouldn't still have a degree in Film & Television Production right now if it weren't for the hours I spent with Driv3r, but it definitely fueled my passion in a big way.

Mouth for war

All of 'em. When you sometimes think "Walk to cupboard" "Open cupboard" "Pick up glass" you just know those games made a huge difference in your life :-D
mass genocide is the most exhausting activity one can engage in, next to soccer

Mandle

JackPutter... Your story there was very inspiring in and of itself, and very well written too!

milkanannan

Yeah, awesome story, Jack. Is there somewhere we can see some of the movies you made?

JackPutter

Mandle and Milkanannan, that's very nice of you to say! I probably still have some of the memory cards with those Driv3r replays on them, I have no idea how I would transfer them to a computer to be able to show them though! There are a few of my IRL movies from that era that have survived, but since my name/face and other such information is contained in most of them, I'd rather not share at the moment. I'm a little more self conscious these days than I was when I was a kid!

Olleh19

Now i almost feel bad, cause i never gave Driver a testdrive as a kid  :-[. Destruction Derby 2, Carmageddon 1 was my games. And dare i say it. A Swedish classic probably unknown to you guys, called Ignition,  it's a great fun racing game!
Thanks for the nice story time Jack!

Marcin K.

Maniac Mansion blew my head apart but real lifechanger was Duke Nukem 3D. We stole this game (few hours of downloading from the pirate FTP) and played on LAN in my school in public open computer room. Making long story shor: for 4 month I was walking to the building, passing the guard, walking to the classroom and played DN3D for 6 hours. I never managed to get to a lecture or class. It was the end of my IT studies. I took a break and went to study filmmaking.

Olleh19

#22
Quote from: Marcin K. on Fri 23/10/2020 23:38:35
Maniac Mansion blew my head apart but real lifechanger was Duke Nukem 3D. We stole this game (few hours of downloading from the pirate FTP) and played on LAN in my school in public open computer room. Making long story shor: for 4 month I was walking to the building, passing the guard, walking to the classroom and played DN3D for 6 hours. I never managed to get to a lecture or class. It was the end of my IT studies. I took a break and went to study filmmaking.


Good choice in life! Both duke and filmmaking. IT? Booooring. (laugh) I actually also thought Maniac Mansion was really cool, i bought it cause of the cover art. Even tho i didn't get any far in the game as a kid on Nintendo. Which version did you play?

Marcin K.

Quote from: Olleh19 on Sat 24/10/2020 01:09:23
Good choice in life! Both duke and filmmaking. IT? Booooring. (laugh) I actually also thought Maniac Mansion was really cool, i bought it cause of the cover art. Even tho i didn't get any far in the game as a kid on Nintendo. Which version did you play?

I wanted to learn coding but it was level hard and math where 2 + 2 doesn't make 4 made my brain melt.

Commodore 64. This game was pure magic for me (though my english was very weak and dictionary didn't help much and I had to xero a solution from a magazine). I got it because I read about it in som ranking of groundbreaking games. We had no boxed games - only pirate copies.


Every saturday, in basement of local elementary school there was a "market" - people used to bring their computers, monitors etc and disc collections with a catalogues - binders with pages from foreign game magazines and were making copies on demand and you paid per disk.

Back then we had no consoles at all in Poland until 90s when we had pirated clones of Famicom and Atari 2600. Yup, it took us about 10 years to catch up with the world after fall of communism :)

Pogwizd

#24
That's a nice topic milkanannan.

I'm going to name only one game, Tropico 1. Saying that it changed my life would probably be an exaggeration, but it definitely enriched it (a lot). In my book the game is near perfect and I occasionally go back to it. But the main reason I have a soft spot for it is because it sparked my interest in the Spanish language, Cumbias, Chichas or Hispanic America in general. Now, I don't know what is it like in your countries but in mine the only thing I was taught in school about that part of the world was that it existed... So Tropico was like this gentle push in the back towards books and looking stuff up.

(Yes, I know that Hispanic America means a lot of countries and cultural diversity. I don't want to generalise. I just want to show that thanks to the game I'm more than curious about new things).

Enjoy :D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n78vyOFQc_s&ab_channel=WorldCircuitRecords

Pogwizd

#25
Marcin, is that the image from the market at ul. Grzybowska? Isn't that also the place where CD Projekt (the guys behind the Witcher) started their business as a retailer in the '90s? :D

Marcin K.

Quote from: Pogwizd on Sat 24/10/2020 09:50:09
Marcin, is that the image from the market at ul. Grzybowska? Isn't that also the place where CD Projekt (the guys behind the Witcher) started their business as a retailer in the '90s? :D
None other :D

https://wyborcza.pl/7,156282,22162774,gielda-na-grzybowskiej-tutaj-narodzil-sie-cd-projekt-i-to.html

I pass the CDP every time I bike to discount (Biedra ;) ) for my groceries :D

Marcin K.

I should add Leisure Suit Larry 5. Not that I particulary love this game but its graphic style turned my world upside down. I dicovered the world where straight, paralel lines don't exist and laws of perspective are severly violated. I'm faithfull to this style to this day.



milkanannan

Quote from: Marcin K. on Sat 24/10/2020 10:39:24
I should add Leisure Suit Larry 5. Not that I particulary love this game but its graphic style turned my world upside down. I dicovered the world where straight, paralel lines don't exist and laws of perspective are severly violated. I'm faithfull to this style to this day.



Haha it is funny you should mention that specific game and that specific style, because it also resonated with me. "Wait, doors/buildings don't have to be rectangles?! Limousines can be 800 car doors long?!" I remember I used to draw little choose-your-own-adventure games in this style.

Yeah, LSL5's entire world was pretty unique, you're right, and for some reason they toned it down in LSL6. ???

Mandle

The original Civ2 when it first came out... Took away months of my life, made me a social outcast, and I've never been the same again, except that I'm alright now, no really, mid-nighties, what were they?! SHUT-UP!!! YOU LIE!!!

FormosaFalanster

Quote from: Mandle on Tue 23/02/2021 07:05:20
The original Civ2 when it first came out... Took away months of my life, made me a social outcast, and I've never been the same again, except that I'm alright now, no really, mid-nighties, what were they?! SHUT-UP!!! YOU LIE!!!

I remember playing this one a lot too! I ended up giving myself challenges. One of them was the city-state scenario. I'd name my first city Hong-Kong and see how long I could last. It actually worked, with a different strategy, some things that are costly in the game you don't need anymore but others become more efficient, I ended up on Alpha Centauri :D

Once I did it but customizing the map to be an archipelago, called my city Singapore, and lasted to Alpha Centauri as well.

Moriya_17

Changed my life? Unfortunately, none really gave a different direction to my life, so, instead, I'll go for those I'll never forget and which left a lasting impression.
The first one would be Red Baron, the first one that came out in 1990; it was my first air combat game, and the first one to develop my interest for aviation. Since then, I haven't become a pilot - you need to be at least decent at math for that - but have always been interested in military history and aviation.
The second one would be Stalker Clear Sky. No, not Shadow of Chernobyl: the cover art really made it look like a horror game, a genre I didn't like back in 2007. It's a game that sparked my interest in the post-apocalyptic genre, and was the first domino in a chain that led me to learn Russian and live in Russia these days.

WHAM

For me it would have to be NetHack.

Back in the days we had an early Window 3.11 computer, but no internet connection. My mom was also adamant that no games were allowed on the computer, because it was only for work and study.
I read in the Finnish "Pelit" (Games) magazine a number of articles about NetHack and, despite the crude visuals, the wealth of systems and details mesmerized me.

I stole one of my moms empty 1.44 megabyte diskettes and snuck it to school with me. There I waited for our weekly one hour visit to the computer class, where I downloaded NetHack, put it on the diskette, and snuck it back home in secrecy. I hid the game in a folder on the computer and played it for countless hours while home alone. Maybe the fact I had to be so secretive about this forbidden form of entertainment added something to the experience, but the sheer level of detail and possibility in NetHack was staggering to me at the time. Teaching my pet cat to steal spell scrolls from shop, learning the ins and outs of worship and favours, reaching Minetown for the first time and discovering friendly NPC's other than shopkeepers, getting my first wish and using the gaming magazine wish guide to get the best armour in the game early... So many experiences, and so many things I still wish modern games did.

That gaming experience led to me interest in games evolving out of the early console games on the Sega Megadrive, led to me growing increasingly excited to read about more new games in magazines, led to me learning how to use early internet, and led to me growing interested enough in games to, eventually, try and make my own simple games.
Wrongthinker and anticitizen one. Pending removal to memory hole. | WHAMGAMES proudly presents: The Night Falls, a community roleplaying game

Mandle

WHAM, what a great story!

Takes me back to stealing time on my local library backroom computer room on the pretense of doing "computer studies", only to play Aztec and Ultima II on pirated copies, all the while.

I only got 20 mins before getting kicked out, but I got far enough into Ultima II to nag my parents enough to buy a computer for me and then I was off and running.

milkanannan

Yeah I remember computer class being great for this sort of thing, too! (laugh) In the 90s, kids knew light years more about computers/ the internet than adults, so we were constantly getting hacked 'Gamez' as they were called, and setting up really basic terminal chat software onto the computers in our school's lab so we could 'chat' while in computer class (I'm sure IRC was around at this time, but I think ICQ had still not really become a thing). It was a really exciting time because the tech was evolving so quickly. Always some new covert project for junior high kids to be working on. (laugh)

spartikMax

Mass Effect 1 and 2 part. Great game, great storyline. Of course, there are still quite a few games that each change something in us. For example, Mafia 2 taught me to value friends.
Metro and Stalker taught us to value life.
Best online games - Cosmolot - http://deathmask.kiev.ua/

Danvzare

You know, every time I see this thread pop-up, I always feel a little left out. Simply because I can't think of any games that's had a profound impact on my life.
I've heard lots of stories about the first game someone played, but I can't remember the first game I played. All I can say is that I was probably one or two years old, and it was probably on the Amiga.

No game has taught me something I couldn't have learnt elsewhere. I mean sure, Deus Ex was the first story I played where you find out you were working for the bad guys all along, and Buck Rogers Countdown to Doomsday was my first experience with the derelict spaceship that has a deadly virus in it. But I would've encountered those tropes eventually, with or without those games. They were simply my first encounter with them.

And when it comes down to a message that I've really taken to heart. I simply draw a blank.
Maybe I'm just being picky. But I think I've learnt all of the really important life changing stuff from the people I know.

But if I had to choose a game which had the most impact on me. It would have to be Dwarf Fortress. Simply because I've been in contact with someone for several years now, trading a save back and forth, and writing down what happened in a fun story, all because of that game. It's been fun.
I suppose I could also add Day of the Tentacle to that list of having an impact, because I once said that I wanted to make games like that, and for some unknown reason, I've taken that one statement very literal. Although it's got nothing to do with me being on the AGS forums. That's because I was looking for an engine to make RPGs, and the reason I first got into RPGs was because of Secret of Mana. Also speaking of loose connections, the only reason I got into Deadpool when I did (which was way before the movie came out), was because of Marvel Ultimate Alliance. And the only reason I got into My Little Pony was because of Project Zomboid, which I only got into because of Thief and Resident Evil. I can trace a lot of things back to games. But I can't say anything changed my life. (Mostly because I can trace those things even further back to non-game.)

It's nice to know that others can say that though.  :-D

Snarky

King's Quest I VGA. It was the game that made me discover AGS.

Trout

X-Wing, the 1993 videogame (but I got it in 1994), quite changed my life.

My father got a promotion and he gave me two CD-ROM games as a present. The first was X-Wing collector's edition.
I already had Rebel Assault and -apart from the graphics- I didn't like it. In my country there was no Star Wars cult at that time, so I didn't care about the movies either.
So I was like, "dad, after Rebel Assault, you really think I care to shoot some random parallelepiped?"
And my father said: "just play it".
Not only I became a huge Star Wars fan, but I also got greatly interested in astronomy and science, which affected my academic life (come to think of it, I don't know why :grin: :grin:)

Funny note: the second videogame that my father gave me was Day of the tentacle  :shocked:

javixblack

#40
I grown playing single-player games. My brothers was never interested to play with me, and for that reason, the ps2 give a really strong feeling of loneliness. In my 16, I was playing Silent Hill 2 in the port version for PC (I finished the game). After three or four years I want to play it in ps2, so I get a copy (we won't talk about this part... ehem), and start to play. For a few days I was feeling a bit depressed, and I don't understad why, I am talking about 1 or 2 weeks with that feeling. And one night I realized Silent Hill 2 was depressing me. The game itself got an atmosphere really sad, melancholic, and depress, but that, plus my experience playing always alone my ps2, give me that horrible feeling. After that I decided to left the game inmediatly.

Nikolas

Hmmm...

In order of appearance in my life, rather than importance.

1. Bard's Tale I (Tales of the unknown)
2. Police quest I
3. Eye of the Beholder I
4. Oni
5. Cave Story (Dukotsu)

All of them are big, long games, that I've spent ages playing. Each one unique in their own way that made me dream that I could make up stories like that, to make games like that. 

LimpingFish

I don't know...

What I mean is that it's too difficult to pinpoint exactly any one game that pushed me in any one direction. For instance, I could say that Galaxian, possibly the first video game I ever played (I think I was six years old when I discovered it), set me on the road to where I am now.

If I was to break it down into various phases in my videogame history, I suppose I could say Mercenary 3 on the Atari ST, Flashback on the Megadrive, Super Castlevania IV on the SNES, Resident Evil and Silent Hill on the Playstation, etc.

But we're talking about a history of 30+ years, so, as I said, it's pretty hard to pinpoint precisely those games that had an effect on me.

I will say that Silent Hill probably did have an effect on me, beyond most other games at the time; I remember the day I bought it, and I remember completing all available endings over the period of a single weekend.
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milkanannan

Finally on Christmas holiday and revisiting this thread for some ideas while I have the time off. :grin: (Sorry for necroposting.) Anyone play anything life changing in 2023?

Danvzare

#44
Quote from: milkanannan on Fri 15/12/2023 01:35:12Finally on Christmas holiday and revisiting this thread for some ideas while I have the time off. :grin: (Sorry for necroposting.) Anyone play anything life changing in 2023?
Life changing? Not really.

But I can list some of the best games I've played this year.
First there was Scribblenauts Unlimited. A game which I played back when it came out, but I played again this year, and boy is it still an incredible game.
Then there's Neptunia: Sisters Vs Sisters which had a really fun (and complicated) story and is quite possibly now my favourite in the Neptunia series. The clear increase in budget was a welcomed addition.  :-D
The latest great game I played this year (as in the one I played most recently) was Alice: Madness Returns, I've never played a game with such buttery smooth controls before. Or a platformer with combat that's actually fun. Shame that the music and level design aren't as good as the first game, but hey, the second game comes with the first game, so at least there's that, and the story's pretty good too. (Also yay, they wrote Alice fairly accurately to how she acted in the book.)

But the true highlight for this year for me is easily It Takes Two (which I played at the start of the year with my mother).
I would go as far as to say that this game has the makings of a future classic. In terms of gameplay, it throws every possible cooperative platformer gameplay element you can think of, at the wall, and a surprising amount of them stick. Then there's the story which actually has nuance!  8-0
It also has some really good relationship advice.  (nod) 
Although I really wish they burnt that book at the end. I absolutely hated it!  (laugh)

But yeah, none of those were life changing.
I played a lot of games this year (including Red Dead Redemption 2), but those were the highlights.  :-D

What about you?

Ponch

#45
Half Life: Alyx. Headcrabs went from annoying in every other Half Life game to a constant source of pants-fudging terror.  :=

Also, Duke Nukem 3D. Whatever became of Duke's legacy after, I don't know that I ever had as much pure fun with any other game as I did with that one. It was an absolute blast to play. An incredibly inventive shooter for its time, in my opinion. Also The Last of Us. I wish that thing had never had a sequel. What a tremendously great ending to roll credits on. A perfect example of an ambiguous ending that can only be diluted by revisiting that world and its characters.

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