Games that changed your life

[Da Orky Man]

Homeworld showed me just which kind of story I like. The initial hopefulness with the Mothership being built, then a crushing depressing bit, Kharak being destroyed, the bulk of the story being made up of a rather desperate struggle, ending rather bittersweetly. If you think about it, a lot of media goes like that. Battlestar Galactica, KotOR, Deus Ex: HR, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, all follow the basic structure of hopeful intially, major defeat, the hard journey and the bittersweet ending.

 

[Darren716]

Bioshock introduce me to the idea of Objectivism which has become my personal favorite political and social philosophy.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

I have to say Gears of War helped me calm my anger. Without that game, I'd probably be suckerpunching people, stabbing others...yeah. I had a pretty bad anger problemas a child.

 

[Gatx]

I'd have to say Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight. It was the first game to turn me on to online gaming and was also one of my first 3D games (I only had a SNES, never got an N64).

Tetris gave me obsessive-compulsive disorder.

I have an inescapable urge to stack things in an orderly fashion. Leaving holes in my stacks abhors me. Encountering long pieces brings me great joy. Should my stacks ever reach the ceiling, I'll surely suffer a heart-attack from sheer terror.

During the height of my Tetris gaming, every once in a while I'd play an imaginary game of Tetris in my head (when I'm away from a computer or cellphone and in class or in a waiting room or something). I could actually keep track of it longer than you'd expect, and the pieces came out fairly randomly, and the straight piece still took forever to show up.

 

[LadyTiamat]

The amazon trail.....i dream of capturing fish with a spear now!

 

[Ddgafd]

Well, I'd say it's my old PC games and demos. Those things got me really interested in gaming and are the biggest game-related factor that affected my personality. To name a few I remember fondly: Supaplex taught me to appreciate simplicity and hate scissors, Tachyon: The Fringe made me develop an interest for all space-related things and Daikatana made me desensitized to violence and made me appreciate shooters. Yes, fucking Daikatana out of all games.

 

[Kursura]

For me it would be Rome: Total War. It?s what got me into ancient history and human history in general (I was only interested in the prehistoric before that). It?s also what got me into studying tactics and strategy.

 

[Muspelheim]

Operation Flashpoint and ArmA convinced me to keep myself away from the army. It's all fun and games (and running through eight miles of woodland with a backpack the size of Bosnia) until the bullets come in to it...

WoW did learn me alot about teamwork and how to function and cooperate under pressure, even if it's not something I'd reveal to anyone. Ever.

And Europa Universalis/Hearts of Iron taught me why international politics tend to be such bollocks. And I didn't even have to worry about election campaigns or bribes.

 

[IRBaboon]

The way I see it, is that all media can change someone in profound ways, but I think games do this the best because of their inclusion of other media, at any point in a game you might be in a situation where it is art, it is a book, it is a song, it is a movie. All of these things make it so much easier for games to shape us as individuals but not in the "We're all violent monsters" kind of way. By letting us experience all these different mediums at once.

I think I went a bit off topic there, which is funny cause I started the topic

 

[Xman490]

I only remember the frog-thing in it, but Number Munchers has set up a core in my mind.

At least I think it was called "Number Munchers", or maybe it was "Math Munchers". I don't know.

 

[-KC-]

WoW did learn me alot about teamwork and how to function and cooperate under pressure, even if it's not something I'd reveal to anyone. Ever.

NINJAED.

Kinda...

Also Pokemons affected my life greatly. And I'm pretty sure WoW made me dumber (is that a word? or should I say >>> more dumb?!)

 

[EeveeElectro]

I used to be absolutely terrified of graveyards when I was younger, to the point of being unable to pass one without freaking out and screaming.
Then somehow I started playing Zombie games and watching Zombie movies. It helped me get over my fear; I'm still a bit uneasy about them but I don't break down crying when I'm in one any more. But I know if some Zombies tried to come a-nomming I'd most likely be able to fight them off

 

[RustlessPotato]

Well, I remember after finishing FF 9 when I was about 12, I'm 20 now, I wanted to give ff8 a chance. In my group of friends back then no one had it, but one friend of mine knew this guy who had it and he gave it to me. That guy and I started talking and talking and introduced me to a whole other group of people who are now my real friends. My old group of friends ( so the people I hung around before becoming friends with that FF8 guy) are all screw ups now.

In a way, FF 8 introduced me to a group of people that were smart, and seeing as people are a big part on personal developement, you can say FF 8 changed my life for the better.

 

[Rooster893]

Team Fortress 2 on the Xbox 360 is the game that really got me into gaming.

I must have over 200 hours clocked into that baby.

 

[dyre]

Dunno about changing my life, but Baldur's Gate 2 was the first serious RPG I ever played (I think before that, I only played Fallout 3), and I remember feeling, "good God, this is what video games can be!"

I then went and sincerely thanked the person who recommended that game for introducing me to something so wonderful.

 

[Breaker deGodot]

My avatar answers this quite nicely. Katawa Shoujo is certainly the most life changing experience I've had while gaming, and I'm sure that it will remain that way for years to come.

 

[Supah]

Pokemon, Zelda, Kirby, Mario, and Megaman got me hook line and sinker, and made gaming literally one of my most time consuming hobbies lol. Computer games like Diablo and Starcraft got me into online gaming too.

 

[2clueless]

Planetside.

Organization. Grace under fire. Making decisions in a high pressure environment. Building trust with squadmates. Teamwork. Chain of command. Efficiency. Just.. so many good qualities, and I met one of my best friends in that game.

And to a lesser degree, Natural Selection.

Anyone who sat in the marine Command Chair knows you had better know the map inside and out, have a plan for map you are playing, be able to react and adapt to anything the aliens throw at you, and have incredible map awareness (marine traveling, base building, threats, hive locations, etc). I have never gotten more satisfaction from winning anything than commanding a winning marine game against an equally skilled alien team.

 

[PPB]

Warcraft II introduced me to fantasy in general. Not only was it responsible for shaping my gaming life, but it also got me interested in Lord of the Rings and other fantasy, mythology and medieval historical novels. I wouldn't go as far as saying it "changed my life", but it did have an important impact on most of my hobbies.