Games that shaped/matured you as a gamer

[HeySeansOnline]

Galaga taught me how to hone skills In a game.

Spyro The Dragon Ripto's Rage made me lose my gaming fear, made me delve deeper Into games, and not get freaked out In 3d envirorments.

Okami taught me games can be art.

Half Life 2 gave me a firm kick In the ass when other games handed me everything.

There are many other games that gave me extra skills, in various genres and such, but those four stick out In my mind, and all four have a place on my five favorite games so far.

 

[ELPiranha]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl

It taught me how to not be shit at FPSes.

Prior to stalker, i had been coasting along at a happy 4-5 kills per match of halo 3, putting me way down at the bottom of the scoreboard for a good 2 years. After playing stalker for a couple of weeks, i had another go of halo and topped the scoreboard several times in a row with 20+ kills.

That's a 400-500% increase in badassery, just by having a game that does not forgive even the tiniest of mistakes.

ALSO,

The Typing of the Dead.

Matured me by making me learn to touch type. after 10+ years of stabbing wildly at the keyboard, i'd gotten pretty fast, but The typing of the dead made it abundantly clear that i had to stare at the keys to be any good. Out came Typing tutor for dummies, and 1 week later those zombies heads were a rollin!

TTOTD is a house of the dead clone released for the PC by sega that does not use the light gun to register shots, but instead a zombie will have a word written in front of it that you must type. My girlfriend told me about it a couple of months ago, but it's been out for about a million years and as such, the voice acting is HILARIOUS

 

[MightyBobzilla]

Fallout 3 - renewed my passion for truely immersive games. showed me that i could still get lost in these worlds

Portal - just blew my mind

Halo 3 - yeah flame me now i don't care, the singleplayer was rubbish but i will always thank this game for bringing me up to speed in the online multiplayer.

Lylat Wars and Timesplitters 2 - both these games introduced me (and then reintoduced me) to how fun competitive multiplayer could be.

Ocarina of time - first time i got lost in a gameworld was thanks to this game.

Future cop LAPD - anyone else play this game for the PS1?? damn it was awsome.

Super Metroid - my first gaming memories are of this game, nuff said

 

[Terminate421]

Ironically Halo (Which was also still fun) matured me a bit
Dead Space, Bioshock, Portal, Fallout 3, and Mass Effect also did that as well.
Those showed me that games can certainly be a work of art.

 

[zhemis]

Wizardry 6: Bane Of The Cosmic Forge. Levels were in the double digits before I learned how to use the inventory/what the inventory was. The game got alot easier once my party was equipped.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Mario Brothers 2 - The first game I ever finished

Zelda: A Link To The Past - Introduced me to gaming's first sandbox open world

Half Life 2 - The first game that had me completely involved in the story and immersed in its environment

Fallout 3 - The amazing level of interactivity with the world has ruined many shooters for me since, and it's still my favorite game

COD4 - My first online experience

 

[Axle_Bullitt_19]

The Jak series is the game that truly turned me into someone who absolutely loved games and looked to learn something about myself and the world from them. I also feel Crisis Core and Metal Gear Solid have done the same as well.

 

[AvsJoe]

I was severely shaped by three games:
Super Mario World
Final Fantasy 7
Shining Force 2

The first was the game that solidified me as a 'gamer'; the second showed me that a game with a solid, compelling story trumps all; the final introduced me to the tactical RPG, which is still my sub-genre of choice.

EDIT: You know what, I'm going to include it.
NHL 99

The first sports game I ever loved; I've been a fan of EA Sports titles ever since.

 

[Hiphophippo]

I think the real transformative game for me was Dragon Warrior on NES. At the time it came out, it was the only game that I poured myself into. Reading everything I could about, getting all of the fancy armor (eh...king Edricks maybe? Christ, it's been a million years).

It really changed the way I approached games I was really interested in.

 

[Woodsey]

I'm sick of the word "Gamer", I play games all the time, but I don't think myself as a gamer, it sounds like it's the only thing I'm capable of.

That's... odd.

KotOR was my first RPG too, and my first real introduction to great stories in games - it holds a special place in my heart.

Then when I was finally allowed to play Mafia I was totally shaped into a gamer that likes strong compelling narratives, as opposed to having to make my own fun.

 

[Schecter]

Fable taught me that you need to carefully allocate skill points to be successful in life. Also that beards make you sexy. Also that, oddly, 50% of the male population is turned homosexual by said beard.
Also it's fun to kick heads.

 

[Jindrax]

Same here, KOTOR was the first RPG I played. Since then every RPG gets compared to KOTOR.

 

[IronEd]

Probably Warcraft.....the Original one. Could seriously beat every level in the game with a wall of archers. That or Oregon Trail was the first game I ever played...on those old Apples with the green screen.

 

[MikailCaboose]

Diablo. Not only the first PC game I ever played, it actually interested me in the whole dark portrayal of religion in it. Found out I quite liked it when games portrayed religion like that. One of the reasons why I like Tales of Symphonia.
It was also the most mature game I've played and actually got me to think of what I do with the character (mostly because it was my first RPG as well).

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Resident Evil 4. Before that game, I had played a bit of GameCube stuff like Animal Crossing and Super Smash Brothers, but Resident Evil 4 was not only my first M rated game, but the game that showed me gaming as an adventure.

 

[Ldude893]

I tried Call of Duty 4 at my cousin's house while my family was having dinner there. It was my introduction to real mainstream gaming; before that it was all strategy games, Battlefield 1942 with Bots and three Disney games.
Call of Duty 4 taught me how to REALLY shoot a virtual gun. It also taught me how to throw a virtual grenade, take cover, knife people and use stealth. Plus, it also showed me how games can have a great story.
That game is a milestone of my gaming life. From COD4, I tried other shooters and games including Mirror's Edge, Bad Company 2, and Portal (fell in love with Valve after that).

 

[BRMXJzjsoawk321]

Everquest.

For teaching me how to type.

When I was 4.

 

[Avaholic03]

Well, I just skimmed the answers so far, but I didn't find any mention of Psychonauts. Seriously, that game was one of the best examples of how a game can be different and still great. Really set the bar for outside-the-box thinking.

Aside from that, I guess I'd add Portal to the list for it's outstanding humor and success through simplicity. And for some reason I feel the need to mention Super Mario Kart just because I played that game until my thumbs ached, and then kept playing. I can't say I've done that with any other game. Oh, and I guess Starcraft because it was my first real trip into PC gaming, and it sold me on it.