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Stray
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Magic: The Gathering - Arena, but in a different sense. I have played it a decent amount ever since I moved away from the city and have been unable to play with people over the table. I learned that it wasn’t really the game itself which made me interested in Magic, but the interactions with people.
I have since quit the game and haven’t really paid attention to its direction since.
I loved and competed in various trading card games throughout high school however once married with kids I could no longer afford the hobby. Dominion caused a surge in the deckbuilding genre and ultimately led to my first published game design. Now board games and tabletop RPGs are a favorite for spending time with family and friends.
Osu!, but not in the good direction… the game might have deleted what little confidence I have left in myself and gave me crippling perfectionism issues. Also permanently changed my music taste. May or may not have set me up on a hyper-competitive career path as well so there is that. Upside is… I’m fun at the bar and the arcade maybe??
I actually found Lemmings to be a game that changed my life. I played it just before I became a professional programmer. Solving Lemmings puzzles is not exactly like programming, but it does teach you that there is a solution and if you just keep persistently trying different shit, you will eventually solve the problem. Also, it actually helps to be high as a kite all the time.
I’m sorry but if a game “changes your life”, you live a boring life.
I’m surprised you’re downvoted like this, but I had a similar thought. I understand the meme, that it is about the feeling when you finished a game with a story that made you involved. But calling it a “lifechanger” feels like exaggeration.
I have played a game that touched me deeply, leaving me emotionally out of my socket for about a week. But I wouldn’t say it “changed my life”. I can feel the echo of that experience when I remember, but that’s all.
And what’s wrong with exaggeration? People say mind-blowing all the time when they learn something new. Do you get confused each time?
No. But for some reason I got confused this time.
Every single thing we do changes our lives, including posting throwaway comments on the internet. Games just tend to do it in ways people actually remember.
It’s the same thing as saying a good book can ruin your day when it’s over. Just because someone has an emotional attachment to a really good story, whether game, movie, or book, doesn’t mean they have a boring life.
Well yeah it’s one thing to have your day ruined, but changing who you are as a person? Come on.
It’s like saying “if artistic work/expression changes you, you’re a rube.” What changes you, if not expressive works? Who cares if games mostly describe tropes and isms. I’d argue almost the opposite of what you wrote, but this is the internet, and it’s a boring discussion. Bless up your house. Your experience of reality is constantly being shaped by the by your participation in sensation and your faculties of knowing.
A massage can change you, just as much as a really good meal, or a particular smell, or an advertisement. What is wrong (for lack of a better word) with being changed by an immersive experience in a video game? I guess my questions are: what allows us to validate certain types of experiences that others have, and invalidate others? It’s the prerogative of other minds, no? Do you or I dictate what is of vivifying value? Maybe not. My knowing of words, pictures, sounds, so on, is not yours. Dumb things exist that shape people’s personhood, from time to time. Peace out - I’m compelled to respond by my rejection of this kind of anti-experiential nihilism. I just drank like four beers. They are changing me, as a person.
For pure entertainment or passive turn-brain-off type games I’m inclined to agree with you. Mario Party isn’t exactly changing lives out here.
Games that tell a story though, they can be extremely impactful just like any form of story. Through stories I myself have changed my world views, taken new perspectives in life. Star Trek The Next Generation’s season 6 episode Tapestry changed my outlook on risk taking especially in my professional life, my username reference to the Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask got me to overcome my extreme fear and anxiety of being rejected by friends. Was I much younger when I experienced those stories, sure, but they still changed the course of my life.
My day job is working on satellites, I’m a hobbyist carpenter, been teaching myself to play piano, frequently go camping/hiking into Colorado’s mountains, work on a project car, and sure this evening I’ve been playing Factorio but I’ve been doing so while sipping wine that I made myself.
You could call me many things, but I don’t think boring fits.
Booo. Terrible take.
You’re saying a piece of art (song, book, movie, game, poem, painting, …) never left a lasting impression on you?
Can’t say any one game was life changing for me. They are more a collection of experiences that I reflect upon. Hundreds of games, that have refined me my thoughts and feelings over the decades.
Halo 3 to cap off the original trilogy
Final Fantasy 7, the first two Fallout and Disco Elyisum, Shenmue to an extent, but the Yakuza / Like A Dragon franchise probably tops all of them. I had stopped paying attention to video games after the dreamcast (I considered Shenmue the apex of what I liked in video games and couldn’t find something similar), discovered the Yakuza franchise through Judgment in early 2020 and I was hooked, it was everything I had ever dreamed of in a game. I bought a PS4 specifically to play them, bought 0 to 6 during covid lockdowns and pretty much blasted through the franchise in a year. Rekindled my interest in games and in Japanese stuff, made me take my ass back to martial arts and generally pay more attention to how I behave and look after bad breakups and depression. Disco Elysium came very close to the same impact, I might add.
Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong Nou and Planescape Torment. I think both helped me think about death and reincarnation - what would it even mean to have a “soul”? Would it mean some sort of unbroken consciousness, or are we bits and pieces of different segmented ideas and thoughts loosely connected together?
The Witcher 3! I never played 1 or 2. However 3 did a great job of story recap and finishing up said story. DLC was a must as well. All in all, I was engaged with the story.
And of course, RDR2.
In my mind still somewhere outside of Corvo Bianco finally resting.
You should give Witcher 2 a go, it actually still holds up. The story is fantastic, and it gives you many twists and choices you can regret and think about a lot, just like how you love it from Witcher 3.
I loved RDR but every time I try to play RDR2 I struggle to stay engaged for more than a couple hours. Then it’s 6-12 months before I play it again. Still haven’t finished a single play thru. Just can’t put my finger on why.
Minecraft got me into programming when I was like 14. I’d probably have gotten into it regardless but it was the trigger for what has been a 14 year journey so far so I’d definitely say it changed my life
Im not much of a gamer. Im gonna have to say Minecraft. Not really a story but did feel like major achievement. Ah the good ol’ days
Deus Ex
