Games that change you

I can only pull what has got me thinking as of late.

Papers, Please is one of those subtle games that rattle your core. It's charming, but also has this dark sense of human nature to it. Even if you're a cynical person, you start to not trust anyone anymore and you're forced to weigh your morals and wishes.

Another game like that is Presentable Liberty where you're forced to be a passive observer... observing nothing.

Undertale. I know this has claimed a strong cult following, and for a damn good reason. I would say this is the first case of a video game I'd say just sets itself apart. It's so charming, so unique and interesting, and so fucking heart-wrenching. It's poetry--best way I can describe it.

While I'm not a big fan of the first two Witcher games, Witcher 3 has blown me away. I know a novelist, Andrzej Sapkowski, wrote the base story the games are based off of and constructed (for the most part) the world. But an immersive video game gives off an entirely different feel than a novel. CD Projekt RED has done a phenomenal job constructing and piecing together the game so well it just astonishes me at times. It makes me really think about what I'm doing with my own fantasy world and works. It also is one of the few video games which make me regret my choices in such a way that I can't go back and change them.

The Beginner's Guide. If there was one game I think a writer and a critic should play, it's this. It addresses creativity and the role of a critic and a supporter and how someone may act upon another (I'm making this vague to hide spoilers). I pride myself as a critic of fiction, but it got me asking, "What, or who, have I destroyed that could have been great?" It's a heavy question that carries a subtle poison as it's not so much what have you actively destroyed, but unknowingly altered the greatness of. I've always felt that critiques were important, but after this there exists a different weight. And I'm not even touching on a further point. If you can't play or run it, as it's PC only, watch it on Youtube. It's about an hour and a half and worth every second.

The games that probably had the most influence in my life were the Metal Gear Series and Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. I really was sucked into the story Metal Gear all the twists turns and history. SMT: Nocturne was a piece that blew away my understanding of video games when I played it. It was a remarkable battle system that I enjoyed, but the story kept me on my toes. The decisions you make that influence your life, the world, and the destiny of existence. The character interactions were surprising and at times filled with much dark remorse, humor, and other crazy emotions. Though I did play a generally small pool of games I really keep thinking back on these particular ones.

I can easily say games have impacted my life because I've been playing them for most of it, but as to specific games that I found deeper meaning in, it's hard. I don't usually play the indie games designed for such purposes, like Papers Please or Home, or any of those, so there goes the easy answer. The first Quest for Glory game, So You Want to Be a Hero definitely reared my love of fantasy and has influenced my taste in the genre for sure. The Baldur's Gate series only nurtured that further. But games that made me think... hmm...

I would have to say Red Dead Redemption, Undead Nightmare. POSSIBLE SPOILERS!


The whole situation with the woodsman and the hunt for the monstrous, evil baby-eating sasquatches was a pretty pungent reminder of how destructive ignorance can be.

The Sims was the first game that came to mind. The structure of mundane life into goals, and all that, but even more so the weird moments of "you couldn't script that" where pixels with no actual emotions are more human than you could "make" them behave.

Journey was absolutely moving, more by circumstance than the game itself. I thought the game was wonderful, but I played most of it alone until someone else started to work with me in the snow levels. The unexpected arrival of help, and then the end of that game being what it is... Startlingly emotional.

Heavy Rain? I debated putting it on my personal list because it had more to do with the playing experience than a takeaway from the game itself. The physically immersive parts (the simple stuff, like shaving "your" face, and the like) and the story (which I was deeply invested in) raised the bar for what I felt a video game could do. It was like being a child playing the old Blade Runner PC game all over again. (multiple endings, big emotional plot points, moral decisions, "cutting edge" for the time art.)

Papers, Please is brilliant. It's such a smart game.

I'm sure I'll come up with ten games I forgot about as soon as I post this, but that sounds like the way the world works...

Undertale changed my life, I'd say.

When I was younger, Fallout 1, Half-Life, Deus Ex and Planescape Torment changed how I saw the world and video gaming in general.

Though, I think I'm the only one here who found the Beginner's Guide as obnoxious as it was inept. But I am MEGA-GRUMP.

I started playing Pokemon TCG because my son was into it, and I have met cool people while playing.

i think the persona games changed me a lot, especially when i first started playing them. there's just something incredibly unique about them, especially the characters, that i like.

there's also ib. there's something very intriguing about playing a child character that doesn't quite understand the death and horror occurring around her.

It's been mentioned here, but both Half-Life and Deus Ex had a big impact. I was younger when they came out, but it was at the time when I was starting to get that there was more going on than me running around shooting stuff. The story started to matter more, and in Deus Ex, decisions started having a recognizable impact.

I think that impression carries over to the present. The top of my list of favorite games are has Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Two series where seemingly mundane choices can snowball and impact your character over the course of three games. The more recent games might not change me, but they certainly leave me emotionally exhausted by the end.

I'd have to say the Mass Effects and the Final Fantasys. They're two of the biggest series when it comes to influencing my desire to create, and have some of the best stories out of any works I've experienced.

There are games that try to be "games that change your life", games that try to have some kind of "deep" moral or try to be "creative". Stuff like Spec Ops: The Line or Undertale. I always find such games not just terribly written anyway, but very boring to actually play. It's no different than books—if the purpose of your story is entirely to beat the viewer over the head with your "moral", then it's just tedious.

Oh, add ME to my list too!

I'd been wracking my brain since this topic came up, and I just don't think I have a good answer. No one game really stands out as giving me a new insight or a moment of clarity with myself or the world or anything special. I've been moved, sure. But no grand revelations. Clearly, the deficiency is mine.

Though I want to say that FFX saved my life. I'd already been a FF fan (since VI (then called 3 ...)). But X came at a really awful period in my life and was, quite literally, the only reason I didn't throw my hands in the air and give up. At least not until I finally got past Seymour on Mount Gagazet already*. Seems silly in hindsight, but there you go.

*(Depressing but also bittersweet warning: the night I finally beat him and got up that damn mountain was a night full of harassing calls. When I'd had enough, I screamed at the phone. Except the person calling was the dude I'd later marry. He stayed on the phone while I played just so I wouldn't have to field more calls. Yeah ... FFX will always be sacred.)

I'm torn between two games...

Final Fantasy VI - One of the few games where the main villain actually "wins" and the heroes journey is essentially a last minute kick-in-the-shin that won't reverse the damage done.

Earthbound (Mother 2) - Undertale's roots. One of the most bizarre journeys ever that results in one of my favorite (and one of the weirdest) climactic battles.

For me there are two games. The first was Persona 4. As soon as I had the game in my hands I knew I will love it and why not? It has a great story that's hopeful and grim the same time, 8 main characters I adored and great gameplay. It also introduced me to tarot, world myths and a gateway to the STM series. I never finished the games their so hard

I know this one will sound odd but Nier is the second. Before its release many people were calling it pure crap but I thought the opposite; this game is something to look out for. The moment when I watched the intro I know this will be unique. A unique world and I loved every character. Plus the music is the best game OST ever.

First, the D&D games back in the 80's. I loved the imagination that went into going through a dungeon, rolling the dice and creating characters etc. Then when computers came along, all the classic RPG games like Bard's Tale, Phantasie, Pool Of Radiance, the Might & Magic series and the Elder Scrolls series. There is no one game, just the collective. That all helped with not only my fantasy writing but just writing in general. One of MANY influences.

The Last of Us. That game sucker punched me. It defined anti-hero in a way I will never forget. It also, by being a game, forced you to behave in a way you might disagree with...a lot. Other games I've played like Bioware's ME and DA. franchises give you options so you can play in a way you choose. But in Last of Us you're Joel and you can only do what Joel wants. While I found the ending poignant and beautiful and didn't disagree with it I still felt those jarring moments when I realized I had to do something like kill the surgeon at the end rather than just knock him aside or beat him. I know other people hated that lack of choice but I loved it.

I remember when the original Halo, Combat Evolved, was released. That was one of the very first games I got for my X1, well before it became the juggernaut it is today. It really captured my imagination and I had a blast playing the campaign, which revved up when I encountered The Flood. The campaign was what sucked me in to the franchise, and the weapons, the warthog, the plasma grenades. And then it became more about multiplayer, the successive campaigns I felt grew weaker, and I just cared less for the FPS genre as a whole. Nevertheless, the original will always be special.

Minecraft gave me a special love of chickens. I have a fine chicken family in my empire: Irving, the patriarch, his second wife Marissa, and their son Timmy. Irving's first wife took off swimming and didn't return. Luckily, Irv found love again and started a beatuiful family on my Mediterranean Villa.

VeryBigBeard said:

And there's an RPG Maker game in there, which is nice because everyone dumps on that engine and engine it's all about how you use it.

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I knew it was To the Moon as soon as you said this. I know the creator a bit and he's probably happy. And this is true. It's all how you use it. My friends and I are currently using RPG Maker to make a mystery/adventure game set in a high fantasy world. We plan to sell games commercially too.

There are no games that changed my life, but I LOVE Final Fantasy Tactics and how I wanted to write so many stories using it as a base. XD

Melanii said:

There are no games that changed my life, but I LOVE Final Fantasy Tactics and how I wanted to write so many stories using it as a base. XD

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Tactics is one of my favorite Final Fantasy game. Easily one of the best storylines in the series.

The first games that come to mind for me are the games of th Ace attorney-series, mostly because I've become so involved in is fandom, dicussing on forums, drawing fanart, thinking about it in some way pretty much every day, it has become a natural part of my life, so to speak. But also, it has made me more interested in law, and one of its characters that I could relate to in a sense made me feel better about that part of me and accept myself fully.
Ace attorney and other story-heavy games such as Ghost trick, Hotel dusk, The Zero escape-series and the Professor Layton-series have had me deeply engaged in the stories, moved by the characters, and for someone who likes to write stories, they are inspirational.
The games in the Zero escape-series, especially the second one, has provided lots of food for thought when it comes to philosophical theories and moral questions, and they say a lot about how influential all the changes we make in life can be for the outcome.
And, of course, The Sims. As my profile picture might show, I play The Sims 2, and it fuels a lot of creativity and is very engaging. I don't have kids and I don't plan to have any, but dealing with sims isn't that far off sometimes xD Playing it, I feel a lot of responsibility, and empathy, yet it's somehow meditative (apart from all the drama), letting everything take its time, paying attention the the sims' needs, etc.

I loved Zynga's Cityville. Unfortunately it was axed a year ago. Which hurt because I had been playing it from its launch and had built up my empire over four years, most of which were occupied with a stressful divorce (NOT Cityville's fault.) I still dream in Cityville sometimes, seeing orderly rows of buildings that I must tend and collect the rent from.

I've yet to find a replacement for it that I like equally as well. On the other hand, not playing a game like that leaves me with more time for writing.

I've always liked those adventure games growing up like Crash Bandicoot or Spyro the Dragon and of course fighting games like Tekken or the "Soul" series. Overall I think over all Kingdom Hearts has been the game I have completely adored. I will admit its the first game I got teary-eyed in by the time I completed the storyline. Great game in my opinion, I can't wait for the third in the titular series to finally come out.