I feel this justifies a 'General' thread, but if Mods want it in 'Gaming' then fair-dos. I'm a firm believer that everything we experience influences and shapes us in some way, but there are some things that you can really point your finger to having a definite impact on a change in your life. For instance, I know the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films must have shaped my perspective and spirit for adventure, but I can't specifically point at anything significant in my life that was so obviously impacted by them. Similarly, things like Beverly Hills Cop, Naked Gun and Red Dwarf must have influenced my sense of humour, but I can't specifically point at a change they affected. But what I can say definitely changed me was Rocky. I'd seen one or two of them in my early teens, but when I was about 17 I was in the doldrums and low on self-confidence. I bought Rocky 1-4 on VHS and they really inspired and motivated me to get off my arse and get into a bit of shape. But games? This I find harder to answer. Mario games, particularly Mario Kart, help remind me of the importance of fun, but I'm not sure of a specific change that's due to them. So apart from the hours and cash poured into them, are there any games that have inspired specific changes in your life? (Happy for peeps to talk about movies, tv and books etc as well, but I'm really interested in whether games can change us)
I can't believe nobody's commented in this thread - it's an interesting question! I think the most influence games have had on me is when I bought my 30" Dell screen, with a 8800GTX. Up to that point, I had been a poor student, so I was gaming on a low spec laptop. Suddenly I was exposed to Gears of War, Crysis, Dead Space, Fallout 3 (it was a fantastic year for games) in 1600p and from that moment I knew i would never 'grow out' of gaming. Mass Effect 3's ending did stop me playing games for quite a while though - I don't know whether it was the disappointment of the ending or the shock that my most favourite gaming series was finally over.
I can honestly say that games or in fact films have had any conscious effect on me. I tend to see all the errors in films theses day, for some reason they leap out at me. Or I think, no one would do that, or why are they constantly cocking their guns, or why is the guy with the machine gun such a rubbish shop. Games I just see as entertainment. But there was a book that really made me think. The title escapes me now but I read it several times. It was a true story of a woman that had multiple personalities. From a prepubescent girl to a middle aged male thug. It was an incredible read. I wish I could remember the title as I would like to revisit it.
ELITE. Has to be. However other games of the 80's and 90's also formed the soundtrack of my youth, and all come with their own emotional significance, much like certain records do for others. Atari's Star Raiders and Adventure (in fact, lots of memories of the good old 2600); C64 classics like Mercenary, Impossible Mission, Encounter, Ghostbusters; and Amiga classics like Starglider II, Damocles, Mindwalker, Tower of Babel... And of course the PC classics Doom, Quake and Descent. Good times!
That is the one mate. Fantastic book or at least I thought so at the time of reading a few decades ago.
I worked out that I had put over 1000 hours in world of tanks. After that day not played it since, I play very few games these days and focus a lot more on what gives me value. So I now do a lot of fitness, reading and learning. My main focus now is self improving, how can I get better? How can I make more money? How can I give value?
Yeah read the book and saw the film. Strangely enough I realised Fallout 3 was one of those games that always made me choose the path that to me was morally right. Wonder if a game like that could help assessing peoples personalities ?
I used to play Skyrim in exactly the opposite way, usually a sneaky, thieving murderer who would stab anyone in the back to take all they own. I don't think it affected me in real life, I have never sneaked up behind someone, pickpocketed them, then stabbed them in the back to take the rest of their possessions as well.
I always start of being the villain but as the game progresses I seem to slip back to being moral. Yet in real life I'm a mean old ******* that takes childrens lollies and mugs old people for their pensions.
Some people find that games give them the opportunity to act out a character that is very much unlike their real life selves. Personally I find that in order to feel immersed, I have to act very much in keeping with my real self. Neither says anything about our real selves as such. We all can do pretend play after all.
Playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent made me realise that basically nothing scares me that's not to do with real life. By that I mean I have never watched a file or played a game that has scared me, nor have I ever cried at a film (that I remember). I wouldn't say there have been games that have had any noticeable affect on my life. EDIT: Minecraft. Showed my lack of imagination.
Have to agree, I like the fallout games because you can do that and with all the DLC you can make it a long game.
I learned all I know [which admittedly isn't much] about business and economics from EVE [namely how relatively easy it is destabilise economies if you have the right resources and wish to do so]... Whilst I can't say any specific game has changed me, I am who I am largely down to the games i've played. Without games I probably would've gone off the deep end... Games are a pressure release valve [stressed? blow **** up!] and ofc a means of escaping life for a few hours when it decides to dump all over you. TV on the other hand, Robot Wars and Scrapheap Challenge dominated my late primary/early secondary school years and ignited an interest in robotics that in hindsight I wish I'd pursued more than I did [Fun Fact - I entered Robot Wars, Missed out on the televised stuff due to mechanical problems], and my interest in 3D animation came as a result of watching this...
I will have forgotten quite a few gems ... Dungeon Master and Sim City on Amiga. Doom, Quake and Half-Life. Starseige: Tribes, Unreal Tournament, and Counterstrike in 1999. Astronest and Planetarion in '99 - 2000 for browser based gaming. Mario kart and streetfighter helped to create a firmer bond amongst my group of friends in the SNES days. Oh and a tiny bit of weed. Chuckie egg, castle quest, yie ar kung fu, sabre wulf on the BBC. And although I first tasted Elite at school on the schools only BBC computer, it wasnt until I got my first 48K speccy that I got a chance to lose myself in it. Other speccy games were manic miner, jet set willy, hyper sports, Football Manager. I can relate to this. I've totally enjoyed my gaming over the years and don't regret the hours I've spent doing it. But there is an incredible world outside our windows and maybe with age, a greater sense/value of life, and maybe (but not necessarily) more disposable income, we find ourselves enjoying out there more often than enjoying ourselves in the pixels. Currently enjoying/escaping to Borderlands, Bioshock Infinite and Hotline Miami. The moral question in games, also had me saving the little sisters in Bioshock. I felt awful when I harvested a little sister
Probably not exactly what OP had in mind, but Settlers of Catan is the game that changed my life significantly. I went from playing lots of computer games and being introverted to becoming more social, expanding my group of friends and having, you know, actual person to person IRL interactions. My game collection is now several thousands of dollars of board games on the shelf and a 9 month old child has slowed my ability to purchase and play, but I still love getting together with my friends.
Interesting question - thank you for posing it. So many games which I have lost months of my life to. The first game which I realise had an effect was on the spectrum called "Headcoach". This first got me looking into "code" (it was written entirely in speccy basic) - it sewed the seeds of understanding "large" arrays of data - a job which I now do for a living. Large back then is orders of magnitude smaller than now.... On the Amiga, Deluxe Paint took me away from drawing on paper and into 3d modelling. While I never did pursue this seriously, it fostered an interest in technical drawing and CAD which ultimately went hand in hand with my mech eng degree. While doing that mech eng degree Sensible world of Soccer 96-67 edi, Dune and theme park all introduced me to communal gaming - gaming and a community based around that game. In halls of residence having a colour tv meant that people came round. Having a computer and printer meant people worked in your space - we had to do an assignment on theme park, which was one of the more enjoyable pieces of coursework - thankfully we weren't bound to the platform on which it was run as the topic was about developing a strategy and executing it, not about getting "high score". Sensi was how we kicked back - pardon the pun. Many many days were spent doing that rather than attending lectures - we formed a very close knit group which endured through uni despite us all moving in with our partners and attending different sites - only the end of our 4 years of studies and moving away to start work really broke up that friend-group. And then there was Another World - I'd be lying if I said that the end didn't make me well up a bit. It seems crude by today's standards, but wow - what story. There was a TV program on Saturday mornings which I think ran for one season which Another World seemed to parallel - at least in some elements. While I've enjoyed my PCs since the late 90's, I've never been impacted by the software on them (in game form at least - Excel has been my life's work) - sure some games have left a warm feeling when completing them (Unreal, Halo, Portal 1&2, return to castle wolfenstein to name a couple) others have equally left me disappointed with their abrupt or seemingly cheap endings - Crysis - I'm looking at you with your "let's go down the alien route" Visually stunning, but most games while having astronomical production values have lost the soul and charm that made games hook you in. Very few in recent years have captured my imagination as they did through my rose tinted spectacles... Surely I'm not getting old and finally growing up....
Diablo, the first one. Not for the game itself (though I do love it) but for the experience of playing it. I played it with a friend of mine that I made when I was a kid, shortly after moving from London so I didn't really know anyone. One of us would control the character while the other managed health and mana potions. We played through the game several times like that and again for Diablo 2. The result was a lifelong friend, to the point that we were best-men at each others weddings. Dawn of War holds a similar place. I played that almost every night with the same two friends for the best part of two years. I think that's the most common way that a game makes an impact on your life; not the game itself but how it's played and, in some case, who with.
