Oh s***, Myst is cool with people? Then I'm not gonna lie, adventure games were my gateway drug to this medium.

The first game that really hit me as a kid was Shannara. It's an RPG/Adventure game made by Legend.

*spoiler*

At one point in the game you have to choose between saving your girlfriend or saving the world. If you save her, the game gives you this really long epilogue and ends. It's this screwed-up, you go home & get married but the world now sucks and you're never really happy. Or you can abandon her, keep fighting, and go on to the really dark, depressing ending.

I don't think I was ever quite the same after I had to make that choice.

For Me? Bug. the first "real" game i ever played "properly" as a child.

Oh and Myst / Riven............sorry:P.

WoW - I picked it up and suddenly my life changed massively for the worse.

More seriously, Thief.

Life changing? Yoish... I'll file this thread under the "over-dramatic gamer post here" category.

While I am aware that something like a game can change a life, I know an individual who was in and out of jail, unemployed, knocked up girlfriend, etc.

Getting into WarHammer 40,000 table top was the catalyst he needed to change his posse, get a job, handle responsibility. With over 40,000 points worth of fully painted miniatures he now owns a house, holds a well paying trades job, is married with kids, etc.

No game has ever affected me like that, nor do a see any stories like that on this thread so far.

What next, life changing reality TV series? Life changing anime character? Life changing bowl of pudding?

I'd say chocolate.

mark_n_b:
life changing reality TV series?

Someone said, Heroes?

That show is worth being worshiped, it's pure awesomeness!

I'll vote for Myst too.

Time for an obscure one with Asterix and Obelix on the Master System. Me and my bro played that co-op, on and off, until we got our Playstation 1. We never completed it though, mainly due to youth and lack of skill. I dug it out a couple of years ago and slaughtered it, just for giggles and memories. My bro wasn't there when I did it though, so he still doesn't know how it ends.

Skalman:
Someone said, Heroes?

That show is worth being worshiped, it's pure awesomeness!

Not quite pure; they haven't figured out how to do a decent fight scene yet.

Zelda: OoT. The first game that I was scared of while watching my dad play it while I was a kid.

Meado:

Skalman:
Someone said, Heroes?

That show is worth being worshiped, it's pure awesomeness!

Not quite pure; they haven't figured out how to do a decent fight scene yet.

I don't find anything wrong with the fight scenes in Heroes.
They don't feel "hollywoody" like in most tv-shows. Which is a good thing.

Warcraft II and The Incredible Machine. I got into both when I was about 8ish. Doom a few years later. Giving me RTS, Puzzle, and FPS all in my first dive into gaming. Gotta say that I love RTS the best.

Max Payne, the first game I ever beat without cheat codes or anything. I finished it in 2 days, almost completely straight, stupid need for sleep lol

Xenogears. It was one of the first games that made me think.

I'm afraid to say this, but Pokemon was what my friends and I raved about all the time in class.

mark_n_b:
Life changing? Yoish... I'll file this thread under the "over-dramatic gamer post here" category.

While I am aware that something like a game can change a life, I know an individual who was in and out of jail, unemployed, knocked up girlfriend, etc.

Getting into WarHammer 40,000 table top was the catalyst he needed to change his posse, get a job, handle responsibility. With over 40,000 points worth of fully painted miniatures he now owns a house, holds a well paying trades job, is married with kids, etc.

No game has ever affected me like that, nor do a see any stories like that on this thread so far.

What next, life changing reality TV series? Life changing anime character? Life changing bowl of pudding?

I'd say chocolate.

I agree that it is probably a bit overly dramatic to to say "life-changing". Then again, I'm not entirely sure how I would've ended up had my first game been Mario Brothers instead of Myst. So it is indeed quite possible that Myst introduced me to adventure games, which were all I played up till about 1998, and even then did I only play other types of games sparsely.

It's a tough question when you really think about it.

Half Life 2
I'll never view physicists the same way again...

I gotta say that Final Fantasy 3(US SNES, aka 6) definitely impacted me greatly. It was the first RPG I actually understood. My first was Dragon Quest, but I was pretty young then my mother hocked my NES. I would give a nod to Chrono Trigger as I can still recall seeing that fateful commercial of Crono and Lucca doing the Fire Whirl dual tech on the Dragon Tank. I knew I absolutely HAD to play that game when I saw the commercials.

But I think the game that changed me the most, or at the very least makes me think about who and what I am the most, is Xenogears. I don't think I've ever been told a better story. Stories that can equal it, sure or at least very close...but every time I play Xenogears I always seem to walk away with just a little bit more.

I'd have to say Zelda: Ocarina of Time or Final Fantasy VIII. Both of them were the games that first compelled me to spend hours in front of my TV/Computer screens.

Why has only 1 person said Silent Hill 2? That game defined story-telling and scared me shitless in the process.

The original Leisure Suit Larry, the original Prince of Persia and Castle Adventure when I was about 8. I believed I was in a different world when I played them. But off course, CGA graphics tend to screw with a young brain.

Well, this does depend on what is meant by 'life changing', but I would have to say the original Doom, UT, Metroid Prime, Resi 2 and Silent Hill 1-3.

Ocarina of Time helped shape me into the gamer you see before you

Bioshock And the half life series changed the way i play games i actualy had to stop and think about the story and Ayn Rand philosiphy behind bioshock and they both made me raise my standards for a good game

The Legend of Zelda, Shadowgate, and Crystalis for the 8-bit NES. Might as well toss the original NES Final Fantasy in there. They sparked my passion for RPGs.

Ocarina of Time / Majora's Mask. They're just.. more important to me than my future children will ever be.

That, and Phantasy Star Online. It's the only game that I keep coming back to, even after 6 years.

I forgot to mention Shenmue. First game I ever got truely immersed in.

I'm shocked that Final Fantasy 7 hasn't been mentioned yet. Even if you didn't play it (you should) so many aspects of its game-play have been worked into other games and it pretty much invented non-linear story-lines in the gaming industry let alone jrpgs. Also, each non-villain had some kind of moral dilemma they were dealing with and blah blah blah sephiroth was the most bad-ass villain (before he was ruined by ff7 spinoffs) in any game i've played. Which is life changing for me in that i learned what people meant when they say bad-ass. Villains before sephiroth were a lot like judas or the butler, and after sephiroth they were a lot like sephiroth. Final Fantasy 7 was pretty much the best jrpgs are ever going to get so i kind of wish they would stop ruining it with spinoffs that don't serve any purpose but to make a quick buck. Anyways, i say it was life-changing for me because whenever people say what was the best game ever i can say ff7, and then people say, i meant besides ff7, and thats a special bond for two people to share.

Condemned 2 taught me to fear.

One the games that has imprinted on me is Ikaruga. It was very difficult, but it had so much going for it that I absolutley had to play through it. The written parts were interesting, despite the odd translation, and the music drew me in like nothing else. The best part though was the end. Being faced with the final boss was intense, and beating him was a rewarding feeling. The whole battle may have consisted of just absorbing and shooting back, but it still felt awesome. The very last bit where you just weave the ship through the various attacks, in combination with the music, was something that really struck with me.

Good topic. I think the person who says that it is too melodramtic and then goes onto say that a board game changed his friends life should realise that any entertainment medium, be it film, book, game, computer game can have effects on people.

As for me, id have to say Final Fantasy 7 had the biggest impact. Others include the old LucasArts and Sierra games such as Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tentacle etc. Got me into adventure games in a big way and have missed them dearly since thier demise in the late 90s.

Balders Gate II. First RPG i played that made me sit back and go Wow. Been a fan of the Genre since.

Half life set a new standard in gaming FPS
but before that their was the frag fest DOOM!
doom has my vote for life changing

GTA IV, i know it seems cliche but when you see it from my perspective it really made me re evaluate my own humanity and what limits i would really go to given the circumstances.

Arx Fatalis. The most fun I've ever had playing an RPG, ever. Seriously.

Booze Zombie:
Arx Fatalis. The most fun I've ever had playing an RPG, ever. Seriously.

Really? I'll have to try the demo then.

stephenp79:
Good topic. I think the person who says that it is too melodramtic and then goes onto say that a board game changed his friends life should realise that any entertainment medium, be it film, book, game, computer game can have effects on people.

Okay, yeah, you've got... hey wait, did I even say that? Oh well. Yeah, that's a good point. :)

Wow, it's weird to see so many people saying that their first ever game was like an N64 game or a PC game from the late 90's lol

For me, my first ever game was Jet Set Willy (1984) lol

I was born in 1989 and I didn't play JSW until around 1991 (and I still have the good ol' ZX+ to this day XD) but it is a great memory.

I'd say my real FIRST life-changing games (as in the games that affected me the earliest rather than ones that came later, with more of an effect or not) were games that no-one probably remembers but I'll list them anyway :P

Sink or Swim (1993) Just because it rocked so hard XD

Legends of Valour (1991 I think) Because it introduced me to adventure games

Putt-Putt Series (1992) Because it was great at the time

Jill of the Jungle (1992) I don't know why

The Incredible Machine (1993) Because it was so DAMNED hard

Sonic 1 (1991) You all know why :P

And there's a lot more but I can't think right now.

Of the more recent games that most people remember, I'd have to pick Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and FF7

Anyone who says "WoW" changed their life, followed by "It was the first MMO i ever played" needs to seriously play the classics.

EverQuest, Dark Ages of Camelot, Anarchy Online... heck even Star Wars Galaxies was better (from the 3rd month after release untill combat revamp)

All these WoW kids make me sad... they are so blinded by fandom they overlook all the fantastic ideas that came before them (many of which were simply stolen, watered down and thrown into wow)

Makes me sad.

For me! It would be 'Grim Fandango', 'Myst' and 'Half Life'.

All the early 90s console games were amazing but not life changing.

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Vanessa

WideCircles