Question of the Week October 14th, 2019

Most of us can consider gaming a childhood hobby. Whether that meant sitting down after school to play our favorite Nintendo games with our friends, or spending time on holidays with family playing Mortal Kombat and opening presents, gaming means something to all of us. With the great deal of negativity that surrounds us on the internet, it’s important to be reminded of the wholesome and wonderful things that make gaming so special.

Answers from the community:

“For me it’s playing the first two Oddworld games with my dad on PS1 back in the late 90’s. Some of my earliest gaming memories & the series that showed me how games could be vehicles for telling great stories. And I got to experience it all with my dad.”
-Engel1916

“Playing countless hours of Half-Life DM after hours at work on the maps where you are running around an enormous kitchen…also, playing co-op Diablo II with my stepson.”
–@martymalt

“It was this online role-playing persistent world Dungeons & Dragons setting. We have been chasing this pirate for literal months my character was pretty much the only one that had a background of actually having Naval experience.

Finally Corner her and I end up Landing the killing blow and the person like being the oversight determining what happens play it out as my character actually decapitated her. It was so invigorating and I just felt such vindication.

I’ve played all kinds of games I’ve played Eve online I played World of Warcraft just about everything under the sun eventually. I started out in a very small 300 player total not like highest online I mean total players.

Went from that to several other small games I grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons tabletop gaming that sort of thing I wasn’t really that much of a video game player until I was basically an adult.

Even then it was only because I was paralyzed and I couldn’t go out and do a lot of stuff so I started making relationships with people online as an outlet for just socializing.

So there I am in this group of like 20 or 30 people basically being the leader because my character had this background of Naval experience and we weren’t supposed to kill the pirate lady in that one counter but in ended up going that way because of how we were playing it and I remember like screaming at the computer screen like that classic manic video game portrayal you see in this scenario.

It wasn’t cuz I was upset it wasn’t because like things were going badly I was just that involved and not excited and I can feel it closing in but like we had a real chance here.

All of it to meet I always look back at fondly because it was this organic experience that I was sharing with like I said 20 or 30 other people you don’t get that in other games yeah there’s cooperation and everything but you always have some kind of idea where it’s going to go I feel like.

It was just as perfect marriage of my childhood of role playing and playing Dungeons and Dragons but doing it with people all over the world I mean there was some people I knew there they were in like Australia there was one that was in like some Asiatic country there was several in England I mean it was all over the world and we were all there on this single goal.

We had no idea what was going to happen we were just doing our best to capture this person and not let her escape again. Like I said it was just this amazing organic experience with an outcome that was not already set. Every other game I played it’s always one or two things you’re going to win or you’re going to lose.

There’s variations sure of that but those are always the end result it’s one of two options it’s a very invigorating and like you know adrenaline-pumping experience but you don’t really harken back to it like I still do with this I mean this was like 6 years ago almost by now.

I’ve done things like killing a Titan in Eve online I’ve killed you know Garrosh in Siege of Orgrimmar I’ve you know done all these huge things another games and none of it stands up to this little experience I had in a largely nothing game.

That’s the other side of it is like the game that we played it was janky it was like 17 years old had terrible graphics you know it was very lackluster and terms are performance there was tons of lag going on the entire time. Still that was by far my favorite video game related experience as far as gaming goes.”
–@MatronFauna

“My favorite is [probably] not having fully moved into our house here (still needed the septic system hooked up) but it was after Christmas, and my brother and I both had copies of Pokemon Gold and Silver. I recall the warmth of our house and laying on the floor playing Gold/Silver on a friend’s borrowed GameBoy Color, and walking outside in the cold air between my family’s house and my grandparents’ house too.I like remembering that one a lot during winter, because I can sort of relive it in a more modern way with newer Pokemon games.”

“Oh I’ve got another. My mom playing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles with me after I was discharged from the hospital after 3 weeks of being there recovering from appendicitis. I’m glad my mom was there for me during the home recovery period.”
-S.Tiger

“Playing diamond and pearl with [my daughter] on my lap and using it to teach her to read.”
-Jim Partin

“It’s hard to pick a favourite, so here’s one that definitely isn’t the favourite but is still good. Me and a childhood friend used to spend time at the local park on the swings, singing the FFVII soundtrack out loud. Fuck, that was a good time.”
-Asday

“First time playing dungeon keeper. The intro’s of the levels everything was perfect and then when you beat the level you had ruined the land. It was perfect way to show progression.”
-Teutates

“Playing tennis and soccer games with my mum on a bootleg NES we owned.”
-Thompson

“Figuring out how to play FF1 on NES prior to the Internet without a guide with my best friend after school. Oh the grinding.”
–@CanadianGuinea

“I don’t know if I have any especially fond memories off the top of my head, but the gaming memory that sticks out the most would be the first time a game made me feel feelings, and that would be when Kefka ruined the world on Final Fantasy VI.”
-Wolfman