Gaming

Wouldn't say changed my life but the ending of Liberty City in Cyberpunk and Stray, both great story writing

I don't know that it "changed my life," but DAMN Yakuza 0's ending hit hard.

EverQuest. It has been 26 years with no real breakd now. I fucking love that game.

Games, books and movies don't change your life. At most it makes you think about something a little deeper. A little longer.

Life events change your life. A child. Death. Life. Love. Hate. War. Hope. Loss. Peace. Safety. Destruction. And money. Or lack of.

The most impactful game I played, which story I still really remember after 25 years? Homeworld. Hiigara. Our home.

While I never saw the credit rolls (because the game doesn't have it), Dwarf Fortress definitely changed something in my head.

From my initial attempts where I couldn't even figure how to make my dorfs get food or dig, to reaching a point where most of my forts would be retired due to low FPS and, to this day, only failed attempts at taming an evil biome for more than 2 years, the game showed that procgen, by itself, is not an excuse for shitty looking worlds or terrains. Hell, the procgen can even generate interesting stories and situations, though no longer absurdly awesome ones like the story of Cacame Awemedinade. Quote:

Cacame, at the ripe old age of 12, he became a Guard. Two years later, an elven attack from the Field of Kindling's city of Fish of Magic injured him in the lower body and killed his wife Nemo Ruyavaiyici (who was then eaten by Amoya Themarifa, the elf who killed her). Maddened with grief, Cacame set off to the nearest front as soon as he healed enough to fight.

During his first combat he took up his fallen commander's legendary warhammer[name?] and slew many elves with it, being noted as the battle's fiercest and deadliest warrior; for his deeds, the dwarves' second-in-command acknowledged that Cacame would best put the warhammer to use and should keep it.

Two years after that, in 99, the Battle of Both Kings was fought. In this battle Cacame struck down King Nithe of Field of Kindling (who was finished off by another dwarf called Sibrek Handpages, though); however the other king slain was the dwarven king himself. The dwarves decided that Cacame, by now dubbed "The Immortal Onslaught", should take over as their king.

Once made King, Cacame left in a brief quest to resurrect his wife. He returned riding a zombie wyvern, but without achieving his goal. In 111, at the age of 28, he moved his capital to the Gamildodók (Trustclasps) Fortress.

Silent Hill 2. And not even just the first time.

And not even just the original game, the remake also had me like this.

The Talos Principle 1 and 2

Blue Prince’s « ending » had me like that.

Then people say when you get to 46 you barely just beat the tutorial.

Getting the good ending in The Witcher 3. So much relief.

Getting the good ending in The Witcher 3. So much relief.

eeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEENTER THE GUNGEON....

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. It made me realize that the future is not going to be people on spaceships. It will be bizarre and beautiful post-human intelligences. That's what made me choose to study biology (although in retrospect I should have bet on silicon rather than carbon).

There's a number of the games that notably effected me after completion. Star Fox (SNES), Halo: Combat Evolved, Morrowind, KOTOR 1&2, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, Dead Space, Hotline Miami, Undertale.

I'm probably forgetting some.

Spiritfarer, though it's more crying than drinking. It took playing the game alongside my best friend to get me to finish it, because I cried at the first spirit and couldn't continue on my own.

It didn't help that my grandma died right as I started playing the game with my friend, and I was beating myself up for missing that last phone call.