What was the game that made you a gamer?

[Matthew Jabour]

This isn't necessarily your first game ever, though it could be. I'm talking about the first game that made you realize that you wanted to play videogames for the rest of your life, the game that sold you on all of gaming.

For me, this game was Spyro the Dragon. I had seen and played other games up until that point, but it wasn't until Spyro that I realized just how big one game could be. So many different worlds, interesting enemies, and gems to discover - that game showed me just what a game could be.

 

[DementedSheep]

Hmmmm probably either Baldurs gate or Icewind dale. I don't remember which I played first. I played many games before that of course, I remember playing a lot of Croc, Spyro, Gex and this game where you play as submarine which I can remember levels from but don't recall the name of it however it was rpgs that really got me into gaming and most of the early games I bought for myself where those.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

My first video game was Super Mario on NES.
It didn't really hook me, though I did spend some time playing it.

What really got me going though was Diablo I.
You don't want to know how many, many hours I sunk into that single game.
I had no money of my own, or easy access to any other/more games.
I did however very much enjoy my time with it. Ah, happy days looking for that final Star prefix. ^^

 

[Super Cyborg]

I loved playing video games for as long as I can remember. It was usually Nintendo games, and occasionally kids PC games in the 90's (Pajama Sam, Putt Putt, Etc.).

If I was to get to the point where I came to be the definition of a gamer, which I consider someone who can appreciate the different aspects of a game, I can't pin it on one game, but some games over time made me start to appreciate it.

Final Fantasy 7 was the first game that really opened my eyes. It was the first game I played that was so large at the time. It made me appreciate just what video games could become, in size and just the variety it could have. I was only 7 years old at the time, so most other things went over my head at the time, and even then the appreciation was still very little.

The next game was Tales of Symphonia. I was much older and was able to fully appreciate the world it made, as well as the characters and story. It stuck with me a lot and when playing other games after that, I started looking more into characters and the story.

The last game that really opened things up for me was Persona 4, which I played and beat my second year of college. It really showed how everything from characters, to story, to music, and everything can come together to make things very impactful. I play through it again every once in a while to find new things to appreciate. With this appreciation, I was able to go back to playing Super Metroid and actually comprehend why it is still great and what makes it great.

I still have a ways to go in being able to look into things even more deeply. From various youtubers to posters on this forum, I'm still very much a novice at looking at everything, and even that's giving me to much credit.

So long story short, Final Fantasy 7, Tales of Symphonia, and Persona 4 in that order made me a gamer.

 

[Smiley Face]

I had a Gameboy and an N64 growing up, but they were a thing I did as a pastime every now and again, playing at friends' places, but not something I had a passion for, and as time went on and my parents didn't let me get new consoles, that passion didn't really develop.

And then when I was around 11 or 12, I tricked my dad into letting me get Halo, and that really started things. That year I also got my hands on some other real gems, KotOR and Battlefront II, and things snowballed from there.

My early years of gaming were very much defined by Halo and Battlefront, I enjoyed the gameplay, new as it was to me, I enjoyed the challenge of constantly refining my skills against the computer and other players, and I enjoyed playing alongside my friends. By the time I was 15-16, I'd grown tired of shooters, my skills had peaked, the genre was stale, and the games that were coming out seemed dumber and worse than the ones I had. But in its place, I spent more time on the action-adventure and RPG games I'd been playing that had steadily been growing with KotOR, Fable and Golden Sun really took off with Mass Effect, Oblivion and Assassin's Creed, and it's been going strong since.

 

[hawkeye52]

I've got a feeling that it was either Max Payne 2 or Battlefield 2142 since those were the games I played the most on my own volition.

 

[rosac]

Crash Bandicoot, I literally loved it. To my 7 year old mind it was challenging to the point of addictiveness, the only games that have been as (or more) addictive were Spyro 3, team fortress 2 and Mario galaxy.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Fighter games at the arcades. Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2 mostly. There were still a few places in the late 90's before the PS1 came out that had arcade machines. I just loved everything about them.

 

[kitabatake12]

Red Alert 2... yea awesome

 

[Hawki]

Dislike the term "gamer," but in the context of the thread, the first game I ever played was Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Sega Masterdrive. Ended up getting a Sega Megadrive that Christmas with STH1 and 'Double Clutch'. First games I ever played/owned, but not the last.

 

[RicoADF]

Command and Conquer. Playing through the GDI campaign hooked me in and the Nod campaign sealed the deal, then played Red Alert 1 and continued from there

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Final Fantasy IV when my cousin played it. To my 5-year old self who had only ever played early NES games it was indistinguishable from a movie. It probably helped that he was playing through some of the best parts in the Underground at the time.

 

[Dying_Jester]

Half-Life. I had a PS1 before then, with plenty of other games, but it wasn't until Half-Life that it just clicked for me on how much I enjoyed Videogames.
Funny enough I've still not beat the first game.

 

[Random Gamer]

Sid Meier's Pirates! The original one.

Before that, of course, I had the usual C-64 games, Olympic Games, Grand Prix, Robin of the Wood and other stuff; short games all in all, with limited scope. Pirates was so innoative and vast - bloody open-world and highly sandboxy game - that it blew my mind and is definitely the first game I spent hours and hours playing, whole evenings until forced to go to bed.
Thinking of it, a friend actually gave me the game a month before the main exam at the end of junior high school; with hindsight, I wonder if he hadn't some nefarious hidden motives - in which case, it failed.

Of course, that was the beginning, later steps/games pushed me further down that path.

 

[TristanBelmont]

Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22. An utter piece of licensed garbage that I loved when I was a kiddo.

 

[Morgoth780]

I had a Gameboy and an N64 growing up, but they were a thing I did as a pastime every now and again, playing at friends' places, but not something I had a passion for, and as time went on and my parents didn't let me get new consoles, that passion didn't really develop.

And then when I was around 11 or 12, I tricked my dad into letting me get Halo, and that really started things. That year I also got my hands on some other real gems, KotOR and Battlefront II, and things snowballed from there.

My early years of gaming were very much defined by Halo and Battlefront, I enjoyed the gameplay, new as it was to me, I enjoyed the challenge of constantly refining my skills against the computer and other players, and I enjoyed playing alongside my friends. By the time I was 15-16, I'd grown tired of shooters, my skills had peaked, the genre was stale, and the games that were coming out seemed dumber and worse than the ones I had. But in its place, I spent more time on the action-adventure and RPG games I'd been playing that had steadily been growing with KotOR, Fable and Golden Sun really took off with Mass Effect, Oblivion and Assassin's Creed, and it's been going strong since.

Definitely think Battlefront is what really got me into gaming as well, both of them are great games. Dicepls don't screw up the third one.

 

[Mr_Spanky]

Baldur's gate. I used to go onto my brothers computer whenever I was in and he was out to play it. After all the pacman/space invaders/tetris kind of games available on BBC and the (now defunct) RISC OS computers, playing a game like that was a truly enchanting experience. I can also remember the first time I played TES III: Morrwind - it had a very similar reaction from me - probably why I find so much affinty in RPGs to this day.

My only wish (as far as gaming goes) is to someday play a game that holds that level of amazement and awe for myself. Sadly these days I tend to get tired/bored of games fairly easily and so its hard for me keep up the same level of enthusiasm even for my favorite games.

And as well it was in a time before the internet really "took off" and so the emphasis was much more on the single player experience (at least on PC) - a change that in the biggest and most extravagant games of modern times I truly lament. There's only so much fun I can get from a COD experience. Coop games are better but still - I love to immerse myself in a SP only game

 

[Scarim Coral]

It was probably Super Mario 2, I remember that I choose to complate this level with the ghost in it over this Simpsons episode I haven't seen before (the one with Laddy) since back then I was into watching that show.

 

[EHKOS]

When I was three my dad got a PS1 for himself, but kinda for me too. It came with a demo disc with Colony Wars, Crash Bandicoot, and Tekken 2. I never really decided I was a gamer, I was basically born one. And I still enjoy them today.