One question above all others is asked between gamers across the globe: ‘What’s the best game you’ve ever played?’ I’ve been asked this many times and, like anyone, the answer can change depending on my mood, or just over time as new titles are experienced. However, recent queries around this issue have caused me to reflect back at the number of series and styles I have played, drifting back to some of the first games I ever played through to the most recent ones I’ve just reviewed. During this process I had something of an epiphany and it was this:

While our favourite and worst games we have ever played can change, the ones we grew up with will never vary.

If you look at any gamer’s favourite or most hated titles there will be many who have the same choices, every person’s gaming upbringing will be unique to them, a unique blend of titles, consoles and experiences that define how they view the industry now; their Gaming DNA if you will. In many ways this tells you more about an individual than their professed likes or dislikes can.

So, what led me to be the game-crushing Adonis I am today? (It’s my article, I can pretend if I like!)

Well, it’s traditional to see the first title you ever played as a cornerstone of your early years, something which holds a special place in your heart and of not a little significance to your gaming development … unfortunately, I can’t remember what the first one I played was. Though I’m a mere 27, my first gaming experiences were over 22 years ago and I was, somewhat negligently, not taking notes! The first title I can vaguely remember playing on my father’s PC was ‘Space Goose’. Some research has revealed it to, in fact, have been Star Goose, a game where you fly a robotic goose through space shooting things. Of course, right? As you may have deduced from the fact I needed to do some research, I haven’t thought of that game since, so I don’t really see it as a major part of my retro gaming years.

The aspect of my Gaming DNA (yes, I’m sticking with that phrase, it makes me feel all clever and sciencey) that was the cornerstone of who I am as a gamer now and, to a not insignificant extent, a person is the WAY in experienced gaming growing up. My most vivid memories when I was young were family activities, my parents were on the crest of the home-gaming development wave and many an evening you would find my father playing an RPG game, my mother sat beside him with a pad and pen taking notes (you had to do that in them days kids). As I grew up, it was only natural I would participate in this activity and I spent hours of my formative years watching my parents play the games.

What games, I hear you ask silently in my head? None other than the much lauded Ultima RPG games. Really, my parents could not have chosen better, as the Ultima series (up until 8 and 9 anyway) are some of the best and most well designed RPG games to ever be put to code. With their rich historical setting and (to my young mind) strange and exotic old-world language, I genuinely credit them for playing a significant part in my ending up studying History with English at university.

I was truly lucky to be able to share something like this with my parents and it brought us together as a family. To illustrate how much this influenced me as a person and meant to me, all I can say is this: I lost my mother 14 years ago, I was 13 and to this day some of the fondest memories I have of her are of those hours spent as a family playing through Ultima games.

Of course, as I grew up I moved onto solo gaming in my own right. This began properly when I was bought a Nintendo Entertainment System at around 5 years old (I still own the very one I was given and to this day I still break it out for a game of Mario here or there). Like many others, the Mario games were a significant influence and form a significant part of my gaming history, also helping to strengthen the bond between me and my sister as we grew up together.

This was continued when we were bought a Sega Megadrive with the Sonic games. I still remember my father taking me out on ‘Sonic 2uesday’ for the release of Sonic 2.

At the same time, again on my father’s PC, I began playing Fallout and Fallout 2 (another game I essentially inherited from him when he was playing it himself). These games built upon the foundations laid by the Ultima series to help develop the love of RPGs in me.

The game that truly cemented that love of RPGs and was also the main influence on my teenage gaming years, was Final Fantasy VIII. Quite unlike any other game I had played to that point, it captivated me, with its complex mechanics and its (relatively) in depth story. While the game has its critics, for me it was the experience that really drove home that fact that games could be as intricate and well told as traditional mediums and they were a viable form of entertainment beyond childhood.

So, to me, gaming hasn’t just been a hobby as I grew up. To me, it has meant so much more. Games have helped shape who I am and what I’ve done with my life. They’ve been a conduit through which I have engaged and bonded with my family. Throughout my life games have provided me with incalculable hours of enjoyment, been a solace through difficult periods and provided entertainment with friends.

In short, gaming has been a defining part of how I became who I am as and without it, I would be a very, very different person.

 

 

 

 

 

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