I figure that at this point when having compiled a few other Top X lists I can probably piece together a reasonable Top 10 games I have ever played using them as references. I rank these on impact on my life/impact on how I viewed or consumed games as a whole after playing said game. As a result most of the comments will be explanations on how they impacted me.
While I was doing a decent enough job of making friends in Jr High school and regularly enjoying hiking through the nearby valley with them, I still felt enthralled by the idea of using the internet to communicate with people and share a favorite hobby with them. The competitive aspect made me want to become better for my Clan and for the sake of hopefully one day fighting the best of the best 1on1. The modding scene opened my eyes up to uncountable possibilities when it comes to replayability and independent development.
This was my introduction to playing games with people on the internet and one of the first to introduce me to the idea of customizing and modifying games. I spent countless hours making maps and custom units for Warcraft II.
This game was one of the first games I played primarily for storytelling (despite playing RPGs and jRPGs casually in the past which attempted to tell stories) and one of the first I was willing to view as artistic expression during young adulthood.
This game was the first game that introduced me to custom maps and modifying of games. While I tried making maps on my own quite a few times I failed at it and couldn't wrap my head around it as a kid but I sure as hell wanted to. It was also one of the first games to legitimately scare the shit out of me.
When I played this game I was in a phase of my life where the solitary and oppressive atmosphere of the game meshed perfectly with how I was feeling at the time. I won't proclaim that it taught me lessons or any such nonsense but it definitely had an impact on me and re-opened me up to the idea of playing challenging games after years of not having played any.
While I had enjoyed fighting games in the past this was the first game to make me want to legitimately get better specifically to play against other people and opened me up to the concept of going somewhere outside of your comfort zone (your house or a friend's house) to play a game competitively against others in person.
This was my introduction to roguelike/roguelite gameplay and I was hooked. I even tried to learn to race the game against other people for a brief period of time.
I was a full blown adult when I played this game so I cannot say I had major revelations or that this game taught me a bunch but I definitely empathized with the characters and story lines. I also started opening up to the fact that presenting yourself differently to different people isn't dishonest and in some instances presents a more honest/realistic perspective of who/what you are to people than if you simply behaved the same way to all people all of the time.
Journey was one of very very few games to actually make me cry. On top of that the game's unique multiplayer integration amplified how touching its moments were and make those tears that much more impactful. How many multiplayer games can you claim have ever done that to you?
Short but beautiful. This will always be among the best games I have ever played. The storytelling/narration along with the surprises the game throws at you make it a masterpiece.
