So, what were the first games you played? What games first blew you away and made you the gamer you are now?
What completely blew me away was Homeworld.
And nowadays The Star Vault.
What made me a "gamer" ?
Commander Keen 4, The Secret Of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis, Zoo Tycoon 1 (the 2D game), all city building games by Impression (Sierra).
Regarding RPGs, I began with the early TDE PC games, Blade Of Destiny, Startrail, Riva. They had mechanics which I have never ever seen again in RPGs : Characters could become seriously ill when wearing too light armor in winter. You know, getting the fantasy equivalent of a flu or something worse.
By the time, I grew more and more into social interactions, and away from conflict narratives. I found out that I'm "the odd man out" with that, at least regarding "western" style RPGs. Which have become more and more grimdark over the years to support more and more a "manly" role model. More conflict, more fighting, more ways to become a god of unlimited powah.
Me, I'm so much out because I was *always* interested more in the stories social aspects of games, how NPCs live within their worlds. I was never interested in power. I was always interested in - how people get along with their lives in fantasy universes ? And because of that, I absolutely LOVED the idea of dishwaschin in Divinity 1 ! Now THAT was showing me that even heroes had to clean up their mess they had left behind !
What I never ever see in games are the corpses left behind by "conflicts". No game ever dared to be THAT realistic. Probably, I suppose, to not undermine or disturb/disrupt the image of "manliness grown/proven by conflict". I never see relatives/friends mourning over people slain by the "heroes", either.
Enemies are always portraited as cannon fodder to enable the "grow into power" by giving away experience points.
