(Discussion) Can Video Games Change Your Life? - Retro Bird
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ต.ค. 2021
- We all love video games, but would we go so far as to say that they can change our lives? Well, I would and I explain all the various reasons why I think you would too.
(Discussion) Can Video Games Change Your Life? - Retro Bird
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Without even watching the video: Yes. When I was 13 I recieved Metroid Zero Mission for GBA from my mom as a Christmas present. The next day she died. I felt so alone, so lifeless, and wanting to die. I found Metroid Zero Mission though, and started it up. And I got lost in it, and I realized then that even if you are alone, you have the power to get through it. Metroid Zero Mission literally saved me from suicide. And Metroid has been my favorite series ever since.
I'm so sorry to hear that.
Great to hear it helped you man, take care!
Final Fantasy X not only changed my life but it saved it as well. I discovered that game when I was at the lowest point I have ever been in my life. The themes of friendship, sacrifice and death helped me find my center and brought me back from a very dark place.
That's great to hear. I'm sorry you had to experience being at such a low place, but it's cool to think the story was powerful enough to help you in that kind of way. If there was ever an endorsement to play that game, this is it :)
@@RetroBirdGaming thank you. Sometimes pain comes before pleasure. I'm a better person because of it. Love the content it makes the day a bit better after a long days work.
@@Throbingkcoc There's a ton of really relaxing games out there like Giraffe & Annika, Animal Crossing, and Summer in Mara. Newt One is a pretty relaxing game too. Games are a nice way to relax and have fun.
That's so awesome, thanks for sharing that, hope all is well with you and yours.
I had a very similar experience with FFX. One of the most emotionally impactful games I've ever played and got me through my own share of low points
Retro video gaming in general has saved me the last two years from depression. Before 2020 I only had four systems and one handheld, but now I'm an avid collector with 13 consoles and six handhelds. Its not just a hobby, I'm a happier person. I share my interests with friends and family and they're interested in what I have to say (at some level). Game hunting is fun and social. I could go on... I'm also going to my first convention in a couple weeks, and I don't remember the last time I was this excited for anything.
Glad to hear this. Keep walking on that positive path you've found for yourself. Thank you for sharing :)
Video games have made me appreciate stories, music, and characters in a way I doubt I ever would have without them.
I'd recommend playing "World's End Club". It was so good! Avoid spoilers at all costs.
Almost all of my hobbies I only started because of The Legend of Zelda; Ocarina of Time, in particular. I first got into playing music because of it, drawing because of it, writing because of it, etc. I likely wouldn't have gotten to where I am in life without it. There's also been several games that were really instrumental in getting me through some really dark times.
All right! That game is special to me as well.
The Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past is a special game for me. I'd beaten it, but never played it (not until nearly a decade after release anyway), and this was all thanks to meeting up with my friend down the block every morning before school and on weekends to chip away at it until the end. He played, I watched and offered advice, and we went on this odyssey together. It was the first time I felt like I was playing a game even though I didn't have a controller in hand, and it's become a treasured memory for me.
Chrono Trigger was the first game I bought with my own earned money (a summer's worth of lawns mowed when I was 14) and kicked off my passion for RPGs. It was a magical experience that - for the first time in a game - had me feeling like the characters were friends I was on a monumental adventure with; even my parents got sucked in and joined in from about the 3/4 mark through to the end.
In 1998, Xenogears changed the way I thought about philosophy, religion, and greatly exceeded my perceived limits of video game narrative and depth; it is my favorite game of all time and one I go back to regularly.
Mega Man X3 was a redemption story from a Christmas that haunted me for years. 15 years later, my wife surprised me on our first Christmas as husband and wife with a complete copy of the game, the first game she ever bought me; it's one of my treasured games. and I've played it every Christmas since 2010.
Pokémon Red and Blue forever changed how I would focus my gaming attentions. In my youth, we were too poor for me to be able to get a Game Boy, and when I finally tried my cousin's, I was disappointed and forgot about it. Flash forward to '97, and I worked to buy myself an N64. I only ever ended up owning 2 games for it, was disappointed by the library, and my interest in RPGs from having played Chrono Trigger, FFIII, and Lufia wasn't being met (plus, many of the games were $100+ in Canada), so I jumped to PS1. My focus shifted away completely from Nintendo...and then Pokémon came around. I had been watching the show, so I pre-ordered the games and bought myself a Game Boy Color. Red and Blue would go on to spark my love affair with handheld consoles, and from then on, my focus has been squarely on handheld releases (whenever money was an issue and I had to choose between a handheld and home console game that I wanted, handheld won every time). I've since gone back and am still actively picking up original Game Boy titles to this day; I feel like I'm always discovering something new and awesome that I'd missed.
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Most importantly though, video games led to me meeting my wife. In 2008, I was running a game store, she was recommended for hire by my district manager, and we ended up working great together. When she took on her own store, we started dating and the rest is history. We'll be married 11 years in December, and if it weren't for games, we'd never have met nor would we have our wonderful children.
Video games have been a constant source of wonder and happiness for me throughout my life, and I feel so fortunate to have been born into a time in which I can say I had all these wonderful experiences going back to the infancy of this medium. Video games really are special!
Awesome way to meet your wife!
I have the wind curl design from Wind Waker tattooed on my finger as a wedding ring, I gave up my v card on my wedding night to my sweet wife while Theophany's Terrible Fate played, and my oldest daughter's name is Hylia (I told my wife it was the name of a lake where I spent a lot of time as a kid) so I can safely say Zelda had impacted me.
Wind Waker is probably the best Zelda game.
I asked for an NES for Christmas one year and came down the stairs that morning to see something I didn’t even know existed at that time... a SUPER Nintendo!
I’d never had a console before that and we didn’t have a computer either. Finally I had some video games to call my own! Definitely a moment I’ll never forget.
That's so awesome. That only could've happened back then!
What games did you get for it?
@@Sammmmmmmm617 It came bundled with Super Mario World and also got Mario Paint! Still have my original SNES mouse & pad hanging around here somewhere!
@@DilRyeMaster nice
Wasn't it weird that NES and SNES were being sold at the same time? I got NES Easter of 92. SNES was out a year and a half and I must not have known it at the time. It was bundled with Mario world and all stars... except all-stars was missing. My dad took it back to SEARS or JCPenny the day after, and that one was missing something too. He took it back again, and I remember him saying they aren't going to let him exchange it a 3rd time.
Video games have made me feel extremely fortunate to be alive. They are literally man-made magic. Duck Hunt was one of my first games and I loved it. But the first game ever that got me interested was probably Tetris because that's what my mom was into. Then it was Mario Bros and Eggsplode. There was never a period where I stopped gaming. I've always been into it.
MOTHER 3: My estranged relationship with my brother made this game hit me in a profoundly emotional and healing way. The relationship between Lucas and Claus and their father, Flint, is self-explanatory. If you've lost touch with your brother and your dad, that ending is brutal, but it validates what a lot of families go through and the tragedy of losing someone you love from physical death and even from a sort of a spiritual death.
Gaming changed my life. When I was a kid in the late 90s, my older brothers had a snes and rented mega man x2. I fell in love with it, but we couldn't buy it because we were relatively poor at the time. My oldest brother was into computers and gave me 2 floppy disks out of the blue. One had an emulator and the other had a mega man x3 Rom. I didn't know anything about computers or emulators, but I kept messing around until I figured everyrhing out about them both. Fast forward 20+ years and now I'm a systems administrator at one of the largest plastics manufacturing facilities in the United States with a fairly respectable retro game collection. Little did I know at the time, those disks would change my life due to my love of gaming.
There are games that you think about after you finish them for months , even years for me :
Metal gear solid 1 and 2
The last of us
Resident evils
Shenmue
Silent hill 1 and 2
FFX
The list goes on … you try to relive these experiences and it’s not the same as the first time … keep gaming ✊
There are other types of categories of life changing by the video games:
i. When you are at the lowest of the lowest with depression and no one to care about you.
ii. A family bonding and healing to move on from the past.
I remember Sega Lord X, in a few of his videos, brought up the topic about his father a couple of times and that they were not in good terms but playing video games were a few of the bonding moments he had with his dad.
As for the healing part, sometimes you remember the game that your relative introduced to you when you were feeling down and you really enjoyed playing it. That relative may no longer be there with us but you thank your late relative many times for that game that helped to change your life.
I was one of those. At school, my social skills was closed to zero (I didn't get bullied though thankfully) and I sometimes cry as to why my social skills sucks when a relative of mine comforted me and showed me a game called 'Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle' in the Game Boy. Being a Looney Tune fan, I wanted to play it and boy I am glad that I did. That game and music was more than enough to put a smile to my face and my life was back on track after a week or two. That relative passed away sadly a few years ago but I still have the Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle game with me as a memorial of my relative cause that relative and that game saved my life.
Video games have changed my life multiple times. From my first (King Fu on NES) to the magic of the original Lefend of Zelda and many other examples leading to today where my youtube channel allows me to justify playing more than most men my age with wife/kids/day-job get to. I ~love~ video games!
Kung Fu was my first NES game. Still playing it 30+ years later.
Star Control II changed my life - at least in Grade 10. I took a week off (I was a little sick, faked it for the rest of the time) writing fan fic for the game. It was intense. I didn't sleep, I barely ate, all I did was document the game and use the universe it to write my story.
It wasn't terribly good, I stopped after... 20 pages? It's actually online somewhere (nope, don't ask) but what it did was encourage me to writing - creative, technical, for fun - and in a sense, to read, to see how others wrote and how captivating characters were created, developed, etc.
I recently got my certificate in Technical Writing, and previous to that, teaching English in Korea (I really did it to go to see the Ulsan plant, where my Hyundai Pony was made) which netted me a wife and son. Now, is that all thanks to Star Control II? That's a stretch, but that game planted some seeds that are still growing now ;)
If you haven't played Star Control II, do it. It's an old school solve-it-yourself and keep a notepad of events type. It's very well made - DO NOT go for the walkthroughs, you'll kill the experience.
Video games have changed my life in more ways than I can possibly describe. I experienced video games for the first time when I was 3 years old, and that was on the Atari Pong. Soon afterward, my home got the Atari 2600, and several handheld games as well, including Pac-Man.
Shortly afterward, we had the Magnavox Odyseey, and by 1988, I had the NES. From that point, I never, ever looked back. I've been playing games ever since, and at the present time, I've finished over 4,500 games across all consoles.
I own and operate the Console Purist Museum that has over 11,600 games, 316 consoles and 35 complete console libraries. That means that the museum has every game released in the US for 35 different consoles, such as the SNES, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, XBOX, Wii U, Atari 5200, and many more.
The museum also has thousands of gaming paraphernalia, such as complete sets of magazines, hundreds of controllers and so much more. Being around all of those items throughout my life, and seeing the museum grow has changed me in a multitude of ways, and has given me more ways to experience a fun time than I can possibly imagine.
As for the games that have changed my life, no other game out of all of the games I own have changed my life more than Halo: Combat Evolved. I could go on for several pages about the sheer awesomeness of Halo, and my love for it, but not really the other Halo games, but I've already written enough.
My next title would be #1 without a doubt if there was no Halo, and that game is the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. From the beginning to the very end, the game is simply amazing and I couldn't recommend a better game for retro gamers to play than that game.
Super Mario World would come in next, as it has been an superbly exceptional game that has rivaled basically every game I've ever played besides the two above. The game is perfection in a small cartridge.
Other games would be the Dragon Warrior games, other Zelda games, especially the older ones, and of course Super Mario Bros., Super Mario 64, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, Bionic Commando, Final Fantasy II, Fable, Street Fighter II Turbo, Contra, Final Fight, and so on.
Some might be wondering why there are so many Nintendo games on the list, but the truth is, most of the best games from the past were made on a Nintendo console. That isn't to say as you get further down my Top 100 or Top 200 list, I don't have a ton of Sega, Sony, Turbo Grafx, 3DO, etc. games.
Anyway, that is my story of living life in the Console Purist Museum.
Chrono Trigger made me realize that I actually can enjoy a turn-based RPG. Having a killer track as the battle music definitely helped.
It's crazy bro. Chrono Trigger is so good!
That was a good game. I bought off my buddy for $10 (way back when) and I beat it eventually. Great game. Sold it later. Buddy regretted his decision a decade later :|
Great battle music indeed!
My first game was probably Super Mario Bros... I couldn't beat the castle levels because I was scared of the music!
The games that got me INTO video games were Final Fantasy 3 and Earthbound on the SNES. That was when I learned games could tell a grandiose story!
My older brother recently re-purchased an old Colecovision console with a ton of games and gave it to me which inspired me to dust off all my old Sega and Nintendo consoles I had in storage from when I was a kid and start playing them again. This totally changed my trajectory in life as I've since been working hard for several months preparing to start a TH-cam channel showcasing my appreciation for retro games. Retro Bird, you sir have also been a driving force behind my decision to become a TH-camr. I hope I can achieve similar success that you have! 😉🍻
As a Brazilian, videogames taught me English, which is really useful in my life despite living in Brazil.
Learning about the people and stories behind the games has given me life changing perspectives. Dylan Cuthbert (SNES Starfox creator), talked about about how sections of games will be cut out entirely by Nintendo if an idea isn't working or doesn't fit with what they want to present. It's a good approach that I've applied to music and other projects to maintain focus. 'If it doesn't work, just cut it out'. His point was about not getting attached to ideas when they hit a wall. They can be recycled for another thing later if they fit.
Ive had a game controller in my hands since I was a wee lad. All started with a 3 pronged controller. Hunting for stars and a castle with paintings you jump into
Finally got an NES off of eBay after wanting to get one for about a year. Good thing I saved my CRT TVs, I have a nice 27in one I am going to set up with the NES which should be coming on Friday. I will make sure to watch your video then which should add even more excitement to my day.
Nice job dude! Enjoy! And have a banana!!!
Yes, enjoy and have a banana indeed (if you like them).
If you enjoy it, you should look into getting it RGB modded. I got my SNES JR RGB modded recently and the pixel art looks amazing! Enjoy the NES!
A few years back I was hit in the heart by the locomotive 🚂 of nostalgia by accidentally stumbling upon a TH-cam video for the NES mini. O wow I had to have it and I purchased all the other consoles I had sold as a kid to help fund the next generation of console that succeeded it. I haven’t stopped since and have a games room with a collection. I never had a sega Saturn but I bought one some years ago and it’s by far my favourite console to play and collect for. It scratches the itch and longing for arcade style graphics and action I always wanted as a kid but never really got. It has made my life so much richer. And now my son who has a switch, now plays sega with me and we have al lot of fun until my wife is telling us to come down for dinner. Just like my mom used to when I was a kid. It’s just great.
Video games haven't really changed my life, but it's nice to get my mind off stressful stuff sometimes!
The video games I have played over the years have influenced my art and all creative work I do. Not to mention how much that pastime has strengthened my bond with my sister.
Final Fantasy, Zelda, Spyro, and more have all been integral to my development and defining who I am as a person.
As a kid, I experienced some real hardships and trauma related to bullying. At the height of the worst of it, gaming was a safe place to go When things were bleak. 30 years on, life is profoundly better but I still look back and am thankful that i had gaming as a safe harbor during those days.
I have suffered from attention disorder since forever and feel that video games, as well as books, help me a lot to focus.
The Wind Waker for GameCube changed my life. I was in my early teens and going through a medical dark time. One of my joys was watching the commercial for Wind Waker. It would be my escape.
Super Mario 3 was the game that cemented my love for video games. The hype for that game was off the charts, and then it actually exceeded the hype. Even today, the game stands the test of time and is so fun to play.
I should add too, not far behind SMB3, and much more recent, I fell in love with Hollow Knight. I bought that game because I heard it was decent and it was only 15 dollars.... and wow, the best 15 dollars I have ever spent.
I wholeheartedly agree. Couldn’t have put it better myself.
If it weren't for video gaming I wouldn't be the collector I am today. At first it was just about getting games I liked but now I'm a full on addict.
There have been too many games which inspired me to mention in one sitting, but the one which always comes to mind first is Street Fighter II. I was skipping meals to play this game during school lunch breaks. It's one thing to play a game, it's another to want to master it.
Get good
hahah :)
Sim City 4 influenced my career choice and contributed to me becoming an urban planner. So, video games definitely changed my life.
I just happened to love gaming. Throughout my lifetime, this hobby in particular has kept me out of trouble. I've been video game collecting off and on since 2008 after my ex-girlfriend and I broke up. It also has helped me with my depression that I'm currently battling since I've been through a lot of things in recent years--its personal.
Video games have always served as a real bonding experience for me and my brother and our cousins. Even to this day, when we get together, reminiscing about games we played back in the day (games that I of course STILL play all the time) with them are some of the most joyous conversations I get to have and bring back a lot of great memories.
For me it was Dkc2. It really formed my senses for atmosphere and music. Another lifechanger were the Army Men games for ps1, which taught me that media hasn't to be critically acclaimed to be fun.
Being a kid in the 70s, home pong changed my life. My grandparents had one, and it was mind-blowing as a little kid that tv can be interactive to that extent, other than us kids being the designated channel changer for the adults.
Games are a great way to make memories with others.
One of my favorite childhood memories is playing games with a friend who we would work together to beat some games as well as against each other.
Phantasy Star 3 for the Sega Genesis started my love for RPG’s.
I would say that Final Fantasy (as a serie but FF7 specifically, "of course") has been instrumental in my love for world/character-design and elaborated stories.
The Legend of Zelda is my defining "gaming identity", i love everything about it and most of my favorite games have his DNA; Soul Reaver, Jak & Daxter, Okami..
I can thank our similar tastes in video games for bonding with the amazing girl who eventually became my wife and the mother of our 2 children.
As for specific examples, Final Fantasy IX yanked me out of a depression as a teenager, and Castlevania (the series in general) always puts me in a positive, productive, energetic mood. I even used to work out to CV music.
Always love you mentioning your grandparents ❤️
Final Fantasy for NES sharpened my reading and problem solving skills. I wasn’t much of a reader until playing that game in 1990 (I was about 10 years old at the time). Cross-referencing the maps and booklet with the game content definitely forced me to focus and hone my interpretive capabilities. Now I teach communications and problem solving at the university level. :) Great topic!
A turning point for me in my videogames life was playing Metal Gear Solid on the ps1. Man what a blast, what a story
I have too many experiences to count where a single video game sticks out as a bright point in my upbringing. But to take this a different route, I have found video games to be a great coping mechanism when it comes to extreme change in your life. For me personally, I found myself playing chrono trigger after a big move and wind waker during late nights with a new born. Didn't plan on it, it just kind of happened. I'm now starting to teach my son to play Mario and Sonic, which will also be a life changing moment 😃
That's a really great idea! Thank you for sharing. Usually when something big happens in my life, I'm too stressed to think about playing games. I'll give this a try the next time, though!
Games have absolutely changed my life. Not only were most of my friendships were formed because of a shared love of games, and I've travelled to places I'd have never been if it wasn't for games, but they've played a major role in my interests outside of games too. Some of my favourites, like Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil got me into different kinds of films and even encouraged me to engage with political issues. Games like Rock Band and the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series got me into new genres of music. If I have to remember a specific year of my life, I usually think of the games that were released around then, and that reminds me of what I was doing at the time. I'd have been a completely different person if it wasn't for videogames, and because these are all parts of my life I value greatly and find a lot of positivity in, I don't regret that at all.
So as a kid, I was diagnosed with a specific Dyslexia that interfered with the communication between my brain and my hands. So I was prescribed video games.
Later I got into repairing systems and computers. Now I work in Information Technology.
So yea, Video games had an impact on my life.
Amazing story! That's so cool and I'm glad it worked out for you!
I have BPD video games are my daily coping mechanism, the Zelda games have helped the most with the minimal dialogue so I'm constantly doing something, the puzzles so my brain is always occupied thinking about what I'm doing or what I'm doing next and the storylines always make me feel nostalgic and like a hero.
Majora's Mask is my favourite.
They just cut out most of my obsessive thinking and it's such a relief to me.
My brother who's since passed away was an avid gamer and so I got into it because of him
One thing that games taught me is, somewhere , eventually there is a boss that needs defeated. Boss theme music is some of my favorite tunes. Masked Devil from NES Ninja Gaiden, that theme left an impact on me, when it started to play you knew sh!t just got real. Awesome video.
Video games definitely shaped my interests for the rest of my life. Although I was born early 90's, I loved nothing more than classic rock, anything between The Beatles to Van Halen. Several games, but most notably the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series really expanded my tastes in music as a young kid. I grew to love 90's hip hop (Wu Tang is for the Children after all), Punk Rock, Metal, and even Jazz music. I was always a big music listener as a kid, and those games really helped me open my ears to music I hadn't previously heard. Games like Driver and Gran Turismo made me appreciate cars and various types of racing more and more. The tony hawk games also made me admire and appreciate the art of skateboarding and I started skating for real from the time I was 12 to 24 years old. And I loved video games so much that I now collect/play them in my spare time and it has become my biggest hobby.
Not really a specific title, but the joy of video games definitely influenced my career in computer and software engineering. Though I started on the Atari 2600, the NES was what cemented my love of video games.
The Atari 2600 was my first console - my parents bought it for me when I was.... I dunno, 6? It was already well into the NES era, and it always felt kinda crummy compared to it. But, when I do play or watch those old games, I am instantly transported back to my earliest memories (which weren't that great, we already moved three countries lol - but I do recall my grandmother and our first cats!) so it serves as a time machine recall, really. The only retro system I have is a NES. I have about 20+ working and complete retro computers, including a Vic 20 and a C64, and I feel the same way about them as I do about the 2600 ;) - not technically advanced, in fact kinda boring, but very comforting and relaxing.
Resident evil 2 definitely changed my life!!!!
Edit: not only did it terrify me as a kid, but upon completing the game I thought it was the best thing ever…only to learn there are b scenarios, and hunk and tofu. I was legitimately blown away and will always consider it one of my all time favorites. In fact I even speed run Leon A, and have beaten it in 1 hour 28 mins
Amazing game and I loved the remake as well.
Bubble Bobble, Contra, Mega Man 2 and 3.. Zelda Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Mortal Kombat 1 and 2.. Street Fighter 2 and ALL of the TMNT games on NES, as well as TMNT Turtles in Time on SNES.. Streets of Rage 1 2 and 3, Shining Force 1 and 2.. Zelda Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, Resident Evil 1 2 and 3... there are just so many!! I am leaving some the others out bc i'd be here all night
I don't know where I would be today without video games but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Video games changed my life and the lives of many others as well. Without them I personally wouldn't be the creative and philosophical person that I am today. There is only so much you can become invested into when it comes to reading books and watching movies, but with games it lets you experience a snippet of a new and amazing world that can change your views on things in your normal life.
Video games changed me for the better and I will always be grateful for that.
I was around videogames since I was very young so my first must have been on my dad's NES. for some reason Kings Knight is something I really remember. Sonic the Hedgehog really captivated me at like 4-5 years old after my dad got us a Sega Genesis.
My dad owned multiple videogame stores in the 90's so when they closed down we inherited a good selection of SNES and Genesis games so it's his fault me and my brother got pretty obsessed.
The game that meant the most to me for its time was Final Fantasy VII. It captivated me unlike any other, and the Story still stands as one of my favorites! Legend Of Dragoon was another golden era RPG that is beloved by me on ps1.
I got back into video games pacifically Sega Genesis , Dreamcast from my childhood. This outlet provided me a calm relaxing state and keep my mind occupied. Recently making big changes in my life and helping some of my family go through cancer. But the sweet joys playing the games I never had growing up makes me feel like a kid again.
Phantasy Star 4 is what changed my life for retro gaming.
Pokemon in general has to be my awnser.
Thanks to pokemon I meet a lot of awesome people, most being good friends over the Internet and even in real life (example my best bud who I meet because I was playing pokemon on the bus stop), including my boyfriend that I love very much and am with for years.
Thanks to pokemon, that at first was a game I was picked on at school for liking (even now as an adult I get some flack) and thank goodness I kept on loving, my life changed for the better.
My main motivation to learn English at all was to understand what's going on in Final Fantasy III. Needless to say that learning English was a major door opener for my life and career (as a frenchie).
I'm too involved in my own life to be able to objectively view it from afar and see the exact impact of games on my life, and I wouldn't know the difference either way. I was born in a home with an Atari 2600 and grew up with the subsequent generations. I never had a fallout where I stopped playing for some large length of time. I can't say I've had a game impact me philosophically, but I have found myself buying games in some attempt the recreate great memories, or with the hope of new ones.
It's my favorite hobby, and while its role shifts to align with my responsibilities, games are always something I look forward to having time to play. The impact is there, but having been so present throughout my life, I have zero idea what it would look like without them.
Diablo 2 and Shining Force shaped my taste more than any other game, for years to come.
Wonderboy in Monster World and then SotN are the reason I'm into metroidvania titles, and Sonic 2 for platformers.
I'd like to know what got me into action adventure so much, but I guess it would be resident evil 4. I always liked the earlier games but the series didn't really pull me in that hard until 4 dropped, absolutely incredible adrenaline fueled experience.
These games changed my life in the sense of shaping tastes all these years later - but I met my best irl friend at age 10 from gamefaqs, Sonic Adventure 2 forums.
Not really life altering. But a quick little story for you.
For me. I was a sports guy only. One day while working at FuncoLand, the guy who owned the Chinese Restaurant would come in to play his copy of Shining Force. I took an interest and bombarded him with questions about the game etc. He had to run, so he told me to play the next battle. The rest is history. Bought a copy of shining force that night and then compiled a list of RPG'S and never looked back.
I’ve been playing Silent Hill 2 for the first time and it’s changed my life! I’m too scared to sleep now, so I’m watching your videos 😅
Those games give me bad energy, so I actually can't play them. I respect that they are good games though 🙂
I don't even have to think for this one. Tales of Symphonia. I was a Nintendo nut my whole gamer life up until high school and saw this game behind the glass at the K-mart, thought the cover looked really cool and bought it basically just off of that. It introduced me to the world of RPGs and totally blew my mind in the process. I mean, I had heard about RPGs, read about them in gaming magazines, but I didn't *really* know what an RPG was. Popped the disc in and watched that amazing intro sequence, it was like a grand, epic quest on a monstrous scale, made Windwaker and Ocarina of Time look cute by comparison. Two discs of questing and I was hooked on this world, these types of games. A friend from school introduced me to the FF series, then I got a PS2 and FF10 for Christmas and basically never looked back. I play a variety of games of course, but RPGs are my soft spot. They were worlds to escape to while I was going through tough times in high school.
Love that story about Symphonia!
Rocket Knight Adventures. Because that's the correct answer.
World of Warcraft had the most profound impact on my life - sucked me in, I abandoned all other games for it and it consumed all of my free time. However I did meet some of my most closet friends through that game including one who would be my best man at my wedding. I think if I hadn't played a social game like that, I don't know if I would have connected with those people otherwise. I even got a dog so I could quit playing World of Warcraft and 14 years later, Bowser is still my best furry friend.
For me, Lunar on Sega CD changed my life because it was the first RPG I ever completed. After that, Virtua Fighter because it changed the way I thought about games. Finally Fallout 3, because it was just so huge compared to anything else I had ever played.
I remember Sega cd. First game I played for it was Sewer Shark.
I made my best friend through him teaching me Super Smash Bros on the N64. Video games in general have helped me work through elements of my ADD in learning to set plans and focus. Definitely changed my life for the better.
Video games changed my life in terms of career, basically computer games were fascinating to me and they drew me into computers and the internet in general, leading me to eventually start learning HTML and hosting websites for clans I made or was apart of, eventually leading to me declaring that I would pursue computers in college, which I did and now have a career. It's funny I never wanted to make video games though, they just were the fuel early on for me to learn more about computers and programming.
Sure, they can. Art is created to affect people for the better (sometimes for the worse). That's the whole point. I wouldn't say my life has been drastically affected by any single game, but they definitely as a whole have kept me more positive through the years.
Like your channel. Got into retro gaming recently. Now own a copy of Rocket Knight Adventures 😂
Final Fantasy 6 changed my life by telling what is still my favorite story of all time without having a main character. It offered me a sense of clarity towards the world in the sense that everybody is simultaneously the main character in their life and a supporting character in others.
The Metroid franchise is mine. To me it feels like samus and I are doing this together, because I often feel isolated in real life and obviously so is Samus. I also feel like she’s trusting me with a lot of the decisions (and subsequently judging me every time I die because I’m really not good at it lol). It just feels like a metaphor for my own life except I know how it ends, we get to save the galaxy (universe?)
Slipped on a copy of Sonic and Knuckles and shattered my spine so yea id say so
Oh my goodness! Sorry to hear that.
@@RetroBirdGaming eh, I walked it off
My 1st memory is playing forger on a 2600 I think games have changed my life for the better. Not only as an outlet to relieve stress an tension but to grow morally and mentally thank you Retro bird for this channel
Thank you for watching! Glad you enjoy it :)
I can say that The Last of Us did that for me. It made me really think about not taking anything for granted. The themes of loss, desperation, hardship, love shining through the darkness while conquering all, and the world changing overnight really forced me to put things in perspective and prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. After playing through it, I felt something that the medium had never made me feel before and it made me want to keep my family closer, safer, and healthier while being much more mindful of unpleasant possibilities. We have had it so good here in the USA that it is easy not to think about what the world would be like if things we enjoyed were no longer there and tragedy brought out the worst in all of us and reverted us back to our primal nature. In the pre-covid world, that was the exact message we needed at the time and we didn't even know it.
Trust me, pick up "World's End Club" or "A Hat in Time" at some point if you haven't already. Those games are awesome! Avoid spoilers though.
Videogames (SNES & PS1 RPGs specifically) I attribute to being able to read and speak well in my early years and taught me alot of new words that I would have otherwise not been exposed to. Playing FFT and Vagrant Story both had extremely deep and engaging stories that I didn't fully understand as a teen but my writing skills have vastly improved as a result of that foundation of language.
I feel like this is overlooked - Some games are equivalent to reading a book. My mom got me Nintendo Power because she was told it doesn't matter what he's reading, as long as he's reading.
@@mattgallagher7105 Agreed, today's games have a tendency to talk to you so it becomes a more passive experience, where the player just listens. Old games, through a lack of technological capability, were forced to tell stories through text, and if you didn't get it, there was little opportunity to reread it, so you better absorb that key info to get to the next area lol
I have been subbed for sometime now and it is pretty awesome seeing the comment section growing not only in messages but the length and depth of the messages. Video Games have changed my life but there are too many games to list that have.
The comment sections of RB's videos are definitely way higher quality than the vast majority of other gaming channels that I've seen. You get into the really big channels and huge swaths of their comment sections are pure waste.
Videogames had a big impact on my life so , yeah , definitely life changing in that sense.
I luckily still have possession of the very first game I ever played, and the console to do so. It was my Dads old Sega genesis that my Mom has purchased for him when they had first moved out. He gave it to me when I first moved out, along with road rash 2, which was the one game that he had for it. The console even has a 25 year old piece of tape on the front with codes for the game. I’ve had consoles come and go, but that sega and my beloved copy of road rash 2 will always be in my collection.
Making Final Fantasy Ultra: Champion Edition was one of the highlights of my life! : D
Well, I work at a video game store. I run this TH-cam channel and blog primarily focused on video games. And video games are one of mine and my wife's favorite ways of bonding as we've beat Resident Evil 5 and Yoshi on Wii U in co-op and we're always busting out Mario party and Mario Kart for a fun time.
So yeah, video games have been a big part of my life.
Majora's Mask was a big part of my life. I played it when my mom and 2nd cousins got busted by the DEA
I was playing Tetris when the FBI kicked down my front door.
I literally owe my entire career to making up lyrics to the Adventures of Yogi Bear on the Super Nintendo when I was six years old. So yes, they surely can!
Arari 2600 with Pitfall and Grand Prix at a friends house some day after Kindergarden.(80s) Wooow, not only TV Stations and Vhs video, now you can interact with the tv ,turns it into a game..Hooked..Since this day i fell instant in love and wanted one sooo bad.i knew that i will never give up this..hobby lives till today:-) last week i hooked up the atari and showed a friend the first Game that i ever played in my life. We had so much fun!
That Pitfall game is FUN!!!
That's such a fun way to think about it!
Oh god yes. In many ways. Most recent ones are Nier Automata and Tetris Effect. Tetris Effect especially through it's music and journey mode made me have an epiphany about life, death, and our connection to others. I know that sounds weird.
Nice foreshadowing with the box in your background. As for games changing my life, my current group of friends are very gaming focused (even before starting this TH-cam thing) as we used to get together & play games together even if it was different games. Now we jump on chat as much as we can (at least a few times a week) to either play together of just hang out while playing games. My friends from before have fallen to the side a bit as they're not quite as into games & I can say I'd be much less social if it wasn't for gaming or a random coworker at blockbuster inviting me over to his friends place one day.
Favorite moments: Intro to games with Super Mario Bros, rare moments gaming with unlikely family members, laughing hysterically with my brother while doing crazy stuff in racing and skating games, playing with people over the internet for the first time in Warcraft 2 and Descent 2, becoming immersed in Final Fantasy XI during it's golden era, taking a break from gaming to get married and now enjoying the old games again with MiSTer. Next step is showing these games to my kids. 👍
Retro Bird changed my life by just liking the video before even watching.
Thanks!
Waiting for the day when Timmy finally reaches out to you. Or did that happen already?
Still waiting.
@@RetroBirdGaming I wonder if Timmy ever owned a green game boy
The first Nintendo game I played was the Mario/Duck Hunt cart. Alot of people who grew up in the 80's would say the same thing.
One way it can change your life is to take up more time that should be allowed and it tends to interfere with relationships. If your significant other is irritated by your gaming, you’re most likely playing in a way that makes him/her feel like they’re less important than the game. Don’t let yourself do that. You’ll live to regret it.
Couple years ago, I read a news story of a small infant who died in his crib. He died of malnutrition. The mom had to be away at work and the dad spent ALL his time gaming and didn’t care for his child. When the baby cried for food, the dad just put his headphones on and kept gaming. Eventually, the child died. Now the father is spending life in prison…where he’ll never play another video game for the rest of his life.
Sorry to be a downer, but this is just some real talk. Enjoy gaming but make sure it changes your life in a GOOD way.
Duck Hunt/Mario Bros was my first video game, and I’ll never forget my babysitter Ray-Ray who should let me stay up later if I could nail all 10 ducks. I remember being pissed when I only shot down 9 of 10.
Before that, before I even had my own NES, I’ll always remember traveling to D.C. and visiting my moms friend Connie, her daughter took me upstairs and showed me Mario Bros. and it took me a few tries to understand how to go down the pipes, by pressing down. That was my first memory of gaming and it blew my mind, I was instantly hooked the very first time I played Mario. The memory of that experience is still vivid in my mind, and it still feels great to think back to how cool it was to discover the joys of gaming.
My parents would not buy me a video game as they thought it would ruin there TV. In 1989 I had to buy with my own money a Game Boy & no TV needed! That was my start of owning my own gaming units for the next 10 years. I stopped in 1999 as I hit rock bottom & sold all my games which bought me a ticket to a new city & I moved in with non gamers. On my feet again in 2003 the GBA SP came out with no batteries needed & I was back in the gaming scene again! No more gaps since then & the original & SP Game Boys have changed my life for the better!
In Russia video games changed life of entire country. Dendy was huge trend. Children begged their parents for it, then constantly changed their carts with someone in search of new game to play. Sometimes they never get it back... Then megadrive from pirates became trends... Then modded ps1 became trends, with very cheap pirated discs. Games was the reason to learn english, if you play jrpg with dictionary you can learn english in the process. Games became art, even more art than the movies.
metal Gear solid.
games in general changed my life, super Mario the first one played, tomb raider the first one to hit me to the point of making me love them. zelda the wind waker (played very late, around 2015) that made me start over. but nothing changed my way of thinking about existence as the first metal Gear solid.
I feel like gaming can change lives if for no other reason than escapism. It's really the only thing in my life that I can count on to unwind and ironically unplug from the world for a bit. At the risk of sounding dramatic, I honestly don't know where I would be mentally without that outlet. I also think you were right on the money when you touched on the social aspect of it. All of my friends are gamers and a few of them I never would have met if it wasn't for gaming.
It's very true. You can count on games! I've thought about this before :)
1st game I played didn't leave much of an impression, it was some sort of tank like game on a hand me down Emerson Arcadia. I guess I could say it changed my life since I get to tell people my 1st system was an Emerson Arcadia, see their almost always confused face when I tell them, and hear them inevitably ask "whats that?". My first non Arcadia game, Super Mario, was fun but didn't hook me in. I rented Zelda 2 some time after that and though that it was different and fun but difficult.
Then I had the fortune to rent River City Ransom. For me, it changed the way I saw games in that it helped me understand the possibilities for video games, that a video game could have anything and be anything. It had it all - a story line, dialog, comedy, drama, seemingly endless items to purchase, weapons, hidden areas, cartoonish violence, a hilariously long password system, leveling up stats, a sauna, great controls, and it wasn't too hard. I was hooked.
I'm just waiting for the inevitable "Best Video Games Featuring Bananas" video.
Final Fantasy VII is an important one for me. When I was young first playing it and again during a dark fight with depression last year.
I’ve also rediscovered a love of fighting games! I forgot how much fun I have learning them getting good. Especially the Street Fighter series!