I saw this Lemmy post, but a huge list of games with no discussion isn't very interesting! Let's talk about why the games that influenced us had such a big impact - how they affected us as people.

For me, it was the PC game Creatures. It's a life simulation game featuring cute little beings called 'Norns' which you raise and teach.

You can almost think of it like a much cuter predecessor to The Sims, but which claimed to actually "simulate" their brains.

As a thirteen-year-old it was the first game that made me want to go online and seek out more info. What I discovered was a community of similar-interest nerds hanging out on IRC chat, and it felt like for the first time in my life I had "found my people" - others who weren't just friends, but whom I really resonated with.

I learned web development (PHP at the time!) so I could make a site for the game, which became the foundation for my job in software engineering.

And through that group I also discovered the Furry community, which was a wild ride in itself.

So yeah, Creatures. Without that game, I think I'd have become quite a different person.