So what games have changed your life in one way or another? Wither it be your view on the world, sucked so many hours of your life away, or just keep giving you constant similarites like, " Hey that looks like a hydralisk" ?

For me it's the Silent Hill series.This has changed my life in so many ways. I mean a lot of ways. The very first affect it had on my life was when silent hill 2 came out. I remember I wasn't allowed to play silent hill 1 at the time, becuase i was young and didn't own a playstation nor cared for them. I liked N64. He didn't want me to play cause he said I would get nightmares....i was young not sure about the age. Anyway back to the topic. As I was saying Silent Hill 2 came out. I wanted to avoid it cause I was still sort of young and I remember Jeremy saying I would have nightmares. My dad however was so interested in it he brought it home one day. This was shortly after christmas and I had just gotten the Nirvana cd In Utero. Well I lived in the basement of the house cause I wanted a place where the sun wouldn't glare on me games at anytime and it was always pitch black. My dad and me played Silent Hill all that day. I can say I was distrubed...and I was having trouble sleeping. Well I'm listening to my In Utero cd and on the CD there is a song called Radio Friendly Unit Shifter. In the begining and end of that song it sounds extremly similar to the noises your radio makes in Silent Hill. I had never heard that song before.....and the stereo was on loud.  I get up to go to the bathroom....When i open the bathroom door that song comes on. Its 1 o clock in the morning pitch black and I hear it. I' am FREAKED OUT. I slam the bathroom door and wait a few minutes pacing myself. I open the door again....the end of the song is going so its still making the sound even louder and once again slam the door. I will admit i started to cry a little bit.....if anyone plays silent hill and they think they're in it....trust me you would to. I wait about 30 minutes in the bathtub curled up. I get up and leave the bathroom...no noise. Very slowly with a plunger in hand (the only thing weapon worth available in the bathroom) walk downstairs to my room. I find my bed and stayed awake the whole night. When I went to school with no sleep and still in a constant worry, thats when I realized....I love this feeling. The feeling that you're not safe. The feeling that you be killed any moment. It's a rush. That's when I fell in love with the Silent Hill games.

I was getting in trouble at school because of the game. I started drawing pictures of pyramid head and some of the mutilated scenes in the game. I created a peice of living flesh if you wanna call it that in photoshop and wrapped it around my binder. It was freshman year and the health teacher thought I needed help, it was the end of the year and she was recomending that I get some counseling help next school year. Thankfully we moved so i didn't have to go through any of that :D Here is the picture i wrapped around my binder. I made it using pictures of unfortunate accidents, some intestines, one eyeball is from soul edge in soul calibur II and one one is a picture from our health class, some guy got gohneria in the eye or something.

Please right click the image and click "veiw image" it's so big that VGchartz forum cut the sides off.

The game has affected me ever more then that. My parents are divorced and I was visiting my mom 3 years. She planned a trip for us. She took us to the beach that was fun, I use to live right next to if, but it was still nice to visit again. The second place she was taking us was Toluca Lake. In California there is a place called Toluca lake. Toluca lake from the silent hill games is modeled after that lake as well. Little bit of a fun fact for some people. I completly refused to go to that lake. Are you kidding me? I' am not going to any place remotely similar, yet alone used as a model for it. My mother understandly didn't know why i wouldn't go and couldn't understand the reason why i wouldn't, but thankfully didn't make me go. A game has to be pretty fricken crazy to make you not go somewhere lol.

Even more now. Everytime I look at someone a little odd I think of how they got that way. I start imagining a disturbing story about there life and what made them who they are. This halloween I' am making a pyramid head costume.

A game that comes in a close second is the monster hunter series simply becuase it has sucked so much of my life away. I lost a girlfriend from that game.

Anyway share your games and what ones have changed you in one way or another. Doesn't have to be as long as mine obviously or have as big of an impact, but its just interesting to recognize this things once you reallize it.

You can't tell me none of you haven't had a game affect your life some way or another. Just the fact that you're on this forum means games have some impact on your life.

Nice drawing...but that's quite a story...the only effect gaming has is it's wasted/wasting my life and monies when I should be doing productive things.

yep yep, monster hunter. I have more then  3 thousand hours logged into the original monster hunter >.<

The game with the biggest effect on me was Wii-Fit. 20 kg lost, many compliments from co-workers. Enough said.

....holy sh... that's like 40 pounds. How long did it take you?

you're the only person i know who actually lost a single anything from wii fit.

150 days. But I combined Wii-Fit with a strict diet. And because of my job, I could only train on weekends.

You sir need to post your before and after pics to Nintendo. Be the next diet the Nintendo diet, screw subway! Make a milly and than quit your job.

3000 hours? Does it have that much content? That's insane - comparible to my WoW time.

On topic, ummmm.... no... no games at all... (I wish)