What's the greatest joy you have gotten from a video game?

I've probably played an uncomfortable amount of FF7 to most. During covid, I recently became single so I decided to find some like-minded discord communities to pass that time. I met someone who was streaming FF7. I hopped into the stream and kicked it off with explaining how to get a golden chocobo to reach the final red materia. We're married now and have a dog :D

Staying up all night playing GoldenEye.

24 hour Civ 5 marathon with beer and the boys in my college days.

Meeting my wife on Elder Scrolls Online has got to be number one, but we didn't even play the game very long to be honest lol.

KOTOR. just existing in a Star Wars world and becoming a Jedi. really have no idea why we can't have another Jedi RPG, do you not like money Disney?

Playing Halo co-op with my wife.

I don't know if these are the most joy but some good memories.

When I first saw Mario 64 in Toys R Us I was awestruck. Just unbelievable. Mario in 3D.

When I was playing Ocarina of Time I was hunting Poes in Hyrule field on Epona. I fell asleep because it was late. When I woke up the game was still running. Nothing overheated. Nothing killed me in game. No loud jarring noises. I wasnt late for anything. I just woke up and started hunting Poes again.

A friend and I were staying up late playing one of the early Kings Quest games where you can dial a 900 number to help you if you got stuck. This was back when save points were maybe once every 10 minutes if you're lucky. We had gotten to a really verbose riddle that we were supposed to have found a clue for earlier in the game but missed it. We just figured out the riddle and guessed it on the first try. It was an unbelievable triumph.

Wandering around in Morrowind before I really knew what I was doing, being happy just to find a few coins in a tree stump or a crappy dagger.

Other games have given more extreme emotions. But no other game has instilled such a joyous sense of wonder.

Rock Band 2. Bladder of Steel achievement playing with a full band of 4 (locally).

It's playing the entire setlist of 84 or so songs all the way through in one sitting. Without pausing or failing.

We did it with all instruments on Medium, but we did it! (I could pass anything on Expert, but maybe not all the way through. My friends were borderline Hard players at best, so Medium was the only way we'd ever be able to do it together)

Once when I was 8, a friend brought over his PS1 and Metal Gear Solid. We played pranks on the guards in the zone that has a bathroom using claymores and Nikita missiles and called snake the Toilet Stalker. Peak 8 year old humor, I couldn't breathe from laughing.

Another in High school, visited my older sister in the dorms and the boy floors were having a massive halo Lan party since all the rooms were connected. I had never played a console shooter before but the guys were really welcoming and wanted me to join anyways. One match came down to a 1v1 with me and one of the good players, I almost got him with the sniper but lost. I wasn't too bummed but afterwards everyone on the floor cheered me up. I stomped the same guy later that night in warcraft 3 and that one felt good.

Getting to the top of the mountain in Celeste. It may not be the hardest challenge in the game (screw you Farewell), but just arriving there with the soundtrack swelling felt so good.

Completing the golden path in Tunic.

Any number of silly things in FFXI that at the time probably felt immensely important.

Mass Effect, almost certainly with plenty of honourable mentions to other games.

Peak is the Dramatic Scene at the end of ME1 after the final boss. Really really moved by events on Tuchunka and Rannoch.

Favourite moment outside Mass Effect, JC Denton saying "You're gonna burn, alright"

Not too long after it came out I was good at Siege and I mean good I was ranked in the top 1000 players and I thought that was pretty badass. I got a DM from some guy who was like "Hey I'm from TEAM and we wanted to know if you wanted to try out for our Siege squad?" I said thanks but no thanks, I have a mortgage and a full time and then some job. I dont want to take on the obligation.

I then went and googled the team, I was being courted by serious professional players. I still decided I didnt want that headache but as someone who has always been an underachiever it was like an IRL achievement popup or a level up notification. Like... look what I can achieve when I actually give a fuck and put the work in.

The Second Dream quest from Warframe

Far cry 2 team Deathmatch first team to 100 kills win on clearcut.

I got 55 of the required kills and was banned from using the 50cal sniper on all future games.

Dialing in to a local BBS to play 4-player deathmatch DooM 2, circa 1995.

Finishing Mass Effect 3. Multiple times :)

Smashing and being smashed with my mates at worms with couch-coop

Multiplayer halo 2 across the LAN in my house

LAN party instagib ctf 1 hour 0-0 and winning it in overtime

Rocking a battlefield 2/3/4 server online with a squad of mates all using voice comms, and nobody playing a sniper

I love gaming

Portal and Portal 2 are some of my all-time favorite games. They’re about the only games I enjoy watching other people play, primarily when they’re playing for the first time—it kind of lets me relive that wonder of the first play through. Going through those with my stepdaughter (only 10 at the time) not long after I married her mom was a highlight of my life and really helped us form our own bond. As we progressed through I realized that chamber 17 was going to be rather traumatic for her because she was going to absolutely love the weighted companion cube, so we stopped playing for a few days while I ordered a stuffed weighted companion cube and gave it to her right after the level. As we neared the end of the game I explained to my wife about the Cake. She owned a bakery at the time and we presented kiddo with a cake like the one seen at the end of the game when she won. We did Portal 2 as well, me watching as she played the solo campaign and then we did the co-op together. I’d highly recommend it for any parent who likes gaming to share these with your kids.

Growing up:

• playing Perfect Dark either story coop or battle simulator with my best friend or brother
• getting totally immersed in Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask
• Silent Hill 2 and 3 with best friend
• playing Star Craft online until way too late, also with best friend
• not only joy maybe, but FFX was very memorable for me
• organising Xbox lan parties at our house playing 16 player death matches in Halo

Adult:

• Getting a Switch totally re-ignited my gaming passion. Having a full time work and family it is hard to find the time to sit down and focus on a game, the Switch with its quick sleep/on/off and tv/mobile feature changed that. I felt like a teenager again when I lost track of time (usually late at night) while playing Breath of the Wild and the Xenoblade series
• FFXIV and getting immersed once again in a game world

I don't track or rank joy like that, but discovering the dark world in The Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past is definitely up there. Just realising the world had this whole extra dimension to it.

I still love dimensionality / hidden depth in games.

I mean, who doesn't?

One day a couple of months after World of Warcraft Burning Crusade came out I was woken up by my friends playing the game. I had left on either Teamspeak or Ventrilo the night before and about 3-4 friends jumped on the following morning. I signed on soon after that and played for hours.

I think that's the last time I've been woken up by people whom I like and immediately began the day with a group activity that involved joy.

the ending of outer wilds, figuring out that the treasure really was the friends we made along the way, will always stand out to me as the most magnificent, joy-filled moment in my 25+ year gaming experience.

that, or getting the cool sunglasses in fez.

Red Dead Redemption, when crossing into Mexico for the first time and the sun starts setting and Far Away by Jose Gonzalez starts playing. That shit blew my mind.

Life is Strange, with the final decision of Bae vs Bay. It made me quit the game for two days before I came back and decided (Bae forever). I love a good, story-impactful decision. That might be weird in this context, but it was so great, and that enjoyment came entirely from the game.

Hard to say what’s the absolute best one, but some highlights:

Finale of Ace Attorney Justice for All; when you finally have the change in circumstances needed to pin the real killer and send them into a genuine panic.

Pizza Tower, final boss third phase: When Peppino sees that Pizza Face is sending him a Boss Rush, and flips his shit, annihilating each boss at lightning speed.

Ghost Trick, Phantom Detective: The final “4 minutes before death”, and multiple last revelations

Most of these are memories of story-driven moments nailed in by very solid soundtracks, which has very much convinced me how important music is to these games.

Kerbal Space Program: progression from being unable to get a rocket into orbit, to collecting a surface sample from all 5 of Jool's moons in a single launch

In 2005 I was playing Final Fantasy XI Online and met a group of 5 Japanese players in an expansion area. We wound up partying together for 8 hours straight. They all spoke English in chat for my sake, and we had an incredible rhythm together. We discussed new anime and a few English cartoons that had recently made it to Japan. We took a selfie together at the end of the 8 hours. It was the best gaming experience of my life. I'll never forget it.

Top 3, no order (can't pick):

Anytime a SoulsBorne game clicks, especially Sekiro

Winning a really tight match of Rocket League against people at a similar or higher skill level

Playing split screen Freedom Fighters with my buddy back in the day. It got so competitive we started taping cardboard on the screen to prevent screen-peeking

Red dead redemption 2 really made me feel thankful for experiencing the story. It was a different kind of joy but it was very sad too.

When I finished my first run of Subnautica, something definitely came over me. I ran around in my base cleaning up, I organized all my spare food and water in a cabinet "for the next person stranded here," I released the fish in my alien containment, said farewell to my cuddlefish, parked my Seamoth in the moon pool, turned the lights out in the Cyclops, the whole bit. An amazing adventure was at an end.

I was in the military and we had this big conference table that could fit a good 12 people at. About once a month our boss would give us the key for the weekend and we'd play Unreal Tournament, Quake 3, and Red Alert 2 for 12-18 hours straight while pounding back Mountain Dew Code Red.

Playing Solasta. Our D&D group had fallen apart, and we just didn't seem to be able to get a new game together. Solasta scratched that D&D itch like no game before it has. My wife got really into it, too, so we ended up adventuring for hundreds of hours together.

I once stole 20 billion Isk from a guy in Eve Online. I was hard for days.

Probably local multiplayer with friends at school, like the DS and PSP, used to love playing Mario Kart and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite with others

• Getting to the final boss of persona 3 as my first SMT game, feeling actually scared irl, fighting it for over an hour and then getting wiped out when it had zero pixels of hp bar left. The party AI was sabotaging me and I was coming up with new strategies in real time to counteract it, it was great
• The final dungeon of FFIV-2 (yes I agree most of the game is shit). I had to finish it in one night because it was the end of spring break and I was driving back to college the next day. My real world scheduling was good but I didn't plan for it to be the longest final dungeon in FF history. Luckily this was the best part of the game and I played for 12 hours until sunrise, delirious while taking down the final boss and getting to see the credits roll.

In college, quake 3 arena came out about a month into school. My roommate and I stayed up all night playing together. That was when we moved from roommates to friends.

Beating Link’s Awakening as a kid. No internet no hints or help just hours of exploring when I was stuck on a puzzle. It’s so hard for me to get lost in a video game like that now and not just reach for an answer or check the internet to see what I’m doing wrong. It’s a shame now, I know links awakening now like the back of my hand and I’ll never get to explore a first play through of that game ever again.

Flawlessly clearing Genichiro in Sekiro was deeply satisfying. Parry parry parry, dodge, mikiri counter. Don't think I got hit once.

Okami. That game was an absolute joy to play and the visuals and music were beautiful. My wife even mentioned that I seemed calmer and relaxed while playing it.

Going to a big tf2 LAN in England and watching the games with a crowd of people that shared in the love for that game.

Made me realize for the first time why some people obsess over sports.

Passing the controller around the room playing God of War 3 on Wednesday nights.

Most recent one I can rememver was beating Tears of The Kingdom. I was SO invested in the final boss battle and I got really emotional. I was so immersed I was basically vocally taunting the boss for everything they had done. Only other time that happened was with Cyberpunk 2077 and only because of Edgerunners.

Then in the past (jesus has it really been more than 17 years??) the first time my buddy and I beat Halo 1 on Legendary after an all-nighter of gaming. That was awesome. Horrible smell in that room tho lmao.

At least in recent memory, it was Dragon's Dogma 2 teaching me that I could pick up and carry downed party members by having one of my party members pick up another one and bring them over to me. There's so much that's possible in DD2 that just isn't in a typical videogame, that throughout the entire experience I was mostly learning niche interactions from my other party members instead of my own experimentation. It was a really cool experience, and felt way more impactful then a text prompt just lecturing me about all the mechanics the game has.

Clutch team killing in Rainbow Six Siege. A rare occurrence but so much adrenaline.

Hillcrest in The Last of Us 2. Never have I had so much fun trapping and hunting people down. It really brings out the psycho killer energy.

A few years back, testing out new zombie infection game mode in indie VR FPS, 12 of us on the server including the dev. I'm last man standing, everyone else is infected, making scary zombie noises as I pick them off with my trusty bow and arrow. I eventually succumb to the inevitable and get piled on, they're all too distracted making brain eating noises to notice the martyrdom grenade fall to the floor...

That was peak gaming for me.

I was probably 10 when my best friend (at the time) and I would play Super Contra on the NES for hours. We loved everything about it. We'd get as far as we could. We'd give each other lives. We could sing the soundtrack. When it was game over, we just restarted it.

Those days were simple and beautiful. I don't think another game could give me anything like that experience, since it wasn't really entirely about the game.

Actually learning to fight effectively in kingdom come deliverance.

Or maybe beating those swarm motherfuckers in the first homeworld... First 2 examples that come to mind.

There are too many. Completing Lode Runner on my C64. Playing the Oregon Trail as a kid and making silly names 'Tit face has died of dysentery'. The first time I played Sonic on my megadrive on Christmas day 1991. Playing Wonder Boy on my game gear for hours with my little bro. Crash Team Racing or FIFA tournaments (any FIFA after 16 is rubbish) on PS1 with my mates. Playing Echochrome on the PS3 on LSD. When the nuke exploded in Modern Warfare 2. Playing through Inside in one go in the dark by myself. Winning a PS5 in a raffle the day after my xbox1 died.

When I beat Grim Fandango.

It was bitter-sweet, because you ::: spoiler have to leave one of your companions behind, him being a spirit of the land; while you ride off to the land of eternal rest with your new love interest spoiler :::

I think nfsu2, we got it for christmas and played it for 2 full days in a row.

But tbh i still remember my playlist (flyleaf - i'm so sick/ fully alive, hinder - wings of an angel, Marilyn Manson - the beautiful people, a perfect circle, Korn and a couple others) i used while playing wow for the first time when you could get to lvl30 within a certain trial period. Definitely been hooked for some time but never made it to lvl cap nor did i get sny good gear.

Skyrim gobbled up the most hours of any game.

But i think wow really offered the best escape of real life back then for me, which is my main drive for playing games.

Being able to do the right thing and actually getting rewarded for it is a thing that keeps me coming back to videk games.

Real life isn't really like that most of the time. It will drain you completely, eat all your good intentions and shit you out the other end completely drained and empty handed.

Rank, taking out 2 full teams while my dead teammates watched and cheered. With health that even a sneezed would kill me.

My hands were shaking and my heart rate high AF, fucking diamond Apex.

Probably back on dota1 before matchmaking and meta and all that crap, you could play any hero in any role on any lane and everyone was mostly just having fun

Vermintide 2 dlc where Saltzpyre gets a piglet as a hat. Best goddamn $5 I've ever spent on dlc. His little legs and his butt wiggle around when you move and ofc the purity seals are on point.

Also way back in DCUO when fire tank was busted AF I kept summoning fireballs that I would then Chuck into my buddy trying his best to actually complete whatever task we were doing.

Also Also max difficulty helldivers 2 against the robots on Mavelon Creek. It was a struggle to survive more than 10 seconds out of the drop pod and it was some of the funniest shit I've ever played.

Ace Combat 4 and 5 both made me feel awesome, then sad, then vengeful, and then awesome in their campaigns. They start as casual arcade styles, throw in some grief, grow the antagonists' justification, then the skies start speaking Latin and you systematically destroy some megabase. I was fairly young, so now sad Spanish guitar riffs cause me grief when thinking about Yellow 4 and 13. Is that joy? The memory of a fairly casual arcade game weaving in a heartfelt tragic war story?

At risk of making this my only personality trait, Far Cry 2's desert at night was a treat for me. I seek out similar experiences in real life now. It didn't necessarily create that desire, but it was my first open world game, if I remember correctly. It didn't make me jump for joy, it just made me feel serene.

I'm sure it was driven by the memes, but Portal 1 gave me a great sense of accomplishment. It was mild reaction skill with some decent logic puzzles. The build up, the turn, the fight, the final song. Quite a trip.

Overall most joy might go to Forza Horizon 1. First open world Forza title, first (for me?) open world racing game with decent driving mechanics, excellent variety of cars, hit me at my peak interest in house music and other EDM, showed me Colorado scenery I'd see IRL 10 years later, and the campaign was focused around the Woodstock of a [cars X EDM] festival. I wish that was real and I wish the scene would be respectful. But, unfortunately, you can't control 300 drivers and prevent them from one-upping each other and making it dangerous and disrespectful. And you gotta pay for parking everywhere nice. See: h2o, ocean city Maryland.

I think my purest moment of gaming bliss was experiencing completely blind the last handful of worlds in Super Mario Odyssey while buzzed with a few whiskeys. God, my soul was in orbit with that experience. Pure, unfettered joy and whimsy through and through and cinematically epic when it wanted to be. I wouldn't call it the best game ever or even my favorite game ever, but god damn it, it struck me just right way at just the right time. It was something truly special.

More games I will cherish will certainly follow, and have followed. But for that specific set of vibes and circumstances, I don't know if I'll ever top that peak from playing a video game ever again.