Games you're thankful for (Thanksgiving thread - No negativity allowed)

A few years ago when William Abner was on the Qt3 Games podcast, he cross promoted the fact that Tom had been on the Jumping the Shark podcast. So I decided to check out the podcast. Only Tom had been on so many episodes! Where to start? The earliest podcast I could find where Tom had been on was the Thanksgiving episode. And their rule in that episode was that you can’t have any negativity. And that made for a really fun episode. I continued to listen to all their shows until people started leaving the show, but that episode was my favorite, and I always thought that was a great idea for a Qt3 thread. But every year Thanksgiving comes and goes, and I always keep forgetting to make that thread.

But not this year!

So what aspect of gaming, or which games are you thankful for? And remember, no negativity!

I’m thankful for Path of Exile which re-awakened my love for Diablolike gaming.

Also thankful for everyone at QT3, my home on the net.

Special shout out to fire for her Secret Santa work.

I’m thankful for the landscape and architecture artists at Ubisoft.

I am thankful for Mass Effect Andromeda. The fact that this game, which feels more or less tailor made for me, even exists. I know the rough edges and odds and ends make it an off-putting game for most folks, or at best a flawed experience for many others. But for me, I love all the parts that came together to ultimately create the end product. And if it’s the last Mass Effect I ever get, I’ll be thankful I at least got this.

I’m thankful for LOGistICAL for providing me a relaxing yet still compelling gaming experience where I don’t have to worry about losing.

I’m thankful for Titanfall 2 for BT-7274 (Cooper is okay too).

I’m thankful for Freespace 2. Still the best space dogfighting game, but also a platform for more content thanks to the release of its source code. It’s truly my desert island game.

Most of all I’m thankful for the people on the Internet who keep older games going. Whether it’s emulating an entire game (Jumpgate, Star Wars Galaxies), getting older games like Klingon Academy working at all on newer operating systems, or enhancing existing games via HD or widescreen patches, for example, it’s just amazing to see what creative gamers can do to keep these games alive.

I’m thankful for Goulash Bridge. Best card game ever, and something that my friends and I bonded with.
I’m thankful for Risk. Terrible game in many ways, but still a great time waster with a lot of friends.
I’m thankful for Karateka. More to the point, I’m thankful that the developers put in a deadly kick you’re absolutely deserving of should you be a jerk at the end; games truly are educationnal.
I’m thankful for Civ. It’s soaked up countless hours of my life in its many iterations, and I’ve thankfully managed to not have my life completely wrecked in its wake.
I’m thankful for baseball, in all its glory. I miss playing in my “old age,” but the pure joy of it has never left me.

I’m thankful for Divinity original sin 2, the modern day Ultima that I’ve secretly craved for 20 years.

I’m thankful for the indie developers who break away from the same old stuff and create oddball niche games like, ummm, Niche and Space Tyrant

I am thankful that I can still spend a rainy day completely entranced by Brian Reynold’s masterpiece, Alpha Centauri.

Thanks, Brian!

I also am thankful for the XCOM reboots. XCOM:EU and EW were incredible. How could they beat that? Of course with XCOM 2 and WOTC. Between them I have over 2000 hours of play. And I still play WOTC. Amazingly addictive. Some of my favorite games ever.

Oh and many thanks for an iPhone port of XCOM EU. Playing that as well. A lot.

I’m thankful for Super Mario Odyssey, Magic: The Gathering (which might even end up being relevant to Thanksgiving itself, if my brother pulls through with what he’s supposed to be bringing), and the weird and cool DOS games I’ve been trying this week, including Dune and Vigilance on Talos V.

I bought our family a PS4 for Christmas, and my kids are finally old enough (7 & 11) to be able to really play games. I have also learned that the PS4 version of Goat Simulator has 4-player split screen coop. We’re going to have fun next month.

I am thankful for Stardew Valley. It’s beautiful, rich and touched the past as well as offered something new while bringing to life a genre that had gone stagnant for years.

I am thankful for Don’t Starve Together This is probably the game that really opened indie games to me, gave me cooperative play out of the blue and just really surprised me in a great way.

I am thankful for Pathfinders Adventures because it’s really the first full mobile experience I’ve enjoyed.
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Lastly I am thankful for all the games I don’t like and the players that play them because diversity is good and we keep getting good and sometimes unexpected surprises from that mix.

I’m thankful for DOSBox. I will never have to give up my old favorites.

I’m thankful for diversity too, and to all of you who have persuaded me to go outside of my comfort zone and get into genres I would have avoided in the past.

I’m thankful for RimWorld - I have tried to play Dwarf Fortress over and over again, but have always given up in frustration, knowing I was missing out on a great game. RimWorld opened the door for me, and let me experience what I had been missing out on.

I’m thankful for EverQuest which gave me my first start at a decent run of freelance writing for PC Gamer. when then lead to general tech freelance writing.

I’m thankful for Naughty Dog. Their games alone made my PS4 purchase worth it.

I’m thankful for QT3, which exposed me to dozens of great games I would have never run into. I’m also thankful for the intelligent community, in a sea of idiots that is the internet.

Oh god yes very much so.

I’m thankful for Bayonetta 2, Splatoon, Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze, and Super Mario Maker for validating my WiiU purchase. Sure, there are tons more games I’ve played on the system that I’ve enjoyed, but these delivered the most consistent enjoyment over time (and haven’t appeared on Switch just yet). Fantastic games all around.

I’m thankful to Hearthstone for being a game my wife loves to play along with me. We’ve been gaming together for years, but this one is on mobile devices too, so we don’t have to go dig out controllers/batteries or move to the office PCs and such. Plus, they’re constantly adding hundreds of new cards a year to help keep things fresh for us. One of those rare games we don’t have to set aside a whole bunch of time to play.

I’m thankful for nude modders everywhere for helping to make Saints Row the Third and Skyrim amazing and hilarious experiences.

I’m thankful for Age of Wonders III for delivering the best fantasy 4x experience I’ve ever had.

I’m thankful to Lords of Magic for giving me a soundtrack I’ve listened to literally hundreds of times over the years. Nearly every time I play some new RPG or Fantasy game I’ll mute its own crappy music and play this instead. My favorite game soundtrack that just keeps delivering.

The Dominions series. It is the reason I am thankful for Sweden. That and Carl von Mannerheim.