I’m thankful for Steam. I had to quit comics years ago due to lack of time and closet space. Steam’s role in making digital common and affordable helped make it possible to keep on gaming without the hassle of physical media storage overhead. Yes, there are other compromises involved but digital and sales transformed my ability to keep a toehold on gaming and the updated classics.
Also thankful for the bundle sites and Amazon for likewise building such comfortable prisons for digital content.
I am thankful for Tom Clancy’s The Division. In an age where I am too jaded and thus, my interest level for a game became very shallow, I am surprised that this game manage to hook me hard in the past 4 months when I bought it after a free weekend. The game is beautiful, truly a one of a kind for a open world, much more than GTA V (to me) and the game play, while nothing special, was very enjoyable to me. I didn’t realise I like cover-base shooting, having not played any console game in the past. I am also thankful that there are still players around, so it was still relatively easy to look for a group and start playing some of the more challenging missions.
Here’s hoping that I will like the DLCs when I am done with the base game to extend many more hours.
I am also definitely thankful for Qt3 - great place to discuss games and technical issues…
Feeling a lot to be thankful for these days, and really appreciating the little things in life.
Even though I haven’t yet played them, I’m incredibly thankful that these games exist, which are finally opening up worlds more interesting than even my beloved Ultima series provided (and promised we’d have far before now):
And I have very high hopes for Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, which looks like substantially improved over the original, in a more interesting setting. Between this coming out and Divinity Original Sin 2 already available, it reminds me of when Pool of Radiance came out at the same time as Ultima V - two games similar is some respects, but one more of a world simulator while the other has a deeper RPG development system.
And thankful for kind people, including everyone here. Except Geryk.
This year I’m specially thankful for Breath of the Wild. It brought back feelings of discovery and awe I had not had playing a game in probably decades, and it also helped me go through a pretty nerve wracking period.
I’m also thankful for Blood Bowl 2, for being a great 23 years old game that is still relevant design wise, but mostly for letting me keep in touch with my friends overseas.
qt3 offers a better, deeper gameplay experience than any game I’ve ever played. And it spans decades.
I am thankful to Humble Bundle for the wide array of choices I have for games on my steam list. I am also grateful for all the great updates that Titan Quest keeps getting.
I was very thankful for the Gameshark podcast. It was an awesome companion.
I am thankful for this independant publishing golden age. It was so hard to hunt down the indies and ways to purchase them outside o the country they originated from (often the US) merely 10 years ago. All of this is now so easy.
You broke the chain of the topic :(
Be thankful for levity.
I’m most of all thankful for my mother, who gave me a Gameboy when I was just a little kid, and who never made me think that girls shouldn’t play video games.
The same goes for my cousins and male friends that let me play with them throughout my entire childhood.
Especially two childhood friends who really opened up the gaming world for me: one of who I spent hours and hours and hours playing Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within, Doom and some kind of dungeon fantasy game I can’t remember the name of, and the other who I spent an entire night playing Golden Eye, Leisure Suit Larry and GTA 1.
I’m thankful for The Sims and all the waking hours I spent killing people in various ways in my teens.
I’m thankful for the break I took from gaming when I thought I couldn’t enjoy it anymore.
I’m grateful for my sisters boyfriend who convinced a reluctant me to try Diablo III one weekend I spent with them, that started up my love for gaming again after a long break.
I’m enormously thankful for my friends who all pitched in and gave me a PS4 for my 30th birthday last year.
I’m thankful for my friend who suggested I try The Witcher 3 that just totally blew me away, which also led me to QT3 because I desperately googled “What to play after Witcher 3”.
I’m thankful for a rather awkward one night stand I had some time ago with a guy that I’d rather have as a friend, who showed me Dragon Age: Inquisition the day after, a game that I spent a pretty depressed period of my life with. It just kept me happy and in love when I didn’t have much else to be happy or excited about.
I’m thankful for another friend who lent me his old XBOX 360 when my PS4 broke down and 14 different games, and among them: the Mass Effect trilogy that both mended and broke my heart and took my love for games to an even higher level (plus showed me that I didn’t hate games in outer space after all).
I’m thankful that my sister grew up to love games just like me and that she convinced me to play Borderlands 2 online with her and it is just so much more fun than I imagined.
Wow. This actually made my day. Thanks for making me remember all the good stuff! I mean, I’m pretty much always thankful and happy when it comes to games, but it’s good to really think about how great it is from time to time =)
Great idea for a thread!
What games am I thankful for?
First category: Retro games on retro platforms
(1) Elite on my Spectrum 48K. I was IN THE WORLD and badass with my eventual Elite rating - even though I was a pimply, insecure schoolkid when I played it. I was stuck home from school with Chickenpox for two weeks and literally ate and slept by my computer playing that game.
(2) Carrier Command on my Atari ST. First I was simply blown away my parents let me upgrade from my spectrum. And what an upgrade it was! Carrier Command was smooth as butter on the Atari (OK, so probably 5-6 FPS in reality back then. But that was smooth for “shaded 3D vector graphics” as they called it back in the day!
(3) DOOM on the PC. I was a Uni Student and playing shareware with my buds. We drove about 100km to buy the game and the shop proprietor mentioned sternly there was demonic content. We promptly bought two copies. Good times!
Second Category: More recent games
(1) Crusader Kings 2. That game just makes me happy. It’s friggin’ awesome and never gets old. May the annals of history celebrate the fact I have never been in a position of any real power.
(2) Dishonored Franchise. This franchise blows my socks off with its styling and world building. I know I am not supposed to dwell on sad things but the allegedly muted critical reception for Dishonored 2 makes me want to shake people and ask “What is wrong with you? Are you unable to experience pure, unadulterated joy?”
(3) Reborn XCOM Franchise. Never played the original, but have loved the reboot of the series and every incarnation of it. I have yet to play WOC - I have saved that as a Christmas present for myself.
(4) Modern Elite in VR
I AM IN THE WORLD. Finally. 'nuff said.
Third Category: Games I think I will be thankful for and am looking forward to playing soon during the XMAS break (no Thanksgiving here unfortunately).
DOS 2, HOI4, XCOM WOC, Wolfenstein 2… Life is good.
The Dominions series. It was also responsible for guiding me here to this community back while Dominions 2 was current, so it will be hard to beat that.
I could also throw Everquest in there for showing me that establishing and nurturing friendships online can be possible.
Am currently greatful for devs making challenging games that are not graphics intensive.
Will be greatful when daughter one graduates from college and daughter two is out of braces. Then I will buy a new computer and play all these fancy pants games that you all recommend.
Am also greatful for this community.
I’m thankful for Kelan for hosting an Ark: Survival Evolved server. And for kono and barstein and ragan (dunno his QT3 handle) being so helpful in-game. My little one and I are enjoying our time there. What could be better than bonding over dinosaurs?
I’m thankful for the wide variety of deck-builder card games out there, which are amazing both for playing with my buddies at the bar and for playing async online games, filling in an odd few moments here and there throughout the day.
I’m thankful for Gang Beasts, which had my whole extended family in tears laughing at the sheer chaos.
I’m also thankful for Halo 1-4 which brought the magic of a whole house full of kids playing networked split-screen fun to my sons and many of their classmates. Thanks @Mike_Cathcart for inviting me to play many years ago so I could pass it along to them!
I want to second this. Qt3 and MacRumors are the only two forums I participate in. I love that on Qt3 I can ask for advice on games, and how to fix my snowblower.
What a great topic this time of year!
I’m thankful for QT3, though I have floated in and out in my use of this site, it remains far and above the friendliest, and best feeling game site I’ve been to.
I’m thankful to Tom as well, as a reviewer that made me think and pause and reflect, as a gamer that laughed and smiled along with your stories of the Tom vs Bruce episodes, and as a site owner that gave me the ability to share so many different stories along with others of a similar hobby.
As far as games, I’m thankful to the semi-recent games that opened my eyes to things I wasn’t used to before. First, Minecraft, for making what I thought was a simple, child like building game, but what ended up as one of the best modded and amazing diverse gaming environments in recent history. Second, Stardew Valley, a gem of a vision that simply allows me to game and be happy for considerable lengths of time, with no pressure or worries. And third, Kerbal Space Program, for taking an awesome theme of getting to space, but making it both a learning tool and fun way to enjoy the wonderment of flight and space.
I’m thankful for this thread. And the giveaway thread. And I’m thankful for this community.
I think I’d be okay without games; and I’m thankful for that. Finally, I’m thankful that there are cherries on the top of life satisfaction (e.g. games) including the ones that have made me smile over the last year: Xcom2 WOTC, GW2 PoF, Path of Exile, Nioh, Bloodborne, and a few more.
Such a pleasure reading this thread :)
I am thankful for CD Projekt’s continued insistence on fulfilling my teenage dreams, first in letting me explore beautiful Sapkowski’s world in glorious detail and as Geralt no less, and in the future for letting me (hopefully) explore fleshed out cyberpunk world.
Then I am thankful to Obsidian and its predecessor Black Isle and Troika for creating the greatest interactive experiences ever.
Also, thanks Tom for this site and forum. Been here for almost a decade now, time flies.
At the moment I am thankful for GT Sports terrific execution of online racing, which I’m enjoying very much. Using a wheel has also alleviated a lot of my thumb pain so I am thankful for that (I think controllers were aggravating my injury).
In general I am thankful for gaming since it offers a pretty decent stress relief for me in life.