MFGT! - (OVER)

[Michael]

It's Mutha Fuggen Giveaway Time!


Rules -


1. Share your most memorable video gaming experiences, and how they changed your life (or didn't, idc) here in this thread.
2. I favor creative writing - u can do eet!
3. Only one post per person. If you need to change anything, edit your original post and mark it as to why or what you changed.
4. Everything is FREE (including shipping!)
5. Deadline is Tuesday, April 21st @ 10AM Pacific Time - winners will be announced on April 22nd


What is available:

1. Topre Gamer Set - Juicy Fruit Red (Trans)
2. Topre Gamer Set - Juicy Fruit Green (Not pictured yet, Trans)
3. Buckling Spring Juicy Fruit Orange V2 (Trans)
4. Ripe Orange Bronin V1 (Buckling Spring)
5. Home Row Topre Set - Powder Puff Purple
6. Home Row Topre Set - Powder Puff Pink


Good luck, and have fun!

[Synjin]

Placeholder

[justify]

As a child my parents hated my gaming habits, many hours were spent after school on my xbox 360 (that they cleverly bought me), as opposed to completing homework and chores to make them happy.


One day I was sitting in my room, I had just gotten xbox live and loved playing my favourite game which was PGR 4, I had just unlocked a game mode called bulldog which was a hide and seek 'tag' type of gamemode, except with cars. The scummy child I was I always hopped up into glitches (using a motor bike) so I could be the last one alive, then hop down from the glitch and the lobby vs. me chase ensued. These glitches could only be done on certain maps, so I took it upon me to get the host of the lobby to switch a glitchable map. There was only 2 people talking in the lobby, that was me, and another English speaking person, the host had no mic. I would keep saying ‘Las vegas, las vegas! (Which was the best map to glitch on), to try get the host to somewhat hear what I was saying and get the message that was to change the map to las vegas. I wasn’t a complete scummy guy, so some games I didn’t glitch. A few games go by, exhilarating times were had, I was still avid to get onto a map I could glitch on to have the most amount of fun before I had to go to bed. On my very last game, I noticed something different, something that I drew my eyes to in happiness. The host had put his mic in, teriffic! I can just ask him to change the map then I can have fun! I ask him, “Please change the map to Las Vegas”, a brief time passes, the host says something, but I can’t make it out, so I ask him to repeat, he proceeds to talk, but it’s in a different language, I feel crushed. I realise that it’s Spanish, and I only knew basic French in my time at primary school. I keep saying “Las vegas, las vegas!” but to no success did I play las Vegas. As a child my life wasn’t soaked in gaming completely, I read numerous knowledge books, and some had little quotes in different languages. As the lobby was about to start a spark went off, one of those quotes said something like “my favourite place is ___” in 3 languages, French, Italian, and Spanish. This guy was Spanish, maybe this will work! I dig out the book in a moments pace, quickly skimming each page to find the quote, I couldn’t find it! I searched at the back, found the category, and went to that respective page, there it was! The quote I was looking for,  I pick up the book, pause a few moments to gather my thoughts on how I was going to say this quote I had never said before, and in my squeaky broken English voice, say “mi lugar favorito es las vegas” (my favourite place is Las Vegas). A few seconds pass, nothing happens, about 10 seconds later in broken English, I simply hear ‘OK’ down the microphone. The lobby map was changed from whatever it was, to las vegas. My plan worked! I felt victorious, flooded with happiness, I was then able to get into the glitch, and got back down once all the other lobby members were caught, and the chase has just begun.


My first interaction with a foreigner who I could not understand, I felt like I had made a friend. It may sound pathetic but it’s something I will never forget, just a simple ‘ok’ made it feel like I was being understood, small things like that made me appreciate that not everyone knew the same language that I did, and that I should respect them for that.

[Latin00032]

Waa!

[intelli78]

PLACEHOLDER

[tokidokijake]

It was the summer of 2002. I had just begun playing baseball in college with the goal of becoming a professional ballplayer. My life had revolved around sports and especially baseball since I was around 6 years old. Luckily for me, my friends were a very eclectic bunch of guys and came from all walks of life. While I had sports, they had video games.

In stereotypical jock fashion, I thought them playing games was the most nerdy **** possible and had negative desire to participate. As time passed, I would become frustrated at the long hours of baseball practice. Tired and beat up from the daily grind, I often would reach out to my friends to have some fun. Time after time they asked me to come with them to a LAN Cafe called "Digi zone". The sound of it was revolting but I was desperate for some escape and after multiple times refusing their invite, I eventually conceded late one Thursday night. Even now I remember thinking that going to digizone at 10pm that night was ludicrous. "Who the **** goes somewhere to play video games at 10 at night?" It was so out of my comfort zone I was completely lost to it all.

As we drove into the dimly lit parking lot, there were no other shops open. Just one corner spot with a blue and yellow neon lights glittering in the parkway. We headed in and to my amazement saw the place was jam packed. Over 30 people packed together like sardines, locked to their screens. It smelled like smoke and was loud with the rining of AK's and AWP shots. Minutes later my friends and I sat down on comps next to each other. As they explained the game to me I became lost in the sounds and cheers of people winning and losing. Round 1 came and I died before I even figured out how to buy a weapon. "What the hell just happened?" I asked. My buddy laughing, explained how the other teams players had reached me and killed me on the spot. My competitive drive kicked into overdrive and I wanted revenge. Round after round passed and I couldn't land a single frag until finally, that sweet, first ever, CS kill came. I've never done heroin, but I imagine that first kill was probably like someones first time shooting up.  I was hooked.

Not long after that night my life took a different path. I was soon done with baseball and transferring schools. My buddies and I formed a clan in Cal-Open and dubbed ourselves "Lovers". Night after night we played at digizone and in time, many of our fellow gamers became family. Family that longer after CS, and Final Fantasy 11, and WOW, and digizone disappeared, have remained strong. It lead me down a path where I learned to appreciate different walks of life, nerd culture, and new types of people. Without my friends and video games, I surely would be not the same person and have no idea where I would be now. That night taught me to look past what I know and venture into the unknown. That life is an exploration of worlds and the only one that can stop you from exploring it, is yourself. If you've taken the time to read all of this, I thank you. I know of many gamers who have had hard times in life but were comforted by friends, family, and games to get through it. I hope that if you are at a similar life stage now, that I was in at that time, you take my words and start exploring your own new avenues. They just might change your life.

Changed from placeholder. (Sorry about that!)

[billnye]

hahahah xd

[YoungMichael88]

Nice give away. I played ten or more hours straight on the same Pokemon Stadium mini game with Hoff and Halverson at the rape cabin. The sun set and came back up. We were catching eggs with chanseys and avoiding electrocution from voltorbs. We wanted to all finish with 100% in the same round on easy medium and hard. We almost did it! But I gave up after trying on hard difficulty for what seemed like forever. I'm not sure if I regret giving up or if I regret not giving up sooner. Either way, I'm glad we did it. I think. One thing is for sure tho, I will never get that night out of my brain. For better or for worse. So there you have it. A gaming story that ties in three GHers and 10+ hours straight that non of us will ever get back.

[sorijealut]

The fondest video game memory I have are those with my father or my cousins (though I confess, I never had any gaming talent when I was younger).
As a child, I can say that the best memories of gaming were from pre - PC gaming (in Korea it really came in full force with the introduction of online games such as Fortress, Worms, Starcraft).
The latter part of my console gaming (Gamecube, handhelds, Wii, and the like) seems to be a separate experience, one that was undeniably fun but not so memorable.
Thinking about why that is, it seems it has to do with sharing the game and sharing the space together. The best gaming was without the complications of today, distanced by the online experience, graphics, content and ratings.

I remember Sega Genesis, with a myriad of memorable games like Castle of Illusion that I played with my sister in Co-op (it was tuned so that we can play any games, region free). My father and I played DOOM on PC, Super Mario Bros. on SNES. We stomped on baddies together and my dad fought in the fiery castles on night's end to defeat Koopa.
Later on, he bought the N64 for me which in my mind left one of the biggest impressions of gaming. Finding and collecting all those stars... defeating Koopa in 3D and reliving the earlier Mario moments. Nothing can really match the kind of surprise that came with 3D gaming.
The Playstation was a masterpiece in itself... I did own one alongside a large library, but I think you can relate to me when I say that playing at your cousin's somehow doubled the fun. My cousin had these amazing Japanese copies of Megaman Legends, Chocobo Racing, Megaman Battle & Chase, Pepsiman... these games were incredibly fun and unlike anything I've seen before.

And so those are my favorite memories Today, it's rare that I find the excitement I had as a kid, but hopefully there's more gaming in the future that will leave me wide-eyed!

-Edited for some grammar-

[pesky brat]

A Light Shines Through the Darkness

Straight out of the asylum, I travelled to the land of the undead,
With nothing but my sword, my shield, and my hot, naïve head.
I drew my sword and swiftly advanced,
Upon the first living thing which caught my glance.
A warrior, crestfallen, was easy prey,
I swung, but his chainmail did not give way.
To my dismay, he arose without delay,
And quickly began to repay,
The damage I had conveyed.
Much to my surprise,
I quickly met my demise,
Which I soon found out was merely the first of many.
With difficulty I carried on,
Learning to approach with my shield drawn,
And to not underestimate my enemy,
To avoid inevitable catastrophe.
At the top of the tower, I encountered a white fog wall,
I walked through it, and immediately felt small,
As I gazed at the vast view of the world before me.
However, my awe could not last,
For while in the sunlight I basked,
A demon twice my size had descended,
With a hammer made of bone extended,
And it was clear what he had intended.
Quickly I rolled aside,
Searching in vain for a place to hide,
Until inevitably my flesh and his club did collide,
And I once again read the words, “You have died.”
After several attempts, I learned his attacks,
And was able to kill him dead in his tracks.
Feeling accomplished, I pushed ahead,
Soon meeting a fellow undead,
Staring at the sunset, red.
“Like a magnificent father,” he said without delay,
A glorious shrine to which he could always pray.
Although it did strike me as queer,
He made his purpose rather clear:
To obtain his own sun; his own radiant sphere.
Despite this unusual proposal, his friendliness was pleasant,
And he had even given me a lovely present:
The means to jolly cooperation in a cruel land,
Indeed, twas a gift most grand,
For who, at times, could not use a helping hand?
With a quick farewell, and a promise we would meet again,
I continued on, prepared to face any pain.
For what this man had taught me this day,
Was that friendship is the key to victory in any fray.

~~~

Sorry about the cheesy ending

The game is Dark Souls if you didn't know. Fantastic game, probably my favorite of all time. It is definitely difficult at first, but it is sooo satisfying to beat a boss after a dozen or more attempts. Anyway, this post feels like its getting long so I'll just wrap it up with a quick thank you to Bro Caps for doing this giveaway and a thank you to anyone who took the time to read this .

[Bromono]

The one game that has impacted my life more then any has to be...... Runescape... It has been years since I have played it. But I started playing in middle school with a friend, and I got to tell you, the stories I can tell from that game are endless. I have had some of the greatest moments playing that game and I have had some of the most frustrating nights as well.

But on one beautiful summer day, I spent about 10 hours working on my wood cutting skill. Was going for lv 99 and the money from cutting yew trees was pretty damn good. 10 FREAKING HOURS. The worst part though.. I finaly went to bed around 3 in the morning... I cut trees in my dreams for another 8 hours.. I woke up, took my dog for a walk and have never looked back since... **** that game..  I decided I would never let a game become an addiction like that ever again.

_{pking scrubs in the wild was fun though... Oh the memories}

[iamtootallforthis]

I have a few most memorable gaming experiences. One has to be when I was in 4th or 5th grade. I would go over to a friends house after school some days and play Unreal Tournament 2 on the XBox. I wasn't allowed to play violent games like that at my house, but damn did I love playing that game. We would sit there for hours me and my friend just playing that round after round.

Another memorable experience would have to be Runescape. It was my first major time sink of a game but damn was it fun to play with my friends in middle school. My mom would get so upset that I played for so long sometimes and would threaten to ground me if I didn't do something else after a few hours of playing. Me and my friends would all try to collectively level certain skills and compete in who could get a hold of the best armor at the time. I  miss that game sometimes just for the nostalgia.

Most fond gaming memory though has to be of Pokemon Red and my first Gameboy Color. I loved that thing and still have it to this day. I still remember my younger brother wiping my game at one point right after I had gotten to Mewtwo. I was livid, I'm pretty sure I cried some over that, but I loved getting to replay everything over again.

Thanks for doing this Bro! Loving that Orange Bronin.

[Michael]

I am about to make 'no placeholders' a rule 

[rainb1ood]

All my memorable gaming experience has been erased by this most current one. Met a bunch of awesome people in Guild Wars 2, ended up in their guild. We fought the #1 guild in NA, we lost hard. We picked ourselves up and after a month, we have beaten them 7 out of 7 rounds, to become the new #1 Guild NA.

Fast forward to today, looking forward to our first meetup this memorial day weekend.

[sethk_]

How Gaming Changed My Life:
Let's start out with the first game that started me out with actual gaming, Minecraft, AKA, my first money dump.

I started off by playing a cracked version of it, and felt bad, so I bought it, which is also where I got my username, about 5 years ago. From there, I found a nice and small server, and there I spent a lot of my time on Minecraft, easily getting 3k hours on it. I started donating on there for different perks, and making friends there that I also donated for. That is also where I got my interest for programming, as there were some bukkit mods that dealt with logic and some psuedo-coding. Some of the friends I made there I am still friends with today, which is pretty insane for me.

I then got into Steam from one of the players on there, so I started playing GMod, and I now have about 1.5k hours on GMod. I started off playing PERP with my IRL friend, and we got a couple hundred hours on there, and then eventually we switched to DarkRP, and then switched from RP to other gamemodes. One of the PERP communities we belonged to also had a Surf/DR server, so we tested that out, and it was extremely fun. From there is where I started playing a lot of games with people, and using skype to communicate. On that server I found friends that I still play with today, and they are pretty much the only people I play with. GMod ultimately became my second money dump, as I was donating a lot to the servers I played on, sometimes to just keep them running. Playing GMod really sparked my interest with servers, and had a huge influence to programming, as I enjoyed making servers and gamemodes.

From GMod, we all then switched to ARMA 2, where we played a couple hundred hours of Wasteland. Playing Wasteland with all of them really made me like gaming, as I would look forward to the weekends, just to play ARMA 2 for two days straight with them. We then transitioned to ARMA 3, which we haven't played too much of.

While we were still in a lingo between GMod and ARMA, some of us found CSGO, right when it was actually launched. This is where the biggest money dump has happened. After we were done with ARMA, we switched over to CSGO. When we started playing, there weren't any skins, and it was still very barebones, but it was still fun, and I think more enjoyable because you didn't have people playing it just for the skins. When the skins came out, I opened a lot of them, and the best item I ever got was less than 8 dollars, 1k dollars later...

So between all of our main games, and even talking when we haven't been gaming, has really brought us all close together. Between the main games we have played, there are around at least 3k hours of just playing together, not to mention the hours of skype calls when we weren't playing. One of our traditions is every Christmas break, we play games for anywhere from 24-48 hours straight, which seems pretty hard, but once you find a good gamemode, it isn't too hard. Gaming has really changed my life, and has brought me a sense of belonging, as I would say I am closer to my gaming friends than I am to my IRL friends.

[Joey Quinn]

Edit: Story time, takes place when I was 8-11

So I've never been a huge gamer, mostly because growing up my parents didn't allow my brother and I to have any console and our computer time was very limited. But I did have cousins that gamed quite a lot and I'd play as much as I could when I visited them. My cousin Becca has always been into everything Nintendo and she was the first person I knew with a good computer. Whenever my family would go to dinner with her family I'd hide pjs and my toothbrush it the car so I'd have a more persuasive argument to go home with her and spend the night. After dinner I'd reveal the hidden items to my parents and hope they'd say yes to the plan. Honestly looking back I probably looked like a moron but it was fun and let's face it we were all a bit dumb as kids. Hell I'm still pretty dumb (I'm 18 btw)
Anyways when we'd arrive at casa de Becca she'd boot up the computer and I'd start up the wii. One of us would start with Zoo Tycoon 1, which changed to Zoo Tycoon 2 when it was released, and the other would play Pokemon Rumble. While we played we'd snack on Coco Crunch and drink Hi-C out of juice boxes. Every so often we'd switch places and pick up where the other left off then when we got far enough in Rumbel to have some good pokemon we'd team up to beat bosses such. At this point in the night it's about 1am and Pokemon and Zoo Tycoon become boring so we switch to Animal Crossing because the rarer bugs are out and we want some monay! We were basically addicted to Animal Crossing so this would last until 5 or 6 when the sun would rise and the bugs would disappear at which point we'd start the Game Cube and begin to play Spyro. It wasn't a hard game but there were plenty of places to fool around and just laugh at ourselves. As soon as breakfast was served we'd turn off Spyro and crash for a few hours before I'd leave to go home.

I really loved the days I was able to spend doing this and I think it's one of the main reasons I love going to lan parties with my boys, just being sleep deprived and hyped on caffeine and sugar. Late nights playing games with Becca is what made me a gamer.

[Evo_Spec]

This is a story of a little sprite named Evo_Spec.
He was a wee little lad when he started to play this 2D side scrolling silly excuse for an MMO called MapleStory.

He started playing when the game was still in Beta and he had never really played anything like this before and unfortunately he was hooked.
He spent his days and nights on the game mostly alone since his friends were never really interested or didn't have computers to game with so he would often chat with random players.

That's when he met ZukaBunny.
To this day he's hot sure if she was really a girl but in his mind adolescent mind she was a cute hotty.
They got along really well and logged many hours grinding and chatting together having a great time, He took a liking to this girl knowing she lived very far and knowing he probably wouldn't ever meet her Zuka in real life but he still loved spending time with her and gaming with her.
Then the big news came, MapleStory was finally going official and unfortunately everyone would be reset but the Beta players would be getting a week head start and double EXP. This was great news for Evo_Spec since he never hit the level cap anyways and now everyone would be on the same level so he was hoping to get ahead during this time.

So after some downtime for the servers to fully switch he logged on excited to chat and play with Zuka since the two hadn't exchanged information to stay in contact outside of MapleStory which didn't really matter since they both played so much.
He logged on and checked his friends list but Zuka wasn't online, he figured she was busy that day and there's still another whole week of double EXP so he played alone for the first day.
Well the double EXP week had passed and there was no sign of Zuka.
Evo_Spec was quite sad about this and since he had never asked her for any information he had no way of contacting her out of game and well time just kept passing on and there's still days he wonders what had happened to Zuka.

The End.

Sorry for the abrupt ending but that's pretty much it lol
Also if it's crappy i apologize, I had to rewrite it since i lost the orignal because i got force logged out on the computer at the Cafe.
Hope you enjoyed reading it.
Thank you very much for doing a giveaway!

[rawkus]

When I was but a young wee lad, a neighbor's kid and I gamed a lot together.  One day, his sweet grandmother decided to buy him Resident Evil for Playstation.

To this day, I blame her for my fear of the RE series.

[nubbinator]

I've never had a life-altering video game experience, but I can give a couple of stories about how I grew up with them and loved them.

My family was never wealthy when I was growing up.  We rarely got to do nice things like going out to eat or seeing a movie.  Even so, I was fortunate enough to get a computer when I was growing up that was a hand me down from my dad's work.  I remember countless hours of Reading Rabbit and Math Blaster and whatever random games my meager allowance could save up and afford, usually one of the $10 games off the rack at MicroCenter, CompUSA, or PC Club.  Between that and Oregon Trail at school, I got a taste for video games pretty early.

The first truly groundbreaking game for me was Chuck Yeager's Flight Combat.  I remember sitting in front of the computer for hours, logging into the game with facts about old fighter planes around the world, then flying long missions, struggling to follow ground navigation, engage in dog fights without blacking or redding out, then trying to make it back to base.  I was never very good at it, but it was the first game I truly loved.

Following that, I had many years of not being able to play anything.  I couldn't afford to upgrade the computer and my parents couldn't afford a new one.  Then one year I got a Playstation.  They still have video of me literally bowing to them.  It was the biggest shock and, to this day, probably the best present they ever got me.  I loved that thing.  I spent countless hours playing Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IX, Gran Tourismo, and various other games, including some terrible Army Man and Tom Clancy games. 

Gran Tourismo made me love cars and Final Fantasy IX was the first game to really make me feel.  I remember connecting with Vivi deeply and loving him.  I saw myself in his clumsiness and shyness and his ability to grow into a confident and important member of the party resonated with me deeply.  I remember him just filling me with strength and confidence.

After that, games were just fun wastes of times, none really struck me like Vini in FFIX did.  Then I discovered America's Army 2.0.  Never had I run into a community that was so tight knit and genuinely concerned about those who played the game.  I remember people disappearing and people becoming genuinely concerned about them.  At one point I joined a clan and saw people from all over and so many backgrounds just having fun with one another.  We had old guys and young girls and middle-aged people and everyone was just there having fun, no one was judging anyone or using the language you'd hear in CoD.  It was the first game were I really sat back and realized that you could have a community online and really get to know people and have fun.

Ever since, video games have had a special place in my life, though, as I grow older, I find I connect with them less and less.  Still, I love story driven games where you just get engrossed in a tale or ones with amazing communities.  In many ways, it's a more socially acceptable DnD.  You can join clans, decide to be good or evil, and just mess around, getting to be yourself around people who understand you while also challenging you.

[Sygaldry]

WoW: Burning Crusade.

It's time. We've spent the past couple weeks wiping in Sunwell Plateau and that bastard Kil'Jaeden has been a major thorn in our side (there's also the fact that 190 or so other guilds around the world have already killed KJ and we can't afford to drop much further in the rankings). At 6PM, we set foot in into Sunwell Plateau and spend the rest of the night clearing the raid instance of Kil'Jaeden's minions and lieutenants. There are 25 of us, each of us chosen to ensure the highest chance of success. We all know our roles by heart and a fierce determination can be seen in each of our eyes (and heard on Ventrilo amidst the occasional joke and senseless banter). Victory is so close, we can all smell it - a hint of lavender and roses wafts through the air. Tonight is the night. This might very well be the night to commemorate the end of a successful progression through Burning Crusade!

Three hours later and 3 raid wipes, KIL'JAEDEN IS DEAD! Server first YEEEEEEEEE (and world top 200 or so).

Nothing consequential dropped for me but the taste of success is so sweet.

A couple weeks later:

We finally have Sunwell Plateau on farm. We've started alt runs as well to gear up our secondary toons. I missed out on the main raid this week due to exams so I will be taking my main toon to the alt run. KJ is still an ******* but even on our alt runs we are now averaging 2 wipes before downing him during each run. Needless to say, KJ is as good as dead.

Anyway... something feels different tonight - something is calling out to me. As the guild's main hunter and officer, I get the feeling that something nice will drop for me today. Will tonight be the night I ascend into greatness???

A few hours later:

Kil'Jaeden's corpse lies before us. The guild leader walks up and pauses before linking the drops of the night.

Orange text flashes on my screen. Orange - the color of LEGENDS!

My heart sinks and my breathing becomes labored. HOLY ****... THE LEGENDARY BOW ACTUALLY DROPPED! I am the only hunter in tonight's raid... YESSSSS. THIS BOW IS AS GOOD AS MINE! I begin to type out my acceptance speech: "Thanks to my mom, and dad for raising me. Thanks to my friends for sticking with me through thick and thin. I won't forget any of you when I rise up to the higher planes of existence... yada yada yada."

But wait... alt run rules have been set in stone since our guild was formed during Vanilla WoW... all members who can equip an item are eligible to /roll. FML...

But let's not give up hope... As a guild, we've gone to hell and back and have overcome the most difficult of situations together. Everyone knows I need this bow... right?

One by one, the warriors pass on the bow! One of the rogues congratulates me. OMG is this really happening?

...

...

...

...

...

5 Minutes pass and still nothing has happened.

Our guild leader is still standing in front of the corpse, Twin Blades of Azzinoth sheathed on his back (yep... the other orange equips from this expansion).

"Roll," says the guild master.

Omg... he can't be serious.

While I'm still trying to make sense of the situation I see a number pop up in chat ...12.

The Guild Leader had rolled a 12. Serves him right to roll against me. Looks like fate is on my side today!

No one else rolled.

I type in "/roll." 0-100, the chances of me rolling lower than 12 are incredibly low.

...1...

Time stops for me for a few seconds.

...

...

...

...

...

A few seconds later and time resumes... the Guild Leader is now jumping around with the the legendary bow equipped.

I close out of the game without a word and take off my headset.

Well... ****...

Lesson learned: people will be ****s over shiny digital loot.

Thus ends my WoW career until Wrath of the Lich King sucks me back in

FIN

[Baxter]

[ EDIT: Nevermind ignore this entry, I got too excited and I don't even own a single topre switch :/ ]

[litesung]

Inb4 Placeholder ban!

I've got two 10 page essays to write really quick then I can jump on this!

Edit 1:  Alright so here's my memorable gaming experience! 

"Are we going to do this?" The leader had said over vent.  My friend (T3) and I joined a Pick Up Group (PUG) in order to complete his conquest cap for the week.
"Ready" said T3.  It was just us three at the moment in the channel.  "Where are the others?" T3 continued.
A raid warning popped up on everyone' screens GET IN VENT.  Slowly, players joined in one by one until all ten of us were in vent.
"Alright guys, everyone's here so I'm queuing up now" Bwoom - The queue popped and everyone went inside.
"Wait a moment, CaveDweller why the $^&@ are you not here?"  yelled the leader.  The queue had ended but one of our members was AFK.  CaveDweller's name popped up in my overlay as the sound of a toilet flushing echoed throughout the vent channel.
"Sorry guys, was afk" said the noob who suddenly left the group and the vent channel.  We were down one man now, as the game timer counted down.
"Well let's just do with what we've got then" said the leader, trying to motivate the rest of the members.  Silence echoed throughout the channel with the occasional burp or sigh.
The game began, and our opponents charged at us.
"Alright guys, I need five of you on D, and the rest of us go O" the leader said.  Unbelievably our entire team went straight for the flag ignoring the leader's orders.  Everyone had tried to go for the flag, and ended up getting wrecked by the opposing team.  They carried our flag and wiped our entire team, thus scoring a point.
"What the $^&@ are you guys doing!? Follow the plan!" screamed the leader.  Nobody followed instructions, and we were getting wiped.  "A typical PUG" I said to myself "full of worthless scrubs" 
Suddenly, T3 speaks.  "P1, P2, come with me on O, we're going to come through the roof."  He directed just the leader and I, leaving faith to the rest of the team.  We hit the roof, and grabbed the flag.  Two of our teammates came to defend us on our return while the rest attacked the EFC (Enemy Flag Carrier). 
While we approached our base, suddenly we hear Red Flag Dropped.  "Here's our comeback!!" I exclaimed, as we score our first point.  "We're not out of the game yet!"
As soon as we scored, one of our teammates had grabbed the enemy flag as soon as it spawned and rushed it over.  Since the leader, my friend and I were now at base we could defend it up.  A few people grabbed the flags but we were able to kill them before they left our base. 
Blue Team Scores.  "WOW!"  We're now in the lead since we scored last "Can we win this?"  The score was now 2-1 with us winning.  All we need is to prevent them from scoring or to finish the game.
There was one minute left on the timer.  We had the game in the bag, and could finally win the last game to cap our conquest points before going to bed. Suddenly...
You have been disconnected from the server.  "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" screamed T3 in vent.  It was now past 3am and the server check had started.  We had all disconnected from the match before we could win. 

If there's one thing I've learned is that video games don't cause violence.  Lag and Disconnects do!

[retrochick]

[delete i eat meat]

[chive_]

As a kid, I didn't own any video games beside Planet of Death aka POD, a racing game that I played on an old Dell machine running Windows 95 in 2003 (my family isn't very tech savvy). A kid my age had just moved into our neighborhood, and he had a Playstation 2. We hung out a bit, and one day he bought Medal of Honor: Rising Sun used from GameStop which features a co-op mission mode.

We played the game for hours on end, but never actually beat it. Instead, we became frond of a level called "Singapore Sling," where the mission is to meet with an undercover OSS agent and infiltrate an Axis meeting. After playing the level a countless number of times, my friend and I were so in sync that we could beat it in a matter of minutes, with just the cutscenes slowing us down.

He quickly became my best friend, and we hung out at least once a week from 3rd grade until the end of high school. Even though I'm going to college half way across the country, we still talk weekly. He's a business major, and I'm a computer science major. We plan on starting our own business after we graduate.

Every now and then when I'm home on break, we dig out his PS2, find an AV cable, hook the system up to his television, and play that level again. Our coordination as a team is a bit rusty, but still there.

Someone in the library I am working in just gave me the weirdest look, probably because of the huge grin that's on my face right now.

Thanks for the awesome giveaway and sales Bro! Keep up the great work

[septamber]

Not a particularly glorious gaming extravaganza story but a simple tale of how a young septamber learned to touch type. 

Being raised by my stereotypical strict Asian mother, I was always told that gaming was a terrible waste of time when I could be studying or doing something more productive like practicing playing a musical instrument. (hah!) However I was always fascinated by and loved video games ever since I could remember. As I was outlawed from owning any video game consoles I found my way into the multiplayer gaming world through our shared family computer (A shoddy Compaq from what I can remember).  The start of my online gaming was in middle school when one of my good buddies introduced me to MUDs. (MUDs were basically text based online RPG games.) You would navigate your character through the text based world by typing letters for directions (N,S,E,W) and interactions were all input via typing commands. Of course there were no graphics and everything was literally inputting text commands and reading text responses from the server. However, to a little Septamber this was amazing. There was a huge explorable world, PvP combat and world bosses which kept me entertained for months.

Of course playing any sort of game on the family computer in the living room was strictly forbidden so I became a master of Alt Tab and Alt Escape quite quickly. I would find any excuse to do “homework” online after school and soon figured out that the best time to play would be at night when my parents were asleep. The only problem was I would have to play in the dark to avoid getting caught. I would dim the monitor brightness really low so the glare wouldn't be noticeable from our bedrooms and even blacked out the power led on the tower with a black sharpie to increase my stealth factor as ambient light would increase the chances of being detected while playing.

Looking back I would not recommend sitting in the dark and staring at a dimmed black screen reading green text for hours on end every night as that probably wasn't the greatest for my eyesight but I loved every second of it and have no regrets. On the plus side without intentionally trying I taught myself how to touch type so I guess there are productive benefits from playing computer games after all 

[dreadvirus]

place holder [mite as well jump on da bandwagon haha]

[roman736]

I'm reminded by news articles saying videogames cause violent behavior of playing the original Mortal Kombat. I wasn't allowed to watch rated R movies yet could throw a spear into my opponents chest to pull them to me ("Get Over Here!"). At that time we actually had to buy a *book* for moves special moves. Best of all were the Fatalities. What a game.


Recently started seeing MKX showing up on Twitch.tv, and the nostalgia returned to me. Wish I could go back in time and show myself, 'Hey check out what Mortal Kombat will be like future!' That would of blown my mind. Same game, but so much more advanced! Wouldn't mind picking that up now.  )

[feizor]

When the new guy at work started, we didn't talk at all. He was very shy and I was mostly too busy.

One day I put myself out to make some conversation which led to us both complaining about our workload. I said "oh well, work work" and he said "do you dota?"

From then on he became one of my best friends. All our conversations involved dota or gaming references. Colleagues who didn't pull their weight: "scrub peons", last minute delegation of work: "smoke gank", toilet breaks a different floor: "time for level 6 Ravage".

We'd have lunch and coffee together all the time discussing dota, cars and girls. This Bro-mance has really improved my enjoyment of work and I don't deny it!

Gaming has let me connect with and keep in touch with a lot of my good friends. It's an important part of my life that is here to stay!

Thanks for the giveaway Bro!

[jaemzp]

This is going to be a short one.

It was early 1997 when I was 5 years old and in Kindergarten. My family was too poor at the time to afford any console so all we had was an old NES and a copy of a SMB and Duck Hunt combo given as a hand-me-down from a much older cousin. That same year I was invited to my best friends birthday party which was also the first birthday party I would attend. When I arrived all the other kids were crowded around the T.V. playing a racing game I had never seen on a console I had had also never seen. I remember thinking it looked like a spaceship when I compared it to the grey box of a console I had at home. They were playing Mario Kart 64 on the N64, both of which were apparently released a few weeks earlier (Australia). Anyway, they ended up asking me to play with them so of course I said yes as this would be my first multiplayer experience. So I played... and I was amazing at it on my first try, I was so happy and hyped for the next round when I was reaching the finish line, and when I did I literally flipped. Well it turns out I didn't come first.. I didn't even come second or third, but dead last. How is this possible? I was looking at the wrong screen and was driving into a wall the entire time.

So how did this change my life?

Look at the right screen, otherwise you'll look like an idiot and embarrass yourself in front of a group of others.
Admit you don't know something and get help with it before attempting to so it, otherwise it may lead to embarrassment.

These guys also became my best friends until today. They still poke fun at me every time we play anything together. "Just a reminder that you're Bison" 

More

[JPG]

I started gaming when I was like 5 years old. Nintendo just got out and I had the chance to have it. Then I played a calculating game on my 386 and also played the game Leming on this same computer.


Then things got real when I got the game MechWarrior 2 on my pentium 166. This game is one of my favorites of all time. And I didn't know I could use the mouse at that time. Yep, completed the game with keyboard only haha (did the same with Half-Life but never completed the game). Yea, first person shooter with keyboard only ...


Then I played many other games, Baldur's gate 1 and 2, Diablo, Star Craft, War Craft, WOW, Dota, LOL...


I am now 32. I played games for most of my life. I still don't know if it's a good thing or not. I had a lot of fun. Played with my friends and attented LAN party with these friends I still have today. Yet I am still curious of all that I might have missed because I played games. I don't dare count the hours I spent gaming during all my life so far!


For the last year I have tried to game less. I still do it because when the kids go to sleep, I need to relax some way or another and I don't watch TV a lot so I end up gaming quite often. Better that than many other things I suppose!


Anyway, nice giveaway!

[cmadrid]

One of my most memorable gaming memories is the time I played Moral Decay LP MUD for 80 hours straight.. I finally quit because I had started hallucinating that my cousin and Benjamin Franklin were in the other room screaming at each other. 

A friend of mine from Denmark was taking a summer trip around the US, and was coming to visit soon.  He held the previous record of 72 hours straight, and I wanted to beat his record before he got to Saint Louis!  It was probably one of the worst ideas in my entire life. The last day was a mountain dew and nicotine fueled blur that resulted in my character dying (and killing other people) more than once.  But, I beat his record!

[ImpendingxDoom]

One of my best friends and I would play Gears of War when it first came out. Not just a little bit, we went through and beat every difficulty (usually over the span of two to three days). Over those two to three days, we would not sleep, we would only eat what is readily available, and bathroom breaks only came at times of great rage. This process repeated for every GoW release, even the painfully bad GoW Judgement. All in all we are talking a few hundred hours, but time spent with friends is never time wasted. At a certain point each time through the marathon, we would kind of break down from the repetitive gameplay, abysmally bad dialog, and sleep deprivation. This would devolve our normal conversational banter into stupid one liners with an occasional peppering of bizarre noises and poorly thought out blue humor. We bonded so much during this time that I would still consider him to be my closest friend despite not having seen him in person in years.

A few of the highlights:

Him decided he needed something to eat at around 6AM on day two. He walks into the kitchen but can only find THIS. He proceeds to open the can and choke it down with no utensils like a pelican trying to eat fish. The result is the most horrific choke/slurping noise, a disturbing about of head bobbing, and a mild stickiness that remained on and under him for several more hours.

If you don't know GoW, the reloading system involves a timed reaction. Hit the timer right and you reload faster and do more damage, miss the timer and your gun jams for a few seconds. As our ability to react in a timely manner wore thinner and thinner as time went on, we would jam on every other reload. If we were in a difficult area, we would get overrun by faster enemies and the like. Instead of saying something like "Oh ****, I jammed!" we would just softly begin singing Jammin by Bob Marley. To this day I can't hear that song without immediate association. "...and I hope you like jammin too..."

Any point we needed to walk from one area to the next we would take out the chainsaw and charge blindly forward yelling "GO TEAM DELTAAAAAHHH"

Any time the character Baird was on screen there was a constant stream of "****ing Baird..." or occasionally something much more personally insulting to his character like "Jesus **** Baird, where do go get your goddamn hair done you smug son of a ****."

The character Carmine (think near disposable greenhorn with an eager attitude) became a great source of made up backstory. There are several Carmine brothers throughout the series, so naturally we assumed that "Mama Carmine" was some sort of twisted brood mother that spawned out the disposable idiots in droves. Not to mention whenever one of the died we would imagine it actually play out something like THIS. "Look Marcus, I'm gonna be just like you!" "CARMINE NOOOOOO".

The games weren't that great. We probably made a few people fairly mad by sequestering ourselves away from our responsibilities for a while. We felt like **** for about a week after. But we made it important anyway, just to make ourselves and each other happy.

[aznairjordan]

I used to play MapleStory every single day when I came home from high school. I never enjoyed grinding for levels so all of my characters would get to around level 40 before I gave up and started a new one. However, I loved to stand in the free market and trade with other people. Once I got into the hang of it, I started memorizing all of the market prices for every single item in the game. I was getting more and more mesos with each and every trade.

Playing through the summer, sometimes 10 to 12 hours a day, my mom would always try and get me off the computer, but I refused. I just wanted to make more and more mesos. I wasn’t even fighting any monsters, just standing around and trying to trade people or browse all the shops in the free market to look for steals. I was never into spending money for a game so I never had any NX. However, one day they had an event where I got enough free NX to finally buy a shop permit. I was elated as I could now sell items while I slept or throughout the day without having to be there and manually click everything. This changed my life, as I got more and more addicted to just watching my shop fade out an item as it was bought.

My MapleStory playing laptop always had to be in a “computer room”, so that my mother could keep an eye on me. One day, I found out that I could say that I was going to work on homework and was therefore allowed to have the computer in my room at my desk. I suddenly got very proficient at pressing Alt+Tab whenever I heard my mom come anywhere close to my room. My mom never checked to see whether I had my computer with me in my room as I went to sleep. One night, I decided to leave the computer on with my shop open.

I quickly found out that I was not able to sleep, as I would get up every 5 minutes to check what items were sold. I kept checking my shop until my eyes would not physically open anymore, probably hours after I decided to go to sleep. This continued for 3 days until I finally decided that I was a dumb ass. I took my items and blew all of them up using scrolls so that I would never look back and promptly quit. Over the years, I’ve gone back to MapleStory, but never had the same attachment to the game. Thankfully, I now know that I have a pretty addictive personality and I have become a lot more careful in choosing what I want to spend my time in. Nothing controls my life like MapleStory once did and I am honestly glad that I had the experience of being addicted to MapleStory, because I could have gotten addicted to way worse things and not been able to get away from them.

[isaske]

Thanks Bro for doing this!
Those threads are always so interesting to read through.

Okay, so I didnt even have to think twice as to what I should write about. This might be a bit too personal but I dont care.

So about 4 years ago, a friend introduced me to a real time strategy game called Starcraft 2, the hardest game there is imo excluding its predecessor. Ive been playing Starcraft 1 and Starcraft: Brood war when i was a kid, but just the single player stuff with cheats. At that age, I didnt even begin to think there could be a competetive aspect to it. So you could say i was fairly new to the game. I began following esports, watched every tournament that was going on, played a lot, all that while balancing it out with school.

I wont be exaggarating when i say this game turned my life around completely. I actually improved in every aspect. My self-esteem, my coordination, my reflexes, my decision making. There's a GREAT video that puts all i feel into words even better. This is the link to it:

Starcraft also really did help me get through some hard points in life, because it just demands so much focus playing it. Meaning that, consequently, you forget about everything else that might be on your head and plaguing your mind. Two good examples of this are when Ive been diagnosed with Crohn's disease last year and was on a ton of meds, feeling depressed as ****, and 3 years ago, when I was friendzoned by a girl that meant a LOT to me and was giving me false signs (or maybe I just dont understand girls )

Today, I'm playing more dota than starcraft 2, since dota is also a beautiful game and feels much more social.
But i will never, as long as there is a scene, stop following starcraft and its tournaments. Especially korean ones. I am so grateful to the game and to the scene, grateful to how it helped me mature and grateful to how it forced me to never stop learning (inside and outside the game).

In 4 years, I never got into masters league (the highest league, i got into the second highest, diamond) but with the new expansion on the horizon, I might just get the motivation and the fuel to do so!

Cheers and good luck to everyone in this contest, feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the game.

[atlas3686]

Let me set the scene: The year is 1999, Internet Cafe's had been popping up all over the place and LAN gaming was the new big thing. Counter-strike had just been released and everyone was playing it, clan's were forming and the first hints of real e-sports were surfacing.

We found ourselves in a small town in the eastern part of South Africa. A slightly lanky dark haired kid, barely 13 (Atlas), is what can only be described as conspiring with his ginger accomplice. "No dude we can do it, we will just tell my mom that we camping outside for the night, no problem." said the ginger kid (Prometheus). "Seriously dude why don't we just wait till they asleep and leave then?". "You know how late my parents go to bed, we would have no time to play if we did that, come on dude stop being such a chicken." Prometheus retorted. "Ok fine but we better not get caught my Dad will literally kill me."

The plan was simple, Atlas would tell his parents that he was staying at Prometheus's house and Prometheus would tell his parents that we were camping outside near the lapa (South African: Usually consists of a thatched roof supported by wooden poles). Once they were safely out the house, they would both get onto Prometheus's bike and ride down to the internet cafe about 5km (3.1 miles) away.

21:00 rolled around, "We going to bed mom" said Prometheus. "That's early for you two" replied Prometheus's mom. "We just want to make the most of the camping experience" lied Prometheus. In retrospect she was not convinced.

The two snuck out the gate slowly wheeling Prometheus's bike and cut down through the bush to shave a few minutes off the ride. The trip to the internet cafe was mostly downhill and freewheeling through the lonely streets the two boys arrived in no time. "The Dr. is in" Atlas was formally "Dr." and the change hadn't quite been accepted yet, "You bastards, back so soon hey, miss my MP5 that much?" jeered a friend who the boys had been playing with earlier that afternoon. Friendly banter was the norm at these gaming cafe's and made them feel all the more at home. The next few hours passed very quickly, broken only by the sound of furious keyboard and mouse clicks and clacks and the occasional "you bastard" or "lucky..".

It was around 23:00 when a noise came from the entrance of the cafe that wasn't mechanical or friendly banter instead it was the sound of each of the boys names spoken in a tone that sent shivers down their backs. Prometheus's ear was grabbed and he was dragged out the store with Atlas following sheepishly. Giggles broke out around the shop.

What you need to understand before the story continues is that South Africa late at night is not a safe place by any estimation and two 13 year olds biking around town late at night is really a very poor idea even for teenage boys obsessed with gaming. 

"What the f##k do you think you two are doing!!" exclaimed an extremely pissed Prometheus's mom. "We just wanted to play a little.. The question was definitely rhetorical. "Do you have any idea how dangerous this was? I was worried sick about you two, I've been phoning all your friends trying to find you!" There wasn't very much to say other than it was a bad idea and they knew it. The car ride home was extremely quiet. While Prometheus's parents were quite easy going and unlikely to punish him too severely, Atlas's were not. He would be grounded for months if his parents found out maybe even never allowed back and the car ride home was spent with this thought in mind.

They arrived to a small hiding and were sent straight to bed by Prometheus's Dad who was blood red and looked angrier than Atlas had ever seen him. Atlas lay in bed thinking only about the world of punishment he would enter tomorrow morning when his father was told. At that moment Prometheus snuck into the bedroom, "I've begged my mom and they won't tell your dad". The wave of relief was palpable. "Thanks Dude" was all I could muster at the time.

I think I remember this so fondly for a few reasons, firstly it was such good times, spending our weekends at the internet cafe with our community of friends was really the best of times and online gaming has never quite replicated the feeling of being in room full of friends playing a game together. Secondly it was a prime example of the stupidity of my teenage years and I guess I did learn a lesson if only about not making your parents worry needlessly. Lastly it's good to have bros that will take a hit for you when it matters.

Thanks so much for running the giveaway Bro, the prizes are phenomenal! Trans gaming sets! BS keys! Bronin! Damn we are being spoiled.

P.S. As some may of guessed this story also gives some of the back story to my username  ) I tried desperately to find some pictures of the place but I can't find a single one, there is a pizza place where it used to be.

[madhias]

My father bought a 486 DX/2 with 8MB of RAM, and I was allowed to play from time to time on this machine. It was in his room, which was not locked, but he did lock the computer case when he was not at home, that you can't power on the PC. I wanted to play Duke Nukem, so I opened up the case and powered on the machine and played for hours. I did that for a few weeks, until I forgot to lock it again. I remember these days, it was summer & hot! Since then I love gaming on hot summer days, stay inside in the darkened room.

[byker]

Well the first story is similar to many others on here. My best friend that I met in highschool and I really started our friendship over games. We were really into Halo 3, playing 2v2 competitive and trying to hit the highest ranks. We also played a ton of 2v2 in AOE 3 and NHL. Basically we really got into playing competitive games together! Although we go to seperate universities now and don't have a ton of time to play, we still try to find some time to play games every few weeks!

The other story is geekhack related. Basically playing games with some geekhack members has been a great way to get to know them better! Shout out to the GTA and CSGO crew, its been a ton of fun playing games with y'all. 

[thefebruaryman]

I got a few life changing game experiences but one that stands out was when I was 16 in Sweden on holiday. We had gone out to one of my parents friends summer houses. A summer house is a get away holiday house that a lot of Swedish people seem to have in the countryside (lucky buggers). It was a beautiful hot day and my family and friends were going to this lake a couple of miles away for a swim and food. Now I am sure you all know how incredibly stunning the Swedish women are and the being 16 socialising while in swim gear is probably something no one would let pass! Well it turns out that the people that lived next door to my friends some house were network engineers and they had a massive outside shed full of about 10 top the the range gaming pc's. Sufficed to say I spent 6 hours playing Doom in a dark shed. From that moment on I knew multi-player FPS was my thing which later led to months of half life and battlefield gaming. To re affirm the motto BROs before HO's  was certainly true in this case.

Cheers for all the hard work BRO and the ctrlalt team. 

[baldgye]

I have a bunch of funny stories, but given the number of essays I'll keep the reading to a minimum with mine. Also I would like to share this (again) without putting myself forward for a nomination as I don't have a topre or bs board!



But really... Wtf lol

[suicidal_orange]

Awesome givaway Bro - would love that Bronin but I'm MX only so please ignore this non-entry.


My poker buddies are gamers, I used to be somewhat but not for years.  When they transitioned from PC to "silly little joysticks" I refused, and the lack of cross platform play meant I just stopped completely so my skills are rusty to say the least.

Their current addiction is Destiny and every fortnight when I go round they play a bit and talk a lot in what had may as well be a different language.  Not long ago it was my turn (I always get a go, it rarely lasts long) and was warned that the next room would be the end of me so I pulled out a big rocket launcher and slowly headed for the door.  While attempting to reload I somehow fired at a wall just inside the door and right on cue a big scary enemy made the mistake of landing in the rocket's path - he promptly died, taking all his "friends" with him.

Apparently "xbox record that" only works if the room is near silent so this epic moment was lost in a sea of laughter, but at least I had witnesses.

[azhdar]

The year was 2009.

I've been playing with my guild "Rage" on a french private server on the burning cruisade extension.

On the 2 december of 2009 the announcement of the opening of Black Temple is made by the dev of the servers.

We were much excited, but decided not to change our raid time arrangement, 3 raids/week on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday. We will just stop going to the Serpentshrine Cavern raid and replace it with The Black Temple and keep on going to Hyjal Summit.

On week later, on the 9 december of 2009, a wednesday, Black Temple open in the afternoon, by the time all of us get on computers we get told that the rival guild : "Maëlstorm" already killed the first Boss : "Naj'entus".
Disappointed not to be able to fight for the first down we still went to raid that night and downed Najent'us as well the first night.
We heard that Maëlstrom had spend the afternoon and the night on Supremus. So we just tried Supremus once before raiding off so we could have an idea of what we were fightning.
Next night, on Thursday, we tried Supremus all night. On the last try of the night, we managed to kill him.
Maëlstrom had spend another day on it with no success, we had our revenge.

We kept on fighting for first down on all Black Temple boss with Maëlstrom and they managed to get : Naj'entus,Gurtogg Bloodboil,Reliquary of Souls,Mother Shahraz and The Illidari Council
while we got : Supremus,Shade of Akama,Teron Gorefiend

After a while, both guilds managed to farm Black Temple, but only Illidan Stormrage was to be down. We usually got 2 hours worth of try on Illidan on Thursday night because we were still going on Hyjal on the Sunday, It was rather frustating especially considering how Hyjal Summit is a boring raid.

Comes the 29/01/2009, we were very fast this week, we did 4/5 of Hyjal Summit on the sunday, and by 9PM on Thursday we were in front of Illidan.

After a few tries we managed to kill the Betrayer, first down of the server on one of the most significant bosses of World of Warcraft we were stocked.
Every member was getting pm's from Maëlstrom member to verify the truth and we could tell how disappointed they were. It was the best feeling.
But it was only 11PM and our raid lead Feyarwen told us: "Let's do Archimonde".
We haven't down Archimonde at that time yet, and needless to say that with the adrenaline from the previous down we managed to take down Archimonde aswell.

Was probably my best experience with the Guild Rage.
And the Guild Rage is my most memorable video gaming experience because I shared so much moments with those guys.

And the best part is we still do, I joined the guild about 6 years ago, and while very few of us still play WoW, we still game together, live on the same Teamspeak daily.

And even more important, got to meet every summer, usually about 20-30 of us in on of the property of the guild leader.

EDIT: Video of Black Temple that was made by the guild at that time:https://vimeo.com/11197084 (you can spot me as Chiam Troll Shaman).

[Extrasmossy]

My most memorable gaming experience has to be WoW: WotLK raiding. I remember staying up late grinding ulduar and ICC with my guild all the while allowing my school grades to slowly slip more and more but it was all worth it to be one of the best geared player on the server.

It was a cold winter day and it was right before raid time so I was running around getting all the necessities such as food and potions to be able to pull of maximum dps; everything was going well and we just about to pull but that is when my dog in all his furry wisdom decides to jump on my desk and spill water all over my precious keyboard and with only a couple of minutes before raid I did the only logical thing and I went door to door asking for a keyboard I could buy/borrow. Being 11 o'clock at night this obviously created some very strange questions between me and my neighbors however through these new questions I was able to meet many new people even some that I would go onto raid with for many years to come. That is how WoW changed my life. 

[Bigpock]

I got to rank 40,000 in the world @ Osu! ( I suck )

I think its the highest rank ive ever been in a video game. Changed my life forever

http://puu.sh/hjoqN.png

[robotox]

When I was a kid, my friend -- let's call him Sam -- and I met in Little League baseball. Our dads were friendly acquire, which helped, but our friendship really started over the fact that both of us were pretty terrible at baseball.  The thing that really cemented things was the fact that we both loved video games. This was around 1990 or so.

Skip forward a handful of years and many a sleepover binging on games, particularly the Marvel Comics beat-'em-ups like Separation Anxiety and Maximum Carnage with things like Mortal Combat and Zelda thrown in, and we found out his mom had cancer. The truth is that I don't have any recollection what type she had as I was just a kid and words like glioblastoma and melanoma, etc., were completely foreign, but it was advanced and severe.  She died in January 1997.

It happened in the afternoon. In the evening, and then well into the night, we just sort of sat around players Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64 he had gotten for Christmas the previous month.  We'd occasionally eat some pizza and pass the controller to one another. We were mostly quiet, but it wasn't a tense silence. It was mourning and understanding.

We kept playing games and being friends. Shortly thereafter, we started playing a lot of the old RTS game Total Annihilation, particularly on the early online gaming service TEN. I moved away in 2000 and we both hit puberty and got more into girls and music and whatever else so we kind of drifted apart.

This past fall, we reconnected on Facebook and game each other our Xbox Live gamertags. We started playing Destiny together a bit. This past January, very suddenly, my dad died. Despite the fact that we're now 30 and still live states away from one another, we stayed up that night playing Destiny, again quiet with mourning and understanding. Everything circling around was nice.

Sorry, I guess that's kind of sappy, which isn't generally in my nature, I swear.

[Peddamann]

There are roughly two situations in my "gaming" life that changed my life with computers
at the age of 7 my father let me play "indiana jones and the last crusade" and "monkey island 2 - le chucks revenge" on his working pc... those two games absolutely blew my mind and started my long love for pc gaming insult swordfighting and the zeppelin or castle brunwald maze were my personal highlights in those two.
the love for multiplayer gaming started ´99 on a lan party at a friends basement... after a long fight setting up the network between win98 and winxp rigs we actually managed to play halflife deathmatch with 7 of 8 computers and quake 3 with 6 of 8 present pcs and had the time of our lifes playing over the internet in the years after never got that special again .

[CalvinW]

Damn, this is hard since I don't really play any games. I just want a topre artisan for the HHKB that I use for work.
Nonetheless, good luck to everyone!

[CPTBadAss]

For ages I played StarCraft Brood War and StarCraft 2 Wings of Liberty. I was awful and I just played for fun really. But one of my childhood friends had played at a high level during high school in Brood War and played semi-pro for Complexity in WoL. In college I found myself with a lot of free time, a ridiculously good internet connection, and a decent computer for the first time in my life. And Wings of Liberty just came out. I went really hard. I started playing like 2-3 hours on the weekdays when my schedule allowed and 4-6 on the weekends. I wanted to get decent. I ended up making it into Platinum league. Nothing special but I was happy with my progress after about a year of play.

I was still playing with my buddy when he introduced me to TeamLiquid. I'd bug my buddy all the time for help and advice. Sometimes I'd spectate his matches and he flirted with Grand Master league a few times. But it was TL which really boosted my game. So I started reading a ton and playing as much as I could. I always had this nagging feeling that I wanted to prove to myself that all the hours I put in was worth it so I started looking at playing in a tournament. I eventually found a little tournament for Gold and Platinum players. It was really a way for me to get some practice partners but I took the tournament seriously anyways. I remember being nervous as ****. Leading up to the tourney I was playing but my nerves would make me do silly things. I couldn't help it. When I played, my palms sweat like crazy, my heart raced like I just sniffed an 8ball. I couldn't sit still so I was fidgeting and my leg was bouncing like crazy.

Game day rolled around and I remember how surprised I made it through the 32 man bracket fairly easily. Sure it helped someone didn't show up but I was so thrilled that my split drops and pressure plays that I had spent weeks practicing were paying off. Unfortunately, I didn't practice my macro games enough and that would lead me to my downfall. I was in the final four. That match I didn't drop well enough so I didn't do the damage I had practiced. So now I was in this awkward "what happens next" phase. I tried to turtle up against another turtle Terran. And it turns out that my nerves and lack of scouting would sink me. We got into a base race and I didn't scout well enough so when I hit his last base, I thought he turtled up real hard. I couldn't break his tank lines so I GG'd out....without realizing he only had like 2 tanks left. I was so bummed. A silly mistake cost me a 50 minute game and the chance to play in the finals.

Now looking back though? Placing third and winning money is an amazing feeling. StarCraft taught me goals can be accomplished if I work hard enough at it. It taught me that we're all ****ty at something when we first start and the only way to get up is to practice. I felt that it wasn't the amount of money that was important, but the fact that money was on the line and justified my time and effort. I think that was my favorite video game moment. Even though I really wanted to continue training, real life got in the way and I no longer had time in school at that point to continue playing "seriously". So I never did get to play in Playhems or an MLG. But I still have very fond memories.

[isaske]

For ages I played StarCraft Brood War and StarCraft 2 Wings of Liberty. I was awful and I just played for fun really. But one of my childhood friends had played at a high level during high school in Brood War and played semi-pro for Complexity in WoL. But in college I found myself with a lot of free time, a ridiculously good internet connection, and a decent computer for the first time in my life. And Wings of Liberty just came out. I went really hard. I started playing like 2-3 hours on the weekdays when my schedule allowed and 4-6 on the weekends. I wanted to get decent. I ended up making it into Platinum league. Nothing special but I was happy with my progress after about a year of play.

I was still playing with my buddy introduced me to TeamLiquid. I'd bug my buddy all the time for help and advice. Sometimes I'd spectate his matches and he flirted with Grand Master league a few times. But it was TL which really boosted my game. So I started reading a ton and playing as much as I could. I always had this nagging feeling that I wanted to prove to myself that all the hours I put in was worth it so I started looking at playing in a tournament. I eventually found a little tournament for Gold and Platinum players. It was really a way for me to get some practice partners but I took the tournament seriously anyways. I remember being nervous as ****. Leading up to the tourney I was playing but my nerves would make me do silly things. I couldn't help it. When I played, my palms sweat like crazy, my heart raced like I just sniffed an 8ball. I couldn't sit still so I was fidgeting and my leg was bouncing like crazy.

Game day rolled around and I remember how surprised I made it through the 32 man bracket fairly easily. Sure it helped someone didn't show up but I was so thrilled that my split drops and pressure plays that I had spent weeks practicing were paying off. Unfortunately, I didn't practice my macro games enough and that would lead me to my downfall. I was in the final four. That match I didn't drop well enough so I didn't do the damage I had practiced. So now I was in this awkward "what happens next" phase. I tried to turtle up against another turtle Terran. And it turns out that my nerves and lack of scouting would sink me. We got into a base race and I didn't scout well enough so when I hit his last base, I thought he turtled up real hard. I couldn't break his tank lines so I GG'd out....without realizing he only had like 2 tanks left. I was so bummed. A silly mistake cost me a 50 minute game and the chance to play in the finals.

Now looking back though? Placing third and winning money is an amazing feeling. StarCraft taught me goals can be accomplished if I work hard enough at it. It taught me that we're all ****ty at something when we first start and the only way to get up is to practice. I felt that it wasn't the amount of money that was important, but the fact that money was on the line and justified my time and effort. I think that was my favorite video game moment. Even though I really wanted to continue training, real life got in the way and I no longer had time in school at that point to continue playing "seriously". So I never did get to play in Playhems or an MLG. But I still have very fond memories.

That was so good to read. I can't hide my bias for sc2.
Im really happy u felt a sense of accomplishment doing this. Nothing matches that feeling.

[Puddsy]

Most memorable gaming experience...

Can I share more than one? I'm sharing more than one.

1) The time I went to the ESL ONE Dota tournament when it came through NYC, or, my first DotA 2 LAN.

It was the first time I met the people I had been playing dota with for most of the summer, and it was great way to cap out my summer. I skipped school to go to the second day, the day of the finals. EG vs VG. USA's only great team and 3rd place at TI4, Evil Geniuses, against the southeast-Asian titan, 2nd place at TI4, Vici Gaming. EG was the tournament (or at least crowd) favorite, but I was rooting for VG pretty hard. The games had been delayed about an hour, so I only missed the first minute or two of game one's draft.

Game 1 was a pretty standard 6.81 game. Terrorblade/DP/Razor bans in the early phases, Visage picks, etc. Lycan every game, all the annying heroes of deathball meta. The game quickly started swinging in favor of EG, with the crowd going wild at every opportunity. However, since EG picked Visage without Drow, their lineup fell off, and VG took game one in a hair under an hour, a very long game in that meta.

Game 2, VG couldn't defend the EG deathball, much to my dismay. Ice^3's Bristleback couldn't get off the ground, so EG kept killing VG's cores in fights, costing them the game.

Game 3. GAME 3. Ice^3 reconciled from his last game by wrecking EG with his legendary Timbersaw. Fear's performance in the offlane kept EG in the game for much longer than they should've been, but with his great ravages, victory was almost snatched from VG. In the end, VG killed 4 members of EG at rosh, taking it, breaking the high ground, and winning the tournament. They showed that China was still relevant in the DotA 2 scene.

2) Defending the freeport of CT8K-0, the experience that hooked me into EVE.

Being a new EVE player, it often feels like you can't do much. Having just finished training into my alliance's doctrine caracal fit, I finally felt like I could be relevant in a fight. With Leigion of XxDeathxX breathing down our necks, as well as the Russian RED Alliance, life was starting to get difficult in freeport 1. In the end, of course, the Russians ended up taking Freeport one, as the dreadnaught + triage archon fleets were too much for our subcapital ships.

This isn't about the falling of freeport one, though, this is about the initial defense, when the Russians thought they could take us. With our legendary diplomat, Ceolomate, we managed to get the 300 man "we only shoot ships" group to bash structures, something unheard of for them to do. As we were clearing the system of the last SBU, the Russians suddenly brought the only thing that could take our 450 man bash gang. Ishtars, 300 of them. We could barely keep ships alive under the drones of the Ishtar doctrine, but in the end, we broke their logi and kept CT8K-0 for ourselves, at least until the Russians came back with dreadnaughts and supercarriers.

[dustinhxc]

OMG That Bronin.. I need an Orange Bronin and V2 for my Space Saving Keyboard so bad one day..

I've been playing video my entire life, it all started with Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt on NES. I remember my parents having it since I can even remember.. But that is just the beginning.. Id have to say the MOST memorable experience would have to be Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo 64! My friends and I would meet up at my friends apartment every single night. We would play the same characters every time! I would be Captain Falcon. "FALCON PUNNNCH!" One friend would be Kirby, the other Mario, and the other Pikachuu "Ka, choo!" We would learn eachothers methods and movements but yet still have an amazing time every single night. 420 comes to mind and some fantastic tunage. Some great munchies and good ol Nintendo 64 Joystick smashing. The best event we ever did, which was usually once a week. 99 LIVES each. That would go for a few hours and it was SO intense! I miss those nights.. I recently was in a mall at a video game store looking for a copy of Super Smash Bros for Gamecube. Then I noticed that there was a HUGE group of gamers playing it on multiple TVs! I was like SMASH BROS!!! Its cool to see people play it still. Although, our obsession started with good ol Nintendo 64!  I almost shed a tear. I miss it so..