Chart Your Gaming Progression

gaming evolution

I stumbled upon something neat the other day while browsing the Internet, and I thought it would make an interesting topic here on GamerSushi. We often talk about what our current favorite is, or which game got us into gaming, but it’s very rare that we step back and examine our gaming evolution from day one.

The basic format we’re going to be following is outlined in this picture, but if you don’t want to date yourself by giving your age, that’s OK. I’ll go first just to give everyone another example to go off of. Just because there’s kind of a big gap between the adolescent game and the current favorite game, I’m also going to add in an early adulthood game in order to make the time difference a little less severe.

Date of Birth: 1987
First Game: Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt
Childhood Defining Game: Super Mario World
Adolescent Defining Game: The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Early Adulthood Defining Game: Gears of War
Current Favorite Game: Red Dead Redemption

So there we go, my gaming evolution charted from birth until now. So, how does this look for you guys? What was your first game ever? Your current favorite? Go!

Written by

mitch@gamersushi.com Twitter: @mi7ch Gamertag: Lubeius PSN ID: Lubeius SteamID: Mister_L Origin/EA:Lube182 Currently Playing: PUBG, Rainbow 6: Siege, Assassin's Creed: Origins, Total War: Warhammer 2

28 thoughts on “Chart Your Gaming Progression”

  1. Date of Birth: 1989
    First Game: Duck Hunt
    Childhood Defining Game: Super Mario World
    Adolescent Defining Game: Metal Gear Solid
    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Half-Life 2
    Current Favorite Game: Fallout 3

    A few tough answers to narrow down in there. Really Counter-Strike could fall into any of the last 3, but I almost consider it more of a social networking experience than a video game.

  2. First Game: Pokemon Yellow

    Childhood Defining Game: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

    Adolescent Defining Game: Halo

    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Mass Effect

    Current Favorite Game: Mass Effect 2

    Cool idea Mitch

  3. Date of Birth: 1981

    First Game: Pac-man (Arcade)

    Childhood Defining Game: Final Fantasy

    Adolescent Defining Game: Final Fantasy VI

    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Grand Theft Auto III

    Current Favorite Game: Mass Effect 2

  4. Date of Birth: 1994
    First Game: Tonka Construction
    Childhood Defining Game: Starwars Battlefront 2
    Adolescent Defining Game: Call of Duty 4
    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Mass Effect
    Current Favorite Game: DiRT 3

  5. Date of Birth: 1994

    First Game: Pokemon Blue

    Childhood Defining Game: Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time

    Adolescent Defining Game: Halo 3

    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Fallout 3

    Current Favorite Game: Deus Ex Human Revolution

  6. Year of Birth: 1983

    First Game: Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt

    Childhood Defining Game: Super Mario Bros 3

    Adolescent Defining Game: Final Fantasy VII

    Early Adulthood Defining Game: KOTOR

    Current Favorite Game: Mass Effect 2

    Man, this was kind of tough. There were several games that could have easily slid in for different categories, including Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario 64, Counter-Strike and Halo 2.

  7. Year of Birth: 1992

    First game: Chip’s Challenge

    Childhood Defining Game: Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal

    Adolescent Defining Game: Half-Life 2

    Early Adulthood defining game: Mother 3

    Current Favorite Game: Team Fortress 2 (4 years and counting baby)

  8. Date of Birth: 1979

    First Game: Probably Pitfall, or at least something on my Atari 2600

    Childhood Defining Game: Final Fantasy

    Adolescent Defining Game: Shining Force or D&D: Warriors of the Eternal Sun (don’t remember which one I played first)

    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Final Fantasy VII

    Current Favorite Game: Demon’s Souls

  9. First Game: Sonic the Hedgehog

    Childhood Defining Game: Final Fantasy 7

    Adolescent Defining Game: Metal Gear Solid 2

    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Guild Wars

    Current Favorite Game: Fallout 3

  10. I’m changing my answer for Childhood Defining game to Pokemon Gold version. It completely slipped my mind when typing and i do not think i have even come close to how much my sister and I played that game.

  11. Date of Birth: 1995 (Yep)
    First Game: I honestly don’t know. It was something on Sega Genesis, probably Mortal Kombat
    Childhood Defining Game: Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy VIII/IX
    Adolescent Defining Game: Counter Strike: Source, Gears of War, Oblivion
    Early Adulthood Defining Game: We’ll see.
    Current Favorite Game: Counter Strike, Rome: Total War, Red Dead Redemption, Mortal Kombat 9

  12. Year of birth: 1965

    First Game: Pong

    Childhood defining game: Atari 2600 “Adventure”

    Adolescent Defining Game: Star Wars (one of the first Star Wars arcade games)

    Early Adult Defining Game: The Legend of Zelda (yes, the first one)

    Mid Adult Defining Game: Halo

    Current Favorite Game: Borderlands

  13. Date of Birth – 1988

    First Game – Super Mario 64

    Childhood Defining Game – Zelda: Ocarina of Time

    Adolescent Defining Game – Knights Of The Old Republic 2

    Early Adult Defining Game – Mass Effect (and 2)

    Current Favourite Game – Xenoblade Chronicles

  14. Year of Birth: 1995

    First Game: Final Fantasy IX

    Childhood Defining Game: Metal Gear Solid
    Adolescent Defining Game: F=Metal Gear solid 3

    Current Favorite Game: tie between The Witcher 2 and Red Dead Redemption

  15. Date of Birth: 1992

    First Game: Quake/Swiv 3D

    Childhood Defining Game: Ocarina of Time

    Adolescent Defining Game: Metal Gear Solid

    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Call of Duty 4

    Current Favorite Game: Hitman: Blood Money

    When going through that list I was constantly changing the ‘defining’ games until I really nailed down what games have affected me during certain times in my life. Quake and Swiv 3D are my earliest memories of gaming (thanks dad for letting me play Quake when I was 3 years old!) so that was an easy one to fill out. As with many people out there Ocarina of Time helped shape my perception of what games could be like. Later, the MGS series kinda dominated me and my friend’s teenage years (being the big fanboys that we were) and how I began to see games as a viable storytelling medium. Call of Duty 4 is also quite defining for my young adult life (I was only about 16 when I got it I think, but still) as it was the first online multiplayer game I played so I hold many games up to its ludicrously high standard. BFBC is a better game at times, but CoD4 will always remain in my heart as the first game which made me experience the thrill of teamwork and the sadness of a match turning against us at the last minute and the very idea that, on any given night, my two best friends and I could just hang out in some form or another and have loads of fun. The campaign is the same as to how I hold every game up to its quality. IW sure did it right, so here’s hoping MW3 can emulate that experience!

    Finally: I bought Hitman: Blood Money on Steam when it was on offer so now I can play it anywhere! : D

  16. Date of Birth: 1988
    First Game: Super Mario World (for the gameboy)
    Childhood Defining Game: Super Mario 64
    Adolescent Defining Game: Halo 2
    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Oblivion
    Current Favorite Game: Oblivion (soon I think that will change)

    To me I was defined into liking games through the N64, my first console. Then when the Xbox hit Halo 2 consumed my life until Oblivion came out. It was the first of the TES series I had played and the first time I had played an open world RPG of such, it became an instant top 3 best games of all time for me. Currently its still my favorite game, though Ive been playing a lot of MW2 lately.

    Didnt know you were about my age Mitch haha

  17. Date of Birth: 1991
    First Game: Super Mario Bros
    Childhood Defining Game: Half Life (both Single player and Multi player)
    Adolescent Defining Game: Half Life 2
    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Minecraft
    Current Favorite Game: Killing Floor

  18. @Drell Assassin (you’ll always be SK Beans to me): Thanks, but I can’t take all the credit for this idea. The random guy who designed the image should get a few props.

    @Sean: We met in person though, how old did you think I was? haha

  19. Date of Birth: 1996
    First Game: Warcraft 2
    Childhood Defining Game: Donkey Kong 64
    Adolescent Defining Game: Half-Life 2
    Current Favorite Game: Red Dead Redemption

  20. Date of Birth: 1987
    First Game: Super Mario Bros
    Childhood Defining Game: Super Mario 64
    Adolescent Defining Game: Half-Life
    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Team Fortress 2
    Current Favorite Game: Red Dead Redemption

    I guess it’s kind of weird to try to define your early adulthood when I feel like I’m not even out of early adulthood.

  21. DOB: 1993
    First Game: Age of Empires (I was terrible)
    Childhood Defining Game: Age of Empires 2 (still terrible)
    Adolescent Defining Game: Halo 3/Call of Duty 4
    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Team Fortress 2
    Current Favorite Game: The Witcher 2

  22. Date of Birth: 1991
    First Game: Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Genesis)
    Childhood Defining Game: Counter-Strike
    Adolescent Defining Game: Metal Gear Solid
    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
    Current Favorite Game: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

    Good times on all those games, especially Counter-Strike.

  23. Date of Birth: 1979
    First Game: The Black Cauldron
    Childhood Defining Game: Super Mario Bros 3
    Adolescent Defining Game: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
    Early Adulthood Defining Game: (The Elder) Scrolls (3 – Morrowind)
    Current Favorite Game: Deus Ex Human Revolution

  24. Date of Birth: 1989
    First Game: Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt
    Childhood Defining Game: Goldeneye 007
    Adolescent Defining Game: Grand Theft Auto III
    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Max Payne
    Current Favorite Game: Uncharted 2

    It’s pretty cool how you can see the console progressions and how other peoples favorites can change depending on which consoles they had available to them growing up. This was a neat post Mitch.

  25. Date of Birth: 1966

    First Game: Pong (I’m serious, a friend had it)

    Childhood Defining Game: There weren’t video games when I was a kid. Seriously.

    Adolescent Defining Game: The Empire Strikes Back (Atari 2600)

    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Twisted Metal (the original PS1, in my late 20s)

    Current Favorite Game: Borderlands

  26. [quote comment=”17743″]Year of birth: 1965

    Current Favorite Game: Borderlands[/quote]

    LMAO

    I was certain I’d be the oldest, and the only one to have Pong as their first game, and I certainly find it amusing we both currently have Borderlands as our top game!

  27. Date of Birth: 1993
    First Game: Super Mario World (SNES)
    Childhood Defining Game: Zelda: Majora’s Mask (N64)
    Adolescent Defining Game: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC)
    Early Adulthood Defining Game: Braid (PC)
    Current Favorite Game: either Iji or Portal 2. (PC)

  28. [quote comment=”17749″]@Sean: We met in person though, how old did you think I was? haha[/quote]

    Its weird. I just started my master’s degree and in my program I wrongly guessed most other students were about my age. Most were 2 years or more in age ahead of me. As for you I figured you were more around Eddy’s age. Nothing wrong with being young though! At least you also appear and act older, so kudos!

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