PC Gaming

Really, anything from the Game Canon is a good choice: Mario, Doom, Tetris, SimCity, Civ I, Warcraft, SpaceWar, Zork, that soccer game I don't remember, StarRaiders.

I haven't seen anyone mention Zork yet, and it really ought to be in contention here. Pretty much all video games can trace how their narrative is structured through gameplay back to the foundations laid by Zork, even doom. It drew on Colossus, sure, but it built on it so much that it became revolutionary to both games as a storytelling medium and to natural language processing. Really cool stuff.

Doom. Was on more PCs than Windows, defined a genre and is still referenced today.

I see a lot of downvotes from people. Listen, it's okay to disagree and we can have discussions about it. None of the comments so far are offensive or anything. Tell these people why you disagree.

BattleBorn, Lawbreakers, Skull&Bones and Concord; the biggest f* to AAA (and "AAAA") industry. You crash, so the Indie rise.

Super Mario Brothers is what brought video games into the household.

This one game is why every game system was called "a Nintendo" for decades. Yes, other games came along and changed the landscape dramatically, but SMB1 created that foothold into the home.

I'm going to be a little left-field with this one. Yes you could pick some boring obvious answer like Pong, Doom or Minecraft and that's perfectly valid. I'm not saying those are incorrect.

I'm going to go with FarmVille though. It's really hard to overstate the impact it has had on the gaming landscape (for the worst, if it needed spelling out). It popularised an all new approach to monetisation and retention systems in games, it heralded the proliferation of microtransactions, Games-As-A-Service models and manipulative skinner boxes designed to extract the most money and attention out of you. It opened the door - by being a "social game not just for gamers" - to an entirely new market whose wallets were previously unavailable. It created this malicious new insight that the best way to make money is not to just make a good game and sell it - it is to create an addiction through psychologically manipulative means, then slowly leech their users' wallets over time.

FarmVille really fucked us over.

Bad rats.

DOOM 1993

can someone help me describe 'most influential' for me here?

pardon my english

Tetris brought in the normies.

Most of all time. GTFO.

Doom.

Minesweeper.

That question is so broad it cannot be answered.

There's a myriad of games which are or have been wildly popular (e.g. Mario, CS, GTA, WoW, Minecraft, Fortnite)

There's games which pushed the borders to new limits (e.g. Tetris, Doom, WoW, VR Chat)

And there's games which warped the industry or their players (e.g. mobile games, micro transactions, loot boxes)

Might be biased but not only does the FF7 story hold up close to three decades later but it was also the catalyst for introducing Japanese RPGs into a western market.

I would have said Doom, but I think in the long run it's Minecraft or Skyrim.

Half-Life for me. The moment games really became an interactive storytelling medium.

Concord!

My vote goes to Dragon Quest. Early gaming was dominated by JRPGs like DQ, Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger. Pretty much every modern game has RPG elements. While there are earlier RPGs, DQ popularized them and invented the JRPG.

Of course, literally speaking, the first game ever is the most influential - therefore Tennis for Two.

I bet noone's gonna mention the great grandfathers of modern RPGs. Bard's Tale, Ultima, Dungeon Master... all modern games are standing on the shoulders of giants.

Oh, it's a "type your pick", not a list of choice. Interesting

Depends on what is meant by "Influential". Are we talking within the industry or among players?

Because, as much as I hate to say it, World of Warcraft pretty much revolutionized the industry. From the live-service, massive multiplayer format to every nasty type of monetization model we've seen in almost every big title since.

I’d argue Rogue at this point.

Mario? Tetris?

Probably Minecraft.

… and why it’s World of Warcraft.

Do I want that to be the answer? No.