I believe everyone’s best moments in gaming are very personal. They become cherished memories that other players may or may not understand or be able to relate to. On the other hand, all players will be able to relate to having these memories and moments. I remember Belisle’s monologue on the podcast on his cherished missed click in Natural Selection. I’m sure the other staff members have their own favourites as well. With that said, here are some of my peronsally cherished moments.

For my first wedding anniversary, my ex-wife had bought me a PSP. Soon after, I became addicted to Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. For those of you not familiar with the game, it’s a simple puzzle game that has RPG elements, similar in some ways to connect four. I had been playing the game so much that I started dreaming about it. One night, according to my ex-wife, I started talking in my sleep about the game. I woke her up in the middle of the night as I was mumbling away. I apparently said, “I got…I got four of a kind.” She decided to entertain this bizarre situation and asked me, “And what does that mean?” to which I responded, “It means I get another turn.” When she brought this up to me the next morning, I realized that I had been dreaming about the game and playing the different puzzle scenarios out in my dreams.

In a related story, one night after another long session of Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, again, I woke my ex-wife up with some strange behaviour. She awoke to find me crouching on the edge of the bed. She asked me, “What are you doing?” I said, “I have to get past these lasers.” I only vaguely remember this as I was asleep at the time, but I do remember half waking up and returning to bed afterwards. Apparently I was trying to get past some moving laser trip wires. It seems gaming can have a profound effect on my dreams if I’m really into a given title.

I’m a terrible player in online FPS games. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my share of Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena. During a free for all match one night I was getting badly out-played by everyone else on the map. At one point, I was killed and I had no idea where the shot came from. After respawning, I quickly messaged in the game “What the? Where?” Literally in the next moment, the same player popped out in front of my spawn point and promptly shot me in the face at which point he quickly typed in the message “Right there.” I had never laughed so hard at being killed before.

Everyone has certain sequences that they remember fondly in their favourite games. I still have nostalgic moments when remembering playing GTA: Vice City and listening to all of those great 80′s tunes. I love the math puzzle in Knights of the Old Republic, and I love trying to get all of the cards in The Witcher. But it’s really, the special stories about something that happened while playing a match, or when playing with friends that really transcend what happens in a game itself. It’s moments like these that make me want to play and it’s these stories that I’m most interested in. Let me know some of your best moments in the comments section.

[image via YouTube]