I’m not necessarily talking about moment-to-moment gameplay or mechanics (though I could see some interesting points being made about, for example, RTS gameplay or RPG character building influence how you approached “strategy” in your own life).
What I’m trying to get at are the games you felt really had something to say.
For example, while I’m by no means the biggest fan (only ever played 2 and V), playing MGS V recently (and catching up on the background a bit) has created this sense in me, and I wondered where else one might have experienced that from vidya
MGS (the original) was the only game I remember playing growing up that had any sort of message.
Gaming in general had a massive impact on me, because I wanted to learn how to make the games; and it was one of the motivations that drove me to become a professional programmer (even though I've never actually developed a game outside of little toy projects).