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
Werewolf: the Apocalypse.
I didn't just play it. And I didn't just run it. For a year, I had to kind of look at the world through a lens that assumed the Triat was real, for reasons I don't want to go into in public here. That was ... interesting, and eye-opening. Haven't touched any of the books in a long time (my collection is one of two things to have survived the past 30 years with me), but I still ... see things in a certain light from time to time.