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
I highly doubt I will ever be as shocked when we lost Chrono in Chrono Trigger. It shows how stuff just can go away, not expecting it so you better cherish that which you have today... Or revive it, lmao.
Other than that probably morrowind, a game I still measure a lot of other first person rpgs, I find a lot of lacking compared of morrowind. It was also the first time I learned about modding, adding boobs to games was mind blowing as a horny teen, later finding the cool vampire mods and others. Aside from that the freedom of it was just amazing, I was hlown away by the amount of content this one game had, you could go anywhere, even beat the game without really taking on the main quest. Guilds also actually felt like guilds, not extra storylines.