Gaming
Games, mythology, and history: the stories we keep retelling.
Games were my first window into history and mythology. The long campaigns of RTS and adventure games helped me spend hours learning without learning. These games pulled me in the same way long book series do: a little bit of escapism, a lot of wonder, and a feeling of time well-spent.
Historical Strategy
Campaigns set against real history. These sparked a lasting interest in ancient civilisations and mythology.
It helped that most of them had a lot of background detail to read about the civilisations, the units, etc.
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Age of Empires II
Learned so much about the Huns, the Mongols, the Celts and the other races. Still sometimes view YT videos from gamers
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Age of Mythology
Greek, Egyptian, Norse gods. My entry point into mythology.
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Rise of Nations
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Stronghold Crusader
Played an unreasonable amount of this.
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Caesar 3, Pharoah
A different kind of city builder but fun nonetheless
RTS
Natural best-of of the RTS genre.
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Warcraft III (+ The Frozen Throne)
The primary one. All campaigns and expansions. The lore runs deep.
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StarCraft II
Both Warcraft and Starcraft had such a great storyline, along with satisfying gameplay and varied races to dive into
Action & Adventure
Great stories, brilliant gameplay and immersive, lovingly crafted worlds.
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Assassin's Creed
The OG
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Assassin's Creed: Ezio Trilogy
AC2, Brotherhood, Revelations. The geek in me was crying when I actually visited Florence.
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Max Payne
The first one. Bullet time FTW
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God of War (2018 & Ragnarök)
Enjoyed these immensely despite not getting into the original series. Revisiting Norse mythology, the father-son dynamics and the story had me hooked.
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Ghost of Tsushima
Scratched the Samurai / Ninja lover in me. Beautiful design and gameplay. Just the right amount of difficulty.
RPG
Immense lore, deep world-building. The same pull as a long book series with its own universe.
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Fus-Ro-Dah! Right balance of customization and open-world helped this become a genre-defining game
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Dragon Age: Origins and Inquisition
The companions and their stories make this game stand out for me
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Breath of the Wild
Such a lovingly crafted game. My mind was blown once when I cut down a tree with a flaming sword: instead of wood the game gave me a bonfire.
Comfort
Reliable retreats.
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Stardew Valley
A reliable retreat. Return to it from time to time.
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RollerCoaster Tycoon
Absolute fun designing and maintaining parks. So many little mechanics packed into such a small game