Though I’m interested to read what other people might have to write on the subject, I really have no idea how to preface this thread aside from an example of my own.

I think I’m permanently scarred from my first experience with Resident Evil as a child (and I don’t think I’m alone). I don’t exactly live my life in fear of finding myself trapped in a mansion full of the undead, and it’s not exactly uncommon to find a girl who feels a little weird being the only person awake in a darkened house in the middle of the night. But zombies in general sort of creep me out a bit more than they should. Horror movies, books, silly imitations by my boyfriend, you name it. I can lay in bed, late at night, and tell myself that the living dead are physiologically impossible, but my knowledge of normal human anatomy and physiology only makes the abnormal zombie that much more disturbing to my sleepy mind.

In fact, just the other night I downloaded the Biohazard Orchestra album, because I thought it might be interesting to listen to. Only a few seconds into it I had to turn it off because I discovered it was a terrible thing to be listening to just before bed with vivid memories of walking into a room to find a zombie gnawing on the head of my missing friend, or entering a darkened closet only to have a seemingly dead corpse latch onto my ankle and start eating. I can’t recall if that first time playing Resident Evil was my first real encounter with anything having to do with zombies, or if it was the first time I ever felt so incredibly aware that I was inside and I could never be quite sure what was outside, but it’s definitely what I attribute my girlish mental trauma to.

What experiences have you had with gaming that have stuck with you beyond the time you were playing a particular game? It could be something as silly as mine, or a theme or philosophy that inspired you, or maybe you developed an entirely separate hobby such as learning a foreign language. There’re countless possibilities to share, so let’s have a bit of fun with them.