What games do you think have contributed most to fiction?

I know when people think of contributions to art, they often don't think of video games. But video games have contributed.

For example, the space marines trope. Starship Trooper is what,I think, introduced the idea, but stories like Halo and Warhammer 40,000k really made it popular.

And then there is Mass Effect. I haven't seen a better reconstruction of an 80's sci fi.

Video games do contribute.

Warcraft made the High Fantasy genre acceptable to more folks than Dn D nerds.

...Halo? I think you meant Doom

For whose generation? =) My generation had Doom to blame for the SPEHS MEHREENS (or, ackshwally, that and Space Hulk), and the kids of todays may have discovered the wonders of cosmic marinerdom via Aliens Vs Predator and Halo =-) And at some point there will be schmucks who didn't know soljers could be in sci-fi until they played Gears Of War or Bulletstorm or (gasp) they still don't know! Even though the idea is simple as giving a guy a space suit and a gun.

Super Mario Bros allows game writing to exist.

The adventure games made by Sierra (______ Quest games) contribute Nerve wrecking puzzles and insanity!

edited 20th May '11 8:10:12 AM by AttObl

For the sake of narrowing the list, we should probably restrict ourselves to games that were clearly influences on non-game fiction.

Unfortunately, the only examples of that I can think of either solely influenced webcomics and new media, or suck.

(Though I do have to thank whoever came up with the concept of virtual reality, without which we'd never have had The Matrix.)

Is this gonna lead to an Essential Video Games page like the Essential Anime page? 'Cuz I would love help in making that!

I think the Mario series is one of, if not the greatest contributors to video games. Not many game can claim even half the things Mario did to the industry.

There's a reason that the Running Gag of referring to Shigeru Miyamoto as God isn't so far-fetched.

Well, we're talking about the guy who makes amazing best selling games from his hobbies.

Really, he's like "I like gardening." Next thing you know we have Pikmen. He's like the Picasso of video games.

I...don't know. Maybe....

• Silent Hill: I think it displays really excellent usage of horror techniques that can be easily used by filmmakes as well.
• Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni: I think it really shows what you can do with "Groundhog Day" Loop. Case in point: Puella Magi Magika Madoka, although it's a different story, effect is similar enough.
• Modern Warfare: Ok, fine. I just like the game, but hey, it most definitely had a heavy influence to the story I'm working on...

edited 20th May '11 6:18:11 PM by dRoy

Despite not being the first, when people think oldest video game they tend to think of Pong.