UPDATE 12TH DEC: You never disappoint, do you. It’s taken me hours to read through your comments, and they’ve made me laugh and well up a bit, and they’ve given me powerful pangs of nostalgia. Thank you for taking the time to share them and, well, remind me of the power gaming has.
That’s a clear theme in your comments: the power gaming has to bring us together. There are so many stories of people playing with friends they’ve lost touch with or that are sadly no longer here, as there are many stories of families playing together and connecting, sometimes in ways they never would again. Often, it doesn’t even matter what they were playing; the point is they were playing together.
But sometimes it really does matter what you’re playing. Remember, the PlayStation 1 was the beginning of things, as Madame Drofla’s comment reminds us – we didn’t know back then that Sony would become the dominant gaming player it is today. This was the first time many of us would come into contact with legendary brands like Metal Gear Solid and Ratchet & Clank and – who could forget – Final Fantasy 7. There are more comments about FF7 here than any other.
However, it’s not only memories of games and friends that are here, it’s memories of a different time. Memories of when people used to prop consoles up at funny angles so they would work, and memories of bricks and mortar shops where people would get their games or learn about them. Scrappier times, scruffier times, providing gaps and opportunities for memorable moments to occur. I don’t think I’ve laughed harder than at H1ppyDave’s incredible story of throwing a PS1 out of the window because a friend was pretending to be the police and they were all stoned.
That’s not the only story I want to shout out, though. Weebleman’s story about a random Journey friend becoming a lifelong friend was really touching, as was Dyn Arall’s well written account of becoming a PlayStation convert. And I still can’t believe Tumbletwit’s friend straight up bought them a PS3 Slim after a win at the bookies – what a pal!
Rami thinking Psycho Mantis was controlling their real-world and making their ceiling fall down – which was actually falling down – made me laugh, as did hearing the lengths Davotron made their family go through in order to win a Cheesestring PlayStation competition. Cheesestrings of all things! Shrui’s story about the “epic prick” who tried to buy their way to the front of the PS2 pre-order queue had lovely evocative language, too, and made me feel a bit better about humanity.
Sandman connecting with a troubled nephew via Lunar Silver Star Story really got me in the feels, as did Mark Devis’ memory of a departed friend, and Tony Almond’s memory of a departed mother spoke to something similar in my own life, so that got to me too.
There are so many – George Roper, Rahmus and Shifty Geezer’s tales of friends playing together, of eras gone by, connected to something in me, and I enjoyed the vivid recollections of Cookie Monster and Alexandros Demetriades upon encountering PlayStation and its games for the first time. Thank you all.
But the winning entry – and there is one after all that – is by HelderCH who, contrary to their own belief, does not suck at telling stories. Their tale of finding a community around Shadow of the Colossus on PS2, and through it a friend who would, many years later, become a wife, has it all – games as a powerful experience, games helping someone through a difficult time, and games helping kindred spirits find each other. HelderCH congratulations, you told it well, and thank you for sharing. Keep an eye on your inbox – I shall be in touch!
ORIGINAL STORY 6TH DEC: Memories at the ready! We’d like you to tell us your favourite PlayStation-related gaming memory, mostly for the sake of sharing, but we’ll also go through them at the end and select a winner who will receive a game’s worth of vouchers for the PlayStation Store. Ho ho ho Merry Christmas.
We’ve done a few of these memory threads before, and they’ve resulted in some of my favourite comments sections ever on the website, which is all down to you and your generous sharing. We did one most recently for our Eurogamer 25th anniversary, which was quite emotional actually, but we’ve also done them for Christmas, Star Wars, Zelda and Street Fighter, and they’ve made me laugh and well-up a bit. You have some great stories.
So what do you do? Simply share a story below. Think about a time that PlayStation featured in your life, for some memorable reason – maybe it brought people together, maybe someone did something silly and it still makes you laugh, maybe something else – and tell us about it in the comments. It was PlayStation’s 30th anniversary this week, as you’ll know if you’ve been anywhere near our homepage, so I hope the memories are already flowing. There’s 30 years of material there.
A PlayStation memory that lives rent-free in my head is me hunched over an ironing board one summer, aiming a lightgun at a tiny TV in a scorching hot conservatory – I don’t know why I put my friend’s borrowed PS1 there – trying to beat Die Hard 2, which was bastard hard, if you remember. I think I shed a few pounds of weight in sweat that weekend. Then again, I also remember borrowing my friend’s PS2 to play Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and I remember the first time I actually owned a PlayStation of my own – the bulbous and brilliantly arrogant PlayStation 3. I tell you: we played some SingStar on that.
What do you remember?
I’ll go through the memories early next week and pick a winner, so you’ve got the weekend to think about it and write, if you need that long. Have fun and thank you for taking part.
