The Daily Grind: When has a game made you feel better?

When I quit WoW and went over to LOTRO and reconfirmed that the general community there was much more civil and friendly. That really made my day... and it still does, come to think of it.

When i was young and was playing EverQuest back during the Planes of Power expansions first few months. I was in high school and one of my teachers revealed that he was one of the servers more powerful Shamans. A day after that we spent a day power leveling me as a necromancer, which began a great future in a game i eventually gave up on.

I feel $15 better every month when I play Guild Wars. The gameplay, graphics, and community is great, too.

1) For my birthday in Pre-CU SWG a guildie and her pals helped me get a rare crystal to buff my mind points. They worked three hours to fight through the tough mobs, players taking spawns, etc. to get it for me on my Birthday of 2004. It was the only birthday gift I got, that I didn't buy for myself, the entire decade.

2) When I PVP in BGs, I lose myself in the violence, the slaughter, and the sheer bloodlust. It's a form of battle meditation, I'm sure, that allows everything to melt away--even the high of victory and low of defeat--to refocus my mind. Pretty Zen-like, if you're into such things.

3) Fishing: Straight up, I must be a weirdo because I LIKE fishing. Some people love dueling and hate fishing, whereas I love fishing and hate dueling. They say fishing isn't fun, I say fishing is fun and--unlike dueling--fishing has a point to it.

Sometimes I straight up buy a 12 bottle pack of beer, decide ion a fishing strategy, and just spend the weekend on and just fish. I feels pretty good to just fish in WOW: it's like a real weekend of fishing without the smell, the water, the long drive, or the lack of plumbing.

Whenever you got your first mount :)

Sometimes an environment is much to my liking. I really was delighted by the Shire in LotRO. It was a real joy just to wander about the area.

But my my best moments in games -- apart from a few particularly fun dungeon runs with random (but terrific) PUGs in WoW -- are usually due to the writing and design of the quests.

No game, in my opinion, had more enjoyable, inventive, and often humorous quests than Guild Wars. Anyone familiar with that game and who's played through the "Norgu Play" and/or "Goren Pet Rock" quests will understand that I still get a chuckle thinking about those quests.

It takes real talent to make a world and NPCs really "come alive" in that way. I just wish there were more MMOs that recognized the importance of good writing.

Probably just being able to quest and goof off with guildies and friends. It's so nice to be able to get on and just hang out with everyone while you gather mats or whatnot.

when i squeeze my ql100 implant into my lv 40++ toon in anarchy for the 1st time....spent 2 hour running around for buff and buying cushion. Was a noob back then

When I was playing Lineage 2, I was in a group which was formed to go adventure inside Antharas Lair. We were just hanging around at the entrance, when the leader of the server's griefing alliance ran up alone, probably to join his botting farmer friends for afk power-leveling. It felt good to beat the crap out of him.

We then waited awhile for him to come back. Not surprisingly, like all carebear bullies who can only pick on lowbies who can't fight back, he did not return.

Smacking down a Mega Destroyer in Champions Online after a rough day at work. There's just something special about destroying giant robots.

FFXI
Beating Maat for the final level cap break quest back in 2004 was an amazing feeling. My main class was Monk, so that old man was especially difficult back then. I was in a good mood for like...2 or 3 weeks after that victory.

I will never forget making my very own little player village with my old guild in SWG outside of Mos Espa. It felt great logging in everyday and seeing fields of harvestors, fellow players, and a ton of wild life. And I cannot forget how my buddy Othi from SWG has found the love of his life in SWG. He is getting married to her very soon!

Recently I just earned my tiger mount as a pet in AoC and that moment was really exciting. My arms were thrown upward as I sang "We are the champions, of the world"! Then I found out I need 800 mark of acclaims for the darn blanket and i only have 200! HAHHAHA!

I longed for a treant form in WoW for years and created werewood long before the ToL form was added. Was really nice to see it in when it did. And still having the minor glyph to preserve the original look of it after the latest exp-pack.
I also felt a warmth feeling when I recently visiting Rivervale in EQ (1) after 8 years. The music was running in my head for 8 years still.
But usually the happiness is from playing with other people. From support of kind people and friends.

Ive been sick before, real sick, and at that time WoW was a saviour. It helped take my mind off the pain and discomfort.

In COH there's a group called Justice Radio, and they always had a live DJ in game playing music on a streaming radio station and doing contests and things. You could even jump on teamspeak with everyone and hang out there, no matter if you played COH or not.

I used to live in an area so far in the boonies that we literally didn't have any conventional radio, so it was my first time having a community like that I could listen to and interact with. I made a hell of a lot of great friends there that carried over to real life. 5 years and several games later, those same friends still come and visit every year and we talk daily.

That's why I stick around MMOs despite the vocal minority that whine and complain and are downright nasty about it. When you find the good people, it's worth it.

When I have a crappy day at work (which seems to be a lot recently), killing Dwarves and Archmages just makes me feel a whole lot better.

When Northrend first came out, my shadow priest was harvesting near some cliffs when I was ganked by a rogue who rapidly beat me down to near death. I jumped off the cliff and he followed--trying to get the kill. I remember tapping slow fall and laughing as he hit the ground.

I don't play WoW anymore, but that was a fun time.

The only thing I'm going to miss when I quit WoW in a couple weeks is Gnomebliteration. That's literally the only happy place I've been able to find in *months*.