What are you thankful for?

Not thankful for having food or shelter or clean water or any of that boring stuff that a shockingly large % of the human race never reliably had; but what in the world of gaming are you thankful for?

I'm thankful for the ease of finding old games. Yea, it's not 100% of the classics instantly available at any time but when I think how easy it is for me to buy some really amazingly great old games on a steam sale or humble bundle or good old games or even Nintendo's system for literally less than the cost of a soda I'm really impressed by how much more available old games are than they were just ten years ago.

But that's me. What are you thankful for?

I'm thankful for the huge Indie Game market at the moment, I love playing experimental games made by smaller / one person teams. You can really feel the tangible effort that went into building something from the ground up. I don't really get that feeling from AAA games anymore, only the really good ones tend to feel properly cohesive.

Although the market for indie games is hugely saturated and competitive, I still like to think that it rewards out-of-the-box thinking from game developers. Seeing some very unique kinds of games like Papers Please selling well and getting a lot of exposure in the community is awesome and something to be thankful for.

Life: the health and love of my family and friends.

Gaming: cool indie games, great sales, goodjers and Mordin from Mass Effect 3

Budo wrote:

Life: the health and love of my family and friends.

Boo, lame...

I'm thankful for the mod community, for possessing the patience and skills I lack, to bring new life to weird old games that I love. From very early games made playable on modern machines, to eccentric classics like Thief 1 & 2 and Deus Ex; to diamonds in the rough like Arcanum, STALKER, Gothic, and Vampire: The Masquerade.

Level designers for games like Doom 2, Quake 2, Age of Wonders, and all the mods for Bethesda games that took so much effort to make, yet added so many hours of entertainment for the rest of us.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

I'm thankful that I am still alive and that the threat of imminent abduction, torture, assassination, and drone strikes are currently very low.

You yankees and your holidays which have Christmas dinner before it's Christmas!

I am thankful for the fact that there are so many great games out there with so much innovation and variance, that I'll never be able to play them all!

Aspirin this morning.

Shalalm Baskur.

Aspirin this morning.

Shalalm Baskur.

(Double vision. Yup, that checks out.)

Gaming-wise, I'm thankful I no longer have family obligations for the holidays, and can spend most of the long weekend immersed in the latest Assassin's Creed.

I'm thankful that while I don't consider myself wealthy (by western standards), I do have sufficient resources for a decent television, a modern console, and a few games; and I'm thankful that these few things bring me so much joy and contentment.

I'm insanely grateful for Gamers With Jobs. I know it sounds trite, but I'm dead serious; this is the only forum I frequent, and it's full of wonderful interesting discussions I can't find elsewhere. Taking a break to read these is usually the high point of my work day.

I'm thankful that games are becoming less region specific. I don't get every cool Japanese title that I want here in America, but I get a lot of them.

I think Thanksgiving is about being grateful for anything positive in your life. Yes, health, prosperity, and family get the spotlight but I like to take time to appreciate the little things too. In regards to gaming, I think I'm most thankful for digital distribution. Especially as a predominantly PC gamer, it can be tough to find physical copies of the game you want. Not to mention shelf space and theft. I love knowing that my games (and often saves as well) are safe and sound in the event of a hard drive failure, tornado, or theft.
I know this can lead to epic pile of shame/hoarding issues, but overall I think it has been positive, particularly for indies.

I'm so thankful I posted twice!

Gaming wise, I'm thankful that even in today's watered down AAA climate, a few games like MGS5 and The Witcher 3 can still somehow get made and have a unique voice and take artistic risks. That's something of a miracle.

I'm thankful that older games are still so easy to access, from eBay to the three different retro stores that are within 45 minutes of where I live.

I'm thankful for the untold hours of happiness and enjoyment gaming with family and friends has brought to all of our lives, from marathon sessions of Nintendoland with my parents and friends to epic Wii Sports Resort competitions to watching my wife and her father play Wii Bowling together for the first time and forget all the troubles of the world for a little while.

I'm also thankful that for whatever reason I haven't "outgrown" this hobby and actually find deeper and deeper enjoyment of it as I get older. I see so many people lose their sense of wonder and their ability to play as life moves forward, and I am thankful for games being there to keep me young and as excited about one of my passions as my 12 year old self was.