I think I eased myself into watching playthroughs from a combo of looking for new games to play and watching bits of game footage, watching some highlight reels of World of Tanks, which I played a lot at the time, and enjoying watching people waaaaay better than me, and just developing some interest in games that seemed interesting, but not the type of thing I'd personally want to sit and play. Accurize's playing The Long Dark I found very soothing, between the slow and mostly calm gameplay, the creepy but relaxing environment, and his voice made it great background noise for long periods of time. Then I began checking out classics for game systems I never got, like I never had a PS3, so I watched things like Metal Gear Solid 3.

Far Cry 4 just really wowed me with its moral grey-ness of the 3 factions. They all have some very valid points, but will all do some pretty nasty things to achieve them, and I think Pagan Min really captivated me with why he does what he does during the timeline of the gameplay and why he treats certain people the way he does. I think his evil has a certain air of fairness that I don't know if I've ever seen anything like that portrayed in another story, but of course that is hidden to the very end of the story, and especially getting his proper ending after seeing the endings the other factions lead to, I think he gets an uncomfortable amount of empathy, which makes me question my own morality. Especially with conflicts going on in the world where all sides seem not the best of people to root for, FC4's story was just incredibly impactful to me.

When I realized the one crafting quest involved a legendary honeybadger, I was prepared for ridiculousness, but it is comically over the top. In contrast with all the violence and ethical/moral choices, it is a really nice moment of levity. The closest comparison I can think of is the lion quest after all the ridiculous circus missions in Red Dead 2.