Games sometimes take hours to sink their hooks into us, but Tony Hawk was the first game that was able to make even the clumsiest fools believe that skateboarding had to be the most fun you could possibly have. By the end of the day, I had my own copy. Scott and I were supposed to do something that day, but I ended up playing the game for hours, even finding myself left alone in Scott's basement.

Tony Hawk is a game I discovered in the basement of my good friend Scott's house, and I tried it only because his brother left it on in the PlayStation. Some people share that timing with the writers who have taken a crack at a particular title, while others do not. The titles that intersect at the moment where both the industry and our lives changed are always going to be the ones we resonate with, and that's why the Masterpiece series can be hit and miss with readers. It's hard to talk about important games without delving into the ugly world of autobiography, but I strongly believe the best games are the ones that are important not only to the world of gaming, but also to our own development.

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