honorable mentions:
some of my all-time favorite games that i'm not going to constantly keep on the listheroes of the storm //i was so hyped for heroes of the storm that i found a cracked version to play pre-launch. think about that for a second though, we're talking about an online-only moba by blizzard here. an incredible pvp game. successfully extracted several mechanics i disliked out of mobas while adding just a crazy amount of variance between each match with it's multiple maps and varying win conditions. a game and community i connected with truly on a spiritual level.
tribes 2 //defined my ideal game mode. 32v32 with one objective. we have one thing to do and a million ways to do it. place some turrets around your base. infiltrate the enemy's base and destroy their facilities so they can't equip gear. take direct control of your base turrets and outperform the default auto-targeting. drop bombs from the sky. launch mortars from a tank. aim a targeting laser so the tank guy actually hits something. load up an airplane with 8 dudes and drop them on the enemy. squash snipers with your fighter jet's windshield. have honorable disc launcher duels in the middle of the map. anything you choose to do will help your team, but nobody cares to check on your performance anyway
planetside 2 //tribes 2 with pay 2 win
world of warcraft, ffxi, ultima online //i grew up on the internet, chatting in active worlds and palace chat, and ultima online was my first mmorpg when i was 12 years old
guild wars 1 and 2 //i didn't actually play a whole lot of guild wars 1, but i got into the sequel in a big way, almost exclusively playing the wvw pvp mode for a couple years
destruction derby (1995) and more recently: wreckfest //not much beats being allowed to t-bone somebody
divinity original sin 2 //beating this on tactician is one of my favorite achievements
final fantasy tactics //blame yourself or god
root: digital //i love this game so much that i played a lot of it with random strangers online, a rarity for a board type game
armello //i also love this game so much that i played a lot of it with random strangers online, but it's not as good as root probably. the rng feels worse in my opinion. often you're really hoping for a specific card to show up, and you're tossing more dice.
solium infernum //fuck man. such an incredible social board type strategy game that nobody has heard of or plays. i just don't have enough social battery to organize games with strangers without matchmaking involved, but if i did, this would be the game i'm playing. look up gameboys from hell on rock, paper, shotgun with quinns (of shut up and sit down fame)
titanfall 2 //i tried this one too late. i miss out on a lot of gems with my broke minimalist ways, only investing in something i know i'll love forever or waiting for it to get cheap enough for a fling. i regret not experiencing the multiplayer when it was popular, but i'm glad i played the story eventually. rip