what does favorite mean to you?

Some of you may have noticed that I've added a new column to the right of the dividing css line: "Top 10." It's a question often asked, often answered, and often avoided. Warren Spector recently added his own top ten to his page, and it got me thinking about what my top ten was, and what that actually meant to me.

I've decided this: my top games are those that have given me the best experience, including all external forces such as time in life, location, relationship to others, happiness with quality of life, etc.

This sounds stupid to include all of these unrelated weightings to something that's already subjective as it is, but I can't deny the fact that the word "favorite" is so personal and requires one to become ever so subjective.

One caveat though. I am not saying that my favorite games are the best games for everyone. Sure, maybe sometime, I'll make a top 10 list of games that I think are best designed, but that's not what I said. So, here it is, MY top 10:

• Chrono Trigger: SNES: Combat system - spacial/timer/combo attacks. This game also tricked me so many times. (I'm the one who usually hates cut scenes and clicks through text as fast as possible.) After seeing the first cut scene and seeing how my interactions actually affected the cut scene, I paid attention to every cut scene after that and was careful with every action I took. There were also a few times that I thought I was supposed to do something and learned later from a friend that I had done something differently. It made my jaw drop, and I played it again.
  
• Counterstrike: PC: The game that I spent the most time playing. The competition.
  
• Diablo: PC: My friends and I farmed for stuff and min-maxed the crap out of this game. Entering, finishing, and making new rooms one after another.
  
• Half-Life: PC: I was blown away by architectural/spacial narratives instead of pure story.
  
• Megaman II: NES: Trying to beat this game in as many different combinations as possible. Comparing with my brother and boasting that I could beat a level with something different.
  
• NHL '94: Sega Genesis: My brother and I fought more in this game than in any other context ever. So well balanced, so little randomness, so much based in skill, and awesome one-timers.
  
• Star Wars Galaxies: PC: Staying up until 7AM planning a guild raid into our enemy guild. Hating on the imperials when I thought everyone should be rebel; it made my blood boil to see them--then deciding that the rebel alliance was dumb and becoming imperial.
  
• Super Mario 64: N64: For proving me wrong that 3D Mario was impossible. Retraversable islands with the possibility of seeing future earnable stars while earning a different one.
  
• Ultima Online: PC: Quite possibly the most fun I had exploiting and griefing people with friends. >:)
  
• Zelda: A Link to the Past: SNES: the most perfectly balanced game for my skill level at the time. Dying when I was trying so hard, but never becoming frustrated because I was so determined I was going to make it. Finishing every boss battle with 1/2-1 heart container left. Making my heart rate rise while trying to feign death. Foreshadowing later moments in the level design. This game made me think about DDA (dynamic difficulty adjustment) before I even knew what DDA was.
  

Hmm, what have I learned from this? I love games that enable me to A) allow me to experience something interesting with a friend in game, B) share amazing moments in games with others (talking about them outside of playing the game), C) trick me in some unthinkable way, D) allow me to be the competitive/min-maxer gamer that I am. ;)

What about you?