As the grim echo of the demise of BioWare continues to reverberate around the world, I cannot stop thinking about what a pivotal impact the company’s extraordinary run of games had on me. The Mass Effect trilogy was obviously stunning, Dragon Age: Origins means more to me than your Lord of the Rings , and Jade Empire holds a special place for me despite being forgotten by so many. But it wasn’t any of these, or the legendary Baldur’s Gate or its sequel, that hit me the hardest. It was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic .

There are games I’ve played and adored and replayed, and they exist in my head as just that: wonderful games. Then there are a rare few that exceed this, that occupy a bigger, more important place, that feel far more like crucial memories, deeply influential vacations from my past that shaped me, and stay with me forever.…