National Video Game Day Inspires Gamers To Share All-Time Favorite Games

National Video Game Day is celebrated on July 8 and gamers have been taking to Twitter to honor their favorite games of all time.

In truth, National Video Game Day is one of two holidays meant to celebrate video games, the other observed on September 12 is spelled just a little bit differently in National Video Games Day (with an “s.”)

The origins of the holiday are shrouded in mystery as even the person supposedly behind it, David Earle, is someone people don’t seem to know a lot about. The story goes that National Video Game Day was started in 1991 David Earle. Earle is listed as the sponsor of National Video Game Day in a calendar, which also states that he is the president of Kid Vid Warriors, notes ScreenRant.

Problems arise though when people ask who David Earle actually is, what is Kid Vid Warriors, and why would Earle want to create National Video Game Day in the first place. If that wasn’t problematic enough as it is, both National Video Game Day and National Video Games Day seem to actually be the same holiday started by Earle, despite their different spellings and dates.

In spite of the ambiguity of its origins, National Video Game Day has become celebrated by players looking to show some love for the games that have given them the most joy and satisfaction through the years.

Just looking at any selection of tweets about National Video Game Day shows a wide range of “favorite games ever,” including 16-bit classics like “Final Fantasy 6,” modern masterpieces like “Red Dead Redemption 2,” and everything in between.

Not to limit itself to “popular titles,” there are many outliers as well. Most importantly, though, it’s an excuse for fans to just share their unabashed enthusiasm for their favorite games.

National Video Game Day also gives developers a chance to tweet out an innocuous celebration of its own games, hopefully without unprovoked negativity in return. ScreenRant points out that’s the case with Capcom, which shared a great piece of art featuring characters from many of its beloved games.

With conversations about video games often turning toxic and harmful, it’s nice to have one day (or even two) in the year to just do a little show-and-tell on what games tickled your fancy and why. These games, after all, have done wonders in uniting people globally into a virtual gaming community.