Welcome one and all to a very Athena Veta season of good will! Athena’s a friend of the show, as it were, and general all-around cool person; she also happens to be extremely smart, so check out her blog at the AmbiGaming Corner for deep and well-considered thoughts on what we can learn from gaming as well as a whole bunch of other always-interesting stuff.

For the holiday season this year, Athena’s coordinated an event based on that classic Marmite of tunes (you love it or you hate it): The Twelve Days of Christmas. Each day from December 26th to January 6th, we’ll look at a gamified version of one of the song’s lines until eventually we have 364 gamey gifts!

On the first day of Blogmas, the gamers said to me: What are twelve favourite gaming memories?

On the second day of Blogmas, the gamers said to me: Tell us eleven games you love!

On the third day of Blogmas, the gamers said to me: What are ten reasons you would play a game?

On the fourth day of Blogmas, the gamers said to me: Give us nine games on your to-play list!

On the fifth day of Blogmas, the gamers said to me: Eight characters you love!

On the sixth day of Blogmas, the gamers said to me: Share seven of your favourite posts!

On the seventh day of Blogmas, the gamers said to me: Tell us your six gaming/ blogging resolutions!

On the eighth day of Blogmas, the gamers said to me: Five games you’ve played more than once!

On the ninth day of Blogmas, the gamers said to me: Share four dramatic or memorable game moments!

Oooh, fun. I take this to mean moments in games rather than moments around gaming, which I think was the point of the ‘memories’ all the way back on the very first day of Blogmas!

4. DO-VAH-KIIN

Skyrim is a really good game and I definitely need to go back and replay it soon. A lot of amazing moments can happen entirely unscripted in that game, but one of the most epic moments that all Skyrim players will have experienced (unless, of course, they just went and did a whole bunch of stuff for hundreds of hours without ever even touching the main quest, which is entirely possible) is the first time you kill a dragon. It’s an intense experience, especially after the opening sequence in which you can’t fight back against the extremely powerful dragon descending on your would-be execution, but what makes it even better is that as you walk away, breathing hard and revelling in your glory, you’ll suddenly hear a powerful, earth-trembling shout of ‘DO-VAH-KIIN’. The Greybeards at High Hrothgar summon you by literally saying your name so loudly that all of Skyrim hears it. Plus, as you find out later, dragons themselves can be compelled to come to a summon in this format, so that’s just badass.

3. ANDREW RYAN

The first BioShock game is considered great pretty much entirely because of what’s revealed in this one sequence: coming face to face with the man set up as the game’s primary antagonist, Andrew Ryan, you’ll learn secrets that extend beyond the scope of the fiction and to the behaviour of you, the player, yourself. It’s a phenomenal confrontation.

2. BLUE?! GARY?! DORKFACE?! … RED?!

I’m including two different moments here because they’re both cool and distinct but similar feelings and in the same franchise.

In the first generation of Pokémon, making it to the end of the Elite Four was an amazing feeling. You’ve finally become the Champion!

Except… wait… someone else got there first. And it’s – NO WAY, it’s the guy whose name Professor Oak couldn’t remember at the beginning! Seeing this guy pop up here, having confronted him numerous times throughout the game, it’s just such a moment of ‘WHAAAAAAT’ followed by a ‘aw hell nah’ as you realise you probably don’t have enough items left after beating the Elite 4.

Then, in the second generation of Pokémon, you’ve done all there is to do except reach the top of this one place, Mt. Silver. What’s up there, you wonder? Well, it’s only you from the first generation. And he’s got possibly the most powerful team you’ll come across in the whole game. It’s just amazing.

1. PAPAL PUGILISM

Assassin’s Creed 2 lets you punch the Pope in the face. That’s all I got on that one.

I don’t think there’s any more that needs to be said.

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As per usual, that’s just the list as it came to mind and is neither authoritative nor in order!

Of course, I’m writing this in advance, so I don’t know who else is taking part or what they’ll have written, but I bet there are a bunch of other awesome people writing incredibly cool things on this very topic today, so check out the AmbiGaming Corner and probably Twitter for some links! See you tomorrow for the next day of Blogmas…