There are moments in gaming that will get me up out of my seat cheering or taunting at my opponent with excitement. Over a lifetime of gaming I’m sure nearly everyone has had these big moments at some point. Whether edging out an opponent online in the final seconds, or squeaking out a victory against the AI after falling way behind, every person has those epic big gaming moments that are followed by a Tiger fist pump.

But sometimes it’s the little reoccurring moments in gaming that are really the big ones. Sure they don’t stir up the raw emotion or adrenaline that the big moments might offer, but these little moments let you sit back and smile at your subtle accomplishment. These moments help to make gaming great, so I wanted to take some time today to look at those moments in gaming.

The little accomplishment that was my "white whale" for many moons was being able to go man-to-man in football games while intercepting passes and running them back for touchdowns. These always were a rarity that got me pumped up; however, nowadays in the landscape of football gaming, they aren’t too rare of an occasion. Sadly enough manual interceptions have lost a great deal of excitement in my book. Sure it’s still a good feeling when you’re controlling a player and hawking a receiver waiting for the QB to make a certain throw, and you do get that sense of accomplishment when you make the play, but that once great moment has now been cut down to a smaller moment because of its frequency of occurrence.

Sure it’s still a good feeling when you’re controlling a player and hawking a receiver waiting for the QB to make a certain throw, and you do get that sense of accomplishment when you make the play..

While intercepting passes and returning them for touchdowns has become a watered down achievement, an area that I don’t think most people look for joy in is the punting game. The punting game I think can actually bring a great sense of pride to people. In football, field position is key, and it always feels good to pin your opponent deep in his territory with an out-of-bounds destined cornering kick. What feels even better than booting the kick out of bounds is when you launch the punt as high as you can get it and manage to get your gunners downfield in order to actually catch the punt before it bounces into the end zone. This is something I have just found success in recently, and I must say that astonishingly enough it has brought a sense of fun to the punting game for me.

But the place to find the best small thrills in gaming is of course online. Sure outsmarting the AI is always fun, but victory means so much more when you’re actually out-thinking an opponent. Of course those last second victories and goal-line stands are a thrill, but those are obvious thrills that anyone should be psyched about.

Playing against a human opponent brings the great opportunity to set up plays online. I don’t think there's really any bigger little moment than when you successfully pull off that play you’ve been setting up all game long. For instance, back in NFL 2K4 I had a beast of a fullback on the Raiders named Zack Crockett. Just like in real life he could always be counted on to gain that extra yard I needed to pick up. So on third-and-one I’d make sure to hand him the ball and let him go to work.

I think that sometimes we need to lose those tight games against the AI, since if we didn’t then winning the other games wouldn’t be nearly as fun.

Once you got near the goal line it was always a bit tougher to get the job done. Sure he could do it, but there was a little more risk involved since players would love to stack the line of scrimmage. This was where the beauty of a human opponent came in: My online foe had watched me hand the ball off to Crockett in short yardage situations all game, and my opponent knew Crockett was getting the ball. Mounting up the troops for that big stop, my opponent usually set up a blitz that would attack the middle of the offensive line.

It was always with a great sense of pride that I pulled out the play I’d been saving the whole game, just for that one occasion. The moment when QB Rich Gannon would fake to Crockett up the middle and then toss it out to RB Charlie Garner on the sweep -- who could have crawled into the end zone if he desired since everyone bit on the fake to the middle of the field. That was always my sweetest and favorite little moment -- even writing about it gets me grinning from ear-to-ear.

This last one is the strangest of all the little moments because it's a moment that isn’t a happy one, but a necessary one: the gut-wrenching loss. Sure winning is fun, but sometimes losing is actually quite sweet. While I never find it fun to lose online, you can lose a great game against the AI and still appreciate it. I think that sometimes we need to lose those tight games against the AI, since if we didn’t then winning the other games wouldn’t be nearly as fun.

We all love winning, but if there wasn't a chance we would lose, then the victories would not be nearly as sweet. That’s why I think it’s important for all of us to take a little time to enjoy our great losses to the AI; moments when we just couldn’t get it done against them on the final drive, or they scored in the closing moments to steal away our victory. Sometimes our losses can be quite a sweet defeat.

These are my big little moments, what are yours?