StaceyPowers

None. I get a weird sensory issue when bits of my flesh aren't where I think they should be. But I like them on other people and am very pro-body modification in general.

Thank you! Awesome review, and now I'm more stoked than ever! I can't wait (of course, I have to, lol).

This is a pretty broad topic since the answers will vary depending on genre, but what makes for good or bad AI? I was thinking about this while reading @Kaynil 's interesting thread about cheap or unnatural difficulty in games, where something is hard for the sake of being hard, but not necessarily with any reasonable logic behind it. It made me think about Unreal Tournament 2004. UT2004 is an all-time favorite game for me, but I think its weakest element are its bots. It isn’t that they aren’t smart. They are. But they’re too smart. They are almost omniscient. I love climbing to high, almost-inaccessible points in the maps, and they spot me instantly when a human never would even think to look for me up there. Interested to hear examples of what you think are good and bad AIs.

Unreal Tournament 2004's unnaturally smart bots.

For a really long time, I didn’t care about video game spoilers at all, for the simple reason that gaming had long since become a sublimated interest, and I didn’t have a console! I was working in the industry, so I got used to learning about games I hadn’t played inside and out. It definitely didn’t ruin my experiences with anything when I did finally get a console. I just caught up on the games I’d wanted to play for years, and didn’t mind a bit that I knew how they’d end. But now I find myself actively trying to avoid spoilers for games for PS4 that I can’t play yet, because I figure that when PS5 comes out, I’ll buy one and be able to play them without waiting for eternity. Do you go out of your way to steer clear of video game spoilers? Why or why not? @DylanC @The Blackangel @Executor Akamia @kingpotato @Alyxx @killamch89 @Aerielle del Rosario @skyfire

I’ve been pretty stoked about The Outer Worlds ever since it was announced, but cannot play it yet as I don’t have a PS4. Has anyone had a chance to try it? What do you think of it? @DylanC Tagging you as you seem the most likely person to have a response on this.

What are some times you can remember being delighted by some surprising moment in a video game? Here are some for me: -I finally finished a full playthrough of the main story in Fallout NV the other night, and was pleasantly surprised when the bomber I raised from the lake for the Boomers did make a flyover and drop some bombs. I had been so convinced that I wouldn’t get to see it fly! -When Elizabeth sings in Bioshock Infinite, that was definitely a moment of unexpected delight. I felt the same way when I’d run into a cool cover of a modern song playing on one of the turntables. -The moment with the giraffes in TLOU. And pretty much the entire mall sequence in Left Behind. -The original BioShock having a happy ending shocked the hell out of me. I was fully expecting tragedy, and was pleasantly surprised/extremely satisfied with the conclusion I got. What are some delightful ways that games surprised you, large or small? @The Blackangel @DylanC @killamch89 @kingpotato @Alyxx @Aerielle del Rosario @Executor Akamia @skyfire

In this thread, @killamch89 shared a pretty epic story about a battle he participated in in the game Planetside 2, and I loved reading about it. Anyone else have any epic MMO battle stories to share? The only MMOs I have played were MUDs, so they were on a much more “micro” scale. They would affect the entire player base in one way or another, but usually it was just core players and anyone trying to move up in cities/guilds/orders/clans that would be doing most of the fighting/tactics. Some of those battles were pretty great, but more in breeding “silly” stories than spectacular ones, and more personal ones as well. The one I will always remember most was probably when a RL friend of mine found my clan leader AFK in a fight, and killed him. If you didn’t type a certain phrase and no one resurrected you, you dropped levels. He fell all the way to level 1 before he made it back to the computer =D The guy had it coming, too.

rofl. This is a very weird practice. I didn't even know this was a thing ...

Nowadays, developers can look forward to the fun and recognition that is crunch time. I don't know how long ago crunch time started though. Was it a thing back then? I agree that expectations do seem quite ludicrous these days. And I like what you say about "an enjoyable game, not a cosmetic game." I put a lot of bank in atmosphere, but that isn't quite the same thing as insane production quality (there are many older titles that have atmosphere through the roof, despite technical limitations). Your thoughts also remind me of how I feel about a lot of TV nowadays. I love beautiful cinematography and CG, but I'd actually rather have less expensive shows that stay more closely with characters and focus more on just letting story, dialogue and performance drive narratives forward.

Yeah, exactly. It seems that up to a point, “tedious” can actually induce a relaxing flow state. But past a certain point, it converts into an unwanted, stressful experience.

Yeah, I am not sure how one is meant to be a sniper who doesn't camp. Then again, I am always getting killed by people with amazing aim with the rail gun in Q3A while they are leaping about. I am just a terrible aim, and can only snipe if I can sit still somewhere heh. And yeah! The Planetside 2 scenario you mention is the sort of tactical situation where for me it can end up being fun rather than just problematic. ROFL, great image. I also usually run and gun. The bad thing for me is that I do it very predictably. In a circle. Over and over again. Sometimes to try and throw them off, I change directions =D But I just don't like running around pell mell. I like getting into a rhythm and optimizing how I pick up items and get from place to place. As you might expect, I do better fighting bots. With real people it's, "Okay, she's about to come running around that corner ..."

What with it being a profit-driven industry though, it does worry me sometimes. But I think that getting rid of SP entirely would be extremely alienating to a huge number of gamers. I just hope it never happens.

I honestly have no idea, and that is a wonderful feeling.

@killamch89, @kingpotato and @Alyxx were discussing camping in FPS games. Camping is largely frowned upon, but loads of people do still do it. What do you think of campers and camping? Personally, I don’t mind it all that much. As annoying as a camper can be, to me, he has a legit tactical advantage, and there should be a way I can beat him. Plus, sometimes there are maps where a camping spot is so advantageous that gameplay can revolve around taking and holding that spot and it can get to be pretty entertaining. There’s a map in Q3A which always comes to mind that has a BFG in a small room that you can enter via water below or a teleporter. Usually team gameplay revolves around holding that one room.

There are probably things most of us miss from our childhood days of gaming, but there are likely things you wanted then that didn’t exist which do now. Did any of your childhood gaming dreams come true? For me, I wanted open world games with a focus on exploration before there was a name for them. I didn’t really think through this wish or what form it could take, but I remember that you could give me any type of game to play, whether it was an FPS game or a golf game, and I’d immediately start pushing to the edges of the map and trying to see how far I could go before I’d hit the edge. So game like Skyrim and Fallout are my childhood gaming dream come true. Aside from that, I remember I thought it’d be cool to work in the industry in some capacity. And I’ve ended up having the privilege of writing in the field, so I am super happy about that. It’s a rare thread of continuity in a life that has largely not shaped up like anything I pictured as a kid.

I read @Alyxx and @killamch89 saying they've spent as much as 5 hours customizing a character's appearance before. I both laughed when I read this and felt a sense of joy. I love when people really get into things! I think the longest I've probably spent customizing a character's appearance in a graphical game was maybe 45 min? I think I spent maybe half an hour writing my character description for any MUD I played, but the cool thing about MUDs is that you can update them over time, so collectively I probably spent hours going back over those and changing them as my characters got older and had experiences in the world. What is the longest you have spent customizing a character?

I have just been reading up on the loot box debate, or should I say "surprise mechanics" debate. I am curious what everyone here thinks of it? Are loot boxes the same thing as gambling? Does it make a difference if they are paid or free? @Alyxx @killamch89

I didn't know EA had called loot boxes "Surprise Mechanics" until I saw @Alyxx and @killamch89 talking about it, and now I can't stop laughing. So I thought I'd start a thread where you can list the most hilarious/outrageous/ridiculous/infuriating things you've heard game companies say over the years.

I was noting @DylanC talking about finding Control tedious. It occurs to me that one person’s tedious could be another person’s relaxing—or that a feature that feels tedious one day could feel relaxing the next, even for a single gamer. So how tedious is too tedious? What makes something feel tedious to you? When do you cross the threshold from “mindless fun” to “frustrating?” Are there games other people find tedious that you enjoy, or vice versa? I have noticed that a lot of it for me comes down to my mood and mental resources as much as anything, especially when something is right on the edge of being too tedious, but isn’t necessarily there. Context changes things too. For example: -Grinding in an MMO by myself usually is tedious. But grinding with a fun party can be relaxing. -Most of the time, I find Skyrim’s repetitious dungeons relaxing and enjoyable, along with its short little uninvolved side quests. But sometimes, my brain seems to find them tedious, I think usually when a silly desire to “get the next thing accomplished, and the next, and the next!” sets in. Usually the things I find tedious 100% of the time involve needing to be very precise with something involving timing or placement of objects, or both. Or solving a puzzle which requires a lot of steps and patience, but which doesn’t have any obvious underlying “logic” or “cleverness” to it—just trying every possible combination of things methodically until it is done.

I figure most people here have gamed on a computer and/or mobile device plus at least one console. But I know some folks here have multiple consoles across different brands, or regularly switch between Microsoft, PlayStation and Nintendo when they buy (I know somebody here mentioned that, but I can’t recall who it was). For those who have tried multiple platforms, which do you prefer? I used to favour the computer greatly over the one console I’d tried (an NES when I was a kid) because I found the mouse/keyboard easier to use than the old controller. But now I favour the PS3 because I prefer the DualShock over the mouse/keyboard. It is more intuitive and ergonomic to me.

@kingpotato mentioned recently that while he’s a fan of Skyrim, he didn’t get into Morrowind or Oblivion. I am wondering what everyone’s favorite Elder Scrolls games are and why? So far, I have only played Skyrim and Oblivion, and I haven’t gotten very far into Oblivion yet. I’m enjoying it a lot, but so far I do like Skyrim better, mostly because the controls seem more intuitive, and the NPCs seem a bit more “interactive” in some way than those in Oblivion. I still haven’t played Morrowind.

Are there any games you have made use of in a manner not necessarily intended? Like, a friend of a friend plays Fallout 4, but reportedly spends the majority of his time simply building and doing nothing else. As another example which is weird and was completely non-intentional, recently I made a new character on a MUD I played many many years ago. I didn’t get far with it before I had other things to do, but then I started dreaming about a fictitious version of the game. Figuring that is more fun in all likelihood than the actual game, I keep logging in so they don’t delete my character, but then logging right out. This jogs my brain into continuing its nighttime “playing” of the game. Anyone else play a game in a way that was not intended by its creators?

Does anybody else have a difficult time getting into crafting systems in video games, even if you really want to? Almost without exception, I seem to experience total overwhelm when first trying to make sense of a crafting system in a game. I really appreciate elaborate systems that let me fine-tune crafting … but the more elaborate the system, the harder it is for me to know where to dive in.bI’ve never figured out a good approach to getting started or exploring a crafting system in a methodical way. The result is that it will often take me multiple play-throughs on a game to even try any sort of crafting.Like the first time I played Skyrim, I 100% ignored any sort of crafting—and that system isn’t even that complicated. The second time through, I ended up levelling smithing to 100. Right now I’m playing DA: Inquisition, and the crafting system has me completely frozen/ignoring it, even though I want to use it. Does anyone have the same problem I do? And does anyone have any tips for overcoming crafting system overwhelm and methodically learning the ropes for a complicated system?

I think so? "Power Given Flesh."