StaceyPowers

Lol, good point. Thanks for bringing a different (and humorous) angle to this discussion. I can't think of any time in my childhood where exposure to violent content made me want to go out and shoot things. But I also don't recall having any difficulty telling the difference between the game world and the physical world. I expect that the problem would be when a child still has not developed this distinction, and then plays a violent video game. So long as the child is developmentally able to tell fantasy from reality and is receiving reasonable moral guidance, I don't think exposure to violent content would be problematic.

Really? I've always found the AI in NV to be much better than it is in Skyrim or Fallout 3. It's very rare for the NV followers to get in my way during a fight or unnecessarily get themselves killed, especially since you can modify their combat settings. And they all have stories/quests that are pretty awesome.

This is me as well. I prefer to minimize live interaction in my life, but I'd also rather know that I'm likely to get the problem resolved in one sitting. No phone though. Ugh.

Oh man, I hear you on that. I tried full destruction mage twice, and still found myself with my trusty axe pretty fast =D It's just more satisfying.

Ugh, I would find that very irritating probably. I don't mind the repair system in Fallout at all though, but that is because you don't need to go running around buying repair hammers like in Oblivion. You just cannibalize other equipment which you're stumbling across anyway. I've also noticed in NV that my gun seems to get more and more powerful the more I repair it. I'm not sure if that is intentional or a bug, but it's pretty sweet.

I almost wouldn't blame them if I thought they were trying to change the culture in a favourable way by presenting gaming attributes as if they are already accepted by employers as positives. But I get annoyed when media represents a problem as "solved" when it isn't, because it tells people the world is better than it is. I mean, some kid in college reading that could make the mistake of putting his gaming experience on the wrong job application. That sure won't help him get hired. So I guess maybe I think it could have been a well-intentioned piece, but not necessarily the way to achieve cultural change?

Bless you for writing this. It isn’t so much that I hate reviews as that I tend to get irritated with the way they are expressed. It is extremely annoying when someone declares that something is a good game or a poor game. A game is either a good fit or a poor fit for each specific player. I do think that there is some degree of objective measurability in some respects (i.e. how buggy is the game?), but most of it is entirely based in opinion, just as you said. I also feel this way about book reviews, movie reviews, TV reviews …

Are there lines in video games that you hear as double entendres, but you are not sure if they were intended that way or not? As a couple of examples from Skyrim, here are two guard lines that always sound completely filthy to me: “A guard gets nervous when a man approaches with his weapon drawn.” “The gods gave you two hands and you use both for your weapon.” They say both of these like … all the time. So it is endlessly funny to me. Can you think of any lines like these in games you play, where you are not sure if they were intended as filthy jokes or not? @killamch89 @kingpotato @DylanC @Alyxx @The Blackangel @skyfire @Executor Akamia

Usually when I identify my preferred combat approach in any particular game, I stick with it 90% of the time. Like in Skyrim, I always seem to wind up a conjuring one-handed weapon fighter. In Fallout, I always seem to end up a sniper. I try to do something different now and again, but it almost never “sticks” for more than the start of a playthrough. What about you? How often do you try out a different approach to combat, i.e. different armor, weapons, or overall strategies? Do you vary it up a lot from game to game or within a single game, or do you usually stick to the same tactics and equipment? @skyfire @killamch89 @kingpotato @DylanC @The Blackangel @Executor Akamia @Alyxx

Three days after writing this, I am voluntarily running around Oblivion punching enemies, just to avoid hassles with repairing weapons. Lol.

I posted a thread titled, “Has gaming increased your empathy?” It led to a bit of a side conversation where @kingpotato and @killamch89 were talking about some of the most empathetic characters they've noticed in video games. So I thought I would make a thread on that topic and ask who the most empathetic characters are in games. My vote for most empathetic character in a game is Ellie from The Last of Us. Both she and Joel are very reserved people, each dealing very privately with their own grief. Despite the fact that he is standoffish toward her for the first part of the game and both of them are very much conversational minimalists, she manages to intuit and make sense of what he went through with Sarah, and what he’s going through with her. I’m not half that smart with people as an adult, much less when I was her age. Who do you think the most empathetic game characters are? @kingpotato @killamch89 @Alyxx @skyfire @Executor Akamia @The Blackangel @DylanC

To those here who have played Oblivion, where do you set the difficulty slider? When I play Skyrim, I usually have it set at Expert (I think). I have managed to play it on Legendary as well, though I do find it tediously challenging. So I left Oblivion’s difficulty slider right in the middle when I started, thinking it’d be similar. But I’ve found it to be quite hard by comparison. I think I’m level 9 now, and I finally gave up and pushed the slider a little to the left (toward easier), and it became much more what I’m used to at “Expert” on Skyrim. I swear “normal” on Oblivion is closer to “Master” in Skyrim, if not higher. I don’t think I’m leveling improperly. I pour most of my points into the same few areas each time to focus on conjuration and sword combat. I’m curious though. Is it just me, or is this game much harder than Skyrim? Where do you usually prefer the difficulty slider for both games? @DylanC

I’ve noticed that with me, video game humor either seems to be spot-on or it falls totally flat. I do think overall, the best comedic writing I’ve encountered in video games is in the Dragon Age games, and the wittiest character I can think of (bad puns and all) is probably Hawke, if you choose his snarky replies. Normally I don’t go for snark, but given that the situations he finds himself in frequently do justify it, I became a big fan of his snarky comebacks. Who do you think is the wittiest character in video games? @The Blackangel @DylanC @kingpotato @killamch89 @Alyxx @Executor Akamia @skyfire

I agree with everyone here. I think gaming related skills should be able to help one land a relevant job, but I also think that employers are not going to want to hear about what we learned gaming. Society has a ways to go to catch up with us, and the BBC article is overly optimistic.

With so much discussion over anti-consumer practices by game developers and publishers (not to mention console manufacturers), what are some companies which truly seem to care about customer experience, and which go the extra mile to be fair and decent? @DylanC @kingpotato @The Blackangel @killamch89 @Alyxx @Executor Akamia @Aerielle del Rosario @skyfire

Does anyone else get annoyed about the fact that by the time you finally are able to get certain high level/late stage abilities in video games, there isn’t much left to do with them? Like in Skyrim, by the time I can summon a dragon, strike lightning down from the skies, summon dead Nord heroes, and so forth, I’ve completed so many of the exact hard quests I’d normally want to use those abilities for. I just wind up killing Thalmor at the embassy for kicks. In Bioshock games too, you only get some of the coolest vigors/plasmids fairly close to the end. What games have you played where you’re frustrated at how little time/opportunity you get to use cool high level abilities? @DylanC @kingpotato @The Blackangel @killamch89 @Alyxx @Executor Akamia @Aerielle del Rosario @skyfire

@Aerielle del Rosario was posting here about games with difficult beginnings. It got me to thinking about how many people I've heard talk about the opposite problem: when they've moved up through the learning/leveling curve to the point where a game becomes too easy. Does this sort of thing bother anyone here? What are some games which get too easy in their latter stages?

Just spotted an article from the BBC titled “How playing video games could get you a better job.” From the article, there’s a quote from a spokesperson from the Royal Air Force saying, "The ability to assimilate information, react swiftly and co-ordinate actions whilst remaining calm under pressure are often attributes of people that are good at gaming," A Hays recruitment regional director is also quoted saying, "There are plenty of soft skills that gamers can utilise in a professional setting, such as teamwork, problem solving and strategic planning.” This resonates with my own life experiences. I remember a high school friend pointing out, “You know the experiences with organizing and leadership that people are supposed to get from club and sport participation? We get that from playing MMOs.” A lot of the professional skills I use every day came not from classes or standard extracurricular activities, but from gaming. The people skills I learned in my positions in an MMO organization in high school have been nothing short of vital in business, and I most definitely did not learn those skills in school. What do you think about the idea that gaming can help you with work? Do you think gaming can teach valuable job skills? Do you think employers are aware of how important gaming can be? @killamch89 @The Blackangel @Alyxx @kingpotato @skyfire @DylanC @Aerielle del Rosario @Executor Akamia

Most video games I’ve played offer a selection of melee weapons and combat techniques. So I know that at least some gamers must choose to specialize in this direction. I do use melee weapons in games like Skyrim, but I have a hard time wrapping my mind around melee and unarmed combat in, say, Fallout games. The most efficient way to fight is usually to employ rifles at a distance and shotguns up close. I can see specializing in melee and unarmed as a challenge … but does anyone actually prefer this as their combat approach in general in games which feature guns? @killamch89 @kingpotato @DylanC @Alyxx @skyfire @The Blackangel

I didn’t grow up in that situation, but I can relate. Ever notice kids show affection that way on the playground? But when we grow up, the roughhousing is supposed to stop. I never got why. In many ways, I actually prefer to give or receive the type of hit you describe than a hug.

I'm going to go with being a survivor of an alien invasion that wipes out humanity. Let's hope I manage to become a stowaway on an alien vessel and embark on a journey of discovery, action and adventure through a hostile universe. Not at present. Are you?

I love that quest. Favorite Fallout NV follower?

Yet you put restraints on yourself to ensure that others can trust you. That's kind, and shows great self-control. My question: Most people judge sociopaths according to a large number of prejudices and misconceptions. What is the one thing you most wish people knew about sociopathy?

I'm not sure. I mean, I tend not to watch anything that doesn't interest me. But I suppose I'm usually bored by most game shows and reality shows? Can you elaborate on what you mean by "type of world?" Are you referencing what destroyed it (i.e. nukes, zombies?)

VNV Nation, The Cruxshadows.