StaceyPowers

There is so much buzz these days around the topic of “video game addiction,” with parents dragging their kids to psychologists for treatment and everything. Do you think video game addiction is really a type of “addiction?” Or do you think that is an exaggeration (or just not accurate)? I found this article insightful: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/media-spotlight/201707/does-video-game-addiction-really-exist I think I’d rather call it “problem gaming,” since I tend to view “addiction” in specific physiological terms. Where to draw the line is hard to say, and I think it varies depending on the person. But I would say if gaming gets to the point of uncontrollably disrupting grades, relationships, day job, etc, that is “problem gaming.” I do agree with the author that this type of behaviour probably can be placed in context of other psychological issues which underlie it (i.e. anxiety, depression, or even just other life problems). What are your thoughts?

I read this story once—I can’t remember what game it was about. But this guy in a shooter was annoyed at a tree on a map, and wrote in the developer to explain why the placement of the tree was giving him problems tactically. In the next patch, the very last patch note was something like “Removed one particular tree from (location).” I love that story, because they really took his complaint seriously, and bothered to make the change, despite it being extremely specific and requested by just this one guy. Has anyone ever personally had a great customer service experience like this with a game developer or publisher?

I didn't see that in the Wired article :/

Do you listen to your favorite game soundtracks much? I like listening to the soundtrack for Skyrim while I’m working. It makes my job feel like questing! It also gets bonus points for not being too distracting.

That's what I saw. I'm just wondering if that means we can count out backwards compatibility with PS3, PS2, PS1.

Is there a video game which has music you particularly love in the main menu? My favorite is Bioshock Infinite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rDVb8q8KWw This game was so atmospheric. Even the menu was atmospheric. Sometimes I’d literally just sit there through the entire song before loading the game. I love that it’s a real historical recording and the way it seems to echo from another age and place. But mostly I love how the words of the song end up being so perfect for the story. What are your favorite menu songs in games?

I have kind of a fascination with Fortnite. Most recently I saw that Apex Legends has been losing steam on Twitch, but Fortnite views are holding steady. My theory about Fortnite enduring is that it ultimately has less to do with the specifics of the game, and more to do with the particular way in which Epic approaches community relations. I think that their commitment to keeping the game continuously fresh and evolving stands in sharp contrast to a lot of poorly-supported multiplayer games today. They seem to work hard to gather community feedback and respond to it. The game's odd sense of humor probably has some role to play in its continued success as well. What are your thoughts?

When playing a game where you have a lot of plot-altering decision points, do you usually change your choices on replays, or do you make a lot of the same choices repeatedly? If something doesn’t go the way I hoped, I will often try changing my choice to see if it leads to an improved outcome. I also sometimes will change my decisions just to see what will happen. But often I wind up making the same choices every time, because the other choices just don’t feel right (in situations that are clear-cut to me, anyway). Changing them out of mere curiosity breaks my immersion. What about you?

I nominate @The Blackangel @kingpotato @DylanC @UleTheVee @xXInfectedXx @Alyxx @Executor Akamia @killamch89 @LadyDay All have been very active contributing to conversation this month!

While playing video games, did any of your virtual experiences ever change the way you saw some issue in real life (i.e. a social or political issue)?

Did you ever play a game that was driving you crazy, and you weren’t enjoying yourself, but you were so angry at it that you powered through it just to say you finally beat it?

What's funny is that those chairs don't look particularly comfortable to me. Especially that top one, which looks like it doesn't provide much upper back support (it leans back way too far for me). I have chronic back/neck/shoulder problems, but I feel comfortable playing on my couch with my knees pulled up against my chest or sitting cross-legged. A PT told me that changing positions frequently is as important (if not more important in some ways) than the specific position(s) you sit in.

@kingpotato Run-and-gun for the same reason as you. My aim is shit. I also just have more fun charging around corners with a shotgun. If I'm playing against bots, I like coming up with optimized pathways through maps and then just playing in a repetitious way (I guess it induces a "flow" state).

@Darya Yeah, they made money on them. Consider also that in those days, a lot of games were ... well ... hard. Gaming was more of a niche interest back then, so there were less concern about making games that anyone could feasibly beat. Game devs also were frankly not all that concerned if you played yourself into a situation you couldn't progress out of (you are much less likely these days to make a fatal mistake at the start of the game which stops you from beating it in the end). Add to that the fact that we didn't have YouTube back then. It could be harder--if not impossible, in some cases--to find free guides to help you through difficult sections of challenging games. So the walkthrough manual might be the only solution. They had a kind of "collectibility" status as well for some folks.

Follow up to previous question you were asked. What do you love about the Renaissance?

I'm answering my own question here in case anyone else is searching for the answer at any point in the future. It seems that a couple of DLC were made for Inquisition for PS3, but after that, they were for PS4 only. Thus there is no GOTY edition of DA: Inquisition for PS3. As to the other question, according to someone who works at a local game store in my town, the PS3 Mass Effect Trilogy apparently does contain a large amount of the DLC. Hope this helps someone else at some point!

I’ve seen the news that PS5 will be compatible with PS4. I haven’t actually seen anything that definitively states that it won’t be compatible with older model games. But it seems like there’d be no point in announcing the PS4 thing without announcing all backwards compatibility, so I am guessing this means that we’re out of luck regarding PS3, PS2 and PS1. What do you think?

What are some of the most creative and/or silly weapons you’ve designed in games with crafting components? I have a wooden sword in Skyrim I’ve upgraded so that it functions as a fairly weak but entirely viable weapon. I cast Soul Capture on it so that the toy sword will devour my enemies’ souls. The hollow wooden walloping sound it makes is quite satisfying as they go down. I named it “Stormbringer,” a reference Michael Moorcock fans will know. What about you? What are some silly or fun weapons you’ve made in your favorite games?

What remasters have you played which genuinely impressed you and gave you the biggest bang for your buck? And which did you feel were just a hasty repackaging of the original game at a new game price?

So often, I see people on forums mentioning that so-and-so (one of their followers) died, or that they lost their horse and needed to replace it, etc. in various games. My question is … how and why does this even happen in a lot of games? In Skyrim for example, I cannot see any reason you would ever need to lose a follower. I save so frequently in that game because of its rampant glitches and bugs that I usually only lose a few minutes of progress if a follower dies and I need to reload a prior save. And in RDR, people say they go through horses like crazy, but likewise, I never seem to have to go back very far to get a dead horse back. Is it just that other people forget to save for hours on end? Or is it that they are attempting to raise the stakes/make the game feel more realistic by letting follower deaths be permanent?

What’s the single hardest game you ever played? For that matter, what’s the single hardest game you ever played and beat?

What are some of the worst situations you created for yourself in terms of making it hard to beat a game? I picked literally the worst possible preconditions for a quest in Dragon Age 2 last night, and after an hour of repeating the same fight (and preceding dialogue) over and over again, I’d had enough. I went back to a prior save and put in different preconditions, and got through it with ease. Not a terrible situation since I had that save, but might have been if I didn’t. The worst ever mess I recall getting into was in Return to Zork on DOS back in the day. There was some seemingly minor item which I lost irrevocably through some stupid decision. I thought it didn’t matter, and continued playing. Later I found out I couldn’t beat the game without it. I had to start all over. Thankfully, it seems like devs nowadays make it hard for us to strand ourselves. But what are some times you’ve screwed yourself in a game, whether recent or older?

My regrets likewise concern formats more than anything. I don't regret buying Dragon Age Origins ... but I do regret that when I went back to the game store a week later, I found a copy of the version with all the DLC included for the same price. That would've saved me like $40.

I never thought of it like that before. For me, I always think of it as essentially being about dealing with the Legion. But that's one of the reasons NV is so cool. You can play through the game with wildly different motivations and have very different experiences because of all the complexity. So you can come away with unique interpretations.

This reminds me of the time I first met the mother of that bratty little girl in Whiterun (Braith? something like that?) and found out her mom was totally neglectful. I got so annoyed that I punched her, forgetting that would instantly result in my follower killing her. I didn't feel sorry, but I did find it funny that righteous, upstanding Mjoll murdered a civilian like that =D If even Mjoll thought she needed to die, she truly must've been a terrible mother indeed. Needless to say, the entire town was pissed.