StaceyPowers

What question do you most want someone to ask you on this thread?

That the dinosaurs I've pictured without feathers all my life may have had them. Fencing. You? Macaroni and cheese. What's yours? Midnight until 1 in the morning. That's when I feel my best physically and psychologically most days. You? Elephant.

If you had to be any personal hygiene item for a day, which would you be and why?

If you went to the Smithsonian, which museum was your favourite?

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this up for me! Everyone mentions Spec Ops The Line to me. I think that'll have to be one of my next purchases.

Are there any games you played which you thought about on practically a daily basis long after you completed them? I thought about The Last of Us at least once a day for about a year after I finished it. While I was playing that game, it really did feel like I had this whole other life and lived this amazing story.

What is the oldest game you still play on a regular basis? For me it is Quake III Arena, which came out in 1999.

If you’ve seen any of my posts over the past two weeks, you probably know I’m currently obsessed with Bioshock Infinite (I’m not quite done yet, so nobody give me any spoilers). Anyway, I saw some criticism of the game somewhere involving it not being much of a challenge from a tactical standpoint, and being quite repetitious in terms of combat encounters. I could see where they were coming from, but I couldn’t see being negative about the game because of it. The strengths of the game are its setting, characters and story. The combat (to me) serves the purpose mainly of increasing immersion and also giving me time to process new information. Obviously what I look for in a shooter is a lot different from what that person does. Then again, I am not sure I would consider Bioshock Infinite a traditional shooter anyway. The shooting is an element of the game, not its main purpose for existing. But if I were playing a multiplayer arena-style game without a plot, I’d be very focused on mechanics, and would demand something tactically more varied/interesting. It got me wondering what everyone here looks for in a FPS game?

Is there any video game you’ve played (or watched) which has sent you into a fit of tears? I can’t say this has happened to me, but I think that’s because my emotions go on hold when I’m concentrating on something like playing a game. (and I’m asking here specifically for games which made you cry because of story/characters, not because you found them hard to beat)

What video game have you played which had the most compelling storyline? No spoilers please. For me, it is currently tied between The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite (I'm still in the middle of the latter, but I think I am closing in on the end soon).

Writing, driving or gaming. How about for you?

Banned for saying "lol" while banning a user for saying "lol." (this thread is very meta)

I've never heard of Madrugada. I'm going to check them out now!

That is a wonderful response. Thank you so much for sharing that. It's so easy for people to blow off video games for not being "real," but often, they allow us to express our real selves more than we can in "real" life.

I did a lot of that in the MUD I played too. I still remember some of the spots I loved very clearly.

Actually, playing that game was arguably how I developed a moral compass at all as a teenager =D

I actually like the direction VNV Nation has gone over recent years, but I do see where you're coming from. And I love Covenant's remix of Torn. Have you listened to Wovenhand as well?

I can't pick just one. Some top contenders: Seabound, The Edge of Dawn, VNV Nation, Wovenhand, 16 Horsepower, The Cruxshadows, David Arkenstone, Andreas Vollenweider, Lacuna Coil, Ulver, The Legendary Pink Dots.

You mentioned recently in a thread that gaming has helped you by giving you a way to express your gender identity. I'd love to know more about that if you'd like to share. Feel free to PM if you prefer :)

What video games do you recommend I play? Some games I enjoy on a variety of platforms from a variety of eras: Fallout, Dragon Age, Skyrim, Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us, Quake III Arena, UT 2004, Myst, Zork.

Old-fashioned flip phone. I don't own a smartphone =D

I really enjoyed a response that @Alyxx posted on this thread in regards to playing games and expressing gender identity. I could relate, because playing MMOs when I was young gave me a way to see past social constructs and get to know people on a level beyond age, nationality, gender and so forth. Since it was at a formative time in my life, it also gave me a chance to see myself beyond those constructs and form an identity which transcends them. It made me realize that while game worlds are constructed, a lot of what society takes for granted IRL is constructed too. As a Communication major in college, I wrote a few papers about this. I was wondering if anyone else has stories to share where playing games has helped to either shape your identity or express it in some way?

@Katri Marcell and I were talking in this thread about situations where we have “bent the rules” in terms of intended game play in various games. She talked about playing a support role in PUBG instead of killing other players, and I talked about an MMO where I refused to kill NPCs to level up. In both cases, we found our choices rewarding, even though other players questioned our basic sanity =D I also remember these golf simulator games when I was a kid which didn’t really interest me in terms of golf. I just played the golf in order to run around the course maps and explore. I would often try to send the ball as far to the edge of the map as possible, always wishing there was more to see. I'd get depressed when it'd fall off the edge into nothingness. Now we have open world games to fill the void I was trying to fill in childhood with the golf games. Anyone else have similar stories to share?

I’ve been playing Bioshock Infinite for the first time, and I am totally blown away by the setting. As beautiful as a lot of game settings are, this one somehow seems to go further. It is arguably the most atmospheric game I’ve played since Myst way back in the 1990s. Columbia is both stunning and grotesque. It attracts and repulses you at the same time. Its visual beauty is at constant odds with its cultural hideousness. You get a real sense for ominous vastness both in terms of its physical scale and the immensity of its oppression. Can anyone suggest other games which are equally atmospheric and have such detailed and well-developed settings?

I can relate to that in a way. In a small MMO I played for a couple of years, I got annoyed at the inconsistency of players killing NPCs without blinking to level up. I felt that in-character, they should be treated just like PCs. So I stopped killing them to level up. I took a lot of flak for that, and life was pretty hard (especially since I got banned from all the guilds for a while and had no class). But it was oddly rewarding pushing myself down a challenging path like that when nobody else would.