StaceyPowers

I was forced to be a full healer class once because before I got class, every guild in the game banned me except the priests who couldn't ban anyone. So, I had to become a priest and do the healing thing.

That's useful advice for when I start my first playthrough too, thanks!

I really dig open world games, but I definitely would love to see more high quality linear games too.

Not sure that would happen? I mean, teachers showed us movies all the time, and it didn't lead to the education department interfering with the film industry. Just some movies were approved by the school and others weren't. Could be same with games. Some curriculum is set in stone, but for other aspects, teachers often can do what they want so long as the school approves it.

MUDS isn't a game; it is a type of game. MUD = Multi-User-Dungeon/Dimension. Text-based MMOs 🙂

When I used to MUD in high school, I was part of an in-game mafia of sorts, and we were essentially bullies, albeit sometimes well-intentioned ones. I was quite surprised when recently my brother who still plays the same game over a decade later says that he misses when we were around, because we kept the game fresh, provided an excuse for decent PVP, and tended to give others a reason to band together. Do you think there is ever a viable role like this for bullies in MMOs?

Are there games where you find the main quest line to be far less interesting than everything else in the game? I tend to feel this way about most open world games in general, but particularly about Skyrim.

Are there certain combat styles that you are almost universally bad at no matter what game they are in? For me, I would say I am universally terrible at anything involving archery in almost every game I have tried it in.

When you are gaming, does it distract you to have someone watching you (i.e. a roommate), and do you mind/not mind it? For the most part, I like having a friend watching me game, because it makes conversation easier for me than it would be without having the game to talk about/watch. But I don’t like someone watching me all the time while gaming, especially while playing something like BioShock where I like to spend a lot of time just looking around and imagining myself in the game. I don’t like the pressure to keep moving and doing stuff when I just want to stare at the scenery.

@killamch89 started a thread asking whether video games should be more integrated into education, but I don't think we have a thread yet for talking about games we did play in school. What video games were you assigned to play in school, if any, and which did you like or dislike? We didn’t play many video games in school, but I do remember as a kid in elementary school they had us play The Oregon Trail, and I was soooo bad at it.

MUDs for 1-teaching typing, and 2-teaching second languages, and 3-teaching teamwork and leadership skills.

All I ever played was MUDs specifically, and I was terrible at combat. I also didn't have ideal software. And there was that time I was banned from all guilds before I could get class, and my only skill was "kick." So, mainly I ran away.

I must admit I found this too stressful to play =D I play single player games to relax, and thus actually want the stakes to be low. But with multiplayer, I want them to be higher to facilitate better social experiences and also to reduce griefing.

The "time-consuming" aspect seems useful though. I almost feel like forcing buyers to fill out an application that takes a few solid minutes would help. A bot can't fill out an application convincingly, and the time-consuming aspect would prevent all the consoles from selling out in seconds, giving more people a shot?

I love the how you can get their tentacle ability to use.

Would you ever pay a marked-up rate to purchase a scalped console? If so, why or why not? Personally, I cannot imagine doing this, however badly I might want a PS5 right now.

I saw a scalper group defending its actions with buying up PS5s and reselling them at high prices recently. The group said that a lot of its members were out of work because of coronavirus and needed the money. Do you feel that is a legitimate defense, or simply points toward the need for other solutions?

I used to work in an office where we played UT 2004 sometimes. It did mean work took longer and we went home later, but it was also a lot of fun. Do any of you play video games at work with your co-workers?

I also like the Lurkers.

Same!

In another thread where I was asking if No Man's Sky is a relaxing game, I was quite surprised when @skyfire suggested it is not, as it is very exploration-based. The reason this surprised me is because for me, exploring in a game is probably the most relaxing activity aside from maybe building stuff. This made me wonder which of us is more of an outlier. Do you find exploring in games relaxing, or stressful?

Honestly, MUDs are great for this, as your ability to customize and bring to life your character is limited only by your ability to write well.

THIS. Thank you. I could not have said this better!

In another thread on what makes for a good MMO, @Empire made the brilliant observation that an element many games are missing these days is risk, and that when games have higher risk, they have greater rewards and often tighter-knit communities. What games have you played that have the highest risk? The one that comes to mind for me is an old MUD which I think is called Armageddon, where character death was permanent, and making a new character involved an application process.

Not awesome 😞 You'd given me good reasons already to curb my optimism, and this adds to them.