fantanoice

When I was 12, my local movie theatre ran a Mario Kart: Double Dash tournament. This was still a couple of months before it released. I entered, this being my first tournament, and ended up placing 3rd overall (losing to two neckbeards in their 30s but whatever). I ended up winning a Gamecube and a copy of the game. It was incredible because suddenly I knew I was actually good? At these video game things? Plus my family weren't well off and couldn't afford a GC normally. Since then I've entered a few more competitions, placing/winning a few and getting more prizes. I'm a little sad that Twitch wasn't a thing during my teenage years because I would have loved pursuing my gaming further on that platform. You gotta deal with the hand you're dealt, I guess.

I'm the opposite, I can't stand first person. I hate feeling like I have no peripheral vision and not knowing what is behind me. I find having the camera shake up and down when you walk to be distracting and annoying. I also like looking at my character, especially if I've spent time setting up my appearance and gear. If a game has a selfie-cam, I'm going to be using it. B)

I've enjoyed the NBA Live series since the first one I played in 2003. The series has a good mix of simulation and "gamey-ness," imo. It's main competition, NBA 2K, felt like too much like a simulation and I didn't like it very much. I've also found the Mario sports titles to be really solid, my favourite of those being Mario Strikers: Charged Football on the Wii. I haven't played many of sports games casually but my old employer specialised in making them, so I worked on rugby and cricket games while I was there. I learnt a lot about sports games and the sports themselves in the process, which I found valuable and found some new hobbies in the process.

I've got all the modern consoles but I play Switch most of all. It's so convenient for my lifestyle. If I'm on the train to work - Switch. If I'm chilling on the coach - Switch. Someone wanting to use the TV - Switch. And it has such a solid library even after just a year. Just picked up Octopath Traveller and it's such an amazing throwback to old-school JRPGs. Would recommend.

PC gaming is complicated and inaccessible for a lot of people. I'm a programmer and very competent using a computer but even I struggle dealing with opening it up and messing with the guts of it. There's a lot of computer literacy skills involved, such as knowing what parts are compatible and how to put them together. There's lots of risk involved because you need to get the parts - some very expensive - to even experiment. It should go without saying that gaming PCs cost way more than consoles. There's also heaps of people that don't even know you can build one rather than just buying from the shop. Compare this to a console. Plug it in. Put in the game. Play the game. Maybe an extra step to make an account on the platform. Maybe some updates for the game. But generally speaking there's less you need to do and less that can go wrong. And looking past accessibility, some people straight up prefer to chill on the couch with friends and a controller than hunch over a PC in a lonely room.

Anybody here play Pokémon Go? It was huge when it first launched and still continues to generate a lot of activity. They recently added friends lists, trading and gifting. My boyfriend and I have been working up to being Best Friends so we can trade our dud Pokémon and make them good. Are you still playing? What are your thoughts?

I don't 'identify' as a mobile gamer but I do play some. I make an effort to play Pokémon Go and keep up with my daily bonuses and challenges. I understand these things are the typical phone-game-addiction things, but it is ok because it's keeps me going outside which nothing else manages to do. I recently signed up to Ingress - Niantic's other game - and I'm liking learning all of its intricacies as well. I think PoGo and Ingress make a lot of sense on the mobile platform because phones are a thing that you carry around you in the real world. Unfortunately I can't think of many other games that also make good use of it.