StaceyPowers

I honestly never shop on Black Friday, but a friend told me she spent 13 hours waiting in line to purchase a PS4 at a low price. Anyone get any awesome deals this Black Friday? How long did you have to wait for them?

Does anyone here have any videogame-themed tattoos? If so, what are they, and what made you decide to get them? For everyone else, if you were going to get a tattoo showing off your fandom of any videogame, which would you choose?

What games feature the most beautiful architecture? Most recently, Bioshock Infinite amazed me in this respect (I’ve also been enjoying checking out concept art that was never used –it’s amazing how much beautiful design work never made it to the finished game). But I also love the architecture in the Fallout games (I really like Streamline Moderne). I enjoy the other design work (typefaces, advertisements, etc.) in both as well.

Futurepop is a most wonderful thing. Some suggestions: VNV Nation, mind.in.a.box, Seabound, The Edge of Dawn, Ayria, Melotron.

Becoming a better version of myself. You?

Current favorite song?

It's rare and hard to find closure, so that is pretty cool, actually. Nah. The world really needs more kind people. Even if you cannot or should not go out on a limb for someone, you can always be kind regardless of your choices :)

Same question you asked someone else: Favorite futurepop album?

What makes for a great horror story?

Kindest thing another gamer has done for you?

I keep thinking about this and coming up completely blank. I'm not sure I've ever played one on anyone or had one played on me, at least that was memorable. That's pretty weird.

Dragon Age: Origins has a ton of DLC. I probably will end up buying them all over the long-term, but in the short-term, which DLCs are the most rewarding?

That's my plan :) I didn't think about it that way. Interesting idea. In other words, even a splinter of Booker and Anna that broke off before the baptism/drowning decision could still end up leading similar lives.

Skipping DLC for Fallout would be hugely missing out.

BIoshock Infinite and Myst. Both involved a multiple worlds concept which could mesh in some unusual fashion. Both are atmospheric as well.

I keep seeing headlines lately about parents freaking out about their kids’ “Fortnite addiction,” i.e. spending 12 hours a day in the game. That wasn’t uncommon for me in high school at all though, at least on weekends. It was a different game (a text-based MMO), and on weekdays it was closer to six hours a day. My life was pretty imbalanced, and my grades did drop for a year, but it gave me a lot of useful life experience in terms of social learning that I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else. It made me a very fast typist too. I did put a lot of hours into that game, but a number of players I knew put in even more. What’s the most time you have ever spent on a game? Which game? And did it mess up your life or not?

What video game have you gotten most involved with/immersed in to the point where you thought about it constantly when you weren't playing it? Ignoring MMOs, for me the answer is Bioshock Infinite. Outside of work, that game was pretty much life for me for the couple weeks I was playing it. It's hard to stop myself from just jumping back in.

I’ve seen some people suggest recently that Fallout 76 has been such a letdown commercially that the Fallout series should just be abandoned outright. I think that’d be a ridiculous mistake. Fallout is fertile ground for many great adventures to come, and I’d be crushed if they quit making Fallout games. Are there gaming franchises you also hope will get new games until the end of time?

What old/abandoned gaming franchises would you like to see rebooted either with remakes or more sequels?

I first suspected this the very first time Comstock talked directly to Booker and referenced so much about his life as if he had been there. And then I kept thinking as the game moved forward, "Wow, this place sure does seem to oddly revolve around Booker's past sins. It's like it all exists just to torment him." And by the end, it all made sense. Yeah, I got really emotionally invested in the story and characters.

What is the worst experience you've ever had playing a "freemium" type game? For me, it was an MMO I used to play which was free, but you could spend RL cash on a range of items and benefits. Unfortunately, a lot of them were genuinely useful. So those who were rich in real life could just buy power in-game.

If there is one type of game that can become a huge money drain, it is MMOs. I used to know a guy who spent hundreds of dollars--we thought it might have been thousands, even--on the text-based games we played. He had the admins pretty much in his pocket. What is the most money you've ever sunk into any one game?

Have you ever reached the end of a game and been like, “Wow. That was so incredible I’d gladly have paid more for it?” If so, what game?

I just wrapped up my initial playthrough of Bioshock Infinite, and have thought about it pretty much nonstop ever since. SPOILERS below. Just a few reasons this game blew my mind: -A logical, well-reasoned story about the multiverse (I feel most people get the concept wrong) -A different take on the nature and value of choice than you usually see in arguments about choice v. determinism. -An unbelievably atmospheric setting. Columbia feels “real” to me still, like it’s hidden somewhere, just on the other side of a portal to another world. -Amazing character development and some of the most brilliant “show-don’t-tell” writing I’ve ever seen. By the end of the game, you know that in a pretty literal way, Booker has been battling his own demons in his own personal hell through the entire game. The setting tells the story of the man. -Seriously inspirational. The ending ripped my heart out, but at the same time, I loved it as an achievement of ultimate redemption. If you’ve played the game, please share your thoughts!

Please note: SPOILERS below. I just wrapped up my first playthrough of Bioshock Infinite. I am pretty sure there are no solid answers to these questions, but if anyone has anything they’d like to chime in, please do. Here are some things I’m unclear about: 1-Why did Booker only lose his memory while crossing between universes at the start of the game? Why not on other crosses? 2-What is the significance of his nosebleed? I get that he is dead in other realities … but we all are. 3-What are the implications of the after-credits scene? All I can come up with is that this is a surviving Booker and Anna (or a series of them) who splintered off before the baptism event (in other words, he never went there). 4-Was he drowned before or after he made the actual “decision” about the baptism? (I don’t think there is really any way to confirm when in time the “decision point” occurred) In other words, did this kill Comstock and Booker, or just Comstock?