StaceyPowers

I notice that HP Lovecraft stuff is … everywhere, these days, especially in gaming. It’s a bit odd for me since I still remember back in high school when I was reading his stories and like two other people even knew what I was talking about if I mentioned anything from his universe. Apparently his work entered the public domain in 2008, so that’s probably why he’s (finally) become a household name. What Lovecraft-themed games do people here recommend, whether recent or older, on any platform? I’d particularly like suggestions from folks who have read his stories.

What specific elements would you like to see improved in the next Elder Scrolls game? For me: Consider fixing the awful physics (not going to happen, but it had to be said). Please make it possible to call followers who have wandered off/gotten stuck, instead of making us go search for them. It would be nice if you can “detach” from a horse so that it won’t always appear when you fast travel. I’d like to be able to arrange items in my house without them constantly flipping upside down. Why do they do that? A more complex set of factions like in Fallout NV would be good. More depth to followers with more follower-specific quests would be great, even if that means fewer follower options. Being able to marry or make any follower a steward would be an improvement. So would being able to change followers’/family members’ attire. I’d like to be able to donate more than 1 gold to poor people. What would you like Elder Scrolls 6 to fix?

I used to play MUDs, where there was a strong emphasis on player interaction. In fact, it was by far the central feature of most MUDs I played. The games revolved around the politics and relationships between players, and the world was transformed through how those relationships played out. I haven’t played any of the big modern MMOs, but I’ve heard that there is very little player interaction in most of them, aside from PVP or teaming up to grind. For me, that sounds incredibly dull, and worse, I’d just get annoyed that there were other people in the game. I suppose I’m a bit “all or nothing” on interaction. If I’m not going to have meaningful interactions with players, I’d druthers they simply weren’t present. I'd feel they would only add elements of chaos to my experience without providing me with value. What about you? Do you prefer moderate, heavy, or little interaction in online games?

Sometimes I see people who prefer open world games where you get free rein over a lot of decisions say that they can’t get into games which are written with tighter narratives and less or no player choice. Personally, I like both formats for different reasons, and both seem immersive to me. They just rely on different mechanisms to get the player emotionally involved. Where do you weigh in?

Gaming taught me how to type super fast. It's also taught me some social skills.

I swear like once a day I see at least one person online complaining about “just another zombie game” with reference to one game or another. I can understand getting sick of a trend that’s been played to death, but I largely don’t have a problem with it. First of all, I really don’t care that much about a game’s subject or universe as much as I care about simply getting a great story or characters or overall experience. Secondly, I can understand why our current culture is obsessed with zombies with reference to aspects of modern life as well as 20th and 21st century history. Given events of those timeframes, it is hard to visualize an idealized future. The closest thing to “optimism” we have in some ways is such a genre, where the world goes to sh*t, but a few individuals manage to retain their humanity. What are your thoughts on the deluge of zombie games, TV, etc?

Who here pre-orders games? If you do pre-order, do you usually get standard game editions, or do you opt for the premium editions which come with all the extras?

Have you ever received a ban in a video game? Was it temporary or permanent? What happened, and how did you resolve it?

I have a Windows laptop and a PS3, so I have products from both Microsoft and Sony, but … suffice to say I’m a fan of neither company. Microsoft upsets me by obsessively trying to turn things into subscription services and force updates, and Sony upsets me by resisting cross-play and backwards compatibility. But what is a person to do? There really are not a lot of choices for computing or gaming. Which of these two companies do you think is the worst?

Do you buy DLC for games? If so, do you do it as a rule, or only some of the time? If the latter, what makes you decide to go for a DLC purchase versus passing it over? I often feel like a game is flat-out incomplete without its DLC. I hate missing out on any added bits of the story or info about the characters and world that I love. At the same time, I admit it drives me crazy when I buy a used game for $5, and wind up spending $40 on digital content. I wish that DLC would drop in price over the years a bit. I have actually spent way more money on DLC than I have on main game content. I feel so angry when I realize I missed out on a Game of the Year edition :/

I've heard people complain about the lack of choices in Bioshock Infinite in this regard, but to me that increased my empathy with the characters, who were trying to change the outcome of bad choices made in events preceding the game, but who were in many respects trapped by those choices during the game.

Those of you who enjoy Bioshock games, which plasmids and vigors do you use the most? Which do you use the least/never? In Infinite, I used the Murder of Crows one the most, and Undertow after I got it. So far in Bioshock 1 (first playthrough), I’ve mostly been using the electricity one.

Gaming for a living?

Especially regarding Anthem, there is a lot of discussion right now surrounding buggy game releases, and developers essentially releasing products before they can properly be called “finished.” As a gamer, how much does this annoy you? Are the complaints about games like Anthem fully warranted? I know a lot of folks love the game, but I mostly just keep hearing the other side.

Do you own any game-related prints, models, or other artworks which you have on display? If so, what are they?

I’m on my first Bioshock 1 playthrough right now, and I traded out the Incinerate ability before I melted some ice blocking a doorway to a funeral home. Is there any way to get rid of this ice except Incinerate? I have read you can use the fire from the nearby crematorium to light a corpse or a bottle of alcohol on fire and lob it at the ice, but this doesn’t seem to work. It’s like the fire isn’t really coded to be “real.”

I often hear gamers talk about "challenging" moral choices in video games where you have to pick between doing a "right" thing and doing something which will give you abilities to help you out in the game. The thing is, I never seem to find these choices hard, but maybe that's just because I fail to suspend my disbelief, and I know the game mechanics will let me win anyway. A good example would be Dragon Age: Origins, where there are multiple morally dubious opportunities to enhance your army for the final battle, but I don't get the impression it really makes a big difference outside the narrative in one's head. Anyone have thoughts on this?

What games have you played which have had startling enough encounters that you’ve literally jumped in your seat? I’ve had that happen a few times already while playing Bioshock 1. It’s so bloody dark in there, and the enemies spawn so fluidly and continuously that I’m frequently surprised by them (especially when I turn around in a room I just cleared and am literally about an inch away from an attacker).

Dragon Age!

I wanted to make the question about personality rather than skills, as for most of us, the answer would be "I couldn't" if we talked about skills. If you had the gameplay skills, would you have the stamina/focus/determination to take on the career? My understanding of it is that it is quite a grueling profession, and it has a very high burnout rate. That's actually exactly the kind of work I like, lol. But I wouldn't have the stamina required.

We talk a lot on here about classic games from our childhoods which we get nostalgic about and miss playing. But what about classic games you didn’t find out about until later, and never had a chance to try? Are there any old games you wish you could play for the first time, but don’t have the old hardware to make them run? For PC games, one should hypothetically be able to get around compatibility issues by running a virtual machine, but my laptop can’t really pull that off.

If I thought I had a real shot at making boatloads of cash, I could imagine playing at tournaments, but only for a very short span of time (i.e. less than a year). It looks like a lifestyle which makes a lot of other demanding jobs sound comparably easy. Would you game for a living if you had the skills?

Has anybody here on VGR ever played a game at the competitive professional level? What was the experience like?

If you play games where there are breaks in the action, do you spend much time sitting around (or walking around) and just staring at the scenery, listening to the atmospheric sounds of the environment, and imagining you are really there? I suspect I spend way more time doing this than the average gamer (considering how many more hours I seem to take to finish games than the “average” for those games), but I wonder if other people do it too. I do this because I just can’t bring myself to rush past what amounts to beautiful artwork—but also because taking some time to smell the roses makes the experience feel more real and “lived in” to me.

Do you like building as a feature in Fortnite? Or do you wish it would go away?