StaceyPowers

How do you feel about games that are hundreds of hours long? I don’t mind it, but I do have to admit that shorter games are often refreshing for me. Epically massive game almost cause something like FOMO in me, where I worry I will just never get to experience everything.

In a lot of RPGs, leveling up speech is super important to get the best results. But doing that as a newbie is awkward, as combat tends to take priority. How far into a game do you usually start focusing on leveling up speech?

For me, the worst instances of metagaming I experienced were: 1-Admin in a game that flat-out cheated in an event. They rest of the team denied it for years, and then fired him for doing it again later. 2-Friend in game was sexually harassed by her in-game girlfriend. Player of said girlfriend turned out to be RL boyfriend of another game admin. He got away with it with game admin's help. 3-I was working super hard for a faction in a game. Turned out head of faction's in-game girlfriend was an alt character of a highly-ranked member of enemy faction. No wonder none of our secret plans ever panned out. She was in on all our meetings =D

Quake III Arena. But I think this is a thing in general. I used to wonder why so many games aimed largely at console players have modes that pause/slow down combat for precision targeting, and I assume this sensitivity limitation is the reason.

Likewise. I tend to metagame 🙂

I have had seemingly unrelated problems involving freezing on manual saving in both The Outer Worlds and Skyrim on PS5. I have seen some people complaining about similar problems in other games on PS5 as well. Does anyone know if this is a widespread issue on this system? Are these problems related, or coincidental?

I have a weird/silly question about autosaves that I should know the answer to, but don’t. If a game makes an autosave, how long does it keep that autosave? Does it stay until the next autosave writes over it? Or does the game dump it out at some other point of time based on space allocations or some other consideration? Say I have a game where manual saving is causing freezing. Can I just rely on nothing but autosaving until it is over? Or will I randomly lose my progress?

If you put dozens of hours into a game which then has a terminal bug that prevents you from completing it, what do you do next? Immediately reinstall it or install it on another system and start over? Take a long break and then start over? Give up completely?

I think "dissociative issues" is a pretty broad category. In my case, it's more like part of me is frequently "switched off" internally, and also like the world is "far away" or "not real" or on the other side of an invisible glass barrier (this used to give me panic attacks a lot). I also feel like I myself am kind of "transparent"--like I am long-deceased, and existence is a strange, here-but-also-not mystery. These issues are reduced while gaming.

If you are replaying a single player RPG, how do you deal with the issue of metagaming? Do you deliberately alter your choices based on your past playthrough to try and get better outcomes (or just to see different results)? Or do you try to pretend you did not experience the previous outcomes and make decisions based solely on in-character parameters?

What were some of the most over-the-top bizarre, funny or awful metagaming situations you encountered in MMOs?

What are some video game streamers and channels you enjoy that are not very well known?

These are great ideas, and more what I was looking for. "Urgency" may not have been the right word, but I don't know what is. I detest time limits in games, but the linear games that give me a sense of "urgency" do not have time limits or rush the gamer either. It's more just a sense that something important is going on, the stakes are high, and I desire to resolve a situation for the sake of the characters. Even with no time limits, things feel very present, focused, in the moment. That is what is often missing for me in open worlds.

I don’t play sports games, so I have always wondered something. If you buy new editions of sports games every year, what happens to the old ones? Are you just done with them? Or do you return to old editions now and again to relive past seasons or because some of them were especially good?

What are some quests or DLCs that you have heard other people complain are tedious or repetitious, but which you nonetheless enjoy?

What do you want to experience as an open world game? I want a game set in a highly researched/realistic prehistoric time where I can play as a dinosaur.

You know how sometimes developers release a game that is essentially unfinished until you get the DLC that wraps up the story? What are the most common reasons this happens? I am assuming developers/publishers do not plan for this situation.

I recently learned how to connect my DualSense with my laptop to play games. But there is absolutely no way to get the sensitivity and precision with the joysticks on the gamepad that I get out of a mouse, which makes shooters hard to play. Is this a limitation inherent to joysticks, or are PlayStation controllers just crappy with sensitivity and precision? Before you ask, I am not using the mouse for ergonomic/pain reasons.

What open world games have the best voice acting? I have been pretty impressed with some of the acting in The Outer Worlds, especially Ashly Burch (Parvati).

What are some games where you had to work at empathizing with/understanding the characters? It took me a while to empathize with a lot of the characters in The Outer Worlds (more the NPCs at large—shipmates were pretty easy) due to how indoctrinated they are.

Phew. For a moment there, I was wondering if "molding" was a word for "modding" and I was out of the loop.

I love open worlds, but I feel one of the things that is usually lost when playing them is a sense of “urgency”. Linear games keep us moving forward; there is often a rising sense of urgency built into the pacing. But open world games seem to lack this. Is there a way to embed that sense of dire importance/urgency into an open world format?

When you play a game with civilians running around everywhere (i.e. open worlds especially), do you go out of your way to try not to accidentally kill civilians, or do you just not care if they get friendly fired?

Do you ever have “what if I cannot beat this game” anxiety the first time you play a game? If so, does the loss of that anxiety after successfully beating the game make it more relaxing and fun on a replay for you?

Are there any series you used to loyally play, but have now abandoned? Why did you jump ship? Did you get burned out by it, or did you just get distracted and forget about it?