StaceyPowers

Can someone else cure the disease instead? Then I'll go to the planet, no questions. If only I can cure the disease, I'll cure the disease.

Have you had a major change in opinion about anything gaming-related lately? What was it, and what changed your mind?

If you spent a lot of time playing online games in your youth, do you ever wonder what happened to all the people you used to game with? I sometimes wish there could be a meet-up decades later just to see where they all ended up.

Did you ever make a massive mistake in a game that turned out to help you? Like, in a MUD, I once stupidly read a classified log entry to the wrong person. It was an honest dumb mistake, but it turned me into a public figure as it became a treason case, which gave me power.

Did someone you didn’t really know well or at all ever do anything particularly nice for you in a multiplayer game? As an example, years after I quit a MUD, I saw someone I barely knew at all saying on a forum he still missed me because of the approach I took toward the game, which he found refreshing. I was surprised and touched by his comment.

Did anyone ever give you absolutely terrible advice about gaming—the type where following it made you under-perform for a long time, or made life harder in some other way? What was it?

Has anyone ever given you a tip that was incredibly helpful for you in playing a particular game or for gaming in general? What was it, and how did it make your life easier?

Do you have an inviolable personal rule you would never break when playing a game? I.e. "I would never kill a rat" (thinking of @The Blackangel).

What game do you love now that your younger self would never have imagined getting into?

What video game stats amaze you? For me, it is stuff like how many locks I have picked in Skyrim and other menial tasks, and I suddenly realize just how much time I spend doing these mindless things.

Are there games you have played that don’t track stats that you wish did—or which you wish tracked stats they didn’t, even though they tracked others?

If your life were a video game, which game would it be? I guess for myself I’d pick Spec Ops: The Line, because I don’t know what is going on most of the time =D

What would other people say you do well at when gaming—not necessarily what you would say you do well at?

Are there quests you do every time you play Skyrim? Some of mine include the Forsworn Conspiracy, the Blessings of Nature, Rise in the East, A Night to Remember, Missing in Action, and all prerequisite quests to get Mjoll as a companion.

What video games have you played with awesome driving mechanics? And which ones have you played with terrible driving mechanics? What made them good or bad?

So, basically you would say that video games are not art, but may contain elements of art? "A painting or a statue has no practical purpose, purely creative." I'm not sure I feel the same way. Theoretically, it exists to fill top-of-the-pyramid needs in Maslow terms. As these may contribute to the well-being of an organism, I would say that is quite practical (not to say the object may not have intrinsic value of its own). "Make you think, make you feel, but's a reaction created only by the admirer, not the object." I see what you mean, although I think I'd lean toward the theory that both are involved. Even a very abstract piece of art or something as ambiguous as an instrumental piece of music may invoke extremely similar responses in different admirers, suggesting that some aspects of design can reliably produce certain responses in a viewer or listener. Indeed, this may even occur if the artist is an AI, building a piece entirely without conscious intention.

What is your emotional reaction when a player next to you is raging? I always worry that they will destroy the controller. I also always kind of worry they will turn their rage on me for introducing them to the game.

What would be the ultimate awful game for you? Mine would probably be an exploration-based game of some sort that was in third person and included PUZZLES dropped at frequent randomly-generated intervals that inhibited progress.

Dawnguard ended up being my favorite content in Skyrim, aside from all the PS3 bugs. A more lifelike companion, really nice quest rewards (i.e. Arvak, Auriel’s bow), some of the most beautiful locations and music in the game, and getting to learn more about the Falmer all made it worth the cost of the DLC.

What is the worst thing you’ve seen a game admin do? For me, it was finding out an admin was helping her IRL boyfriend get away with sexual abuse of other players in a game.

In Skyrim, if you kill soldiers escorting a prisoner and let the prisoner go, he will often report your crime to the hold, and then you get fined. I find this action really illogical, but so much so I don’t feel that bad about killing the prisoner/witness. I feel like the entire episode is just an arifact of bad development. What are some similar examples of such things from other games?

Where have you seen influences from games you like show up in pop culture? For example, The Last of Us inspired a number of aspects of Stranger Things.

Have you supported any games through Kickstarter? Were you happy with the resulting products?

Is there some fact of the gaming world you don’t like, but which you think is never going to change?

Did you ever do anything that got you banned from a game? Or were you ever banned unfairly?