StaceyPowers

What do you think makes for a rewarding and engaging community in an MMO?
I really only have experience with MUDs, but I would generally just say that when people talk to each other and show an active interest in each other, that makes for a great experience, even if they do not all get along.

I’ve made a weird discovery that I have an easier time being responsible in games in some ways (i.e. for followers, items, etc.) than I do IRL. I think it’s because IRL, I am always distracted by the need to earn a living, which consumes all my spoons and leaves little for juggling the rest of my responsibilities. In video games, we don’t have those challenges, so it is easier to put more care into things. Can anyone relate?
 

Gaming in adult life helps me to return the state of mind of a child - with no problems, when everything seems easy. It helps to take all the difficulties easy, it really helps a lot! All in all, "adult life problems" are nothing but the "children" of adult state of mind. I use every option to be like kid - not in the sense of irresponsibility but in the sense of joy and soul/mental freedom. Gaming for me is necessary to achieve it.

@Withywarlock and @Yaramaki are established and longtime contributors of VGR. They both have been on our watchlist for some time and were vetted extensively by @Shagger.  Four moderators is appropriate given VGR's member count and post total and the overall exponential growth the community has seen over the past 4-6 months. Each of the four moderators are well qualified and deserving of their respective role. Furthermore, having a robust and experienced moderation team allows me to direct more time and resources to continuing to attract new members and grow the community.

Hey everyone,
Today I have a couple of exciting announcements for you. The first is that VGR Forum now has more than 18,000 members! I am deeply grateful to each and every one of you who have contributed to VGR growing into such a tremendously successful community.
My second big announcement is that @Withywarlock has been promoted to become our fourth moderator! He joins @Yaramaki, who was recently promoted, along with @The Blackangel and @Shagger.
Withywarlock has long contributed thoughtful, detailed comments to VGR forum, keeping conversations going and spurring new ones with his insights. He also does a great job making us laugh with his witty observations.
It is a rare privilege to have a forum grow this much while still retaining its loyal core of members and such a welcoming, friendly atmosphere. Each of our moderators has played a huge part in making that happen, and I know Withywarlock will do a phenomenal job in his new role. Congratulations, Withywarlock, and thank you!
Thank you to all of our members for being a part of the VGR family. I am so happy with what we have built here together.

Are there aspects of gaming you initially did not really “get,” but later learned to appreciate? When I played MUDs, for example, I really didn’t get why anyone did quests. But in single player RPGs, I obviously learned to enjoy them.

I ruined a lot of sex shouting "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim."

On average, how much time passes between you buying a game and playing it? I realize it might be quite hard to figure this out, if it is sometimes days and sometimes years! I think with me, it probably averages out to about half a year.

Could video games help us combat or adapt to climate change in any way, even by just raising climate awareness or demonstrating simulated versions of possible solutions (i.e. I would to see a solarpunk open world that shows off what a city of the future could be like)? Have you seen any examples of games that have already done this?

I’ve also had good experiences with Converter App, and would recommend it. Tbh, it’s also the only one I’ve tried recently. What else is out there?

In response to @StaceyPowers published article, entitled "10 Games Like to Play in 2022" I wanted to ask the community members for their perspective on the best Wordle alternatives. My favorite Wordle alternative is Crosswordle - it's basically Wordle backwards. It's very mentally stimulating and a very difficult.

I've had to look up everyone's references so far =D

Do your pets hang out with you when you game? One of my cats usually does, but the other doesn’t.
 

Try making a game reference you think that no one here may recognize, at least from their own gaming experience. I will start:
“you are in a maze of twisty little passages all alike.”

Do your pets hang out with you when you game? One of my cats usually does, but the other doesn’t.
 

I tend to make piles of manual saves out of concern about bugs, but when manual saving is what's causing bugs ... =D

I may have mentioned if prior myself, but I'm sure it was an ongoing issue. I heard from Rebellion support that the issue was patched, but I got a comment on the YouTube video I put up for it, and they mentioned this happened during co-op as well, where one dude's wife ended up picking up a body to hide it, but it stayed on her. 
But yeah, the only fix is to restart the mission, or go through the mission still holding the body like I did. 😄 
I remember Outerworlds had a similar save system to the likes of Fallout, or so I thought. It's been a while since I played. But I remember the game having an auto save option and a manual save option. I used the manual save a little bit, but mostly let the autosave take control. I only saved if I felt like I needed to. Maybe to save a portion of the game in case I end up getting stuck. 
 

As others point out, some games have infinite autosave history, some go as high as 40 or 20, and some only go as far as 5 or just a single save. Otherwise your current autosave(s) last as long as they remain in your game files or cloudsaves.

It depends on the game. In most games autosaves override each other, but Skyrim, for example, keeps a history of around 5 autosaves before they start to override. In my experience, most games autosave in a regular save slot that could override with a manual save if you wanted to. doing so would place the next autosave into a brand new slot as you don't really want an autosave overriding your manual saves. This can vary, so it's best to know the behaviours of the game your playing. Do you mind if I ask if there is a specific game that's causing you grief prompting you to start this topic?

The nearest comparison to this in my opinion is Ark Evolved - it's a modern game that can be modded (I've considered doing this at some point).
 

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

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.
 

Likewise. I tend to metagame 🙂

Most games have sensitivity controls in the options menu, there are external apps and options within Windows itself some of which are explained in this post:
 
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67442029/how-to-customize-gamepad-controller-joystick-output-sensitivity-in-windows-10/70698591#70698591
 
There's also Thumb Stick extenders which reduce sensitivity by effectively "gearing the stick up".  I use these and although they don't suddenly turn into an FPS master they do help.
 

 
 
Most people find that a mouse is more precise when it comes to aiming.  With a mouse you can move the aiming curser in a target, stop on a specific point, then move it again quite easily.  The same action on a stick is considerably more difficult because sticks will always try to spring back to the neutral point.  It's the nature of the peripheral itself.
 
Controllers have some natural advantages to.  Their more ergonomic, designed for purpose and offer far better control over an in game character's lateral movement.  This is especially true when it comes to sneaking where you can freely control how fast the movement is on a stick but it's pretty much a binary move/stop or possibly a separate toggle for walk/run on keyboard.  If you've ever tried to play a sneak build in Oblivion on PC you'll know what I'm talking about, it's awful.

I'd better say before this thread hots up: attribute not to malice what could as easily be attributed to incompetence. Sure, sometimes it's that nebulous but all-encompassing and satisfying answer of 'greed', and sometimes the incompetency comes from greed. For instance, the game being rushed out because of developer/publisher greed; they want to cut corners and costs and make their money back instantly. There are times when it's just due to management clashes or ineptitude, concepts taking longer to decide upon than the actual coding process, contract negotiation failures and expectations versus reality.
It's my understanding that DLC that completes a story is usually added after the initial contract has been fulfilled by studio for the publisher. They've got the game out, and they'll receive additional funding to partake in other projects, one of which may be a more artistically driven one such as providing a more complete experience. Others, such as the case of Mass Effect 3, were due to backlash. It may be that the initial contract stated the game was to release and then afterwards a number of DLCs are expected: what better way to tick off one of those boxes than to cut out the ending, but then I'm just going for the lazy, paranoid criticism of 'laziness' myself.
So while I'm sure no developer/publisher plans for an/the ending to be released as content, it may be the reality for that particular game. Or indeed it may be greed. I've no evidence to suggest any of the above.