- CrazzySnipe55
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- Fabled Legendary Member
Posted by: DeeJ
What good books (besides the Halo novels) have you been reading lately that you would recommend? The Harry Potter novels. They're vastly underrated by the majority of adults but it really is an amazing story to go through from beginning to end without reading other books in between. Especially on a second, third, fourth, fifth read-through you can see all these plot devices that J.K. Rowling clearly had set up from the beginning and all these subtle clues as to the fates of certain characters, plot points, etc. that seem to be nothing more than a detail in the story at first glance.
When you aren't playing Halo or dreaming about what we're concocting, what do you do for fun?*obligatory joke about how I have intercourse with Foman's mother in my free time*
What was your 2011 game of the year?Portal 2. It's better than the original in every sense of the phrase except perhaps because it has not spawned any widely used internet memes other than maybe the "Space!"-core.
What's your most memorable story moment from any game you've played, ever, and why?Probably the final battle in Kingdom Hearts (the original). Not for any particular reason in relation to the atmosphere of it all, the gameplay, etc. but it was a game I used to play with my dad on a regular basis before he moved away. It's nice to be able to reflect back on it.
Warning, I'm about to go off on a bit of a tangent but it all relates back to WHY this is my most memorable moment in a video game.
Strictly gameplay-wise though (so you can get that valuable market research you want out of this question :P), I would probably have to go with winning my first Civilization game. I had been playing for about a year (as a 12 year old) and had never been able to win. Being able to fine-tune my "battle strategy" (or anything else, really) bit by bit and visibly be able to see my progress as over time I was going from finish 10th overall to finishing 6th, 5th, 4th, and so on.
Being able to have a really satisfying (and consistently satisfying) pay-off for hard work, and customizing to the point of having a "thing" that's literally all your own is one of the most gratifying things in any video game. But at the same time, if you feel as if your hard work is making the game easy, this isn't good.
The point of getting better at the game is not to get to the point where it becomes laughably easy and you have to impose "House Rules" on yourself to make it fun after a while (E.G. beating a whole game with only handguns, or only melee attacks). A good game never gets too dreadfully easy. A great game is always fun to play no matter how good you are at it. The perfect game scales itself or has a complex scale for the player (see Civilization) so that they can make the game harder and harder as they see themselves getting better and better so that it virtually never loses any playability due to its apparent ease-of-completion.
Has playing a game narrative (story, characters, etc.) ever caused you to cry?I can't say it has. It's not that I'm unable to shed a tear at visual media (TV, Movies, Video Games), it's just that I've never been invested in a character or franchise from the beginning to the end. I've always either come in halfway through (Halo) or not seen the series to its conclusion or the point that it's at today or skipped games in between (Assassin's Creed; Final Fantasy). I'd need to play every game in a row (without other games in the middle, that is) so that I don't forget characters or stop caring. To give it the effect of being movie-like where I'm getting all the information and background all at once.
Choose one. Explain your choice. The one on the right. It's the side of my dominant hand and if reaching for the pill is a clever rouse to get me to lower my defenses and subsequently be attacked, I will have my dominant and stronger arm out ready to parry any incoming attack.
Reach deep now. Why do you play games? Several reason. Not the least of which is for a release. A chance to get away from my everyday life. I don't mean this in an escapist, "Second Life" sort of way. I don't have a terrible life or anything like that that I necessarily need to escape from, nor do I feel any need to plunge myself into a virtual world and substitute any part of it for bits of my real life. All I mean is that video games are a bit of a detachment from dealing with the real world in the same way that TV was in the 90s, radio was in the 40s, books were in the 19th century, and sex was before that.
Another reason is the gratification of success. Why do NFL players do a jig in the endzone after scoring a touchdown? Why do Swedish soccer players pretend they're Real Big fish (that's "Real", not "Reel") and celebrate in extravagant ways after scoring a goal? Why are we happy when we do well on a test concerning a topic we couldn't care less about (apart from it meaning your grade is now higher)? Because we as humans constantly seek pleasure. No, not like that. Well, I guess like that but that's not what I meant. Succeeding at something brings about a reasonable amount of cerebral pleasure. In other words: people get happy when they win.
The same is true for video games. Consider franchises like Madden or FIFA or any other sports game. You can constantly succeed in those games even if it isn't necessarily getting a point towards your overall goal of winning that game. You can make the perfect through-pass. You can make a perfect run play. You can slide tackle someone who was on a break away. The list goes on.
The same is true for shooters and any other game where you kill people. While the point of a game of Team Slayer might be to get more points overall than your opponent to win the game, you get little "wins" and successes along the way. Out-BR-ing someone in Halo. Sniping someone in Call of Duty. Getting a critical hit in Pokemon. These are all little successes that can be distributed rapidly over short periods of time to get someone to keep playing a game. The more successful they are, the happier they get. The happier they get, the more they'll want to keep being happy. To do so, they'll keep playing the game and coming back for more.
Supply and demand at its most basic.
Favorite Pen & Paper RPG, and why?The Game of Life because nobody but me knows that it is one. Shhh! It's a secret!
What was your first game system, and what was your favorite game on that system?Game Boy Color. Pokemon Blue. I loved the hell out of that game as a 4-5 year old. I remember being so proud beating the Elite Four with nothing but Blastoise the first time through. I was the proverbial -blam!-.
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In your opinion, what's the best video game system of all time?Welp.. there goes my essay on Pokemon. (Misread question.)
Best SYSTEM? So far? The PS2. It had the widest variety of games, the best exclusives, and was the most widely used. Xbox took a small corner of the market-pie, Gamecube a slightly bigger corner, and the PS2 just stole the rest away.
Granted, Microsoft and Nintendo learned from Sony and both ended up making better, more versatile consoles than Sony in the next generation, but the PS2 takes the cake... er, pie.
Who is your best and worst villain?
Best Villain: This is going to be a cheap one, but I find the best villains are the ones you don't know are villains. The best villains are ones who seem to be your best friend but are actually revealed to be the villain. However, this cannot be through some contrived plot point. Like I said earlier about the plot points in Harry Potter, I should be able to go back in hindsight, look at everything that character has done with their ulterior motive in mind, and understand why they did what they did while at the same time not suspecting anything malicious at the time that they initially did it.
Worst Villain: As a stark contrast to the one above, blatantly obvious and obnoxious villains are incredibly annoying and are the bane of many a great series. Even obnoxious villains can be okay, but it's when a villain is SUPPOSED to be obscure or we're SUPPOSED to not know they're a villain and it's painfully obvious.
I don't mind dramatic irony when an audience member or gamer knows they're a villain, but the visual media (show, movie, game) doesn't have to spell it out for us (close ups of people, unnecessary shifty eyes, blatant tells, etc.). Let us figure it out ourselves and if we should already know, don't make the other characters idiots by making them not realize the blatantly obvious.
[Edited on 05.09.2012 2:11 PM PDT]