Sign of loving Morrowind; I know the name of the slaver cave outside Seyda Neen through inescapable memory; Addamasartus. Probably because I carried a key bearing its name for weeks.

Another problem with modding versus immersion is an undefinable sense of exhaustion that comes in as the maker. Almost as though, once someone has dedicated enough time and attention to the workings of the world, they can no-longer believe in it, and to walk in it is akin to walking as a God among men, or a Redpill chewing a steak in The Matrix.

Thankfully, between well-made games and a good imagination this can usually be overcome - it hasn't done the slightest bit of damage to my love of STALKER or Red Faction - a few months ago I was mesmerised by the unpredictable AI behaviours of a whole horde of zombies created by a Blowout mod in Jupiter - and just yesterday, the actions of one insane Marauder who hunted me across around two miles of Martian desert, on foot versus my car, reminded me just how in love I am with Guerilla.

Gregg, what do you identify with personally, most intensely, in a fantasy universe - and specifically Elder Scrolls'?

I almost invariably play 'myself' in any freeform game - the exceptions being games like Guerilla or The Witcher in which I am forced to adopt some amount of a prewritten protagonist's persona. In an RPG in which I can create my own character I build my own self as best fits the opportunities of the fantasy setting. In the Elder Scrolls I'm a Dunmer of no specialisation, dabbling in illusion magics to influence others through charm/fear, competent with short blades, highly athletic, an amateur alchemist and many more little bits and pieces.

There's a unique pleasure to studying a fictional universe and extrapolating from the setting just how you, yourself may have turned out had you grown up here, then playing that character.

From this perspective, I do not think I will ever understand what drives so many young men to change their gender and their entire personality when granted freedom and anonymity in a fictional universe. I can only make the obvious guess; deep dissatisfaction with the self.. But it has to be more complicated than that, my optimism cries.

Have you decided yet what you are?

Gregg B: Are you new to Hitman? They're among my very favourite games, the full series occupying a place of honour on my shelf - I believe the second game to ever make good use of a real physics system - and Trespasser is always an awkward example to give as number 1 - so I generally consider Hitman the first -successful- implementation of a physics engine.

It's not about the physics, of course - as an innocent 13-year-old sadist it was mostly about the ragdoll, yes, but I've developed a real respect for the sheer freedom those games offer - along with their excellent graphics, wonderful music, unashamedly dark themes and unfailingly artistic presentation. Mm. Love. *makes another entry into the 'things to write about' file*

I'm getting well ahead of myself. I managed to spent the morning working on this bloody forum avatar for no reason other than "I'm easily distracted" D:

I empathise well with your love of stealth, but I personally prefer a middle path between the two - I never wanted Silent Assassin, I never wanted to make it look like an accident - my playstyle in Hitman on 'real' mission runs is 'viciously effective'. Blame a childhood of Bond films for the shiver I feel in my imagination when a character calmly takes down a room of men with a silenced pistol, then sits among the bodies to hack their computer files without batting an eyelid in concern or regret.

Something wonderfully horrible about that, something chilling, inhuman and extremely compelling as a way to introduce a character. For me, that 'silenced pistol bastard' cliche is personified most perfectly by Agent 47.

And so I play it; a silenced pistol, my reflexes cranked up to 11, a study of the maps and data available for the mission and I launch myself in, ideally never ceasing in calm, professional movement, slithering through crowds and stealing anything I require from the environment, entering the secured/guarded zones and taking down every guard in the room with a bullet between the eyes before they can react - then moving on, dodging what guards I can but killing anyone who sees me. No witnesses, no risks taken. Absolute dedication to the objective.

.. I guess I love it because it allows me to get lost in my imagination this way. Private roleplay, once again 😉

On Morrowind though, do you use the class terminology as a loose means of describing your character's type, or do you actually use premade classes? I've never even considered using a pre-defined class in an Elder Scrolls game, or indeed in any RPG that allows me to create a custom character. I can also spend up to two or three hours sculpting my character's body and face O.o

How to Train your Dragon was, against all expectation, a wonderful film =)

Armand: No insult intended - I'm making a generalised statement about the (to me) worrying numbers of young, antisocial men (including many among my personal acquaintance) who when presented with an RPG universe, particularly a multiplayer one, will adopt a small, spunky, female persona and often pretend to all players ingame that they are in fact a woman of entire different personality and characteristics to their true selves. As individuals, this strikes me as a little strange, but nothing bad - however in the numbers we see it occurring (a lot has been written about it in recent years), concerning for sure. I can't help but wonder what inspires it.

Merely wanting to experiment with a character quite different to yourself is just fine - I don't find it very entertaining but I can see why many would. I'm not passing judgement on any individual here who likes to play someone new when they're in a fictional world.

As for expanding my horizons; that's exactly why I'm playing the game. If the person isn't me, being in a different world is fairly meaningless - while being me, in this world, is rather boring (until I can afford a bit of travellage). To be me, in a wholly new world, challenged by things I have never experienced before.. That could be at the very core of what makes gaming special. It lets us explore new worlds. I've hardly had time to get to know myself yet - I've no desire to be a new person =)

"When I start a new rpg game, I try to imagine a character, their
motivations, their perspectives and so on, and build them based on
that. I don't "role-play" in the traditional tabletop manner, trying to
immerse myself in the character and all, but I do like to have a
compass of sorts to help me play the character. It tends to lead to
much more exciting and dynamic gameplay I think."

 

I practise exactly that whenever I play a game without custom characters - perhaps I get my fix of it there. At the moment I'm engaged in this process daily as I write a gameplay diary from the perspective of Alec Mason, Red Faction: Guerilla's protagonist. There is a great sense of fun and exploration to it.

Yapette: Would you agree that at this point, the modding has overtaken the gaming? xp You remind me of me when I get so lost in modding a game I'm burnt out before I even play it, but I just keep modding. I've become wary of it, it's a dangerous obsession for a gamer! I'm just glad I lack the patience for programming, or I'd never stop changing games for long enough to play them.

We, the modders. The insatiable consumer. Customisability is vital.