Hey! I’m Aleah; I joined the class a little late, but I’m happy to be here now. Gaming has been a main hobby of mine for most of my life, starting with the Gameboy color and, later, the N64. I stayed Nintendo-only until the Gamecube (hey, I was young), crossed to the PS2/3, then finally to the Xbox. I really came to value story and character-depth, along with the exploding trend of choice – all of these, of course, preferably with a Fantasy theme. I’ve dabbled in a lot of different genres, but there are a few that I routinely go after.
First and certainly foremost, I love RPGs. The idea that you can go through them in a lot of different ways (even if they don’t have a branching/reactive storyline) really interests me. I don’t always take advantage of this (i.e. default: rogue/thief), but the fact that I could come into that game and take whatever angle I wanted was great. Take the Mass Effect trilogy, for example; I didn’t have to use anything but the shotgun unless I felt like a change of pace (although I will never stop mourning the ammo-less system). Another favorite of mine is Demon’s Souls, with customizable class, weapon type, armor type, and stats. It was somewhat difficult when you weren’t paired with another good player, but it had a lot of unique character that I really enjoyed.
Secondly, I love Adventure/Open World games. I guess it comes down, again, to choice; I’m allowed to go, within reason, wherever I want to go. Another part of it, however, is the idea that there’s an entire world (read: probably country or landmass) to explore. I think it’s a really engaging way for the player to find out about the game’s setting, discovering it themselves. One series that is a fantastic example of this (and this reference is in fact obligatory) is that of the The Elder Scrolls games. The sprawling game area, combined with the amount of depth and content, creates the perfect scenario for this genre to thrive. Out of the Fantasy genre, there is a newer example: Far Cry 3. While I haven’t had much time with the game yet, but I’ve liked most of what I’ve seen so far – the only downside being that the landscape could be a little more differentiated between areas, and the areas could have a bit more character to them. In any case, however, both games let you roam.
Finally, we come to my guilty pleasure: Simulation games. By this, I mean games like Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing, and The Sims. I am appropriately ashamed. However, these games really do have an addictive quality to them. One possibility might be that there’s always a clear next goal; if I just do x some more, I can finally get y. Compared to games where objectives can be a bit drawn-out, these games certainly put the carrot directly in from of you. Also, games like The Sims allow you to set up your own little situations – what if I was a writer? What if I owned twenty horses? – etc. Animal Crossing also has the draw of real-time passage, which brings a nice pacing, although this isn’t a necessarily a common theme with many other Simulation games. All in all, though they’re not the most grand of games, they are pretty fun.
So, to sum it up, my key interests are: RPGs, Adventure/Open World games, Fantasy themes, branching storylines, heavy story emphasis, and customization. If anyone ever wants to hit me up, I’m Azh on Steam, Azhyre on Xbox, and XxEternityxX on PSN (an old screen name).