Alright, I'm in for the fun of it and for a $5.99 game. Should I win, I'd like Austrobogulator to get the other one, as a thank you for his awesome Games Finished in 2014 thread and the nice discussions in it. :)

Q1 & Q2:
My top 3 favorite genres are adventure games, roleplaying games and, roughly speaking, platformers (2D & 3D, including puzzle platformers as well as action adventures). My 3 least favorite genres, I guess, are strategy, simulations and sports. (As far as regular single player games go; multiplayer, MMOs and F2P aren't even on my radar when I think about games.)

The reasons for this might be that I value story-telling, atmosphere and exploration most of all, and that I'm more interested in individual characters and close personal perspectives than abstract and distant managing of large populaces, troops, teams and whatnot. I also prefer mystery, adventure and weird creatures to economics, politics, warfare and sports, and I don't like repetition that much. I get bored very quickly with most strategy, simulation and sports games, because they just don't offer enough story and rewarding exploration to justify the long time I'd end up spending with them. I'd rather play games with more story, constant progression and a more memorable atmosphere that I can experience from a close personal perspective, like adventure games, RPGs and platformers/action adventures.

Q3:
Yes, I often make my characters female. I will spend a lot of time with my character, so when I choose one, I want to make sure that I like it. There are several sides to it: looks and voice, abilities, personality, and then how much I can relate to them, considering similarities, sympathies, or escapist fantasies. Abilities, unless crucial for the gameplay, often take a backseat in my choices, because the narrative and atmosphere play a bigger role in getting me immersed in a game than the details of the mechanics. Personality is rare among videogame characters and even rarer in games that let you create your own character. That leaves me with looks and voices, and in that regard female characters often win. There aren't that many male characters in games that I'd deem attractive or cool in looks. Most are just bland average jo(ck)s, which also rules them out in terms of similarities or sympathies. I can neither identify with nor look up to the majority of male characters in games. It's not such a big deal most of the time, but it also means that when I get the chance to remove them from my game, I do. It's easier for me to sympathize with female characters, and I'd also rather try to identify with them than with clichéd macho men or dorks.

Last but not least, I don't have any power fantasies about being a muscled hero rescuing helpless damsels in distress, but watching and playing a sexy badass woman getting things done is one of my guilty pleasures (sexy not meaning scantily dressed with the camera constantly zooming on big butt and boobs, just my personal idea of sexy which is good-looking but also confident and strong). I don't care much for romances with male characters hitting on my female character, but they're still more interesting than the awkward and boring "the average male player will love this" kind of romances that make the female NPCs look up to the male hero in search for comfort and protection and all it requires to make them yours is to flatter them (or don't do anything at all).

TL:DR
Most videogames don't offer male characters I can identify with, and to me it feels boring or awkward to go along with their uniform and uninspired ideas of What Men Want, so I'd rather play a cool female character and watch her kick ass. Apart from these thoughts, it's also fun to see how well prepared the games are when it comes to catering to female characters.

I am not in

As i was sarcy last time, i feel i might add something.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdUlS_cSMoE
hooked me as a kid

1.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spGLsMY47Xo
hooked me as an 'adult' :)

Precision.

2 i don't really have genres i don't like. I have played my way through a few platforms and adventures-since vic20-maped them out extensively too, not my style these days.

3. Never played a game as a woman, how does it feel to play a game as a man?

Just so you know Morigan bores me;)

I have seen, and loved, Fist of the North Star (the 1980's version), but I have never seen Saint Seiya before. Probably due to the limited amount of anime that is shown on UK television. I enjoyed a lot of the post-apocalyptic type stories of the 80's and early 90's anime.

Also, BUMP!

Just coming in here for a moment to cheer for our guys on GOG!
*cheers*

I thought that Saint Seiya received the same love even abroad, but it seems I was wrong.
Here, it is nearly as iconic as Dragon Ball! Back in primary school, missing an episode was the greatest sin one could ever imagine, and between classmates the public "commentaries" on the last episodes were like some kind of ritual! :)

Here in North America, AD Vision released only the first 60 episodes back in 2005; and that was on DVD, not on television. Only last year, Discotek Media (under their Eastern Star label) released the four Saint Seiya movies. If the sales of the films are good, there's a chance Discotek may attempt to license the show, but with so many episodes, it would be an expensive gamble. If I were a betting man, I would bet against seeing any more here.

This is a stark difference to South America and parts of Europe (such as Italy), where the series is incredibly popular. There were two Saint Seiya games released on Playstation 3 over the last two years that saw release in Japan, South America, Australia and Europe (including an English language release). However, they were never made available in North America, even as a digital download through PSN.

Captain Tsubasa, a soccer anime, is incredibly popular in many middle-eastern countries, but is almost non-existent here in the States. Hell Teacher Nube was very successful in many South American countries, but has never been released in the States (a real shame, as it's one of my favorite shows). There are countless other examples, but these are the ones that I could think of off the top of my head.

Regional differences are always very interesting.

I think I linked to a recent study showing that over a third of MMO players are female (I posted then in the context of FPS, which has similar stats). So I think that the chance of finding an actual female are actually pretty good. Of course, you still have guys playing girls, so some won't want to risk it.

I think you're confusing the merc trade with bounty hunting, birds of a different feather! But according to British Intelligence I'm supposedly a "secret agent of the Swiss", remember? As in, well...secret!
Sorry for being AWOL, I wanted to finish and review Halfway before the introductory discount was over so as to bring more attention to this super nice game. Here's my somewhat lengthy review and excuse for not tending to my mercenary duties:
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_finished_in_2014/post2005


The last time the Swiss tried to invade Italy was in 1515 and it didn't go over well for us at all due to French artillery, Venetian reinforcements and our "old school - too cool for modern warfare let's pike rush them quickly and go home to tend to the crops" tactics. Total disaster and ever since we've been neutral and decided not to get entangled in foreign entanglements. The mercenary tradition was held up until a little less than 100 years ago when serving in foreign forces was finally outlawed by the Swiss government.

Plus, a train ticket to Milan and back would cost more than your flight from London to Italy, making this campaign harder on my resources than on yours. So I won't be invading Italy but I just saw that Enebias has capitulated already.
If he hadn't capitulated, I would have used the mercenary fee to buy pizza for Enebias and myself at whichever local pizzeria he recommends and then we would spend the rest of the money to make giveaways on GOG. In the meantime, I would tell you some hogwash about how I'm close to tracking down his whereabouts until declaring that he fled the country - which would of course increase my mercenary fee if I am to follow the target. As soon as you paid more money, we would again go for pizza and host more giveaways, until "Enebias escapes to another country" and so on.



Do you know The Legend of Mother Sarah?

The setting is dark, cruel and unforgiving, similar to Fist of a Northern star but in Legend of Mother Sarah the violence isn't gratuitous and the main hero, Sarah, is a skilled martial artist like Kenshiro but not a superhuman. She uses smart strategy when possible and violence when necessary - and she's pretty good at violence but with realistic limitations (no Dragonball "it's over 9000" stuff). This isn't your typical anime fan service girlie girl or damsel in distress, she's a well written and incredibly brave and strong character. Having been separated from her children during catastrophic events, she embarks on an epic journey to find her children again and will stop at nothing to do so. There aren't many action series with a serious and realistic female lead so Mother Sarah is a rarity.
This manga is one of the best drawn series I have ever seen, even better than Akira. Mother Sarah was written by Katsuhiro Otomo but the artist is Takumi Nagayasu whose draftsmanship is second to none. Sadly, the series didn't go on for too long which is a real pity. Nevertheless, my all-time favorite manga. If you don't already know it, I highly recommend it to you as I'm sure you'd like it.

Discussions are nice and all, but this thread is still not MANLY enough!
Let me bump it with a some real action!

A fine plan, sir! Here, have the first slice of "Pizza alla Diavola" to metaphorically celebrate your professionalism!

By the way, excellent review and thanks for recommending Mother Sarah! I never heard about this title before, but between the names behind it (Otomo-Nagyasu) and the premises, it look more than interesting!

It does seem that women prefer to play as women, while a lot of guys seem to also enjoy playing as women. Either you guys must really be jealous of us women, or you're all secretly cross-dressers ;-). I know if given the choice, I will generally play as a woman. There are very few times I will pick a male character, and that is usually due to limitations between the two characters, if given the choice of two equally skilled/featured characters, then I will pick the woman ever time.

Perhaps one of the reasons your friend refused to voice-chat, is because she does not feel the need to prove anything to complete strangers. I know if I played MMO's and kept getting advances or accusation of being a man unless I proved it, then I would still not prove it, even if it would get them to leave me alone. I would see no reason to justify that I am a woman, just because some small minded guy gets his kicks out of childish behaviour and challenging women.

Nope, I meant mercenary. A bounty hunter usually has to operate within the law, a mercenary is simply a goon for hire, someone who will do anything, so long as the money is good. Also, there is nothing stopping you being a Swiss agent and moonlighting as a mercenary on the side.

You would not be going in alone, you would have been accompanying me as we both hunted down Enebias. You would not have had the chance to enjoy pizza and giveaways, I would be there to keep an eye on you (treacherous Swiss mercenaries, can't trust anyone these days, next time I will pay extra for a Commando Ibex). I would use your expertise to find him, or at least use you as the hired goon to get some information on his location and, if need be, to take the blame if we are caught. It would be all your idea, I would just be the sweet innocent lady who was forced to come along :-).

Another problem with your plan, is that it was cash on delivery, no payment until the job is done. You did try to resist and ask for partial payment upfront, but instead of money, I simply offered a truck full of Swiss chocolate, and we all know how much you Swiss love chocolate. What you don't know, and something you will only discover after you have served your time for going AWOL, is that it was not actually Swiss chocolate, just a truck full of knockoff Chinese imitation chocolate.

I had not heard of The Legend of Mother Sarah before. But it sounds very intriguing, I will be sure to keep an eye out for the series. I had a quick look on google and it does indeed look like an interesting story.

Now this is embarrassing... I seem to have written such a humungous wall of text that GOG won't let me post all of it. Can someone bump me so I can post the answer to the third question? :-S

WARNING! WALL OF TEXT INCOMING! YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SURVIVE MAKE YOUR TIME!

Man here. Let me start by thanking Dee-Dee (you're not going to kick me in the groin for calling you Dee-Dee, are you?) for the interesting set of giveaways. I had been following the discussions in the previous one, but not in real time due to my shitty limited connection (hopefully coming back home to long-missed broadband within a couple of weeks).

Joining this very manly LAN party (boys don't do slumber parties afaik, although I wouldn't be past the occasional pillow fight as long as there are some pyjama-clad girls around) for the $5.99 price, and choosing Austrobogulator as my striker. He was the first goglodyte to ever gift me a game in here, during the glorious Fall Insomina sale (KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEANE!!!), and I still owe him for that :-P.

So, on to the questions:

Q1. What are you top 3 favourite game genres and why?

Well, I'm not really a "favourite genre" kind of guy, I rather have favourite games. That is, I'll like a very good game in a generally unfavoured genre more than an average game in a generally favoured one. Also, I can't really name a list of my "most favouritest games in the history of ever", because I can hardly affirm an awesome game to be "better" than another awesome game, so I just have a lot of games I love, and I'm hard-pressed whenever I'm asked to rank them. To further complicate things, my tastes have been shifting as I grew older, so a game I greatly enjoyed in my teens I may find bland today. And I may occasionally get a passing fancy to play games in a particular genre which is normally not among my favourites. So, after all these hare-splitting, I'm just gonna mention three genres I generally enjoy, in no particular order:

- JRPG: I discovered the genre on my late teens, so the kind of stories, characters and atmospheres there really resonated with me. Sure, I've come to find them too linear, and somewhat shallow, but there are (as someone already mentioned) very mature games out there, such as Lost Odyssey (a masterpiece by any standards, only marred by its lack of variety). Not that I've played much out of the Final Fantasy series. I've played from FFIV to FFX, and have FFI to FFIII on my backlog (wondering if I can find a pre-Enix version of FFIII other than the NES japanese rom or some fan translation :-S). A shame they never did more games after FFX (and I mean it as in this little xkcd strip, although I share Randall's opinion from the alt text). Hironobu Sakaguchi is God, and Nobuo Uematsu is His prophet. There, I said it.

- Sports (specially football/soccer/whatever-it-is-you-happen-to-call-it): Well, yeah, don't hate me. Sure, they are shallow. Sure, they sell you the same game year after year. Still, when done remotely right, they can provide hours of entertainment for those times when you don't really feel like playing "deeper" games. I actually have become extremely cynical in my views about football in particular, to the point that I rarely watch it on TV anymore, or, if I do, I look at it as though I'm watching a professional wrestling "bout" (in the sense that modern football looks pretty much just as scripted to me). So I currently enjoy football games more than watching actual football, and slightly less than playing myself. Sure, I haven't bought a FIFA or PES for years now. I prefer older, classic, simpler titles (remember when football games used to be fun rather than aiming for some convoluted notion of realism?). In that light, I recommend anyone who hasn't tried it to check out Football Kingdom: Trial Edition, a (sadly) one-off Japan-only title by Namco. Flawed, not fully cooked, but fun as all hell.

- TBS: This is the latest big thing for me. Absolutely loved Final Fantasy Tactics at the time, but didn't really delve deeper in the genre. Then not long ago I happened to try the demo for Civilization Revolution on the 360, and, after some cluelessness in the beginning, I realised it's just the kind of games I feel like playing at the moment. Turn-based action means plenty of time to think (yeah, you don't wanna play even poker with me if you're short on patience), and the many approaches to the formula means a wealth of possible stories to tell. Currently playing through Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon on the DS. Not the best game ever, but still very good for its time (it's the remake for a NES game after all!).

Q2. What are you top 3 worst game genres and why?

The same whole paragraph of preliminary hare-splitting from Q1 applies here. I'll save you the fatigue of reading through it again, though :-P.

- FPS: It just doesn't do it for me. I'm not fond of anything military, particularly modern, and I'll take a sword over a gun any day of the week, so shooting things for the sake of it was never my thing. If, however, there is a twist that interests me in terms of story or atmosphere, I might give it a try. The Jedi Knight series comes to mind, although I was no longer having much fun by the time I finished each of them. Bioshock, however, didn't cut it for me (only played the first one). I can appreciate it as a solid effort in terms of art, level design, atmosphere, balancing, pacing... But still, it just didn't make me feel anything.

- Point and click adventure games: Sorry, I try my best to like them, and I have fond memories of the old LA classics, but I just can't bring myself to have fun with them anymore. Sure, the stories are good, often chuckle-inducing, and the characters are well written, but the gameplay I find almost unbearable. Whenever I end up grudgingly checking a walkthrough to find out that I needed to pick up an object that was 2x2 pixels, hidden in a dark corner, or that I had to combine two entirely unrelated objects to create a third one in order to use it some weird place in an entirely ludicrous way, I just wonder how anyone could be expected to figure it out by themselves. You want a particularly bad offender? Take Discworld. Not only do you need ludicrous PnC logic, you need even more ludicrous Discworld logic on top of that. I guess much of the problem is me not having time to sit through a puzzle for an hour anymore. I have less time to play, and a much bigger backlog, so whenever I hit a time when I'm no longer having fun with a game, I feel extremely bitter. I try my best to figure most games out on my own, without checking walkthroughs, but for PnCs, it's just not worth it anymore for me.

- MMORPG: I don't like a game that requires me to devote several hours to it every day in order to get anywhere. I don't like a game that guilts me into playing by means of a monthly fee or (heavens forbid) money spent on whatever trinkets are available to buy, if it's a F2P. I don't like a game that forces me to join up with other (generally unknown and unlikable) people in order to do quests. I like to play games at my own (quite slow) pace, checking every corner, figuring out every quest myself and building my character however I see fit, regardless of perceived usefulness. And above all, I want every hour spent on the game to be meaningful. No pointless grinding, no bland, long-ass dungeons, and whatnot. I want my games to have a clear goal and an ending in sight. Not more and more tidbits of new content and general padding in hopes of having me pay the monthly fee for another month. MMORPGs suffer greatly from a very bad case of fake longevity [DISCLAIMER: FOLLOW THAT LINK UNDER YOUR OWN RESPONSIBILITY. TVTROPES CAN BE EXTREMELY ADDICTIVE. ALSO, TVTROPES WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE]. I remember the exact moment when I decided to quit FFXI (which, as far as I could get, is a great game, apart from genre-related quirks, but just not a bona fide Final Fantasy): I was enjoying the plot, the character design and whatnot, but I was progressing really slowly (I was a level twenty-something red mage/warrior (see above concerning character builds), soloing most of the time). I needed to go up in citizen rank (a game-related McGuffin) in order to advance in the plot (BS!!!), for which I had no choice but to either repeat an already completed quest (WHAT?!) or craft some crystals (another McGuffin) to donate them to the city (whatevs). I decided to do the latter, since I thought it was less time-consuming, but (alas!) the shop I had to buy the materials from was closed for the (game-time) day, meaning I was left with absolutely nothing remotely interesting to do for the next (real-time) hour. Then I realised I could put my time (and money) to much better use (like playing old entries in the series).

Bump!

Thanks, man (*fist-bumps him) XD. Sorry about the wordiness, I was kicking myself for not catching the other thread in time, so I might have gotten a little carried away (understatement much?).

Anyhoo...

Q3. If you enjoy playing as a woman in games, what is it about playing as a woman that appeals to you?

I don't. I've got nothing against women, of course, it's just that I can't bring myself to play as one if I have the choice. The thing is, whenever it is up to me to design a character, I always make him into an in-game version of myself. It's not even that I wouldn't be able to roleplay a woman, I just don't feel like it, because my first choice is always to play as myself (well, maybe I'm unrealistically good in games, as compared to my actual self, but the thing is, whenever there's an actual good/evil meter, I can't help aiming for the "100% good" position). I will consider playing a woman (or an evil character) on a second playthrough if there is a significant enough difference, and I'm totally O.K. with playing a fixed character lead that happens to be female. Also, it's all about the identification rather than gender-accuracy. I remember playing as the Seraphim in Sacred (never finished it though) for lack of an actual "paladin-like" male option. Fun story about Mass Effect (loved the first one, hated the second one, haven't still decided if I'll play the third one): I finished my paragon run and doubted between starting a femShep run or a renegade run. I didn't quite like the idea of playing a renegade femShep, it didn't feel right to me to play a "good" man and an "evil" woman. If I was to play a woman, I wanted her to be one I would actually like. I ended up going for a male renegade for the stupidest reason: I wanted to call him Dick Shepard, for the lulz (come on, don't you get it?! He acts like a dick, and his name is Dick! It's hilarious!). I guess I'll play the femShep if I ever start a third playthrough (kinda sorry I didn't since you keep singing the praises of Jennifer Hale's voice acting).

And a final note. I'm surprised at the sheer number of people that mention the "I don't want to stare at a male's ass for fourty hours". I can understand that. I can respect that. And I don't mean to poke fun at you guys, but whenever someone tells me they play a woman for the eye-candy, the first answer that comes to mind is "you know there's porn on the internet, right?".

Don't worry, no kick in the groin, that's just an empty threat to get some naughty boys to play the game ;-).

Thank you for the post, you are one of the few guys to have sports games in your favourites list. Though, just to clarify things, it's football, don't let those Yanks change the name of a sport just because they could not think of a name themselves for their own game :-).

What are you doing? Don't tell them that. Think how empty the forum will be if all the guys find out there is free porn out there.