I'm a boy, but for this giveaway: not in it.

I came in here because outside it is Cabbage Night and all the mad spirits are running loose. *doesn't flinch as a pumpkin suddenly explodes against the outside wall* But you see, boys, *pretends not to see the eggs pelting against the windows* I have come prepared for this slumber event, for it is five and twenty years ago tomorrow that I was deeply traumatized by OOH! *notices someone dropped off a pot o' honey, begins scooping the honey into his mouth like Pooh Bear* There now, where was I? Ah yes, of course, I was about to bring out the pan of special brownies and a plentiful jug of moonshine to deaden the clamor outside and to bring the focus inside.

It was three-quarters less than a century ago, at a party not unlike this, that my fellow boys and I went tricking and/or treating for sweets on Halloween Night. Our plunder was plenty but some of our number were hungry for more. So some of us stayed counting the loot and some did blunder back out the door. I was safe inside, or so I thought, but that was a mistake. Out there in the night with the spirits and ghouls was regular stuff; inside, on television, the horror I saw would never come off.

"This movie is an uplifting tale," my friend, the host, did lie, "in the end the little boy learns to fly." In truth *SPOILER* the vengeful zombie toddler leaps from the attic door to stab and bite his daddy's neck. *END SPOILER* But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part of it was that it was a rainy night and all of our soaked pants were in the dryer, so we were sitting around feeling half-naked and vulnerable in our tighty-whiteys in... *looks around, notices no one is wearing pants and one guy is in fishnets and smeared with glitter and honey* uh, in the dark and uh... look fellas, this is dragging (no pun intended) on and I just want you to watch this DVD of Pet Sematary with me so I can have like a group therapy/collective retraumatization thing happen so I can get over the horror of Zelda, who is seemingly etched into my conscious forever and ever.


A1.
My favorite game genre is anything that let's me drive cars. Doesn't matter if it's racing like FlatOut or open world like Grand Theft Auto. If visible damage accumulates and I can swing the camera around to ogle the heap, all the better. I just love skillfully driving cars like mad.

Next favorite genre is third person perspective shooters. Could be linear like Max Payne or open world like Saints Row. I just need a third person perspective to orient myself in a three-dimensional space. Really, I'll give anything with TPP a glance because good games with that perspective are few and far between.

Third favorite genre. I don't know. I've been learning more about PC games and genres since joining GOG; before that the last time I even looked at PC games was in the late 90s when I was the hotseat champ of Worms 2. So, I'm open to learning more.

A2.
Worst genre, so to speak, is first person perspective. It is disorienting: I can't tell where I'm standing; why am I two feet tall?; am I wearing blinders?; etc. First FPS game that I've seen that gives the perspective of a person greater in height than two feet is the Metro series. Hopefully GOG will acquire that so that I may give it a go.

Next worst genre is point and click adventure. I tried the Walking Dead game - that's a point and click, right? And I was drawn to it because I heard it would make me feel sad emotions, y'know, but.. bumbling about slowly with the character and then racing to choose a multiple choice answer is like some kind of meta-horror. I'll come back to it some day when I can better appreciate what the gameplay controls are trying to convey.

Third worst. Hmm. The whole swathe of medieval fantasy. I read Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and played Zelda in the 80s but it's not my thing. That fantasy subgenre seems to cover so much of PC gaming and it's all taken care of by the people who love it so I can focus my attention on games that take place during or after the Industrial Revolution.

A3.
In racing games when given the choice I'll choose the male driver because that figure represents me and he sort of disappears into the background as I'm racing. Because there's no backstory there's no narrative and no fleshed-out character to keep in mind while I'm driving. So if I suddenly see a lady driving my car when it's supposed to be a generic male homunculus who is me it can be jarring and dissociative. If there is a backstory then I'm playing a character and that is a whole different kind of game.

The one game I've played so far in which I had a character with a choice of genders was Saints Row: The Third. After the first play through as a y [url=http://youtu.be/PII5jcf950Q]Chavez/William Blake looking character - an archetype that's recognizable at least to me -I played around with other character designs and settled on making the most striking female character face I could. I then designed the finest face in any video game ever and proclaimed her the vengeful daughter of Marian from Double Dragon and proceeded to play in the style of this Billy Lee/Marian character for some time. But then I started to experiment. I began frequenting the plastic surgery clinics and clothing stores around Steelport and dressing this character up in the whole gamut of outfits from full-body wolf suit to birthday suit; hairstyles from punk rock mohawk to bouffant; emaciated ascetic to obese epicurean; law abiding muscle car enthusiast to reckless minivan maniac. At some point I realized I was playing with a doll. A sexualized, violent doll, as the characters in Saints Row are designed. But with the first male character I was sort of locked into the kind of archetypal character I had created and who is perhaps a reflection of a character I wish to be. I didn't want to stray too far out of line with that character. With the female character I was open to getting weird, trying out all the possibilities, and it was all okay. So I don't know what it all means, but there you go.


Thank you to the hostess with the mostest, ddickinson.