Dude… I go shooting every weekend. Wanna come with? I’ll teach you the safety rules and how to shoot. I usually practice with my carbine, but we also can rent all sorts of pistols. All you gotta do is pay for your range pass and ammo.

Q: How does everyone else’s gaming collections reflect on their personalities?A: Zombie killing princess saving space ship driving bullet healing shape shifting robot bashing heart breaking cosmic spraying son of a $!&%# 

As an Iraq war veteran I find that violent games, especially those that contain a lot of blood and gore, bother me a lot. They bring back some of the feelings I didn’t like. I still enjoy shooters, etc., but I find the most violent something that I can’t handle any more.

I guess in my rush to introduce Ryan to the Wonderful World of Weapons, I neglected to answer his question, so here goes:Whenever a game allows me to, I like to take a non-violent route. Not because I have problems killing people, far from it, but rather because brute force seems to be too crude and simple of a solution.Some games allow you to be stealthy. Anyone can swing a sword, or fire a gun, but few people have the patience to sneak carefully past every single enemy. Imagine the feeling of utter inadequacy they must experience, when after standing their posts, making their rounds, etc… they discover that whatever it is they were guarding is now gone.Some games allow you to use persuasion. It is such a wonderful thing to be able to charm someone into doing exactly what you want them to do. Sometimes it’s to their benefit. Sometimes it’s a terrible choice for them, and yet they do it, unable to resist your personality. It feels almost as exhilarating in game as it does in real life.In some games you are given an option of intrigue. That one is my favorite. Manipulation is the name of the game, and the man who plays it must be cunning and intelligent if he is to succeed. Crafting an intricate web of secret alliances is one of the finest pleasures to be had. Putting on a grand act, carefully dropping hints, backstabbing and blackmailing, starting rumors and double crossing, buying and selling secrets, all these things are absolute delights in an of themselves. Of course pulling it off is hard. You often have to operate on multiple levels of logic simultaneously and keep track of what amounts to dozens of chess games. And yet, when everything finally fits together like a giant complex mechanism, when you are the only one who sees the big picture while others are mere instruments controlled by your skillful hand, you get a sense of pride and accomplishment that would not be possible had you just gone in and shot everyone.

I guess in my rush to introduce Ryan to the Wonderful World of Weapons, I neglected to answer his question, so here goes:

Whenever a game allows me to, I like to take a non-violent route. Not because I have problems killing people, far from it, but rather because brute force seems to be too crude and simple of a solution.

Some games allow you to be stealthy. Anyone can swing a sword, or fire a gun, but few people have the patience to sneak carefully past every single enemy. Imagine the feeling of utter inadequacy they must experience, when after standing their posts, making their rounds, etc… they discover that whatever it is they were guarding is now gone.

Some games allow you to use persuasion. It is such a wonderful thing to be able to charm someone into doing exactly what you want them to do. Sometimes it’s to their benefit. Sometimes it’s a terrible choice for them, and yet they do it, unable to resist your personality. It feels almost as exhilarating in game as it does in real life.

In some games you are given an option of intrigue. That one is my favorite. Manipulation is the name of the game, and the man who plays it must be cunning and intelligent if he is to succeed. Crafting an intricate web of secret alliances is one of the finest pleasures to be had. Putting on a grand act, carefully dropping hints, backstabbing and blackmailing, starting rumors and double crossing, buying and selling secrets, all these things are absolute delights in an of themselves. Of course pulling it off is hard. You often have to operate on multiple levels of logic simultaneously and keep track of what amounts to dozens of chess games. And yet, when everything finally fits together like a giant complex mechanism, when you are the only one who sees the big picture while others are mere instruments controlled by your skillful hand, you get a sense of pride and accomplishment that would not be possible had you just gone in and shot everyone.

Alaric, you bring up a great point. When writing this entry, I didn’t even think about “how” I play the games, which is probably a greater reflection on your personality than your collection of games.

You’re obviously someone who analyzes situations in games, and like you said, you have the patience to devise an alternate solution that doesn’t involve the simple “waste ‘em all” approach. Now me? I’m the exact opposite. Stealth is not even considered an option in my gaming repertoire. I’m going to go in guns blazing and I’m not going to let my finger off the trigger until everything else in the room has stopped moving. Sam Fisher, I am not.

Granted, I think my penchant for mayhem is more a result of my impatience as a gamer, than me being a loony person. That, and I’m just not quick enough to analyze a room and know I can wall jump onto a platform, to shimmy across a gutter and back flip onto an adjacent roof … just to get past one guard. I get more satisfaction just poppin’ the guard in the face.

And also one more thing I found interesting about my gaming style. Am I the only one who can’t make morally corrupt decisions? When I first played Knights of the Old Republic, I was like, “Sweet, I’m going to play through the first time as the light side, then on my second run-through, I’ll do the dark side.” The only problem with that is, once I started my second run-through, I couldn’t bring myself to make dark decisions. And it’s not just that game, either. Any game for that matter. I just feel like too much of a jerkface doing bad deeds do innocent/good people. Anyone else experience the same issues with their conscience?

Also Alaric, I’d love to shoot some guns!

Oh and Russell, do you feel the same towards movies that are violent/gory, or is it just games because you’re more immersed and you’re controlling what’s happening on the screen?