1. What’s your favorite kind of video game to play with your parents?
MMORPGs.
2. What’s your favorite quality in a male game character? Female game character?
Male: Sense of humor, sensitivity, optimism—i.e., I don’t have anything against the 30-something angsty white stubble guy, but I’m tired of the 30-something angsty white stubble guy.
Female: Sense of humor, sensitivity, optimism. Sound familiar? Oh, and reasonable physical proportions are always nice. It’s rare that female characters are the heroes of their own stories, but that’s more an external issue than a character attribute.
3. What type of games do you avoid?
I have to take zombies and horror games in small doses, though I enjoy them. I mostly avoid games that don’t treat their women with respect, whether due to storytelling issues or other players and their interactions with me.
4. What’s your favorite quality in your gaming buddies (kids or not)?
Someone who knows when to help out vs. hold back and let me figure things out on my own. Someone I can laugh with.
5. What’s your main fault as a gamer?
I’m really nervous about gaming in front of other people—I seize up and perform badly, which makes me even more nervous and upset. I hate looking like I’m not a “real” gamer.
6. How has gaming shaped your identity?
Playing RPGs as a teenager helped me figure out what kind of person I wanted to be. I liked becoming powerful enough to help out players who needed it, and I preferred to find ways of working together rather than PvP combat. Being the strongest one in the group, being a leader (Guild Queen actually), and using my strength to make the game more exciting and fun for my in-game friends gave me a leadership experience that I—a small, soft-spoken teenage girl with self-esteem issues—was never allowed in the real world.
7. What’s your idea of a miserable gaming experience?
I hate losing progress, whether it’s because of a glitch or because falling off a platform repeatedly sends me back to the beginning of a section.
8. In which virtual world would you choose to vacation?
Skyrim or the favela from Papo & Yo are both beautiful.
9. Which game did you find most visually appealing?
Broken Age is one of my favorites so far.
10. Which game soundtrack would you listen to on repeat?
Mass Effect 3’s soundtrack is so gorgeous. Although…I can only listen to that when I want to cry.
11. Which game has your favorite story?
The Mass Effect series, hands down. I have found inspiration, heartbreak, and joy from these games.
12. Which video game character would you choose to be a hero for your kids?
Jane Shepard from Mass Effect; can you tell this is my favorite game? Shepard is strong, fair, and an outstanding leader, but she’s also funny, caring, and romantic. She never gives up. She’s someone I look up to, and someone I would hope kids—whether mine or someone else’s—might also look up to.
13. What are your favorite gaming snacks?
I’m a sucker for grapes. Freezer grapes.
14. What’s your favorite video game villain?
Frank Fontaine from Bioshock.
15. Which video game ability/item/superpower would you most like to be gifted with?
I’d love to be able to go into the character creation room every morning and make my hair pink if I was feeling pink hair that day.
16. What video game character would you pick to cosplay if you had unlimited time and resources?
Queen Sylvanas from the Warcraft series.
17. Most interesting or annoying way you’ve ever died in a video game?
Diablo II was frustrating, because dying sent your character back to town…naked and weaponless. You’d have to find your way back to the spot you’d died and collect your “body” without dying on the way, which was particularly difficult when you didn’t have any weapons or armor on. And? If you had to save and exit in between dying and retrieving your stuff, you’d lose everything.
