1. What’s your favorite kind of video game to play with your family?
My mom doesn’t tend to play the same games I do but just in the last six months or so we’ve both been playing a lot of mobile games together. We both got iPads recently and have been playing Candy Crush. Lots of Candy Crush. I think the games I like to play with my mom, and that she likes to play with me, tend to be puzzle games. The iOS market has been huge for us bonding over games, partly because we both have iPads. For the first time, we’re both on a platform that we can play the same games on, and where we can find games we both like. The mobile gaming market is one of the few places where match games and puzzle games are more popular than photo-realistic combat-based games, which my mom doesn’t like at all. It’s been a great thing, because previously games have been the only kind of media that my mom and I haven’t been able to experience together, and now we can. I introduced her to Monument Valley a couple months ago; we both loved it and we’re still talking about it. We don’t generally play co-op games, but we love talking about the games we play separately.
2. What’s your favorite quality in a male game character? Female game character?
I’m so, so easy with female characters. I instantly, and more strongly, identify with women, honestly just because they’re women. I want female characters to be well-rounded and distinct, and given realistic proportions/reasonable outfits. Sometimes I’ll even forgive terrible design choices—I’ll still almost always pick a female character with terrible design over a male character, if the option is presented. My primary concern is that she is given an arc of her own and her actions are the ones driving the plot. That’s it. That’s where my bar is. Beyond that, I am a huge sucker for female characters in protective roles, who are sure of themselves, or are paragons and defenders of people who can’t protect themselves: Marian Hawke in Dragon Age II, Jane Shepard in Mass Effect, Lara Croft in Tomb Raider 2013 (and really, any version of Lara, even some of the not-great ones). I also really adore female characters in puzzle games, like Broken Age’s Vella.
I generally have a much harder time identifying with male characters. They’re just not my default and the market is so oversaturated with brash, unshaven masculine power fantasies right now that my initial reaction to seeing any male protagonist is kind of instant dislike. Writers, designers, and artists have to work extra hard to make me care. The first big hurdle is that I have to feel like they tried to do something interesting or different with the character. I also generally need to feel like the narrative is critical of them in some way. Beyond that, men who have a sense of humor and care about the people around them are perennial favorites, as are the male characters who are shown to be in legitimate emotional pain (to be distinguished from emotionless “manpain”). For instance, I recently played through Infamous: Second Son, expecting a dudebro game with a dudebro protagonist. Within a few minutes, I learned that the protagonist, Delsin Rowe, isn’t only a nonwhite main character, he’s also roguish, charming, makes mistakes, and depending on the choices you make in-game, can be very caring. This was a pleasant surprise for me, and by the end I was very attached to him.
3. What’s your favorite quality in your gaming buddies (kids or not)?
People who can laugh with me! Definitely.
4. What’s your main fault as a gamer?
My need to commit to my own internal narrative I’ve constructed for the game. I will sometimes do things that make no sense mechanically because of my commitment to telling myself a story that makes sense. There are lots of times where this has bitten me as a gamer, but probably the worst one is where I went on a quest on Dragon Age II on my own instead of picking some companions to go with me because I said to myself, “Hawke is stressed out over the situation with Anders and she wants to be alone. This sounds like an easy quest, she can handle it.” Yeah. That was a quest where, at the end, a small army of Qunari attack you. My last save was 7 hours of play time away. Good times.
5. How has gaming shaped your identity?
I could write an essay on this. Gaming has been an installation in my life since my dad bought me my first gaming console when I was five, along with one of the Street Fighter games, and I’m really grateful for that. I’ve played games for so long, and alongside other forms of media like books, movies, and television, that gaming has definitely shaped my identity as much as anything else. Games are part of what made me start writing. Games gave me escapes when I needed them. Some of my best friends are people who I bonded with, first, over video games. Games helped me develop problem-solving skills. The list goes on!
There are other things that weren’t obvious to me at the time, like how games helped me come to terms with my sexuality. Video games helped me realize I was bisexual; there’s media I’ve engaged with before that helped me learn the emotional language to understand things I was feeling, but games put me in the position of seeing what romantic choices were most narratively and personally satisfying for me.
Gaming has also shaped my life in the sense that now I’m in a place where I’m designing interactive experiences. Once I graduate, I want to work full-time in the industry on the chance that I can be a part of something that inspires other people the way I have been inspired.
6. In which virtual world would you choose to vacation?
Tamriel. Definitely Tamriel. Or maybe Thedas.
7. Which game did you find most visually appealing?
There’s a whole collection of games right now from indie developers that just have such interesting, different visuals that blend so nicely with their stories and mechanics. The one that wins out for me is definitely Monument Valley—the art style is just so elegant and simple, but still manages to be stunning.
8. Which game soundtrack would you listen to on repeat?
Journey is my go-to soundtrack for doing any kind of tedious work to. A special mention is the track “Suicide Mission” from the Mass Effect 2 soundtrack. As a writer, I find it a vitally important mood setter for writing finales and stories about heroes going into hopeless battles.
9. Which game has your favorite story?
It’s hard to pick. If a game doesn’t have a story that I’m enjoying, I usually drop it like a dirty shirt. I think the game that stands out most strongly to me right now is Broken Age–it’s a very cleverly written, enjoyable story that has some fascinating things to say about the damage we do even when we don’t intend to.
10. What are your favorite gaming snacks?
Honestly? A good craft beer (NOT FOR CHILDREN) and some seaweed crisps. I also love gaming with tea, coffee, or diet soda.
11. Who’s your favorite video game villain?
Albert Wesker from the Resident Evil series. I’d like to preface this by saying that I love a well-done villain almost as much (if not sometimes more) than a great protagonist. There are villains with good intentions and tragic stories, there are villains who could turn their lives around for the better and become a force for good, and I do love those villains–but Albert Wesker is not one of them. Wesker is a terrible person who is honest with himself about what he wants and ruthless with those who get in his way. He’s a fiercely intelligent contract killer and bioweapon in a tailored suit. It’s rare to see such a straightforward, cruel baddie who still manages to be a fascinating character.
12. Which video game ability/item/superpower would you most like to be gifted with?
Invulnerability and/or fast healing.
13. What video game character would you pick to cosplay if you had unlimited time and resources?
Warrior Marian Hawke from Dragon Age II. Basically, I have just always wanted to cosplay as a lady knight in armor, and who Marian is and what she represents means so much to me.
14. Most interesting way you’ve ever died in a video game?
See my answer to question 5. It took me hours to figure out how to get Marian out of that ambush.
