Q. What do your characters and avatars usually look like? (Answer!)
A. Human males, dark hair, slightly above average height. Slightly menacing, where available.
Q. How many hours a week do you play? (Answer!)
Q. Do you feel relationships within games are meaningful? (Answer!)
A. They can be, yes. Past a certain point real meaning requires meeting someone face to face, but certainly in-game friends can be more meaningful than the friends of convenience most people have at work, for example.
Q. If you could meet any game developer, who would it be? (Answer!)
A. Matt Firor. I thought he was a great producer of Dark Age of Camelot (the best to date), and I'd really like to know what MMO Bethesda (or Zenimax Online... whatever) is working on. </p><p >The current Mythic people might be my choice, except I'm sure I CAN meet them if I want, and this seems like a wish list type of question.
Q. Have you ever had a romantic encounter with someone you met in a game? (Answer!)
Q. What music do you like to play games to? (Answer!)
A. A lot of classical music - the Gladiator Soundtrack, various Beethoven symphonies, the Orpheus in the Underworld Overture, etc. I typically don't play anything with lyrics, because while the background music helps me get into the game, listening to the words of a song can pull me out...
Q. What sort of tools (calculators, builders, spreadsheets, etc.) do you use to plan your characters? (Answer!)
A. I don't plan, exactly, since I don't know exactly how I want to play a class until fairly late in the game, typically. Once I know which skills/talents/whatever go with my playstyle, I'll use a character builder to figure out how to get the most out of how I want to play.
Q. If you could bring any book, movie or comic to life in a game, which would you choose? (Answer!)
A. Forgotten Realms as MMO is an obvious answer, although I think it'd be almost impossible for it to not disappoint. Still, incredible potential... a less mainstream one is the Hythrun Chronicles by Jennifer Fallon. Fantasy setting with a decent amount of detail, obvious PvP, and distinct factions.
Q. What experience do you have beta-testing games? (Answer!)
A. First beta experience was with Dark Age of Camelot beta 3, in March (or early April?) 2001; have tested all the DAoC expansions, as well as spent a few years playing on the test server. Since then have beta'd LotRO, alpha tested Boundless Adventures, and am currently testing WAR.
Q. Where did you get your gaming names from? (Answer!)
A. I first saw the name Uriel in the Deryni series of books by Katherine Kurtz, before learning the actual source. I now use a derivative of Uriel for all my characters (Uriul, Uryel, etc).
A. Why isn't there a multiclass option?
Q. What are your thoughts on roleplaying in games? (Answer!)
A. I admire those who do it well, and think it adds a fun element to the experience; unfortunately I'm not among those who do it well, so I don't often try.
A. Yes, but I prefer to just listen
Q. Beside GamerDNA, what are your favorite websites? (Answer!)
A. Umm... mine, I guess? <a href="http://www.classesofcamelot.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.classesofcamelot.com</a> I visit Digg pretty much daily. <a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.smashingmagazine.com</a> is great for web design resources, as is <a href="http://www.alistapart.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.alistapart.com</a> . worldofwarcraft.com is one of the best websites I've ever seen, and I'm jealous of it. wikipedia, and imdb. Amazon! <a href="http://www.newegg.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.newegg.com</a> <a href="http://www.cnet.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.cnet.com</a> and <a href="http://www.pcmag.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.pcmag.com</a> for PC/tech stuff.
Q. Other than your console or PC, what is the piece of hardware you can't live without? (Answer!)
A. My Cruzer Titanium 4GB flash drive. Don't need to be at a specific computer to work on whatever projects I have going at the time.
Q. What is your first computer or video gaming memory? (Answer!)
A. Lode Runner on the Commodore 64. First modern computer game memory is going to a friend's house down the street and watching him play Ultima Online , and trying to wrap my head around the idea that a bunch of the things on screen were other people in other places...
Q. Why do you join guilds or clans? (Answer!)
A. I create them more often than join, but for the same reason: To be part of a group of people I can chat and sometimes group with. It's definitely not about being part of the "best" guild for raiding or PvP or whatever.
Q. How do you feel about playing characters of the opposite sex? (Answer!)
A. It doesn't bother me when others do, but I just find it sort of weird - the same way I don't like playing non-human characters, I suppose.
Q. In real life, are you male or female? (Answer!)
Q. What is the most overlooked or misunderstood game? (Answer!)
A. Obviously I don't know the real answer. But among games I've played, Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager was, I think, overlooked. World of Warcraft is most misunderstood, simply because so many people believe a lot of things said about it without trying it for themselves.
Q. When you are not playing games, what do you do for fun? (Answer!)
A. Reading, or watching TV or a movie.
Q. When do you play, including timezone? (Answer!)
A. 8PM to 1AM (not all the time, but in there somewhere) eastern time.
Q. What are the specs on your gaming rig? (Answer!)
A. Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
EVGA 8800GT 512MB
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R
2GB Gskill DDR2800
Cooler Master 690 Case
Corsair 650W PSU
Uriel_DAoC
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC)
Asheron's Call (PC)
Dark Age of Camelot (PC)
