The Escapist Forum Roundtable #1 - CHAT WITH THE STAFF!

[tendo82]

Welcome to The Escapist Roundtable!

You may remember that this was originally a discussion between Escapist staff about an issue or question of importance to us. Well, as much as we enjoyed sharing our discussion after the fact, we thought it might be even better to take it to the forums and discuss this issue directly with you. From Wednesday through Friday staff will be dropping in and out of the thread to post their own responses and reply to yours. From there, feel free to keep the discussion going, until next Wednesday when a new topic goes up. We may even respond over the weekend if the Street Fighter IV lag is particularly bad.

Consider this your chance to join us in some lively debating and hopefully good times. We can't wait to discuss.

This week's question is: What is your most significant gaming accomplishment and why?

 

[John Funk]

Most recently, the one that comes to mind is earning The Undying title in WoW - done by clearing the 10-man version of the endgame Naxxramas raid without anybody dying at all during any of the boss fights. Especially as a healer, v. intense.

In general, though ... hm. I'm pretty proud of S-ranking all the songs on every difficulty in Elite Beat Agents. Or beating every Mission in Guilty Gear X2.

Also, Tom, if you'll be on XBL with SF4 this weekend consider yourself added to my "people I need to own" list.

 

[Sennz0r]

I have to say finishing the N+ campaign because it was really, really hard at the end. I was overjoyed when I finally made it.

Why? Because it was one of the most challenging games I had played in a long, long time.

 

[bitzi61]

For me, it has to be running two guilds on WOW on different servers (running raids and whatnot)all while working, going to college, writing my Masters paper, and helping take care of my sisters kids.

Wow... now that I read that I realize how badly I stretched myself..

Now I've turned over control of those guilds to friends of mine (I still play once in a while) I don't have to help my sister anymore, and my masters paper is done.

So yah.. life is better now that I know that thing (you know.. that thing.. oh ya!) Moderation.. LOL!

 

[Clemenstation]

This thread has already been done way too many times. Hit the search button next time before posting please!

I kid, I kid. I'm not one of those voluntary forum sheriffs.

Most significant gaming accomplishment? The term is almost an oxymoron. But if I had to choose, I guess I would go with the great Gears of War Guest Massacre of 2007.

My roommate had an Xbox 360, a headset, and basically all the electronics and toys to pump up his gaming to 11. I didn't have any of that stuff, but luckily I lived in the same house. We used to play Gears of War back in the good old days, those days when someone with a gamertag could bring a guest along onto the internet and said guest would serve as some juicy cannon fodder for kill-hungry assholes.

I usually sucked, and it was rare that I would pull my weight on the team (1:1 kill/death ratio). It was more like 1 kill, 5 deaths. I clearly didn't care, because I was only a guest and it wasn't MY video game reputation on the line. Usually my roommate would tell everyone that I had polio or dyslexia or something, to explain away my incompetence.

One fateful night, we got into a game on Canals and I played like I was possessed. Actually I played like I wasn't stoned, which was a rarity at the time. I ended up with something like 21 kills and 3 deaths, and everyone asked my roommate if I was some kind of crazy ringer. When a guest scores big, it's a big deal. It might even be called a 'gaming accomplishment'.

 

[damselgaming]

I can narrow it down to FINALLY beating my boyfriend at a Smackdown VS Raw game, finishing Metal Gear 4 to round off the series this year and completing Fantastic Dizzy and The Lion King (Megadrive) using an emulator this year without the help of my Dad. I felt grown up!

 

[Higurashi]

I would have to say... all the hundreds of hours I spent on <url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shining_in_the_Darkness>Shining in the Darkness as a kid. Man, I was hardcore back then, even if I was too dumb not to be able to finish it. I did last year though, but not without help. There is not really a different way. -_-

Other than that, I have performed Godly with Raphael in Soul Calibur IV this past month. I beat one of the best gamers in Sweden in a tournament, and he had both his eliminations left, making for one long final. I did not, so he had to win five rounds and I ten. I did though, and man, was I proud. ^__^

 

[DirkGently]

One of my favorite achievements is reaching day nine in Dead Rising's Infinity Mode. Coming after that would be killing the giant Akrid worm in Lost Planet. Neither of which was super hard, but they weren't exactly easy either.

My 'Totally-not-my-real-accomplishment-but-totally-cool-anyways' would be when I killed three terrorists with a single pistol shot in Rainbow Six Vegas 2's terrorist hunt mode. One guy I was aiming for, when two dudes ran out of the door way behind him. I was all like "What? How did that happen?"

 

[NewClassic_v1legacy]

I got asked to be a GM on an online game once. The strange thing is that it was the community that really lobbied for me. I frequently talked about wanting to, but never actually submitted myself for the position. I'm not sure, being told that I'm strong enough in a community to really have such an impact as to have control over the comings and goings was quite a fulfilling accomplishment.

As far as actual gameplay goes, there's not a lot to really feel accomplished about with such a disconnected process. I think I always get better experiences when dealing with the creators or communities directly. Although I distinctly recall a feeling of accomplishment when I beat the game Chaos Field for the first time. I've always been a glutton for shmups (despite being atrociously bad at them), and that feeling of accomplishment of surviving bullet hell on my first shmup-title was pretty spectacular.

 

[Soldato006]

The best I can think of right now is finally beating the campaign for Homeworld 1. Such an epic game with an epic story and so much fun to play at that.

 

[fix-the-spade]

This week's question is: What is your most significant gaming accomplishment and why?

Defeating my flat mate Malik at Smash Bros Melee. Then doing it again in a pub with nearly the entire clientelle watching.

It's significant because it got me free drinks, you cannot beat free drinks.

 

[I III II X4]

Beating Dark Falz from Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II on Ultimate, alone, and as a RaCast!!

I can't remember how much Meseta I sunk into that session...but one thing is for certain, I love my damn freeze traps.

 

[tendo82]

This thread has already been done way too many times. Hit the search button next time before posting please!

I kid, I kid. I'm not one of those voluntary forum sheriffs.

Yes, but do any of them include our staff's enlightening stories of videogame accomplishment?

Well I used to go to the arcade and own some people with Blanka but somehow that just doesn't feel quite right. No, my greatest moment of videogame achievement occurred with one of the most innocuous games - Shinobi for the PS2. This forgotten piece of impossible gaming stumped me at the end of the third level with a fearsome spider boss. I approached it methodically and patiently over and over again until I finally beat it.

It was a major breakthrough for me because as a child, I basically gave up at the first difficult boss I would encounter in any NES game, which was almost every NES game. It was frustrating and to an extent humiliating to constantly be confronted with my hand eye coordination limitations at the age of 7. So I turned to roleplaying games for a while, because anybody could beat those given enough time.

I didn't ending up beating Shinobi, from what I've heard almost nobody did, but I beat down an embarrassing part of my childhood that had haunted my gaming life for too long. Ninja Gaiden Black? Bring it on.

 

[GraegoriHauss]

I think my most significant gaming achievement amounted to finding all 120 stars in Super Mario 64.

...That's about it.

Oh, and I also beat every single race and every single challenge in Need For Speed: Most Wanted. Even the Black Edition Challenge which, admittedly, wasn't very hard.

 

[tendo82]

I would have to say... all the hundreds of hours I spent on <url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shining_in_the_Darkness>Shining in the Darkness as a kid. Man, I was hardcore back then, even if I was too dumb not to be able to finish it. I did last year though, but not without help. There is not really a different way. -_-

I love having the perspective on older games now. At the time they just made you feel like a poor excuse for a gamer. Now you realize bad design played a large role and that probably only 1% of the people who actually played the game beat it.

I remember listening to a retrospective podcast about Phantasy Star I and the guy on it said he got to the final dungeon and had to call a Sega hint line. Apparently the person manning the phone said there's no way you're going to get through this so I'll just mail you the map of the dungeon and our hint script.

How's that for contrived game design?

 

[Conqueror Kenny]

Most recently I would say finally finishing the Bloody Palace on Devil may Cry 4. I was quite proud when I finally did it, after dying on stage 99 out of 101 three times I felt happy enough just beating that stage, my victory was so much sweeter when I went on to finish all 101.
On another note, that fight against Dante at the end was ridiculously hard.