How do you think Games have influenced you :
Games are my life, in a way. Seriously. I will be going to college for a mix of programming and game design, and will be creating video games for the rest of my life, if I can. Video games have inspired me to create, and to tell stories. I know there are people out there who have fears of lives "being ruined" by playing games--just look to the Supreme Court case going on right now about selling violent video games to minors--but to me, there nothing at stake of being ruined, in fact, I'd say that people have only to gain by playing video games.
They encourage quick and logical thinking: they make you analyze a given situation and figure out the best possible way to get through it (There is a really good study on this that was done recently... if you're interested I'll try to find it). They give you a view of interpersonal interactions that no other form of media can: In Dragon Age: Origins (or Mass Effect, or KOTOR, or any game made by Bioware) you are constantly throw into moral situations. From helping a lost boy find his mother, to saving a stranger's loved one by sacrificing one of your own, you are always given choices, each with there own (seen and unseen) consequences. If you allow yourself to be pulled into the game, it can really pull at you. Get you thinking, what would you do in this situation? Would you desicrate the grave of a holy man to save a child? How will you punish the man who unwittingly caused the death of so many innocent lives?
And even when the outcome isn't the way you would have liked it, even if you reload your game to get a happier ending... you know where you stand. You have, even for the briefest of moment, looked inside yourself to find an answer.
And there's nothing like that.
Well, uh... yeah. I could go on, for a while, but I think you get the idea. Video games are awesome. They do good things. The exercise parts of you that normally don't get exercised and all that.
What is/was your favorite game/games (anything in the last decade really) why? :
Hmm. Well, here:
Super Mario Word (Super Nintendo): This game is just crazy fun. There are people out there who argue side-scrollers are just "Hold right, and jump when you need to.", but I don't know... there's something that just gets me. Maybe it's the light-hearted nature of the game, maybe it's the nostalgia of it being the first game I ever played and the memories of growing up with it. But for whatever reason, even after beating it time and again, I can always come back and get lost in it.
Your most played game (if you have the amount of hours on steam or other Statistics that'd be helpful. optional 
) :
It's arguable between Super Mario World and this, so I'll talk about this.
Legend of Dragoon. It's a turn based RPG for the PlayStation 1. What I love about it is the characters. ...that sentence sounded weird. Anyway, it is a 4 disc story that really takes the time to flesh out these people, and gets you to care about them (which makes it that much more meaningful when one of them dies). On top of that, the story is absolutely ridiculous. It's got tyrannical governments, kidnapping, dragons, and at one point, The. Moon. Fell.
So yeah, I've put a bajillion hours into it. Hm. Each time you play the game, there is a counter that keeps track of the hours you've put into it. I've maxed out that counter (it tops out at 99 hours and 99 minutes) at least 5 times.
Your favorite type of game and why (fps/rts/etc) :
Excluding Super Mario World, which for some reason is the greatest thing ever, you've probably figured out that I like stories. So, any genre of game really, as long as it has an engaging narrative. Genres that usually have those are Role Playing Games, and adventure games.
Your opinion on MMORPG's (can be positive of negative or both) :
They are terrible. They're bad. The game play is repetitive (point and click, point and click, point and click, repeat x999999999999999), and the story (there are stories to these things, big ones in fact) is so disconnected from your character, you don't feel like you are really experiencing anything. You are just reading other people talk about it.
Your favorite aspect of a game (Story/gameplay/muliplayer/etc) :
Er. Story. Um, you could probably just copy and past my answer from the first question.
What do you think the future of Games are? :
Er. Story. Games in general seem to be trending toward in depth narratives, character interactions and your ability to choose. Some people complain that video games are games, and plot has no business being there, but eh. It's not really my opinion. It's two sides of a coin, really. I personally am completely enamored with the unique way that games can tell you stories, while a good friend of mine is all about gameplay. We both enjoy gaming just as much as one another, we just get different things out of them.
But yeah, a lot of games are starting to have actually WRITERS. Who write. Write plot lines. And to me, it's pretty good.
Anything else you'd like to say? :
Well, I've spent a good chunk of time on writing all of this, and hopefully it'll help. Sorry that I constantly was getting off topic. If there are any other questions you can think to ask, I'll be happy to write more.
