"The only FPS I've ever truly loved. Great fun on the office LAN. Wake Island is still my favorite multiplayer map. Sadly, none of the attempted sequels recaptured the magic."

"The best space flight sim released since TIE Fighter. Big damn ships, epic story."

"I've played both versions of this Sid Meier classic, but the 1986 original (played on a Commodore 64) ATE MY LIFE in junior high. It also had a terrific manual that introduced me to Caribbean history."

"Wander freely through a world designed for explorer-immersive gamers, with pseudo-skill-based combat. It's not the perfect single-player RPG, but after installing a couple dozen player mods it's as close as I could reasonably expect."

"A heavily channeled world disguised as a beautiful free-roam world. Many clever little BS quests. It captures the 'feel' perfectly until they had to start inventing their own critter types."

Server: Gladden

Guild: Cult of Feh

Characters:

Celefinnel, Level 32 Elf Hunter — I wanted to try a hunter, I wanted a character with silver hair. *shrug* I really like the hunter. A decent soloer, and the idea of a class that contributes mobility to its group should be borrowed by other games.

Maessa Enbourne, Level 30 Race of Man Captain — My cooking and farming alt. Yes, I enjoy baking bread enough to make an alt specifically for that. Don't make me crush you under the tons of Blackberry Tarts I can crank out.

Mayda Enbourne, Level 60 Race of Man Lore-master — Mayda isn't playing the same game everyone else is. I may log in with the intention to do a specific thing, but I always get distracted by content I run into on the way. I spend an inordinate amount of time delivering pies and talking to chickens for no XP and spare change.

Saerthir, Level 24 Race of Man Lore-master — My Brandywine Lore-Master, playing with Riders of Middle-Earth (F13.net). My Gladden kinship is rarely on these days, and the lower server population makes it essentially a solo game at the hours I play. Her name is Sindarin for "Bitter Watcher."

"Started playing this with a large group of friends, all of whom later quit. Re-subbed when I found some guys at work play. No longer playing."

Server: Pinnacle

Characters:

Ichigo, Level 25 Mutant Scrapper — Claws/ Reflexes soloing alt. I played her until I realized soloing in CoV was far, far easier, and abandoned her to play Faith. She's a catgirl, named for lead character in the abominable manga/anime Tokyo Mew Mew.

Reyzel, Level 15 Science Defender — Empathy / Dark Blast. A concept character - a Middle Eastern street urchin who had been experimented on by the Rikti.

Tara Kelty, Level 31 Magic Defender — Storm / Psi powersets. My original CoX character, a weather witch who is pretty much Tara the sweet lesbian witch in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Her last name comes from Jodie Foster's character in Nell. I loved playing Tara, but since my regular gaming group quit in early 2005, she's been completely ignored. She can't solo anything worth a damn. I haven't bothered to find a new SG, and I don't trust PUGs because People Are Broken.

"Loved the concept of this and persisted for months after everyone I knew quit. Finally left when I realized all I was doing were virtual daily chores."

Server: Tranquility

"More logical content layout and better soloing classes in CoV encouraged me to more or less completely abandon CoH. No longer playing."

Server: Virtue

Guild: Silver Moon Company

Characters:

Faith Caulfield, Level 48 Natural Mastermind — Mercenaries and Traps power sets, Black Scorpion as Patron. I started a villain group with the intention of getting all merc masterminds - so we could have entire platoons of soldiers rampaging through the game! Alas, my own tendency to avoid others meant we never had more than three active players at once.

Razitshakra, Level 12 Magic Brute — Sort of a joke. I wanted to try a Brute because it played different from the archetypes in CoH. I also thought it would be funny to make a character who resembled one of the bondage dark elves in certain Korean MMGs. Name shamelessly cribbed from Mary Gentle's novel "Grunts"

"The NWN worldbuilding tools required a higher level of technical skill than any game I've developed professionally. I had many grand ideas, none of which I had the skill to execute."

"I enjoyed AoW, particularly the ability to build a multi-level underworld empire beneath the feet of surface-dwelling races. It's been ages since I played it, though."

"A Civilization IV mod so comprehensive and excellent it seems unfair to lump it under the main game. Remember 'Master of Magic?' So do Kael and his crew of modders."

"A study in how very simple design structures and a well-told story add up to more than the sum of its parts."

"Brevity is the soul of wit and superior game design."

"I wrote 25% of it. Playing it was kind of a job requirement."

"One of the most hardcore wargames to feature dragons and und00dz. "

"I don't know what it is about this game. Every time I've tried to play it, I've gotten to the same point (Nova Prospekt) and... just... lost interest. I've never finished it, and I don't know why."

"Pure nostalgia. I wasted many, many hours as a child playing Yars' Revenge and Adventure."

"The original was a fun, streamlined RTS. Unfortunately, it was followed by a series of buggy, poorly balanced expansions, leaving me with an overall neutral impression."

"The first RTS that ever encouraged me to think about terrain as I do in a real wargame."

"The only "real-time" strategy game that features actual strategy instead of tactics. Plus, you can play as through World War II as any nation on Earth - even Mongolia."

"Saw me through a long dry spell in 4X space strategy games. Plus, it was specifically designed to be completely moddable."

"A fun time waster for over lunch. The dialogue, compared to episode 1, seems to have added more obscenities just to say it has them. More 'f--ks,' but they're less funny."

"Hooks added to the classic tower defense gameplay make it well worth the money. Unfortunately, level balance was uneven - after breezing through 8 levels, I was stopped cold by an impossible mission. Even following online strategies didn't help."

"It took me a long time to figure out how it's possible to play against the...shall we say, 'uniquely balanced' Necrons. My current blow-stuff-up time-waster."

"Unbalanced gameplay and bugs galore. Gosh, what's not to like? The DoW1 series veers wildly between brilliance (original release, Dark Crusade), and flagrant stupidly (Winter Assault, Soulstorm). Ugh."

"The bastard offspring of SW: Battlefront and a console fighting game. Nearly uncontrollable on PC due to complex chording commands (example combo: hold down CTRL and lft-click, lft-click, lft-click, mousewheel-click, mousewheel-click, rgt-click)."

"On paper this was a killer app for me. Jedi / hero prestige classes! Light space sim and strategic campaign! Ship-to-ship boarding and sabotage! It somehow never clicked, and I still wonder why."

"Stupid friendly unit AI, micromanagement-based controls, rapid pace, and no pause button? Fail."

"CCG has the dubious honor of being the worst game I've played in 27 years as a gamer. Constant micromanagement of dumb-as-hell units with fiddly little abilities, at a breakneck pace. I found it so frustrating, I punched the wall more than once."

"Have it, got through the tutorial, was distracted by other games. I'll get back to it sometime."