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Daniel Saner| Nickname: | Anamon | | E-Mail Address: |  | | Contribution Rating: | 1121 (ranked 227th; 289 in last year) |
| Homepage: |
http://www.anamon.ch
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| Member Since | Jun 06, 2002 | | # Messages Posted: | 144 | | Location: | Ebikon, Switzerland  |
| MSN Messenger: |
connect@anamon.ch |
| About myself: | My name is Daniel, I'm a 23 year old Swiss guy, and currently a student of Computer Science at ETH Zurich (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), which means I'm going through a lot of mathematics, and even more coffee.
Why I play videogames
I started playing games when I was 7 years old and my dad brought home our first IBM PC. Since then, I'm hooked. I enjoy role-playing games and adventures the most, but I also like racing games and some action titles. I'm not even mildly interested in sports games (boring) or real-time strategy (I suck at them.) I care much more about scenario, story, characters, atmosphere, details, player freedom and soundtrack - qualities that resemble those of a good book or movie - than I do about technical aspects or games that are focused more on "skill" than "story."
How it all started
In the early 90s, I started playing some simple games on our first IBM PC (386 12 MHz, 50MB harddisk). Some titles I remember fondly are Bad-Cat, Aldo's Adventure, Wacky Wheels, Hurkle Hunt, Test Drive, Commander Keen, Summer Challenge, and The Game of Robot. These games were mostly copied from neighbours, which around here was the most common way of getting games back then, and also made a great environment for the occasional virus epidemic. The first stand-alone game I bought was Fatal Racing, which is known in the US as Whiplash.
For those familiar with the German game magazine market: I started reading videogame magazines when my father brought home the first issue of CD Player, which included about 150 game demos on its cover disc. I continued by occasionally purchasing issues of PC Spiel, PC Games and PC Player, but practically stopped buying other magazines when I subscribed to GameStar in 1998. This magazine has appeared monthly since October 1997, and to this day I am only missing 3 issues!
Towards the new millennium I gradually started losing interest in games. Partly for lack of time, but also because most titles have moved away from my taste, focusing more and more on fancy graphics and shallow concepts. The new target audience is no longer one that wants to experience a deep story, or put some effort into a complex game. Today, it's all about the mainstream market of quick, simple fun, and developers make sure every idiot is able to beat the game. And while games rival movies in their possibilities of storytelling, I'm disappointed that the majority of games is still restricted to cheap C-movie material at best.
I also think that it's a shame how every game seems to feel obliged to have 3D graphics today, and I cringe everytime I read "professional" reviewers call a game's visuals "dated" just because they're two-dimensional. Many games were practically ruined by this (RollerCoaster Tycoon, Settlers, Worms) by becoming more tedious, complicated and slow to play. Game designers, get a clue: 2D or 3D is not a question of old and new, it's a decision that heavily influences the way a game is played.
I hope that the near future will bring more games that can catch my interest again. I'm already seeing a nice revival of the adventure genre, some with great stories. And a lot of developers, especially European ones, are really starting to check out how you can make interactive storytelling more gripping and immersive. Keep that up!
Why I'm here
I like about MobyGames that there are other gamers like me, who still remember games that have been released more than 2 months ago, and who also care about plot and gameplay, rather than just more and more gore effects and the best graphics engine for showing off their machines in front of their friends. Plus I really have a weakness for huge database projects!
Other stuff
Apart from games, I'm mostly interested in design (graphics and web design, layout and print, audio/video/music production) and music (Drum & Bass, Jungle, Breakbeat, Breakcore, Big Beat, NuJazz, Trip Hop, but also classic Funk, Soul, and R&B from 50s to 70s) which I don't only listen to, but also mix and produce.
Feel free to visit my private homepage at www.anamon.ch, as well as have a look at the website of my design label, www.intoxic.ch. Not much there most of the time, though.
Some more words about my favourite games
- Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy: Probably the game that had the biggest impact on me yet. For years I've been hoping that more games would focus on values such as stories, characters and atmosphere, and Fahrenheit is all about this. That some people criticised it for being a bit shallow on the 'game' side might be a valid point, but first and foremost, I want a plot-driven game to tell me a gripping, emotional story, and that's what Fahrenheit has done like no other game I've seen before it - through its plot, characters, soundtrack, camera, and overall flow. The story and atmosphere of the game are in my mind for days after playing. It's also a perfect title to introduce people to the videogame hobby, because it is literally like taking control of a movie. To be honest, I wasn't that surprised to find out that it's by a French developer...
- Blade Runner goes in the same direction. I can't quite put my finger on the reason why it didn't have as big an effect on me as Fahrenheit, because I actually love dystopian worlds. But nonetheless it's one of the best adventures ever made.
- Big Red Racing, Clonk, Return Fire - I never had more split-screen fun than with these games. Clonk is a special case. Me and my friends have been playing this non-stop since 1995. There's no doubt that this is the game I have played the most, by a long way.
- Dark Age of Camelot was the game that made me break my promise of never going to pay for a subscription-based game. I've been with it since the European open beta, and I'm not going to change anything about it. All other MMOGs can kiss my ass.
- Duke Nukem 3D is one of my childhood favourites. Sure, it was fun and hilarious and looked good, but what made it stand out was its design. It's very rare even today that a game surprises me as much with its love of detail.
- Grand Theft Auto: I played the demo of the first part before it came out, and I told myself: this is going to be big! And look what happened. The amount of freedom the game gave you was great, and combined with its realism and details, the creators couldn't go wrong. I think the city atmosphere still comes across best in the first part of the series, but I had great fun with all the sequels, too, Vice City being my favourite up until now.
- Normality brings back great childhood memories. One of my first intensively played adventure games.
- Sky Odyssey has one of the best atmospheres and soundtracks I ever encountered in a game. Can't get enough of those mysterious, marvellous landscapes.
- Twinsen / Little Big Adventure Series took place in one of the most wonderful game worlds ever created (by the French, of course), and had a fascinating story and characters. And its innocent and cute style proved that games do not need to be all serious and "mature" to be gripping.
- Whiplash a.k.a. Fatal Racing was, I believe, the first full-price game I ever bought. Oh my god, my friends and I have played this thing in splitscreen 'til we dropped. It was so fascinating, I think I would still recognize every inch of any track today.
- Amber: Journeys Beyond simply made me wonder why there are so few independent projects that get to the stores and are widely noticed. Here, a married couple gathered a few people around and produced a state-of-the-art adventure game with wonderful stories. I wish more enthusiasts would have the luck the Wimmers had.
- Deus Ex, Elder Scrolls, Gothic, Neverwinter Nights, Operation Flashpoint, Realms of Arkania, Ultima Series: These are all just pure works of art. Nothing left to say about these masterpieces.
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