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[crypticwulf]

What are some basic things we should know about you (age, country, job, etc.)?

My name is Pete and I'm in my mid thirties. I'm a musician. Otherwise I work at the college in my hometown in support services. I'm very interested in politics.

What types of games do you like?

I like strategy games and apparently first person shooters (probably something to do with all RPGs going that way). The last few games I played were Citizen Sleeper and Cyberpunk 2077, but I've been getting back into the SNES games lately. I own an N64 with Zelda on it and a few others. I've probably played too much XCOM 2 for my own good.

Recently I got fed up with Civilization V, and am glad I didn't buy Civ VI... but that's probably a controversial opinion among video game fans. I should say, it's a fun game in the sense that there's a lot to learn and it's a complex system and hard to win; but the simplistic ways that civilizations are defined in the game just really gets on my nerves over time.

What are your hobbies (besides video games)?

Play lots of music (cello, synth); read a lot online and in book format. I like putting together computers and electronics. I like hiking and camping.

How did you find out about the game?

I was reading about it on ZNetwork and I thought it looked really cool!

[Michael]

Hey Pete, it's great to have you here! What kind of music do you play?

I've been wanting to play Citizen Sleeper for a while now. It looks like it has a pretty interesting story!

[crypticwulf]

Hi Michael! I basically write Nine Inch Nails meets Apocalyptica. Lately I've been running with the idea of industrial gamelan music, and it's turning out pretty fruitful and fun

If you want my opinion on Citizen sleeper, then here it is: It does actually have a really great story in it. There's something very refreshing and direct about the form of the storyline in the game, the use of text, but not overly bloated text. It's more Shadowrun: Dragonfall and less Shadowrun: Hong Kong, if you know what I mean. The characters have personalities and seem unique from one another. I found it very effectively portrayed success and failure also. There was a theme throughout the game, what makes one sentient? And a bunch of different examples of artificial life and different ways of living, with the same theme popping up again and again. I actually found it engrossing... I tried to do a second play-through, but I found it a bit linear for that. Maybe I'll return to it in a few years and see if I get anything different from it. Oh, also the artwork is really great

[Michael]

Oh wow, it's been a long time since I've listened to Apocalyptica. Once in a while I get pretty into NIN too... I'm actually a pretty big fan of their Ghost albums. Loved the newest one!

I'll have to check Citizen Sleeper out eventually! I think I saw a sequel or something was announced recently? Hopefully I'll have played the first one before then haha.

[crypticwulf]

Hi again Michael,

Yeah definitely showing my age in my music choices. It's kind of funny, the way I see it, the kind of conformity you see in culture nowadays people complain, to my face, that my music should be more happy actually

I think that means I'm doing my job. That is, I think my role as a musician is to help people feel ok with disillusionment, alienation, etc. I don't think my role is to help people to escape from reality, but instead help people to orient themselves in reality

For every one person who complains that my music is too moody, there are two who dance like lunatics, stoked by the message

The Ghosts were awesome

[Michael]

haha yeah, I tend to like moody music too. Sadder music actually makes me feel better which is kinda weird I guess

I'm also trying to make art that isn't 100% about escapism... which is pretty rare in the video game industry I feel like. I like to escape sometimes, but I feel like the main role of art should be to help people accept life as it is, or to give them something they can take back into real life etc.