It really depends, to be honest.

One thing, however, is that I prefer it when the choices are reversible. For instance, I prefer if the choice to explore one area does not block off other areas. Similarly, when it comes to growth systems, I prefer systems where being good at one thing doesn't make it harder to be good at doing something else, or otherwise if there's an easy no-cost respec system. Also, I hate permanent missables (whether missable items or missable stats).

Another thing is that, when there's too much choice, I run into the problem of choice paralysis.

When playing moddable games, do you ever make your own custom tweaks to mold the game more to your liking?

Sometimes I have imagined what I would change, but I have never created my own mod (partially due to lack of technical knowledge/skills). I do spend as much time as needed adjusting the game options, and sometimes I have installed other people's mods, but I tend to stay in vanilla.

How did big changes in your life (finishing your studies and getting a job, getting married or starting a family, moving to a new country, etc.) affect your gaming habits?

Before I got married I worked nights and took classes during the day. Apart from that I was largely alone in my little room. That was when I logged hundreds of hours into Oblivion and Civ IV. I have never before or since put that many hours that regularly into gaming.

Now I average about 3 hours a week of gaming time. I'm frankly happier now.

Q: What direction do you hope Bioware moves in next?

This died again...

Hope... Serious RPGs made for PC first and which show that in controls and optimization and options available (that goes for any dev though), rich worlds, nice stories, lots of quality writing (and please let me read my character's dialog options in full before I choose one, and don't make me select quickly)... They do seem to do well with licensed universes, so might as well go with one again. Since they could be contracted to develop it, may even be another KotOR or something else in the Forgotten Realms. On the other hand, wonder if they could do something with Vampire: The Masquerade. Won't be my first choice there though.
Of course, all a fantasy, but ah well...

What operating systems have you played games on on a PC? Even a little bit of something simple, even included with the OS, counts. More interesting if anyone would have played on something more obscure, but at this point any answer would be nice, to get this going again :)

Let's see:

Whatever OS the TI-99/4A could be said to have, both cartridge and cassette based games, on actual hardware.
Whatever OS the Apple 2 could be said to have in ROM, also the OSes commonly found on disk (probably including the 2gs version of ProDOS), on actual hardware.
Commodore 64's OS, on emulator.
AmigaOS, on emulator.
DOS, both natively, via Windows DOS emulation, via DOSEMU (remember that?), via DOSBox.
Windows, both natively and via WINE.
Linux
NetBSD (on a virtual machine, played a bit of Rogue)

Have you ever discovered an exploitable glitch by accident? (I had that happen in the Apple 2 version of Bard's Tale 3.)

I have! Lords of the Realm 2, playing multiplayer (over direct dialup to my friend!), ran asynchronously in some ways. I found that I could send my same X cows between my provinces twice really quickly, and then when it caught up, I had -X cows. I could then send THOSE negative cows to my friend's provinces. And negative cows, of course, produce negative food. So his people would starve with their un-cheese.

We did that a few times until I vowed not to again (since it was ruining actual play).

Question: How do you feel about games that "genre mash"? What's a good mash you've played, and/or one you hypothetically think could be awesome?

(Genre mash examples: Aforementioned Lords 2, turn-based empire management with real-time battles. Or Dynasty Warriors Empires, button-mash battle resolution to a tactical battle map.)

I like Heroine's Quest: THR - an rpg and point-and-click hybrid, but I'm generally in favor of hybrids than (described) mash ups.
Answer question above.

I would say it as follows:

If all the genres mashed together are essential parts of the game, and are prevalent throughout the whole game, then this could work well.

One that I have played is Magic of Scheherazade. The game plays like an overhead view action game (like Zelda 1) much of the time, although the game has towns and experience levels. However, every now and then, when going from one screen to the next, you get into a turn-based encounter, which plays much like the JRPGs of its era. (With that said, there were some interesting mechanics there, like troopers, having all rod/arrow attacks working at the same time, and even combination spells (way ahead of its time here).) This is rather interesting, though if you choose the wrong formation, a battle could take a very long time, and some enemies have instant death attacks. (If the main character dies, you lose one of your 3 lives and the battle ends; if someone else dies, the character is unusable until you go to a mosque, and sometimes a certain character needs to be alive for you to progress.)

I could also mention Undertale, which I still haven't played, but whose battle system combines RPG menuing and bullet hell dodging.

On the other hand, if a game is mostly one genre, but requires you to play a minigame of a different genre to progress, that is bad game design. Somebody might prefer to play RPGs due to a condition that makes them have horrible reflexes; forcing them to play an action game to progress is likely to make the rest of the game inaccessible to that player. Also, when I play an RPG (for example), I am in the mood to play an RPG, not an action game.

Have you ever been unable to finish a game you started because of a part where the game forces a minigame on you that you haven't been able to complete? Alternatively, is there some game that you sometimes think of replaying, but never (or rarely) actually do because of some out-of-genre part that you dread? (Chrono Trigger with its button mash event and Zelda: Ocarina of Time with its insta-fail stealth sections are two examples for me.)

Final Fantasy 13-2. After forcing ourselves to finish the first (we didn't have much else at the time), my husband and I go the 2nd cheap used (and people said it was better; liars!) and he started it. He got not very far into it and a boss battle was resolved by a series of timed-button-press quick time events. It went back onto the shelf and hasn't come off again since.

I'm not claiming this one again so soon (but wanted to answer) -- so same question for next person.

Bumpy bump bump?

Bumpy Johnson?

I'd say the Battletoads unicycle race level. I don't think I've ever beaten that level and I doubt I'd even attempt it anymore.

Q: What was the first game that you were so engrossed with that it made you lose track of time?

The first one... Hmm... Probably The Legend of Zelda. Much later it was Civ IV. Currently XCOM.

Q: when an RPG has customizable character, do you play several parallel games with different characters? Or just one character-game at a time?

Not just one at a time, but in most cases one only character ever, as I don't enjoy replaying RPGs. I just try to decide what sounds the most fun to me and then stick to it. Sometimes it happens, that I start RPGs, then take such a long break from them that I don't feel like continuing the same playthrough afterwards and decide to start from scratch. In those cases I will create a new character to make the repetition more entertaining. Or sometimes I do it for playing through add-ons or mods. But usually I only create one per RPG title, and I hardly ever play parallel sessions with different characters in the same game.

The only exception to this that I can think of was Dragon Age: Origins, in which I created several different characters for experiencing all of the tutorial/origin stories. After I had finished them and the stories of the characters continued in the same way, I decided which of my characters I enjoyed most and then played through the game with that one, leaving the others behind.

Q: How and at what age were you introduced to gaming, and where did you get your games from when you were younger?

Pub ping pong at about 18. Not many shops sold games when I started buying, and when they did they were very few. You would have to go into the city to get some games, you also bought a lot through magazine mail-order, there was no internet then.

Q: Do you think gaming is getting ruined these day by greedy money grabbing publishers?