So it is 2.30am and the baby is eating, leaving me to ponder the great truths of life: is Torment the greatest RPG, or the greatest RPG EVAR? Does the fact that RB2 is not released in NZ mean we are cursed? Or is it simply revenge for our No Nukes policy? When will we see Zombie Xcom?
As I was pondering a new question forced itself into my conscious. Am I the only one out there who, on the on hand has a short attention span, and yet on the other has an OCD like compulsion to be as completionist as possible when it comes to games?
Is this my gaming flaw? I think so. Are there other gaming flaws out there that I haven’t discovered (err, my OCD leaping in there as well?)? What are their names?
For example: For my flaw I find myself doing every quest and exploring every corner. Often to the detriment of progressing the story or fun. In Mass Effect I will pause my important council business to go meddle in CSEC’s and I will try to find all the minerals on every planet. When I visit a new system, I must try and visit/scan/land on each world and can’t leave the system until I have done so.
Just wanted to let you know that the “short attention span” and the “OCD like [sic] compulsion” are not incompatible. People with attention deficit issues are known to be able to hyperfocus on intensely stimulating activities (like video game playing). It’s not dissimilar to how it seems that stimulants paradoxically calm them down. The underlying problem, at least at the clinical level of inattentiveness, seems to be an lack of certain neurotransmitters in regions of the brain responsible for inhibition. Game playing, being both stimulating and pleasurable, likely triggers extra neurotransmitter and helps!
At least in the short term. So, sit back and enjoy your “problem”. As long as being up at 2.30am pondering great truths of life isn’t disrupting your life too much…
In certain games (like RPGs/ARPGs) I want to have the perfect build. I’ll often restart the game 3-4 times until I have a plan. It makes games like Risen and Torchlight last much longer, but given my limited gaming time, I may not finish either if I don’t hurry up and start playing.
I don’t get so wrapped around the axle about the perfect build, but I can get pretty worried about starting RPGs correctly.
I wonder what other self-destructive gaming habits there are? Achievement whoring must feature, and there have to be ones related to multiplayer games and shooters as well.
Heh, I also save compulsively, because I hate going back and redoing content that I already got through. This also prompts me to proceed through games very slowly and methodically so I don’t miss anything.
I’m like that too. Including the spending all too much time on the perfect characterbuild and worrying that some choice might gimp me later… and then I stop playing the game because going back seems too much like work. And I move on to the next. terrible.
And I collect new games like a magpie and never finish any… then when I’m tired and wants to relax with a game all the choices avaliable to me cripples my ability to make a decision and I end up browsing QT3 until I’m too tired to game.
Writing it down makes me consider seeing a shrink… I’m a sick man.
No, no you are not. I have this exact problem, although possibly in a more ferocious form than yours. If a game doesn’t continually stimulate me with story, power, or character progression then I rapidly grow bored. However, I also MUST (and I mean MUST) explore every nook and cranny, loot every corpse, open every chest, push every crate, and so forth. WHO KNOWS WHAT I COULD MISS IF I DON’T!!! And here’s the thing: if a game makes it hard for me to be 100% anal-completionist, then that can derail a game faster than lack of interesting stimulation. OTOH, if the completionist fu becomes too repetitive, then I lose interest that way also.
One I just remembered: I will wait months for a game but once I actually have it in my hands and I am ready to play I won’t actualy fire the thing up until I have browsed Qt3, checked any new tips here or elsewhere and cleared email or other junk. Hell, I think Facebook distracted me for an hour the last hot game I got!
I’m not sure if it’s a flaw but it is certainly a quirk: after installation and prior to launching any new game, no matter how greatly anticipated, I make myself sit through the credits if that option is available.
Sharpe: I hear you! This is where the detail in a game can completely hurt it. Eg. oblivion and morrowind etc.
Sure, I know that candlestick is only worth a silver and it weighs 3kg, but I NEED TO LOOT EVERYTHING. I don’t care if I am in a kitchen in a farm house, I MUST CHECK EVERY DRAW FOR TREASURE!
I like that in Mass Effect I can only interact with stuff that has a point, it means I relax more, but at the cost of all that stressful “immersion”.
My flaw is the ability to put up with any crap a game is throwing at me if i believe it will ultimately get better. It might be skills leveling up, or a level that a review hyped up. Some games put you through so much crap its unreal. I guess i’m a gaming battered housewife.
I can’t handle too many options in a game. I can totally fixate on really difficult puzzles or problems, but the moment a game opens up my choices, I freeze. It’s not so much that I don’t know what to do as I don’t want to close off any opportunities.
For instance, in The Operational Art of War I was playing as the Allies in the Italy scenario. This is a tough scenario at the beginning, and it’s really easy to get sucked into a stalemate, which is what happened to me. I needed to sit back and plan how to break through the German lines. After many turns of really painstaking preparation, I blew the scenario wide open.
…And had no idea what the hell to do next. Suddenly I could attack three or four major objectives along a couple dozen possible routes. Or I could try to mop up the Germans. But rather than do any of that, I pretty much abandoned the scenario. I really didn’t know how to handle it going forward.
This is one reason why I have so many problems with RPGs. I can’t min / max because I don’t have the discipline. Ditto strategy games. Picking a strategy and running with it is not my forte, I need something to react to. Open-world games, I end up bogged down in side-quests and try to carry everything I might possibly need.
I suppose this is a problem with my personality in general, but it’s in gaming where it really comes to the fore.
I save way too much, I deleted something like 20 GB of saves halfway through The Witcher.
I also get overwhelmed by too many options. Didn’t get too far into Morrowind because I was like “Hmmm guess I’ll do this…no ahh how about, no, instead I will go, or maybe I’ll talk to…AAAHHHHHH!!!” shuts Morrowind off and never plays again
I will hoard items/potions/medkits/money “in case I need it later” and typically end the game with all that junk piled up in my overflowing inventory. About the only time I use stuff like that is when the game puts me in a situation where I need to use an item to progress.
I often end up displaying the exact opposite of this issue: I will sell anything and everything, often realizing later that I could have kept X and used it with Y to make Z. So I pack-rat everything to the store, then flip it off for cash.
My main flaw is the opposite. I fixate on the main story line (for RPGs or other story-based games) and don’t go wandering. Much of the time that means I miss half the game (Fallout 3, Baldur’s Gate 2 come to mind). I do much better when the game’s on a rail. I just can’t make myself go off on a field trip when I have the world to save, even though I know I’m supposed to.
