Most embarrasing gaming moments?

[Unkillable Cat]

I had a similar experience with Eye of the Beholder.

I was on Level 2 and I had a Gold Key, but didn't know where to use it, and I had to unlock the door that led to the next level.

I asked a friend of mine who had gotten further in the game, and he just laughed and said "the lock is on the wall next to the door".

I had a look...and there it was. To my defense, this lock in particular is the same 'red-brick' colour as all the walls in the level, so it's kinda easy to miss it.

This is the one and only time I needed any help with any of the Eye of the Beholder games, though.

 

[Azrael the cat]

I remember trying everything to get more fps out of Oblivion back when the hype was strong.
Had a really shitty PC back then and somehow managed to squeeze 13-20 fps out of it in those beautiful beautiful Oblivion forests by making a science out of tweaking inis and stuff. And somehow that slideshow was good enough for my taste.
I felt great relief because I knew that now I too could marvel at the miracles of modern open world gaming.

Boy was I naive and man did I feel cheated after a while.

I also remember failing to finish even a single one of the Sierra adventure games I played in the late eighties/early nineties. My english was rudimentary at best and I always got stuck early in the games. In Police Quest I failed the walk around the patrol car safety check and in KQ3 I didn't know how to use the magic book in the cellar. In Space Quest at least I reached that settlement on the planet but somehow didn't manage to enter the course to that Sarien ship.
Guess a manual would have been helpful in some cases but since the games were pirated by my dad I was out of luck. ^^
Found walkthroughs a few years later and finished all three. More than I can say about most adventure games, in nearly all of them I get stuck eventually.

I also think that I fapped to some pixilated half nude girl in Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender.
I think it was her:

But maybe it was another scene, can't really remember much about the game.
To my defense I must say that I was 13 and fapped to nearly everything that vaguely resembled the female form.
Also online porn wasn't that big back then so I had constant withdrawal symptoms.

There's no shame in not finishing the Sierra games, especially as a kid. Some of the early ones are outright unfair - not just difficult, but badly designed where you can end up in a dead-end because you didn't do something completely counter-intuitive, and seemingly useless at the time, two hours ago, whereby you've been doomed without knowing it ever since.

Later the design improves (less 'haha, you didn't whack the dog with the sock in the opening area, so you didn't get the key that fell out of its butt and now you're dead'), but they remain challenging. Not anywhere in the same league as, say, Wiz 4, but they do share a similar design mentality, where 'winning' the game is not necessarily the aim, and only a small % of players are expected to do so.

In the 80s in particular, there was a lot more variation in how difficulty and winning was perceived, because the industry hadn't really settled on an fixed expectation yet. Gaming had come primarily from the arcades, where 'winning' - even once arcade games actually had built-in win conditions, instead of just bugging out when the repeated maps became too sped up for the system to handle - was something only the most hardcore fans expected to do.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Just remembered that I bought Oblivion when it came out because I was kinda excited after seeing a few screenshots in a local gaming magazine. However, for some reason the game wouldn't display the graphics properly (couldn't see shit), so I gave the game to my friend.
Three years later I've managed to get a proper PC to run Oblivion and Fallout 3 at max settings and realized they are shit.

 

[laclongquan]

Aaaah the old day of gaming and developing when people still havent done research about gamer's mentality and devs can be expected to experiment with the weirdest shits.

 

[kwanzabot]

i thought this thread was stupid and i never done anything like anything like it


but i preordered NWN 2 even though i didn't like NWN 1

then set it on fire a few years later -.-

 

[oldmanpaco]

Two Ultima stories:

I was about 10 when I played Ultima 3. For months I went up and down dungeans killing and looting. Had all the marks and cards and everything but always avoided the whirlpools because I thought they were instant death. One day I got distracted and either went into a whirlpool or left the computer and one got me when I was away. Either way it was by shear luck I realized Ambrosia really existed. Also all the crap people said Ambrosia in the game suddenly made sense. Jesus I think they even mention it in the manual.

In U4 (about 12 at the time) I got everything I needed to finish the game and made it all the way down to the bottom of the abyss before getting kicked out because I did not find Katrina. It was only then I realized you had a companion for every virtue. Anyway fuck that bitch. I went back to Magnincia used some gems to see she was right next to the entrance (doh). Went back to the abyss where she died on the first level because she was level 1 and carried her sorry dead body down to the bottom.


Also I bought Outpost on the first day it was out without reading any reviews. The hype machine got me. Wasn't a pre-order but just as bad. After that it was almost 20 years before I per-ordered another game. And shockingly Rome II was about the same quality.

 

[sser]

I'm sure a lot of people did this, but there was a segment in Dark Souls where you had to go through some kind of underground layer filled with wooden planks/scaffolding and a bunch of other shit. All in all, it was a pretty dangerous place and it took me fucking forever to escape because I just sucked at that game in general. But when I did escape, I went sprinting toward this elevator shaft which would help return me to the home base. I didn't actually bother to make sure the lift was there, just ran right through the door -- and promptly fell down the shaft and to my death. Took a critical hit on my morale.

Edit: Oh, I once ordered a Battle of Britain flight simulator off of eBay. I was so excited because it had gotten high reviews in PC Gamer and I'd also purchased a new joystick that I wanted try out with something other than Flight Sim. This was back when shipping and business transactions actually required an element of time. The anticipation built up pretty well over the week or two I waited. Anyway, the game arrives and I install it. The game boots to a strategy screen, I'm doings lots of strategy stuff. Battles! Battles are coming! When do I get to fly? Hmm, maybe I missed a button somewhere. I'm mostly managing shit. Where the fuck are the flight sim battles? I literally had the fucking joystick in my lap when I realized that I had bought TalonSoft's Battle of Britain and not Rowan's Battle of Britain.

Another edit: I once befriended (or was befriended by?) a man on the Close Combat multiplayer chat whatever area. I used to hang out there playing multiplayer demo-battles as I didn't have enough money actually buy the game yet. (I got pretty good at that demo level, btw, and the layout is still mapped to my brain.) Anyway, we got to talking and I said I missed Civil War Generals 2 a lot since I had traded it in to GameStop - back when you could actually do that. So he said I can send you CWG2 or a disc with a ton of mods on it for Close Combat. I took the mods. Anyway, I gave this stranger the address to my parents' house and he... actually mailed me a disc with mods on it. My mother freaked out, understandably, but nothing else came of it. Looking back it was pretty fucking stupid of me, but I did get to experience the CC Vietnam mods and got introduced to rad Vietnam-era music so I figure it's a wash.

 

[Yuri Gagarin]

Bought Neverwinter Nights the week it came out and finished it.

Before that, playing just console games (mostly SuperNES) and thinking that A Link to the Past was the best gaem evar... Thank God a couple of years later I got Wizardry 7 as a present.

I don't understand your post... by playing NWN you should've reaffirmed that ALttP is the best game ever. Or you meant that Wiz7 changed that?

Yes, Wizardry changed that.

Fair enough I guess but don't spit on the great console stuff just cause you turned into a PC gamer, no PC library is complete without a fuckton of roms, in fact that's one of the best parts of being a PC gamer. You have all the legendary PC library AND all the great games from the times where consoles didn't suck (before the 360 gen), which ironically all the current console gamers don't have access anymore except if they pay for the one or two that becomes available through a digital market.

I think you are reading too much in my comment. What I meant is that I used to play exclusively console games. I thought that aLttP was the best RPG (and game) ever, but after playing Wizardry 7 I changed my mind. I still think that Link to the Past is a gud gaem, but I just love Wizardry 7 and find it the superior game.

What I find embarrassing about that time, is that I used to play just console games, and dismissed PC games altogether.

tl;dr don't be stupid, PC has the best of both worlds and LttP is a game well above the average.

tl;dr: Kill yourself.

 

[DwarvenFood]

There was a guy I was in a guild with in Ultima Online. It was mostly a PvP-oriented guild called D*C on Atlantic. Anyway, every time we would kill a bunch of players, there was this one guy who would almost always go hidden so that he could be AFK for a while. Plenty of people go AFK a lot in MMOs, mostly smokers or folks with tiny bladders. But this guy only ever did it after we had made some kills. There was a definite pattern to it. So I asked him about it. And then he explained that he found that killing other players almost always gave him an erection. So he got in the habit of, uh, taking care of the problem. And he further explained that after the first few months he could no longer get an erection any other way. So he then felt obligated to always take advantage of that situation because he was worried that even the stimulus of player killing may one day lose its effect. I was like 13 at the time and this guy's problem really blew my mind. I couldn't even respond.

I always wonder what happened to that guy and his problem. I left the guild when Ultima Online started imposing stat loss penalties on murderers. Did he find another game? Does he continue to participate in Ultima Online's now-limited PvP to this day? Has he just given it all up and suffered from erectile dysfunction for the last 15 years?

Did he become a serial murderer ?

 

[DwarvenFood]

I recall another weird thing I did when I was a kid. I used to LARP flight sims (early 1990s DOS) with my brother. We shared the controls, I was flying the ariplane/helicopter with the joystick and he was handling the keyboard controls. We talked to each other using something that we thought resembled "military speak" trying to sound serious and acted like cocky fighter pilots (egdy one liners etc.). I also took the mouse like it was a radio (like the type they use in cop cars, yeah I know...) and talked to it to communicate with base. "Spotted bandits 12 o'clock what are your instuctions?" (...) "Roger that, engaging targets XDDD" etc. (also made that "bzzzzttt" radio sound with my mouth) It must have looked retarded but it was a lot of fun.

Heh, this reminds me of a similar experience, also larping while playing this flight sim:

When we were about to crash, we'd jump off our chairs, simulating parachuting out..

 

[Average Manatee]

There was a guy I was in a guild with in Ultima Online. It was mostly a PvP-oriented guild called D*C on Atlantic. Anyway, every time we would kill a bunch of players, there was this one guy who would almost always go hidden so that he could be AFK for a while. Plenty of people go AFK a lot in MMOs, mostly smokers or folks with tiny bladders. But this guy only ever did it after we had made some kills. There was a definite pattern to it. So I asked him about it. And then he explained that he found that killing other players almost always gave him an erection. So he got in the habit of, uh, taking care of the problem. And he further explained that after the first few months he could no longer get an erection any other way. So he then felt obligated to always take advantage of that situation because he was worried that even the stimulus of player killing may one day lose its effect. I was like 13 at the time and this guy's problem really blew my mind. I couldn't even respond.

I always wonder what happened to that guy and his problem. I left the guild when Ultima Online started imposing stat loss penalties on murderers. Did he find another game? Does he continue to participate in Ultima Online's now-limited PvP to this day? Has he just given it all up and suffered from erectile dysfunction for the last 15 years?

Did he become a serial murderer ?

Stories like this need to end with "and then a few years later I learned that he ran for mayor and won".

 

[Cerulean]

I finally started Morrowind, about ten years too late for any respectable gamer.

After spending forever stumbling around Balmora, but not being able to find the South Wall Cornerclub, I'd wander outside of town and promptly get destroyed. So, after dying a half a dozen times or so, I finally decided to console myself a few thousand gold, then go to the trainers and shamelessly level myself up and buy myself the best possible gear. I'd do this over and over.

I suppose I was roleplaying an adventurer who happened to have a billionaire benefactor.... only to wake up each morning to face a Dark Brotherhood Assassin, who had a 50/50 chance of killing me and forcing me to reload and lose a good hour of gameplay (my only way to forgive myself was to not save every five minutes).

All I wanted to do was sight-see my way around a game that's over a decade old, and yet, it has now turned into a personal quest. I'm ashamed of my actions, and yet I wouldn't have it any other way. I haven't enjoyed a game this much in at least a year or so.

 

[Cadmus]

I finally started Morrowind, about ten years too late for any respectable gamer.

After spending forever stumbling around Balmora, but not being able to find the South Wall Cornerclub, I'd wander outside of town and promptly get destroyed. So, after dying a half a dozen times or so, I finally decided to console myself a few thousand gold, then go to the trainers and shamelessly level myself up and buy myself the best possible gear. I'd do this over and over.

I suppose I was roleplaying an adventurer who happened to have a billionaire benefactor.... only to wake up each morning to face a Dark Brotherhood Assassin, who had a 50/50 chance of killing me and forcing me to reload and lose a good hour of gameplay (my only way to forgive myself was to not save every five minutes).

All I wanted to do was sight-see my way around a game that's over a decade old, and yet, it has now turned into a personal quest. I'm ashamed of my actions, and yet I wouldn't have it any other way. I haven't enjoyed a game this much in at least a year or so.

holy shit

 

[Tigranes]

I finally started Morrowind, about ten years too late for any respectable gamer.

After spending forever stumbling around Balmora, but not being able to find the South Wall Cornerclub, I'd wander outside of town and promptly get destroyed. So, after dying a half a dozen times or so, I finally decided to console myself a few thousand gold, then go to the trainers and shamelessly level myself up and buy myself the best possible gear. I'd do this over and over.

I suppose I was roleplaying an adventurer who happened to have a billionaire benefactor.... only to wake up each morning to face a Dark Brotherhood Assassin, who had a 50/50 chance of killing me and forcing me to reload and lose a good hour of gameplay (my only way to forgive myself was to not save every five minutes).

All I wanted to do was sight-see my way around a game that's over a decade old, and yet, it has now turned into a personal quest. I'm ashamed of my actions, and yet I wouldn't have it any other way. I haven't enjoyed a game this much in at least a year or so.

Would you like to be on TV and tell your story, my boy

 

[Sykar]

I bought Obliviturd on release day for 50 euros. I fully trusted Bethderp at the time to deliver a good game. I still feel like a complete and utter retard for doing so.

 

[octavius]

I think Oblivion has caused more emotional suffering than did Ms. Jackson's nipple in the Superbowl some years ago.
Are there any supports groups for Oblivion victims? Any class action suits against Bethesda for the emotional suffering they inflicted on their unsuspecting victims?

 

[Jick Magger]

I got addicted to hat trading in Team Fortress 2.

I used to attend raffles daily just to be able to win unusual hats.

I only stopped when I managed to get myself a Bill's Hat and realized that this is as far as I was reasonably going to get without investing serious money into collecting.

 

[Durandal]

Actually, when I played Oblivion for the first time, I didn't even realize you could quicktravel directly from the prison exit to whatever that first town was called, so I had to walk there on foot.
At some point I strayed off the given path and just started fucking around, I think it took me thirty minutes to get from the prison exit to the first town. Whether it was because of the oversized game world or because I got lost in forest fighting trash mobs and shit, I forgot.

I do remember that was the most fun I had with Oblivion, after that it went downhill

 

[Sykar]

I think Oblivion has caused more emotional suffering than did Ms. Jackson's nipple in the Superbowl some years ago.
Are there any supports groups for Oblivion victims? Any class action suits against Bethesda for the emotional suffering they inflicted on their unsuspecting victims?

I doubt anyone was really crying, just like "WTF is this shit?" after a couple of ours only to hit uninstall.exe.

 

[Obsequious Approbation]

I bought Dungeon Lords Collectors' Edition expecting something out of the deal. A temporary lapse of sanity, perhaps. After a few tries I managed to get into it somewhat, cutting a path through half the world basically (multiple times because it's DL, and I lost my way often). I killed the goblins, the elves, the black knights, possibly cheesed a dragon as well, but then I was sent to some dungeon where a prince was waiting to be rescued and I was completely at sea as to where he was kept. It was called the Naga Temple or something. But the kicker is, I never thought to turn off the random encounters in the game, and so every five minutes or at every key area I was swarmed by huge fecking trash mobs. I haven't bought many games since, it was so traumatic.

 

[Cerulean]

Would you like to be on TV and tell your story, my boy

No. I shall take my shame to the grave.

 

[Gnidrologist]

When playing CivII for the first time (on PSX ) i didn't understand anything about tiles and production so i built all my cities almost entirely in one little spot then wonder why their development is so shitty compared to AI ones.
Also, for all the countless gamepads i've smashed against floor/wall/table/own head playing various football sims against filthy cheating AI and unresponsive controls (mostly PES).