Weird gaming habits

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

OK everyone of you is a little bit crazy and have at least one weird habit connected with gaming so... share let us share with our madness!


I have a strong urge to run stuff with minimal resources engagement... it gives me a creepy feel of orgasmic pleasure... and guaranteen a butthurt when resources are wasted. It maybe related to the fact I rarely upgraded my hardware, bein stuck with Pentium 200MMX machine for almost 10 years and learned to squeeze every bit of bit, running things on rig that was about half of their officials system requirements...

Example?

It gives me a boner just of think that such weak hardware as P133 16MB RAM machine can run Myth, a game with huge 3D environment and such complex physics without a single choke or framedrop - it's like McGyverian trick of creating avesumness out of crap that's lying around.

Or Donkey Kong Country pirate port that bring SNES graphics to fucking famiclone!

On the other hand, I'm greatly annoyed by bad ports when PC that's technically much better than its console counterparts is given a multiplatform geam that runs like crap on lowest setting... and much worse thing is emulation. My mind goes onto that way - e.g. I'm playing Strange Journey on DS emulator, having fun BUT it's a big disadvantage just to think that if this this game was made straight for the PC it would required not 1GHZ processor with 1GHz RAM but something around P100 with 16 MB RAM... what a waste of hardware.

Damn, back in a day if game was DOS/WIN compatibile such as Doom, Duke3D, (NonGL) Quake I used to run it in pure DOS to remove WIN burden from my comp.


This litte paranoia is strongly connectes with another one - hatred for the triumph of form over substance... I love Civilization 2 for its graphical simplicity so I found ridiculous how man could replace those sharp, clean look of units and cities with those awful tiny little soldiers of Civ3 with funny combat animations that serves nothing but sensless eyecandiness - it's immershun-breaking as fuck.

The same with RTS genre, how could man scorn the raw but clean & servisable grapichs of Red Alert, Warcraft 2, Dune 2K, Dark Colony and choose a TOTAL MESS of Red Alerts 3 with all those shitty overload of details, explosions and shit... yuck, plain awful.

 

[Mustawd]

I hate playing a series out of order if the gameplay is similar from edition to edition. For example, I can't replay HoMM3 without first playing HoMM1 and replaying HoMM2. It just doesn't feel right; even if the consensus is that the later version is far superior. It's almost as if I get pleasure of seeing the series progress in quality, gameplay-wise as well as graphically.

Weirdly enough, I have some exceptions to this rule:


-If the gameplay or controls are very different from version to version (e,g, SS1 and SS2 or GTA and GTA 3).
-Rouguelikes (I don't need to play every damn vesion. I will definitely play the latest iteration)
-Sports games (duh)
-If a game was console only release, then my conscience is clear to pick up at the most available PC port
-If I've already played a sequel due to happenstance or limitations of money when I was young (e.g. I loved Civ II but never played Civ I; Or FF7 although missed a couple of FFs); This conflicts with me replaying HoMM1, but whatevah. Civ 1 would be hard to get into for me.
-If I give the earlier ones a chance, but find the game boring or broken or whatever. But it has to be an honest attempt (FF1....couldn't finish that grindfest)

 

[markec]

Back in the day most pirated games shipped without soundtrack so you had to improvise for atmosphere and that improvisation turned into a habit. So For an example every time I play Blood I always listen to Scorpions ballads.

Just watch this without a sound.



While listening this.

 

[Siveon]

Until recently, I couldn't for the life of me play video games whilst eating anything. It could be the most crumb-less, bland substance imaginable, and I still wouldn't have a particle near my set-up. This was in fear of dirt built up. Now, I just have a bunch of napkins and/or handwipes.

Similar to Mustawd's habbit, I cannot play a remake without at least trying the original game first. This is mostly due to the fact that remakes sometimes remove something that the original game had that made it worthy of a remake in the first place. Some examples include Generation Xth, Metroid, Wizardry, Might & Magic, Super Mario Bros, Metal Gear Solid, etc. The only exception to that would be to remakes that I simply cannot emulate/play. Basically, anything on the Saturn or Dreamcast. Oh, another exception would be remakes that are basically just high-res ports, like Etrian Odyssey Untold or Phoenix Wright Trilogy.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Collecting stuff, hoarding.... I guess most people did that before or still do. But it ended when I tried to hoard stuff and junk in modded FNV, also because new crafting recipes. There was so much hassle I cured out from this habit.
On the bright side hoarding in game stopped me from similar behavior in real live.
Best game for it for me? 7,62 High Calibre with BSM, and recently Hard Life addon. Managing equipment in this game make me thirsty for another cup of coffee. Loading, reloading, switching, mounting, cleaning, tweaking....

Some people want to see world burn.
Some times I love dicking around, ruining the games. I played Ultima7 p.fkn. late (2013 and later) but that did not stopped me from enjoying it because amount of freedom and options.

 

[Morkar Left]

Making my own manuals. I steal from FAQs, walkthroughs, the original manuals or other source materials and make my own manuals complete with my own layout, printing and stuff. It can contain additional lists, lore or gameplay tips or complete walkthroughs as well as my own game experiences, lists, builds and flavour. Sometimes I spent weeks with this stuff. I did this e.g. for the Magic Candle, Pirates!, PotC/CoAS, M&B, M&M 6+7, BG 1+2, Precursors, I-War 2 etc.

I love playing strategy games and traditional rpgs while eating, especially junk food.

Back in the days with more and longer loading screens I did exercising inbetween (mostly push ups). Nowadays that happens rarely because loading times are generally short if at all and you can surf easily on the internet.

 

[Mustawd]

Making my own manuals.

Do you ever post these online or you just keep it to yourself?

 

[Viata]

I have something with numbered games. Like, even if the second game has nothing to do with the first one, I still must play the first one before that game. Like FF, I couldn't play any FF until I played the first one. It goes with any game. It includes expansion and whatnot. No matter how shit NWN 2 OC was, I still had to finish it before trying MotB. I didn't play Divinity: OS yet because of the same reason. It's just something I couldn't never avoid and now I just roll with it. So yeah, I endure many shit game just to play the good ones.

 

[Eirikur]

I always play characters based on my own identity, or rather based on aspects of my own personality. During character creation, I always try to create myself. If I can't somehow identify with the player character, I can't immerse myself and won't play the game. I can't recall ever having played an elven, dwarven, or female character.

I always play games in German (when available), and read all lore entries out loud. Not really weird, but practical, since I tend to justify gaming through language learning. Sometimes I experiment using different voices when reading though, while being very pleased that nobody can hear me.

 

[Mustawd]

A bit related to what Eirikur said, I have a couple characters I always end up creating. Same relative name and skill.

 

[Blowhard]

I'm largely unable to play games on emulators. Especially those that rely on the tension of survival or possible death. The freedom of being able to savestate at any time combined with the graphical options, speedhacks, etc. make me feel as if I'm controlling something or working on something and not experiencing something. Even if I were to exercise my willpower and decide not to do anything other than play the game, simply the thought of being able to would ruin it for me. I don't really need that much choice. I'd rather play in shitty 480p with jaggies 30fps and save points than have such a crippling amount of freedom.

Also, I never feel as comfortable playing games at a PC and always have some vague, barely-there-but-palpable sense of anxiety when I do. Probably because I subconsciously associate PCs with work or school, somehow. I've never gotten over this despite playing 90% of my games on a PC for over a decade.

 

[Siveon]

I always play characters based on my own identity, or rather based on aspects of my own personality. During character creation, I always try to create myself. If I can't somehow identify with the player character, I can't immerse myself and won't play the game. I can't recall ever having played an elven, dwarven, or female character.

Same. For the longest time I couldn't play Planescape because I thought a big buffed guy like The Nameless One looked stupid as anything other than a Warrior.

...And I really wanted to play a Mage.

 

[Lemming42]

Almost always play as a woman when given the choice, likely a reflection of a deep-seated repressed identity issue.

I also attempt stealth in every game, including ones that clearly have no stealth mechanics whatsoever. I replayed a lot of older FPS games recently to re-evaluate them and I was crouch-walking everywhere and hiding without even realizing it, even in games where the enemies always know exactly where you are and rush you no matter what.

More recently, I've taken to doing pacifist runs as much as a game will allow, even in games where the entire focus is supposed to be on killing thousands of enemies.

 

[Morkar Left]

Making my own manuals.

Do you ever post these online or you just keep it to yourself?

Since I mostly combine and rearrange from other sources I keep them to myself. It's even hard to track down the original sources now to give proper credit. The older stuff (e.g. M&M 6/7) are on paper only anyway and would be a bitch to scan (and wouldn't look that good or be that practical).
The best looking ones are probably the one for I-War 2 and PotC (which I let print as a hardcover for I think 70 €).

 

[Excidium II]

I never use "continue" or "load last save" type buttons if I can avoid them. Aways go to the load screen and pick the save by hand even if it's the latest that I want anyway. I just don't trust them buttons and expect them to corrupt my save and I'll only find out later.

I have something with numbered games. Like, even if the second game has nothing to do with the first one, I still must play the first one before that game. Like FF, I couldn't play any FF until I played the first one. It goes with any game. It includes expansion and whatnot. No matter how shit NWN 2 OC was, I still had to finish it before trying MotB. I didn't play Divinity: OS yet because of the same reason. It's just something I couldn't never avoid and now I just roll with it. So yeah, I endure many shit game just to play the good ones.

Same, but I can make an exception if the games are too different/have no relation to each other. I never left the caves in MOTB because I always get the feeling I should have brought a dude from the OC. Of course being dumped into a level 18 3.5 D&D character with ten billion spells doesn't help.

Almost always play as a woman when given the choice, likely a reflection of a deep-seated repressed identity issue.

Same unless the choices are ugly/wimpy, I like my women big and strong. But I just like the female form, it's not because of some psycholomajicks bullshit.

 

[PeachPlumage]

I always press the fire button rapidly when firing rather than hold down the button to auto fire on shmup games that have auto fire as standard.

 

[octavius]

I have become rather obsessed with doing things chronologically, starting with playing games chronologically in 2010; when it looked like there would never be any good PC games made again, and Kickstarter was still a couple of years away.
Now I've reached late 1996, so I've made decent progress (unlike CRPG Addict I don't waste time on games that are obviously crap) and played lots of great games I would probably never have tried if I stuck to my old habits (mostly replaying and modding my favourite games).

I also need to learn more about the influences and history of the games I play. There's quite a few games influence by Lovecraft, so I read most of his stuff, which led me again to read the writers that influenced HPL, like Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Machen and Lord Dunsany, which again led to me having to read Weird Fiction, Swords&Sorcery, Fantasy and SF chronologically (currently reached 1942).
But sometimes I jump ahead. Before playing Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri I have to read Starship Troopers and The Forever War, which are the main influences of the game.


If a game is turn based and have evenly sized squares I must make my own map.


I always try to complete games using as little in game time as possible, if there is time keeping in the game.
Which is why I really like it when games reward you for it by getting a better score, like the M&M and HoMM games.

 

[undecaf]

If I can name a character, the name will nearly always be Schlee, and if it's a party, there's almost always one Schlee there. I don't know why it has stuck as the name bears no significance what so ever to me, but it's been so for years.

 

[Viata]

I always play characters based on my own identity, or rather based on aspects of my own personality. During character creation, I always try to create myself.

I do something like this. I'm getting bald for a young person(started getting bald at 18), so I couldn't accept it and was trying anything to avoid the true. But sometime later I'm started dealing with it by making any character in games bald. It did help me and now I always roll a bald guy.

Now, this is one habit I can't avoid no matter how much I try. I can only and always do a single ending/route for any game that has multiple ending/route. So let's say I play SMT 1 and do Chaos route. Whenever I play SMT 1, I once again go for Chaos route as it was the first time I'm playing the game. The same happens with character creation, I can hardly do another character in any crpg. What I mean is that while I play as many at the beginning, as soon as I decide what character I'll roll, I'll never play as another character if I ever play that game again. I just got bored if I play another build for a while. This[the character part] only works with game that I can only roll MC and party is beyond my control(so games like Wizardry I don't have problem in rolling many builds). That's why I hardly say much about C&C games and I'm so into Wizardries/dungeon crawlers game.

 

[Jick Magger]

If I can name a character, the name will nearly always be Schlee, and if it's a party, there's almost always one Schlee there. I don't know why it has stuck as the name bears no significance what so ever to me, but it's been so for years.

I do the same thing. Always name my character either Roland or Orlando (for male and female respectively), though it's more due to the fact that I'm very autistic when it comes to naming conventions and I think both of those can fit pretty well in 90% of game settings, from medieval fantasy to sci-fi or post apocalypse. This also ensures that in pretty much every game I play that allows the option, I'll go with a guns oriented character because, well, I liked The Gunslinger.

I also always wind up prolonging actually doing the main quest in an RPG until I've done absolutely every single side quest that is available, out of fear that if I do continue with the main quest I might hit an invisible point of no return that'd lock me out of content. This usually means that I'll rack up a play time in the tens of hours before I even touch the main quest, and occasionally stop playing altogether. It also lead to me quitting Tales of Vesperia in frustration because a vast majority of the side content is only available at certain points in the plot, and are lost if you progress any further.

 

[Siveon]

Roland or Orlando (for male and female respectively)

Those are both typically male names, though.

 

[Excidium II]

There's dudes named Ashley so what's the problem.

 

[Jick Magger]

Roland or Orlando (for male and female respectively)

Those are both typically male names, though.

Then it's a good thing I generally don't play females.

 

[laclongquan]

Pack Rat~ I mostly play packrat so personalized base, or somewhere to store shits categorically, is important to me. Morrowind I pile loots to the roof. FNV I use the 4 boxes beside the general store in starting town. Unreal World I push the item limit of map to the very limit. And back in the day I regularly has trouble with Sanfrancisco because it has many shops and my car's inventory push the item limit onto buggy state.

One reason I dont like BG2 as much as NWN2 because it's not easy to store shits in former case. In NWN2, beside normal desks and boxes you can even sell stuff to your keep's shops and buy back when needed at full price, aka just another storage space.

 

[hello friend]

you guys are weird