gospvg

The "Large Mutant" collector card incident recently in Rage has bought my
gaming OCD to my attention.
Why must I spend hours doing every little sidequest, collecting every card &
getting achievements?

Why does it take me much longer to complete a game and yet Abbas will run
through it and complete it in a fifth of the time?

The incident in Rage has taken me to a crossroad. Do I restart the game
having already put in 18 hours? or Do I continue playing the game ignoring
my OCD tendencies to complete it and move on?

Time is a very precious commodity and like previously in my gaming years
once I realise a game has made me waste that time I will forever hate that
game. Previous examples of this I can recall are Half Life 2 after playing
for 20 odd hours I got to a section where I had to activate a lift & the
game stopped dead, I could not go any further, my response was to delete the
game.

Dungeon Siege 2 on the PC having played for 40+ hours I was nearing the end
of the game when I was hit by a game saving bug that wiped out all of my 6
save files, on that occasion I snapped the disc in half.

Rage oh Rage !! what shall I do with thee? Your poor gaming design choices
have stopped my gaming OCD by not allowing me to collect a card I need to
complete the achievements for "Collect Them All" & "Obsessive Compulsive"

I spent time playing your mini-games, competing in your races ensuring I
would finish first, purchasing schematics & completing sidequest upon
sidequest !!

And you then go WALLOP !! me around the face by not allowing me to collect a
card !!

But is that your fault or my gaming OCD?
Leaving the minigames, sidequests & races to one side and coming back to the
main game. Have you stopped me playing that? Have you caused me to get stuck
in a lift I cannot advance from? Have you deleted all my gamesaves? No but
what you have done is bought my gaming OCD to my attention, be it the fault
of "Achievements" or me the "Gamer"

I will learn from this & I will change.

To start with I am not going to leave you unfinished, I will finish you BUT
& it's a big BUT my love and enjoyment for you has gone & it is has been
replaced by Anger & RAGE !!

--
gospvg
[..getting old and still playing video games..]
http://www.gospvg.com

hurricanepilot

gospvg wrote:

> The "Large Mutant" collector card incident recently in Rage has bought my
> gaming OCD to my attention.
> Why must I spend hours doing every little sidequest, collecting every card &
> getting achievements?
>
> Why does it take me much longer to complete a game and yet Abbas will run
> through it and complete it in a fifth of the time?
>
> The incident in Rage has taken me to a crossroad. Do I restart the game
> having already put in 18 hours? or Do I continue playing the game ignoring
> my OCD tendencies to complete it and move on?

The way I look at it is to work out whether pandering to a games desire
to make me collect things will in any way change the experience. Same
deal for side missions. If all you're are doing is ticking boxes, just
stop. If the collections or sidequests don't feed back into the
experience in a meaningful way, they're pointless.

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood is a classic case of side missions and
collectibles being truly pointless. You work incredibly hard to increase
your wealth, and all you can really do with it is buy more stuff to
further increase your wealth. Doing specific quests for shops gives
access to otherwise unavailable items...and then moving the plot on
completely negates the bonuses they give.

My personal favourite is when collections or simply playing generates
currency that you can use to unlock the added features that interest
you...be that some artwork, unlimited ammo, alternate modes or
whatever.

Kendrick Kerwin Chua

In article <4ee9d17b$0$2968$fa0fcedb@news.zen.co.uk>,
gospvg <gospvg@NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote:
>The "Large Mutant" collector card incident recently in Rage has bought my
>gaming OCD to my attention.
>Why must I spend hours doing every little sidequest, collecting every card &
>getting achievements?
>
>Why does it take me much longer to complete a game and yet Abbas will run
>through it and complete it in a fifth of the time?
>
>The incident in Rage has taken me to a crossroad. Do I restart the game
>having already put in 18 hours? or Do I continue playing the game ignoring
>my OCD tendencies to complete it and move on?

As you say, time is precious. But entertainment could never be described
as efficient. I've only recently been able to let go of the urge to be
thorough about seeing and doing everything in a game, and I'm not sure
what advice I could offer based on my experience. I can say with certainty
that buying games cheaper or used (and months or years after their initial
release) certainly helps with the notion that I don't have to squeeze
every bit of entertainment out of any one title. It's easier to get your
money's worth (and you feel less guilty for quitting) if you only paid a
fiver.

>Rage oh Rage !! what shall I do with thee? Your poor gaming design choices
>have stopped my gaming OCD by not allowing me to collect a card I need to
>complete the achievements for "Collect Them All" & "Obsessive Compulsive"

I still habitually keep rotating libraries of save files, just in case
something like this happens. But you correctly observe that this is poor
design, or at least deliberate design. If a player has to go all the way
back to the beginning, and there's no competitive or compelling reason to
see all that content again, what motivation is there other than an
acheivement or trophy?

I view the game companies' obsessive data gathering as a net positive in
this case. I'm certain that they're tracking these events, just to see
what players find those things entertaining and if a particular feature is
worth putting into future games. Even more damning, though, is the idea
that a game suddenly ceases to be listed in your activity logs. The
appropriately spiteful thing to do is simply to start playing something
else.

-KKC, who didn't get enough sleep due to Skyrim.
--
-- "Step 8: Make a list of all the persons I | kendrick
have harmed, and file them alphabetically | @io-nyc.com
for ease of reference." |
- David Javerbaum, "The Last Testament" |

gospvg

hurricanepilot" <h@g.c> wrote in message news:jccoau$3qe$1@dont-email.me...
>
> The way I look at it is to work out whether pandering to a games desire
> to make me collect things will in any way change the experience. Same
> deal for side missions. If all you're are doing is ticking boxes, just
> stop. If the collections or sidequests don't feed back into the
> experience in a meaningful way, they're pointless.

Yes have to agree it the completion..ist in me that wants to do it.
I really should stop looking at achievements in games & just play them.


--
gospvg
[..getting old and still playing video games..]
http://www.gospvg.com

gospvg

"Kendrick Kerwin Chua" <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote in message
>
> I view the game companies' obsessive data gathering as a net positive in
> this case. I'm certain that they're tracking these events, just to see
> what players find those things entertaining and if a particular feature is
> worth putting into future games. Even more damning, though, is the idea
> that a game suddenly ceases to be listed in your activity logs. The
> appropriately spiteful thing to do is simply to start playing something
> else.

I was so tempted to delete my game save on Rage and move on and play
something else but I like the main storyline & would like to see how it
ends.


--
gospvg
[..getting old and still playing video games..]
http://www.gospvg.com

Toby Newman

I play games for immersion, story, escapism. Nothing ruins that more
for me that achievements. Loathe the things. In Assassin's Creed I
would run past flags, passing them by a metre or so but not stopping
to collect them.

--
-Toby
Add the word afiduluminag to the subject to circumvent my email filters.

deKay

On Thu, 15 Dec 2011, hurricanepilot wrote:

> Assassins Creed: Brotherhood is a classic case of side missions and
> collectibles being truly pointless. You work incredibly hard to increase
> your wealth, and all you can really do with it is buy more stuff to
> further increase your wealth. Doing specific quests for shops gives
> access to otherwise unavailable items...and then moving the plot on
> completely negates the bonuses they give.

This is true, but I found it a lot of fun.

deKay
--
Lofi Gaming - http://lofi-gaming.org.uk
Gaming Diary - http://lofi-gaming.org.uk/diary
Blog - http://lofi-gaming.org.uk/blog
My computer runs at 3.5MHz and I'm proud of that

deKay

On Thu, 15 Dec 2011, Toby Newman wrote:

> I play games for immersion, story, escapism. Nothing ruins that more
> for me that achievements. Loathe the things. In Assassin's Creed I
> would run past flags, passing them by a metre or so but not stopping
> to collect them.

Did you get the achievement for doing that?

deKay
--
Lofi Gaming - http://lofi-gaming.org.uk
Gaming Diary - http://lofi-gaming.org.uk/diary
Blog - http://lofi-gaming.org.uk/blog
My computer runs at 3.5MHz and I'm proud of that

jochta

On 15/12/2011 12:47, gospvg wrote:
> hurricanepilot" <h@g.c> wrote in message news:jccoau$3qe$1@dont-email.me...
>>
>> The way I look at it is to work out whether pandering to a games desire
>> to make me collect things will in any way change the experience. Same
>> deal for side missions. If all you're are doing is ticking boxes, just
>> stop. If the collections or sidequests don't feed back into the
>> experience in a meaningful way, they're pointless.
>
> Yes have to agree it the completion..ist in me that wants to do it.
> I really should stop looking at achievements in games & just play them.
>
>

I tend to play the game as is 1st time through without worrying too much
about achievements. Once done I'll take a look at TA and see what else
can be done, sometimes that might necessitate a 2nd playthrough which I
will do if I enjoyed the game and would enjoy a 2nd time through.

If you worry about missing any on 1st playthrough you won't enjoy the
game as much as you scrabble about making sure you get them. As you have
discovered.

--
John Talbot
XBL, PSN, Twitter, Everything : jochta
Blog & Gaming Diary : http://www.buttonsofmymind.co.uk/
"Leading the fight..."

gospvg

"jochta" <usenet@ugvm.com> wrote in message
news:_CnGq.5205$XH3.2707@unlimited.newshosting.com ...
>
> If you worry about missing any on 1st playthrough you won't enjoy the game
> as much as you scrabble about making sure you get them. As you have
> discovered.
>

Yep agreed just frustrated that I managed to spend time getting 1st in all
the races and collecting the other cards to miss out on one.
Oddly enough it is only on the 360 that I tend to look at what achievements
there are to get when starting a game so I can do the majority on the 1st
playthrough.

I am going to try & stop doing that now.
To just play the games instead.


--
gospvg
[..getting old and still playing video games..]
http://www.gospvg.com