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"Epic" games killed my love of gaming with one weird trick

sorry about your autism
bye

OP: I get where you're coming from. I'm not a fan of all the padding that some games like to add, either. Best thing to do is to ignore them (which isn't as easy as it sounds, you'd know you're deliberately avoiding content and that kinda does affect your enjoyment) or play something else.
 

QaaQer

Member
Much game design is all about manipulation, revolving around getting players to buy in, then keep them through the use of game loops that dole out extrinsic rewards on semi-random basis. Open world rpgs/mmos are great at this, so many opportunities for micro rewards to be measured out.

Back in the day, games were just about manipulating people to spend quarters. They probably spent less of their youths enmeshed in these systems because of it. Nobody dumped thousands of hours into Robotron as some do with wow etc.
 
When you say "Epic games killed my love of gaming" I thought you were referring to the fact that games aren't fun if they don't have chainsaws attached to guns.
 

Aggie CMD

Member
There is a tendency to confuse statistics with objectives. I don't think the expectation or even the goal of a game is to complete it 100%. And if you do, you are in a very small minority. And if you do it in all the games you play, then maybe you need to scale it back a little bit.

Keep your hobbies fun. Once it feels like work, you've already lost - even if your completion percentage reads 100%.
 

shark sandwich

tenuously links anime, pedophile and incels
Just wanted to say that your title is terrible, there's literally no reason for it. Websites do it is to create traffic for ad impressions. That's not really applicable to you, right? You can represent your thread with an accurate title and still get responses by interested posters without the click bait inspired titling. To me, this is just a strange thing to do.

It's a funny title. It wasn't actually trying to be click bait, just to parody it.

Anyway I can sympathize with TC. I think it kills the immersion because it exposes a game as just a bunch of shit to do, instead of some living world that you are dropping in and exploring.
 

Seanspeed

Banned
Aw man, I love stat tracking. LOVE IT. And I'm not a completionist whatsoever. But I enjoy seeing what I've done and how long I've played.

I just like stats in general, though.
 

Roto13

Member
Sometimes I think mods let minor stuff like that autism comment fly if enough people get all smug and backseat-moddy about it.
 

MikeyB

Member
Always weird when even "gamers" consider their hobby a waste of time.

There the rub.

I was happy with dumping hours upon hours into Morrowind and Freelancer because IIRC, they didn't track that information. I was able to have fun uncritically. The same is still true of browsing the internet or watching movies, both of which are often unproductive activities.

I don't expect my life to be filled with only productive activities. For example, even a musical or painting hobby produces music or a painting, but neither of those are especially useful or in themselves promoting some kind of self-improvement.

It's tougher in games when you're pretending to do something that you could actually do (like learning a fictional language, fictional history, or sailing or hiking through the woods), but it is still a justifiable distraction.

It's that they show how it's distracting you and for how long that makes it seem less worthwhile. I am going to waste time, but I don't need to know how much. By the same token, I'd find that if my lifetime stats for eating and eating preferences and % of cuisines tried were displayed every time I sat down for a meal, I'd probably enjoy eating less.

And sorry for the buzzfeed title. I couldn't help myself when I pinned my concerns on that one weird thing.
 

mm04

Member
Kinda does the opposite for me. If I get to the ending of a game and see that I'm not close to 100%, then I think "Wow, there's so much I haven't discovered yet if I play it again" .
 
I realised this when playing Nine Man's Morris in AC Black Flag. That board game required more strategy than my entire play through at that point and was more satisfying in less time.

Here's the result and my question. I can't play epic games any more or even ones that require time investment. They seem like a waste.

Saying a good board game is a better experience than a AC game isn't saying a lot.
Since when AC games are good?

You aren't talking of "epic games". You are talking of AAA open world games, and in special Ubisoft open world games, and a lot of them usually combines mediocrity, casualness, and checklist design full of filler.

Of course a board game has more strategy, that's a strategy game, while in the other ahnd AAA games are famous for being braindead simple so no one gets stuck.
 

Crom

Junior Member
Tracking play stats. Large open world games track play time, completion %, and a wide variety of achievements. This does two things rather immediately - compels me to increase that % and reminds me of how much of my life I have dumped into games.

Less directly, but more importantly, it negatively affects my enjoyment of gaming. I don't engage as much with the game world because I'm chasing the next collectable or side mission. For example, the stunning scenery and we'll constructed town is at best no longer within focus and at worst an obstacle to the next location on my minimap. It also makes me feel that gaming is shallow. The obvious manipulation of psychological need for feedback and progress and collecting makes me feel, well, manipulated. Finally, it makes me feel that I am wasting my life. Seeing that playtime and realising that I could be well on my way to learning one of the many languages spoken by an enemy I just stabbed makes it clear how hollow the accomplishment of gaming can be.

You certainly don't have to look at the stats, but once I did, I haven't stopped thinking about them.

I realised this when playing Nine Man's Morris in AC Black Flag. That board game required more strategy than my entire play through at that point and was more satisfying in less time.

Here's the result and my question. I can't play epic games any more or even ones that require time investment. They seem like a waste. Short distracting bursts seem like the only justifiable gaming. Has anyone else had the same train of thought?

I still can. I just hate the huge empty worlds of games like Assassin's Creed. So huge but nothing to interact with except for moving to the next icon and watching a cutscene. You can't even talk to townspeople except for cutscenes that occur at icons.

I like the worlds of Zelda games or Deus Ex much better. Zelda has tons of puzzles, actual discoveries, and townspeople that you can interact with. Deus Ex has smaller worlds but discoveries, people that you can talk to, and things to find when you are going through the world.

Play those games instead and I think you will have a better time
 

Raiden

Banned
I cringe a bit each time a gamer calls games shallow and empty. Like what is it supposed to be for you? You fucking enjoy it and thats why you do it. Going out fishing is probably also shallow and empty but hey if you fucking enjoy it..
 

joecanada

Member
Tracking play stats. Large open world games track play time, completion %, and a wide variety of achievements. This does two things rather immediately - compels me to increase that % and reminds me of how much of my life I have dumped into games.

Less directly, but more importantly, it negatively affects my enjoyment of gaming. I don't engage as much with the game world because I'm chasing the next collectable or side mission. For example, the stunning scenery and we'll constructed town is at best no longer within focus and at worst an obstacle to the next location on my minimap. It also makes me feel that gaming is shallow. The obvious manipulation of psychological need for feedback and progress and collecting makes me feel, well, manipulated. Finally, it makes me feel that I am wasting my life. Seeing that playtime and realising that I could be well on my way to learning one of the many languages spoken by an enemy I just stabbed makes it clear how hollow the accomplishment of gaming can be.

You certainly don't have to look at the stats, but once I did, I haven't stopped thinking about them.

I realised this when playing Nine Man's Morris in AC Black Flag. That board game required more strategy than my entire play through at that point and was more satisfying in less time.

Here's the result and my question. I can't play epic games any more or even ones that require time investment. They seem like a waste. Short distracting bursts seem like the only justifiable gaming. Has anyone else had the same train of thought?

so dont go for the completionist stuff? I don't know why you would make the game like work , I have one trophy to get plat in far cry and I may never do it, just don't care anymore. and it would probably take 5 minutes too.

strangely I feel like far cry isn't really worth platinum so I almost think that's another reason I didn't do it.... my only plat is fallout 3 and in no way does far cry deserve to be in that company...

(other games are good to be clear, but some have ridiculous trophies I would never bother with).
 
I love stat collection, wish more games should have it.

Im really happy that Nintendo updated MK8 with stats so for instance you no longer need to guess how many coins you've earned.
 

Silvard

Member
Man I actually feel sorry about the sorry about guy.

OP, do things you enjoy and don't do things you don't enjoy. Don't feel guilty because you have a mindset that is unable to rest easy simply because you've spent so much time having fun. After all, time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. If you're going to retroactively regret the time you spent on something then it's not worth doing. Me? I can't get enough of that shit. Maybe not time played (though I'd like to know it at least, to compare with others) but completion stats as long as it's easy to track what you're missing.

By the way you will spend roughly a third of your life sleeping. If you die at 90 that's 30 years of your life you spent unconscious.
 

verdures

Member
Maybe ratcheting your completion percentage is the game... everything else is just window dressing. *strokes goatee*

Honestly OP, I feel your concern. Showing that stuff constantly forces you to re-contextualize your game experience in a broader way that isn't necessarily helpful or interesting. I can ignore it, but I understand people who just... can't. Far Cry 4 a fun experience for me recently, but if I had a psychological drive to complete the 60th tedious filler mission to get the numbers to a satisfying position I'd be pretty put off too.

I feel like mini-maps are a correlated but slightly different thing. It's a strange experience to be staring a mini-map for a while, then look up at an incredible, beautifully rendered virtual world, realizing that you've been ignoring it to squint at a rectangle on the bottom of the screen, searching for tiny colored icons.
 

BitStyle

Unconfirmed Member
sorry about your autism

Really?
Take this shit back to 4chan

On topic: I just find myself ignoring most of it. I almost never play games to 100% completion unless they are really that good. It should be about pacing yourself to make sure you get the most enjoyment out of your purchase.
 

Clockwork5

Member
sorry about your autism

That is fucking gross and has no place here.

Back on topic. Try to play a game or two where you ONLY focus on the main quest. No hunting collectables, no filling progress meters, just the meat of the game. I too once got caught up in all the fluff of modern games and I think it was GTA5 where I finally said enough. I beat the game in a matter of a couple days and really enjoyed it. I still go back to it on current gen consoles to dick around in the city but the pressure is off. After doing this for a few more games I re-learned what it is I enjoy about gaming.

I do the quests I want and explore on my own terms. To hell with percentages and trophies. That is not why I play games and not what I enjoy about gaming.
 

misho8723

Banned
Hmmm.. I would be on your side OP, but they some time ago I played some GOOD open-world games (for example Fallout New Vegas and now Witcher 3) and I'm good :)
 

MikeyB

Member
Yep, it is definitely influenced by my need to complete things. I started tackling my backlog and decided to start with Sonic 1 and Toejam and Earl because I have never completed it. Starcraft Brood War campaign is next on my list. Got to hit 100% on my game completion stats, right? I appreciate that not everybody has the same need.

Turning off big chunks of the HUD helps somewhat, but the stats are still there. Sometimes right in the pause menu, sometimes built into the description of the saved game. Once I know it is there, it recontextualizes the experience and diminishes it. (Coincidentally, that's my biggest gripe with DLC. Not that it is reduced content but that it changes the experience to an ongoing transaction.)

And while I would say it is largely AAA games, I have the same completion is drive on anything with unlockable or rewards... even tower defence games.

BTW, I am not saying that I don't like games or don't enjoy my time with them, or even that I have a problem with wasting my time, but only that I like them considerably less because of the tracked stats. So much so that I would prefer to spend time doing something else.

I wouldn't say I'm autistic, though I've never been tested.

EDIT: for additional context, I'm a big fan of memento mori even though I don't believe in an afterlife.
 

TrutaS

Member
I also hate completion percentages, especially when you finish the main-game and it's at 30-40%. Filler content should not go into those percentages!!! Anyway I do not obsess over them, but I totally get how someone could be more compelled than me.

However, don't let open-world games ruin gaming for you, there are plenty other experiences to be had.

In terms of playing time, I would have to disagree. I quite like seeing it if I'm searching for it. Perhaps if it isn't shown to you every time you load the game but only if you click to see more details?
 

Dreavus

Member

EDIT: edited for the edit!


AC games do this to me, but usually not before I'm able to finish them. Sometimes when I keep playing a little bit "post game" then I quickly realize "I am not going to collect all of this shit, what else have I got in this steam library of mine".

I think there's something to be said for sticking to the main missions in open world games and not worry about doing EVERYTHING right off the bat. You can always do it after you finish the story, by which point you might be done with the game, and that's also fine.

You also seem to be making an association of "gaming = an inherent waste of my time", which by many standards could be considered true, but you shouldn't let that colour your experiences! It's like any other entertainment, people do it for various reasons that might not all be "useful" (relaxing, competing, new experiences, etc.) because it's just for fun. I get that "time wasting" feeling too, usually when I'm procrastinating and should be doing something else. If I get all my affairs in order first it's a lot more fun to play for just an hour then mucking around for 2-3 avoiding doing other things.
 

Daingurse

Member
I actually really like to see my playtime. If I invest hours and hours of playtime in a game, I feel like I'm getting more value for my money. I still enjoy short games of course, but investing large amounts of playtime into a title really makes it feel like I'm getting my money's worth. I find some inherent value in it.

I've never been much of a completionist in gaming, so I never feel compelled to do shit that I don't want to do in games. I never really 100% games, and I'm quite content with that.

Also, games are a form of entertainment, of course you could be doing something more constructive. You can almost always be doing something more constructive. I don't concern myself with that, I just play games (when I actually have the urge ugh).

Maybe you just need a break from games man. I hope you can eventually turn the mind, and find more enjoyment from gaming.
 
Tracking play stats. Large open world games track play time, completion %, and a wide variety of achievements. This does two things rather immediately - compels me to increase that % and reminds me of how much of my life I have dumped into games.
Sorry to hear that OP. Personally I don't give a hoot about total % completed or how many hours I've logged. I'm actually pretty thankful for my apathy towards achievements/trophies after seeing so many just absolutely obsessed with obtaining them. I also don't mind the time I put in them either. If I'm having fun and enjoying myself, that's time well spent for me.
 
Kind of an interesting stance to take OP. Personally I like knowing how much I've played because it's a testament to how much time I've put into a game (thousands of hours into Smash Bros, literal days in WoW, etc).
 

Stimpack

Member
I think I've ignored every collectible since idk, the PS2 era. It just got to a point where I stopped caring. Since then, it's been a much more enjoyable experience.
 
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