Monday, October 15, 2007
I'm a Game Grazer
A Destructoid article recently appeared entitled, "The Endgame Syndrome: Why Do We Abandon Games." It speaks specifically to RPGs that players seem to never complete. This has sparked some commentary at Rock, Paper, Shotgun and Scorpia's Gaming Lair.
Curiously enough, I was pondering this very matter last week, coming face-to-face with a fact of my gaming habits I'd forgotten about since the arcade days.
I am a game grazer.
I tend to play a little bit of a lot of games. In the arcades, you'd find the people who were really good at "their" machine. Maybe it was lack of patience or lack of quarters, or maybe I was just attracted by the pretty of the new cabinets and flashing pixels. But I tended to play the field. There were a few I'd linger longer over than others... Star Wars, Battle Zone, Tempest, Galaga, Ms. Pac Man, Space Duel, and others. But I never really played until the point of "Mastery."
I had a cousin who was a wiz at Ms. Pac Man, and she urged me to "settle down" with one game and play it to mastery. I responded by devoting somewhat more attention (and quarters) to Gorf. Unsurprisingly, Gorf was sort of a five-games-in-one arcade game.
The first time I did, it was Sega's Shinobi. This game had an ending, but I got to the point where I could beat the entire game on one life, one quarter, and about twenty minutes. It was The Exception. I never did get too good at the bonus rounds, however.
The tendency to sample many games sticks with me. I have a ton of games I never really completed. The thing is, I *LIKE* completing them. My favorite RPG, Ultima 7, was almost never completed. If it hadn't been for a kneecap that decided to pop out of its rightful location one night, I might never have been stuck immobile in front of a computer an entire day to finish the last glorious third of the game and fully enjoy one of the most delightful cRPGs of all time.
I have quite a few games to which I've probably not devoted more than five hours. I try them out, get a good taste of them, and put them on the shelf. And play a LOT of games. It's too bad I'm such a PC game fan... if I was more of a console gamer, I'd have saved a bundle just by renting.
But the exceptions are notable. Those games that I've played to completion - or just played a LOT - stand out. It sounds, based on these articles (well, not Scorpia's ... she's hardcore about completing games), that I'm not alone.
It makes me wonder how much I'm missing out on, though. How many more experiences like Ultima 7's are there that I may have missed because I figured I'd had enough five or eight hours in?
Labels: Game Moments, retro
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:00 PM (Permalink)
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I'm glad it's not just me. When I first bought my PSX, I had a rule: I wouldn't get a new game until I had completed the last one. Unfortunately, that rule has now been abandoned. I own a number of games that I have never finished, games that I enjoyed playing while I was playing.
I think the problem is that I have a life now. I can spend some time playing a game, but life intrudes and I get distracted doing other things.
Here are some games in my graveyard: FFXII, Disgaea 2, Quake 4, Aveyond, LoZ: Twilight Princess. Aveyond is the one I'm most likely to pick up, because it is so easy to play for a short period of time.
I think the problem is that I have a life now. I can spend some time playing a game, but life intrudes and I get distracted doing other things.
Here are some games in my graveyard: FFXII, Disgaea 2, Quake 4, Aveyond, LoZ: Twilight Princess. Aveyond is the one I'm most likely to pick up, because it is so easy to play for a short period of time.
# posted by 
: October 15, 2007 11:50 PM
: October 15, 2007 11:50 PM
My tendency to fall at the endgame has to do with some writers tendencies to be unable to follow through on their ideas.
There's a lot of anime out there that's all big and mysterious and exciting at the beginning, but when you finally reach the point where you understand what's going on, it all turns out to be such a letdown you don't want to see the resolution.
Worse, there are many RPGs where it seems clear that the development team ran out of time and the game takes a distinct dive for the Suck near the ending.
See one of my earliest whines about RPGs gone wrong - one of which I finished despite the trainwreck of an ending, one of which I probably never will
(and one of which has an entirely different problem and sucks from the word go, rather than breaking at the ending :) )
There's a lot of anime out there that's all big and mysterious and exciting at the beginning, but when you finally reach the point where you understand what's going on, it all turns out to be such a letdown you don't want to see the resolution.
Worse, there are many RPGs where it seems clear that the development team ran out of time and the game takes a distinct dive for the Suck near the ending.
See one of my earliest whines about RPGs gone wrong - one of which I finished despite the trainwreck of an ending, one of which I probably never will
(and one of which has an entirely different problem and sucks from the word go, rather than breaking at the ending :) )
ngthagg:
So there's at least two of us.
And yeah, it gets harder as we get older and get a real life. I love gaming, and I still play games pretty much daily. But I tend to enjoy my games in small doses of about 30 minutes at a pop. I guess that makes me easier to distract.
Whiner:
That post is golden. Although my experience usually isn't that the end is broken... it's that the game begins sagging in the middle.
One of my favorite unfinished RPGs is Ultima 6. It starts great, but around the time you have to hunt for pieces of the map, it just DRAGS. I've never gotten past that point.
So there's at least two of us.
And yeah, it gets harder as we get older and get a real life. I love gaming, and I still play games pretty much daily. But I tend to enjoy my games in small doses of about 30 minutes at a pop. I guess that makes me easier to distract.
Whiner:
That post is golden. Although my experience usually isn't that the end is broken... it's that the game begins sagging in the middle.
One of my favorite unfinished RPGs is Ultima 6. It starts great, but around the time you have to hunt for pieces of the map, it just DRAGS. I've never gotten past that point.
You know, I have certain series that I usually finish, and beyond that I browse. It is as it has been stated very well already on this thread, there is just not enough time to devote to video games. I have three kids, college, a full time job, and a some development going on, it's hard to finish a game.
There have been many games I was close on but lost them to win98 system crashes. This is before I knew how to use linux to save my files from the windabeast. :-) Baulders Gate one and two were both lost at very late levels, as well as FF 7, Stronghold (fun game) and several others.
Of course, that's not to say I would have finished any of them with exception to FF 7, I almost always finish my FF's. I also have a thing about Castlevania, I am still working on Portrait of Ruin though.
There have been many games I was close on but lost them to win98 system crashes. This is before I knew how to use linux to save my files from the windabeast. :-) Baulders Gate one and two were both lost at very late levels, as well as FF 7, Stronghold (fun game) and several others.
Of course, that's not to say I would have finished any of them with exception to FF 7, I almost always finish my FF's. I also have a thing about Castlevania, I am still working on Portrait of Ruin though.
Ditto. And the thing is that many of them tend to be good games -- it's just that they take long enough that another interesting game is out before I finish it, and so I just move on. Notable titles in my graveyard at the moment are FFXII, Okami, Psychonauts, Canis Canem Edit, Prince of Persia (at least two of them), GTA:SA, Dragon Quest 8, Painkiller, NOLF2... and those are just the ones I can remember offhand. I'm sure there are more. And I really do want to finish most of them, it just never happens for some reason.
So in FFX, I got to the point where you get the airship and suddenly have freedom to go anywhere and do all sorts of side quests and can go on to the endgame whenever you want.
I nibbled at some side quests for a couple of playing sessions and haven't touched it since. It's been months.
I don't even really know why. I liked it well enough. I guess it just didn't grab me somehow, and once I was off the rails, I didn't have any desire to do anything in particular.
(Yes, I do know generally what happens at the end ... which may be part of my lack of interest.)
I nibbled at some side quests for a couple of playing sessions and haven't touched it since. It's been months.
I don't even really know why. I liked it well enough. I guess it just didn't grab me somehow, and once I was off the rails, I didn't have any desire to do anything in particular.
(Yes, I do know generally what happens at the end ... which may be part of my lack of interest.)
Yeah, the ending of FFX left me a little bit uninspired as well. It was a "pretty good" RPG - rails and all. But like most of the FF games, you end up dealing with the tedium of just lots of irritating random encounters on your way through a sub-quest, and by the time you are ready to face Sin, you aren't getting XP too fast from anything else...
But hey - Final Fantasy games. Where a major boss can take 15 minutes or more to battle! Gotta love it!
So I guess that's the trick... what do you do to make sure the game gets neither too frustrating nor too bogged down towards the late-middle stage of the game?
But hey - Final Fantasy games. Where a major boss can take 15 minutes or more to battle! Gotta love it!
So I guess that's the trick... what do you do to make sure the game gets neither too frustrating nor too bogged down towards the late-middle stage of the game?
Miral - my daughter is bragging about how she's further along in FF XII than I've gotten. That game was beautiful, and full of cool ideas, but I never did get very excited about... well, any of it.
Maybe it was how they basically killed off everyone you THOUGHT the game was about in the first hour (including the ultra-long intro movies). At that point I was like, "Okay, so, who do we get introduced to that's gonna die next?"
Maybe it was how they basically killed off everyone you THOUGHT the game was about in the first hour (including the ultra-long intro movies). At that point I was like, "Okay, so, who do we get introduced to that's gonna die next?"
drslinky -
Three kids, a full-time job, college, AND you are making an indie RPG?
I am humbled. You are dah man!
Three kids, a full-time job, college, AND you are making an indie RPG?
I am humbled. You are dah man!
*He huffs on a slightly clinched fist slowly lowering it to his chest where he rubs it smuggly. * :-)
Wow I've been doing this for a couple years now but never saw a term associated with it. Game Grazer is perfect.
It's really weird too, once I get a good feel of the game (the gameplay mechanics, kinematic feel, etc) I have a hard time getting myself to pick it up again. Every time I do it's always fun and I wonder why I didn't feel like picking it up before, but then the cycle repeats.
I've been meaning to write a blog post about this actually. I'll get on that as soon as I stop playing Beautiful Katamari =).
It's really weird too, once I get a good feel of the game (the gameplay mechanics, kinematic feel, etc) I have a hard time getting myself to pick it up again. Every time I do it's always fun and I wonder why I didn't feel like picking it up before, but then the cycle repeats.
I've been meaning to write a blog post about this actually. I'll get on that as soon as I stop playing Beautiful Katamari =).
I feel that I share these qualities but only with certain games. I mean, in general I don't have as much time to devote to gaming (though I still find plenty), but even if I did, there are some games that wouldn't hold me very long. Just about any arcade-style game is this way; especially any game whose only goal is to try to get the highest score.
Second in line are story-based first-person shooters. Kinda sad, because oftentimes the stories are really engaging but I just don't have the time/patience.
Nowadays I've pretty much come to terms with this so I'm pretty selective with the games I have long-term relationships with. I think it's still very possible to be committed to a game, but I think you may just have to be willing to ditch the ones that don't make your cut for whatever reason.
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Second in line are story-based first-person shooters. Kinda sad, because oftentimes the stories are really engaging but I just don't have the time/patience.
Nowadays I've pretty much come to terms with this so I'm pretty selective with the games I have long-term relationships with. I think it's still very possible to be committed to a game, but I think you may just have to be willing to ditch the ones that don't make your cut for whatever reason.
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