Extra Punctuation: Pokemon 100 Percenters Are Mad

[BehattedWanderer]

You realize that might increase the number of people going for 100%, yeah? Or even who would push up to the next milestone percentage? And I have the occasional reverse problem. For a game I really like, I want to 100% it. Sometimes I can't, and it drives me bonkers.

 

[constantcompile]

As a 100%er myself, I will say that a large part of it has to do with depression and addiction. However, not in the sense you might think.

There are times where, really, I can't bring myself to do much of anything. Maybe browse Reddit if nothing else. But the sense of sadness from the incompleteness of a videogame is enough to spur me to action. From there, there are a series of difficult challenges, each one more rage-inducing and/or tedious than the last. Videogames can be like life, in this sense.

But it also teaches you things about life through practice that, although they're preached, are sometimes difficult to grasp until you've done it for yourself. Giving yourself daily goals, learning shortcuts and streamlining your work process, and feeling good about completing a task however immaterial and ephemeral its completion may seem.

As someone who has had a lot of trouble with being unmotivated and depressed, I'm sure you can imagine what benefits this confers to those who can look at it from another angle. If I've overcome challenges in videogames that seemed literally impossible to accomplish, surely succeeding in a professional career is as well? If I'm willing to die eight hundred times just for the one victory, surely the tedium of applying for open positions is manageable?

Finally, those goals also help to wean off of addictions. I used to prefer the escapism videogames to real life, but now that videogames are work, I've boiled it down to one achievement per day to feel good about myself. And because I already know which achievements are easiest to get - 100%ing also teaches you to pick your battles - it often takes less than half an hour.

Imagine that. I, as a 100%er, spend less time on videogames than your average COD multiplayer casual gamer. I do eventually get around to the more difficult achievements in most cases, but those are generally for stretches free time too small for a road trip; I work on them after I've already gotten my "daily achievement."

Apologies for the long rant, I just wanted to present my own opinion on 100%ing and goal-based gaming (rather than fun-based, although fun is still often had).

 

[Silent Eagle]

"Egomania" is the cause behind this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egomania
Here's a wikipedia link

 

[bdcjacko]

The only recent game that I got 100% on was Red Dead Redemption, because I was so hooked on the game that I wanted to experience everything it had to offer. The only other times I go for it is when there's a good reward to be had.

RDR's 100% made sense too. It wasn't "capture 100 randomly placed things that won't help you in the game." It was more like, you don't like liars dice because you don't know how to play, play till you are good, oh and btw that gets you a step closer to 100%. Plus a step closer to a new outfit plus more money in your pocket to buy a weapon that will get you a step closer 100%.

 

[Pearwood]

I like 100%-ing Tomb Raider and TR-esque games, the levels are small enough and are designed well enough that all but a few secrets can be found with a little effort in each game. Admittedly the few that can't be found with just a little effort are incredibly bullshitty but still there are guides for those bastards. I do like the odd achievement hunt when I'm in the mood too, not got any platinums though.

But yes I agree, only a complete maniac would try to 100% Pokemon. I catch all the pokemon I run into and haven't got yet and sometimes put one version exclusive up for another in the GTS and leave it for a week but that's as close to 100%ing I'd go. Battling on the other hand is fun even if I can't be arsed with EV training and chain breeding can, to put it bluntly, fuck right off.

 

[duchaked]

I really only think about 100% Achievements in games I absolutely love and/or most of them were easy and I got most of them already so I may as well go for the collecting one(s)

such as Halo 3 (gave up), ODST, Reach and Assassin's Creed 2

otherwise I just play through, maybe pick up some Achievements as extra challenges for myself...and the impossible ones can just go screw themselves haha not gonna waste my time any more

But I propose a system to help these unfortunates. All we have to do is train them to expect appropriate rewards from their bullshit tasks and reject those that don't offer them. So if you know someone who's forcing themselves through a 100-percenter bullshit quest, give them prizes. Maybe for every 25% they attain, let them motorboat your or your sister's titties. And when they do reach 100, give them oral sex. Come on, fellers, it won't kill you. And the added bonus if you do is that once they've been cured of their mental illness you might just have a new best friend.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh my GOD I would totally be going for 100% in more games if this were to ever happen (with my female friends, sorry guys uh I don't roll that way)

 

[AtheistAndProud]

Personally, I don't play Pokemon to 100%, or to complete the 'dex, though I have met people who are.
I just play because battling other people and soundly crushing their hard-earned team into dust is satisfyingly fun.
God knows I don't play for the story
-The Sign Painter

 

[DanDeFool]

You know, I agree with Yahtzee. There's nothing wrong with having a variety of content in a game (e.g. Pokemon) or having sidequests you can perform for an extra challenge (e.g. Final Fantasy games), but tacking on a fetch quest for something that doesn't give you any kind of gameplay benefit is just wasting my time.

This is why I stopped being a 100%-er after I got my PS2. It was relatively easy to get 100% in Zelda: OoT, but when I got to DMC 3, and realized I would have to complete the game no less than 10 times on increasingly harder difficulty levels to unlock everything, I just played it until the core gameplay got boring and then went on to something else.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

In Assassin's Creed I've never even felt the urge to collect all of the flags. If there's no reason to do anything I have no obligation to do it. As for achievements? Screw them, I have no idea how many I have in any game and frankly I don't care.

A game that I felt did this very well was the Metroid Prime series. I'm not referring to the expansions though (although I did collect all of them), I'm talking about the scans. I made a point of collecting all of the lore and creature scans in every game. I also think that it was a good way to communicate the story. There are plenty of people who could care less about the storyline and just play through the game without interruption. For those who didn't you actually had to work to figure out what was going on. It felt like you were investigating the situation rather than just having the story fed to you.

Whoa, really got off on a tangent there.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that if you want to make someone collect 100% of something in a game make sure that there's an actual reason for it. Not only could this attract the interest of people who wouldn't normally go for 100%, but it would also reward the people who'd do it regardless.

 

[Mr Companion]

Yeah the 'gotta catchem all' thing is really strange. I got a ROM of Pokemon blue a few days ago and I only caught what pokemon I needed in order to avoid being needlessly cruel. Then npc's kept asking me how many pokemon I had caught and I suddenly realized the game expected me to needlessly catch all the bastards! I was supposed to feel I had failed somehow, I felt I had won.

 

[Mister Linton]

"Let them motorboat you or your sisters titties."

I almost died laughing at that. Thanks Yahtzee.

 

[sergnb]

uh, I've tried to get 100% completion in a few games and only could I bring to do it with Killzone 2. That's the only platinum trophy I have. Even with extremely fun games like MGS4, I just can't get myself to tackle that insane chore that is to get the Big Boss emblem.

Demon's souls? lots of fun, but fuck me if I need to upgrade every single weapon type to 100%.

Uncharted 2? Well hidden treasures, you can go find yourselves, cause I'm not coming back every level to check if I already picked you up.

The list could go on, and you get the point. Once a game stops being fun, you stop playing it. And I'm pretty condifent the only reasons 100% do 100% is because they have plenty of spare time to waste.

I would be in for the 100%-for-blowjob thing tho.

 

[KaiusCormere]

I can't even be bothered to finish the game the normal way a lot of the time. 100%? In your dreams.

 

[sergnb]

But come on Yahtzee, don't tell us that your not playing this game right now...we all you know you are, and we all know you secretly love it

Soon Yahtzee will want every single Pokemon, making him a 100%er

My friend, you have sucked in to the world of Pokemon

You have exceeded the allowable limit of the same emoticon in a single post. The appropriate authorities will present themselves at your residence shortly. Please do not resist.

So what's the allowable limit, 1?

0. It's fucking nothing.

 

[ThatFanBoyGuy]

I use to be a 100%-er of Pokemon games...kinda...sorta. I didn't care that they had to be all on one game. As long as I had them within the right generation, I was fine. So I had 150 original within Red, Yellow and Blue. I had a checklist to make sure I did, marking what game the Pokemon was in. Then went it went to 250, I got the new 100 in Gold, Silver and Crystal, meaning I had 250 within the six games. Once again, I had a checklist that told me which game each Pokemon was in. This even stayed true for the third generation. I didn't mind that I didn't have 380some in one game. I had them in the nine games, and that's all that mattered, even though you couldn't transfer first generation to third generation. Then came the 4th generation, where 110 more were added. Around the same time, I had found out my original Red, Yellow and Blue, for the original Game Boy had died, and my Gold, Silver and Crystal were dying (probably the reason they made FireRed, LeafGreen, HeartGold, SilverSoul). At that moment, without those original 150, and having trouble to catch the latest 110/120, I viritually gave up trying to catch them all. I just play Pokemon for the main story line. But when the main story line, in the basic form, is very repetitive, I wonder how long I'll stay hooked into the series. Maybe this is why I don't feel rushed to buy Platinum, HeartGold/SilverSoul or Black/White.

The other reason why I quit trying to catch them all was half of the "new" pokemon were "newly discovered" evolutions, which were a pain to get. Take Sneasel, for example (I believe I have the right example). To get it to evolve, it has to be holding a certain item, it has to battle during the night, and it has to level up to a certain level range during a certain time range. This is ridiculous! Even if this isn't the right example, I know there are other examples similar, even more adding on the ridiculous. I liked it when most only evolved by leveling up, some evolved by a stone, and only a few required trading it.

 

[Psycho Cat Industries]

Eh,if they are buying the game then the developer ain't doing anything outside his interest.

 

[Jezzy54]

I actually did collect all the figurines in Wind Waker. I liked to be able to look at them, and I like photography anyway.

 

[buhee]

Apparently i'm a mad person who should be offered oral sex instead of being allowed to enjoy an apparently 'unenjoyable' activity. Q-Q

I like catching all the pokemon. But i can't /just/ catch them. I have to have actually used them before they are allowed into my fully ordered PC box. Also, my proper team are specifically bred to have decent IVs with a beneficial nature, and then they are ev trained. And then, with that team I do the other thing you dislike...socialise with them. Hook my ds up to the wii and battle my friends with other people watching the fight on tv.
I am also working on getting 100% in the pokethlon so i can have all the trophies in the trophy room on soul silver, which is where i store all my pokemon. Black and White are annoying in that respect, as it means i either have to transfer all my pokemon over, keep the black/white pokemon seperate, or start all over again.

 

[Delicious Anathema]

I did get all the skulltulas in OOT, I'm insane.

But if you think that's bad, Wind Waker and Majora's Mask went totally bananas with the sidequests, Twilight Princess might have step back a little though, and Phantom Hourglass surely did. Link's Awakening had in my opinion the perfect balance.

I like linear games that have large areas to explore and backtrack to if I want, aka Resident Evil 4.