Have you ever "played to lose"?

[Derelict Frog]

In GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption it was sometimes fun to purposefully fail a mission in different ways to hear the dialogue. It was specific to how you failed the mission (unless you died of course). Also, then on replaying the mission, you'd hear new dialogue on the ride over to the start.

 

[Hemlet]

Playing to lose? Absolutely! Some of the best times I've had in a game were when I played to lose!

-Playing Halo 3 splitscreen with a buddy and going online. In our heads, we were always on our own 2-man team, even when the game said we were enemies.

-Dark Souls, currently doing a playthrough where I'm not allowed to block ever. The parrying dagger and bandit knife are my babies.

-Far Cry 2, for a while I was only allowed to use a machete. That led to some of my favorite moments in that game, and there's nothing quite like clearing out an entire encampment and having them shit themselves in fear because of some looney hiding in the foliage with a machete.

-Playing through Cave Story in a minimalist run, meaning I only get my starting 3 HP and the weapons that I absolutely HAVE to collect to proceed with the game.

-Dungeons of Dredmor, rolled a character that was only allowed to carry shields in either hand. Ironically he turned out to be one of my best characters.

-Super Smash Bros, any iteration, at least one person absolutely HAD to use Jigglypuff and everyone has one life. Whoever loses to Jigglypuff has to be Jigglypuff until they beat someone else.

-Playing Kirby's Adventure, picking a power, and only being able to use that power for the whole game.

-Playing D&D and rolling a wizard with high STR, CON, and DEX and virtually nothing in WIS, INT, or CHA. Also in D&D, rolling a kobold barbarian (who turned out to be surprisingly effective).

-Crackdown 2 multiplayer. We were only allowed to use throwable objects and melee combat to kill anything. That was pretty special.

-Trying to do a Batman: Arkham Asylum playthrough on Hard difficulty without upgrading anything was fun as all hell, I'll probably get around to doing that with Arkham City as well.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Sometimes on racing games I'd get bored and just try to make peoples lives hell.

 

[thespyisdead]

hmm... playing mass effect on insanity??? god that shit is hard...

 

[Solid Snake]

Metal Gear Solid 4 no kills, tranqs, alerts, continues, restoration items. Thank god I found a box. Otacon won't ever pack me one before a mission.

 

[Tazzy da Devil]

Yeah, I've done that. I had a go at Gran Turismo when my brother bought it, I found the racing boring, so I kept on crashing on purpose to see how much I could destroy my car. I remember once I had to get back to the pit without any tires. Fun times. I also remember the time I let my brother play Kindom Hearts 2. He got to the Pridelands and spent a half hour jumping off Pride Rock.

 

[Smeatza]

Me and my mates regularly make troll builds on Shogun 2 and League of Legends for the fun of it.
You even win sometimes due to the sheer suprise factor.

 

[Broady Brio]

Most prominent in my mind is in GTA IV. To use only the pistol and fists.

 

[madster11]

Pistols only is common for me and friends.

This is less of a handicap if the game has an FN Five-seveN, because usually the gun is depicted accurately and you can use it as a damn semi-auto sniper rifle with a 20 round magazine that you can sprint with.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

Any fighting game I ever played with my ex-girlfriend. She didn't take to defeat very well..

 

[Blunderboy]

Me and my mates regularly make troll builds on Shogun 2 and League of Legends for the fun of it.
You even win sometimes due to the sheer suprise factor.

All archer armies?

OT - I don't really play to lose as such but I do often set myself limits. In several Total War games I'll limit myself to a certain area or number of provinces. For example as the Romans only hold and secure Italy. If I do capture any cities off the 'boot' I gift it to my allies.
I've also tried to migrate a nation to a different start point. Ancient Britons in Egypt anyone?

 

[TheKruzdawg]

I've done that recently in CoD Black Ops by only using the Ballistic Knife to kill people, whether from stabs or firing it. Oddly enough, I had a stretch of 5 or 6 games where I actually killed more and died less than usual...

I also love using Scavenger with the Decoy equipment and tossing them every time I resupply so the battle is full of random gunfire. I'm pretty sure I annoy a lot of people...

When my friends and I play Super Smash Brawl, we almost always play one match where everyone is Bowser, since he is the slowest character. So many suicide kills off cliffs (thanks to one of Bowser's grab/slam moves).

 

[Radoh]

Well, my only experiences on playing to lose involve Strip Poker, so I don't think that qualifies.

 

[MMSouthpawVIII]

I mainly did this when I played Halo 2 all the time.

My two favorite things to do were 1)to use only stickies and melee on midship with no shots fired (I was actually really good at this and would usually be the top player with 0 shots fired)

and 2) Diplomacy. I would try to become friends with the enemy team and just hang out and chat it up. This worked a lot better than you would expect and was surprisingly fun, especially when i could convince enemy teams to protect me from their teammates that would try to kill me

 

[Aerosteam]

If there's an asshole on my team, I try to lose so he will as well.

And this is usually the case when I have some friends over and just grief on CoD.

 

[TheTechnomancer]

I only do it on a game i really enjoy. Usually once I've run out of difficulty settings. Spent a long time on ratchet and Clank 3 trying to win without any armour upgrades (dodging like a boss). Playing sport games such as fifa with your feet or split screen against yourself left vs right can also be fun. I also recommend taking the casing off a spare controller for a console so you have to play while holding the boards and buttons together, that can be fun.
I won't specifically aim to lose though unless it's MP and someone is annoying me with a mic.

 

[Dastardly]

It's my favorite kind of play. When my friends and I aren't sweating the wins and losses, we can actually hang out while we're playing. Really, "pointless" play is the best, purest kind.

 

[lacktheknack]

I play Dwarf Fortress. Full stop.



Other than that, no. I either power-play or just play standard. The only "play to lose" I do is pacifist runs, and even then, only in games that allow for them (Mirror's Edge, Splinter Cell, Deus Ex). If I want a challenge, I'll up the difficulty level.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I once tried the Dunkmaster Yi build on League of Legends before. Got killed by the Rude Dudes after barely defeating the Stone Brothers.

My team were completely shocked. First time jungling ever as well XP

For those who have no idea.

Spoiler

I think my mistake was putting the first point into Alpha Strike instead of his active buff. Also didn't use my Red Sodas, dehydration causes the death of even the most badass of men...

Me playing any AD Carry is just damn suicide. I can't play any of them to save my life, with the possible exception of (sexy new character model!) Ashe

Also in UMVC3 my new Vergil, Jill, Morrigan team is amazing play to lose material... I'll break it down.

1. Do well with Vergil cuz i actually know wtf i'm doing with him

2. Fail at Morrigan keepaway, i'm going to pull off her basic relaunch combo online one day if it kills me.

3. Fail as Jill since she is so freaking technical it hurts XP

It's such a fun team to play though, i have to keep using it

Oh and if anyone has any idea what the shit Capcom were thinking when they came up with Jill's level 3 let me know. It's basically Troll Mode activate.

Now some genius will have a full health combo from that lvl 3 on Youtube... Fucking calling it

 

[Kevlar Eater]

All the time in BF3. No point in trying to fight when when 95% of the games I play on, the team I'm on has been beaten back to their base. I just pull out the MAV and spot things, hoping to keep it in the air long enough to actually spot things.