"The best" vs. "Having fun"

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

I feel ya. Right now I'm going through "Fallout New Vegas" with explosives as my primary weaponry. I don't think that anybody would dispute that guns or energy weapons are most "optimum" when it comes to character choice, but I get a kick out of it. And in the end, it's my game, I'll do whatever the hell I want with it.

Personally I'd choose the company you keep a little better. Why take up with the douche-nozzle brigade in the first place? There are plenty of "communities", this one included, which seem to have less of the a-shole faction and more reasonable, intelligent commentry.

 

[sinterklaas]

For a single player game that isn't superhard it's ridiculous.

For a teamgame that requires you (in order to beat it/part of it) to have at least a resemblance of an optimally played character/team/racing car/banana, I don't see the problem as long as the discussion doesn't involve namecalling.

 

[Xaio30]

They are both fine, but please prioritize:

1. Enjoy the damn game on your first run!

2. Abuse the shit out of the mechanics your second run!

 

[zehydra]

The problem with games in general, is that there are an unfortunately large number of people who have developed to the point where they can only enjoy things when they win.

 

[an874]

I think Jim Sterling says it best in this video that he did for Destructoid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2odAxDpssVo

 

[Fearzone]

Most of this is simply a failure to accept a broader perspective than one's own. It is an attitude one often encounters in gaming forums--though I hope it is just a vocal minority.

Sometimes, there truly is a single best build and best way to play in an RPG--which I see as a problem with the game--and I'm not against people pointing out better ways to play so long as they aren't assholes about it.

 

[etherlance]

Legend of Dragoon is one of my favorite games and when I played itI chose characters I liked, not caring if they were overpowered or not......mind you that was about 6-7 years ago.

 

[krazykidd]

Ha thats funny because i played/ beat legend of dragoon a few months ago and i used Dart , albert and meru , i r awsome ! . But seriously , i don't see the point of critisizing people on how they play a game or with what characters , BUT if ytou having trouble , there no problem voicing your opinion . Of course it all depends on how you do it . I wouldn'T be cought dead telling people their way sucks, but i would give advice on how i would do it . But i haven't have trouble with a RPG since FF 6 came out ( when i was like 7 ) . so i kinda have a natural knack for not sucking due to experience . With online games i am quite competitive to be honest. I have no problem with people that play to be fun , but i think theres a problem when someone has a 1/10 K/d ratio in CoD multiplayer. That means that that person single handedly lost the match for the whole team which is very frustrating. But thats why online games need a proper matchmaking with people the same skill as you . If you K/D is 1 you should play with people whose ration is close to yours, if you k/d is 0.50 same thing also if you have a K/D ratio of 2 , for the love of god don't match him against or with someone with a K/D of 0.50 .

 

[Skoosh]

Well you've done a pet peeve of mine. I really dislike it when people portray opinions they don't agree with in shitty net-speak. If you made those topics on this site, I highly doubt they were using capslock and saying "ROFL IT SO EZ, UR A NOOB" Let their position be bad on its own, don't make them sound stupider than they are. Don't portray it with such bias.

OT: I think it's fun to be the best. If you ask for advice, of course they will tell you the best strategy for winning. You're stuck and obviously can't go through without the uber strategy, otherwise you wouldn't be making a thread for advice on that boss.

Trying to be the best doesn't mean you aren't having fun or don't like a challenge. Some of the hardest sidequests require you to use the broken strategies just to have a chance. I just recently went back to play Fire Emblem again. I'm getting S rank on Hector's hard mode. Those of you familiar with the game know that to beat it, you basically have to use every cheap trick and OP character you can. Video games are naturally competitive, of course people want to be the best even though it's singleplayer.

It does suck when a game has 1 horribly unbalanced strategy though. That's the game's fault though, not the players'.

 

[random_bars]

No, I absolutely always go for the fun way to play a game rather than the best - even in multiplayer. One weapon is somewhat overpowered and can be used in pretty much every situation, even ones it wasn't meant for? I'll use a variety of weapons anyway. One weapon is fun to use, but not that good? I'll use it and have fun.

I mean, in pretty much every game, the 'best' way to play is to ignore most of the content and options and just focus on the one strategy/weapon/unit/faction/fighter which is most effective... But where's the fun in that? Of course I'd rather win, because winning is simply more fun than losing, but I'm not going to win at the expense of fun.

Because really, if you're not having fun, why are you playing the game in the first place?

 

[SageRuffin]

If I may humor you for a second, I've noticed something when it comes to competitive games - "hardcore" players vs. "scrubs" and "noobs" (and no, they're not the same thing).

Hardcore players... self-explanatory. They know most of the more intricate machinations and take great pride in knowing how to meta-game. These guys hate playing against the latter group because, in short, it's boring - there was no challenge or test so they deem the match as a waste of time and may or may not let you know about it.

There's a different between a "scrub" and a "noob", and I'll detail right now. "Noobs" aren't so bad; more often than not they are simply new to the game and don't understand everything yet. These guys will even give the occasional complement despite them getting bodied (fighter equivalent for "wrecked").

"Scrubs", however, believe the game should be played a very specific way and will decry almost any and everything that goes against it. These are the guys that get mad when they realize their precious "noob-tubing" won't work (is that what it's called?) or that spamming projectiles in a fighting is only delaying the inevitable (depending on the game and player, of course). You're far more likely to get raged on by a scrub than a noob.

I'd go into more detail, but I'm sure you already understand everything there is to understand.

---

For single-player games, that's something that turned me off of games like Dragon Age: Origins (that's not quite true, I'd dock points for various reasons, but I didn't hate it). Every thread I've come across basically said that you had to play the game a certain way in order to move on, which I think is flawed game design. A game isn't very fun when all I have to do press the action button and go grab a sandwich then come back to see my character and his/her party standing in a mountain of enemy entrails. And then, of course, there are the times where you were pretty much fucked since you decided to take this character with you instead of that one.

On the whole, this fine person here sms it up quite nicely:

They are both fine, but please prioritize:

1. Enjoy the damn game on your first run!

2. Abuse the shit out of the mechanics your second run!

And hey, who knows? You might enjoy the game more if you metagame. It's not always guaranteed, and the subsequent infodumps can get pretty overwhelming.

 

[Aean]

When it comes down to it (especially in single player games) I always prefer using things I like as opposed to "The Best" things. If nothing else I can say it adds both fun and challenge to the game.

 

[genericusername64]

I have a tendency to cheat if I can. It's just too tempting to overpower the hell out of my character. I regret it later, but the feeling of blowing away enemies that should be challenging is just too cool.

 

[thelastmccabe]

I often fight this tendency within myself when I play a game. I don't mean the a tendency to go on message boards and be a dick. I mean the tendency to min max my character more than I should instead of just playing the game and having fun.

Especially with RPGs, it's a major temptation to at least look up different builds before you start and try to have a good one. I always justify this by telling myself that I don't want to be in a situation where my character is too weak to finish the game, but I think it's more than that. I also want to make the strongest character I can. Often in an RPG, it's really difficult to know what's going to be effective until you're half way into the game and it's too late to change.

But if I do look up "the perfect build," or something like it, I end up annoyed with myself. I feel like I've taken away the challenge and cheapened the experience, and that I should trust the developers to have made a game well balanced enough for me to beat even if my build isn't perfect. (Which in a good game should be a safe assumption).

 

[Danceofmasks]

No, there are plenty of types of players out there.

There are players who THINK they're all that 'cos they can read a website.
People who consult wikis are n00bs.

Meaning, there's NO WAY for these players to find out such things like just how awesome biotic squadmates are in insanity difficulty ME2, 'cos you have to first try it (contrary to wiki wisdom), practice it ('cos the combos have specific timings), then WRITE walkthroughs about it.

See, players like me laugh at how much bad advice there are in walthroughs, etc.
'cos they are by definition a n00b's crutch, and therefore tend to be the path of least resistance for those with zero to moderate level of skill.

A prime example is underleveling in Oblivion?! Really?
The enemies scale by a fixed amount, and they stop scaling at level 35 or so, so the best way to play is to maximise your power PER level.
Stay way ahead of their power curve, get further ahead per level, and rocket ahead after they stop leveling.
But most importantly, at the end of the day, it's no fun to fight level 1 enemies and get level 1 loot forever.

So yeah .. I'm one of those "game breakers," and I tend to favour telling the devs about strategies I find so they can make the game a better experience for everyone.

In conclusion, the people who criticise others for using unusual strategies tend to be shit players.

 

[Periodic]

Do whatever the fuck you want to do. It's a singleplayer game. If you're discussing "tactics" then you shouldn't be surprised when somebody tells you the best way of doing things. If you want to do things your own way, don't bother asking other people how they do it.

It's REALLY not that complicated.

 

[Atmos Duality]

So escapists. How do you feel about playing a game "the best" way, versus playing a game to have fun? Can you think of other examples of this? Am I alone in my psychotic hatred of fuckwits who rub their best playthroughs in your face?

a) I enjoy variant play-style. Sometimes optimized for effectiveness, sometimes not to see how I must adapt my approach, sometimes done purely for yucks.

b) No, you're not alone. I've met those sorts of people who look down upon others for not optimizing their play, no matter what. I lost a friend to that sort of obsessive behavior.
There's a difference between beating I Wanna Be the Guy, and obsessively playing it to show how you beat it "better" than everyone else. It's the sort of behavior that reeks of insecurity and dissatisfaction.