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running up against "the Wall" in video games
Comments
"Well, sometimes I'm like "this game is just really badly designed and not worth my time and effort" and don't give a crap."
"Might as well just not play the game and save yourself the trouble."
And Glenn, when I say "Adventure Games" I mean King's Quest, Gabriel Knight, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Shadowgate etc.
Also, I don't want to just beat the games, see the endings and throw that aside--that's another thing I used to do that I think may have contributed to my low skill. I want to actually be good at the games.
I consider a game "beaten" if I've gotten to the ending through a full course of the game (i.e. no cheating shortcuts), even if cheating is used to make the full course easier to go through. I reserve "completed" for beating without cheating, getting all the collectables, etc..
Look at the three games I listed. Would you stop playing them?
Yes.
As for IWBTG, I am not playing that or any of its derivatives unless there exists a way to savestate-abuse that crap.
Er... you don't? I've heard that too many times to count.
And, relatedly, that the ability to use savestates encourages bad level design.
Like I said before, part of the skill involved in gaming is patience. This includes planning out your movements and having the endurance to execute them. Being able to continue anywhere removes this skill and instead encourages the bad habit of simply falling back on savestates when the going gets tough. I've never played PC shooters, so I cannot comment on that part. As for Kaizo Mario World et al., it depends on whether you'd find satisfaction in mastering such a game. Again, I cannot comment.
To be honest, I can see savestates having some use as a sort of "practice" mode, but I would consider finishing the game using savestates on the same level as using a cheat code.
That said, platform hell games are supposed to be a pain in the ass to complete, so I have no qualms about using savestates for those. I want my gaming experiences to be enjoyable, not pains in the ass.
"Though, if you're just using them to skip over tedious things like long cutscenes or having to walk a long distance to get to where you need to go... Stuff like that I wouldn't really say is cheating."
Yeah, that's more the fault of the game designers for not having the sense to mitigate the tedium.
Also, for actual quicksaving if I need to get off computer quickly.
These though are games I feel a sort of special connection to, so shortcutting them would be basically like cutting my hands off.
Also my copies of X-Multiply and R-Type are on Playstation and I don't think you can savestate through CD-based games (though R-Type has a pseudo-save feature in that you can level select any level you've been to previously), that and I mentioned in another topic my dislike of emulators since they lead to being addicted to downloading.
It's like, you can do explore or wizard mode in Nethack, but it's just not the same. In some games save-cheating doesn't affect your gameplay much (I'd argue that that applies to shmups other than bullet hell games), but in some it really does (such as the lack of risk of death in Nethack).
I've decided to tackle this issue by playing games I'm comfortable with (RPGs, Adventures... basically anything with an "exploration" focus) and then playing fighters and shmups. I find that if you have something within your comfort zone with you while you're exploring outside of said comfort zone, it tends to ease the experience a little. The possible drawback is that it could cause be to recede into just quitting the harder genres, but I'm willing to bet it won't.