Fun vs compulsion/addiction and what keeps you playing

[Thursday]

Lately I've been playing little else other than the Destiny 2 expansion, and It's been great, it's in the best state the game's ever been. I remained an apologist for Destiny 2 even when it seemed to be at its lowest point, but I'd always been someone that played in a restrained way, so the aspects that were missing from Destiny 1 hadn't really affected me. Now they've brought them back and I put thought into switching between builds depending on the task, and how the class you're using suits the weapons/armour and how all the various perks support each other.

As well as understanding the game in more depth on a mechanical level, the story and lore is the most intriguing it's been. Even though the main campaign is finished, it led into a new mystery and now small pieces of it are dropping each week, so now there's so much more reason to go back each week. And all that's aside from the rpg/mmo compulsion of levelling up your character, getting strong enough to do new challenges. Obviously, there's also the PVP side, I'm never really one for purely PVP games, but Destiny works for me, really, it's a good not great PVP game, but because there's an in-universe justification for it feeds back into the other aspects of the game, it appeals to me as a side distraction. And that's to say nothing of "Gambit" the new competive PvPvE mode which is just brilliant.  (Which also if you look into it has some intriguing hints at lore and story that's yet to come)

I've become so enraptured by it all I keep putting aside Yakuza Kiwami 2 which isn't really grabbing me. Which is a bit weird because at the start of the year I was completely obsessed with the Yakuza Games. Yakuza 6 was getting released in April, and so having played Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 1, I set myself the challenge of getting through them all before 6. The original Yakuza 2 wasn't easily available, so I just watched most of the cutscenes, and then dived into 3, 4 and 5. I was mainlining 3 and 4 a bit, but not entirely and certainly not with with Yakuza 5, which despite being the biggest and arguably quite bloated gripped me the most of all and I really rinsed the game. I had no sign of fatigue despite the games all being so similar, so 6 came around, and it didn't disappoint, although I didn't enjoy it as much as 0 and 5, which I think are the best.

So obviously Kiwami 2 not gripping me has come as a bit of a surprise. Now obviously having watched most of the cutscenes from the original will play a part, but there's quite a lot of new stuff/differences and I don't remember a lot of it anyway, so I don't think it's that.

So other than Yakuza games and Destiny, the other games I've put the most time into this year are... Everybody's Golf and No Man's Sky. Not quite sure what that's about really, maybe I'm reaching the age of being into Dad games despite not being a Dad.

Oh, but I also played Life is Strange before the storm, which I did enjoy a lot despite all its problems, but Captain Spirit bored the piss out of me, and I'm looking at Life is Strange season 2 and I'm not really arsed, but that might just be a simple case of I haven't given the characters a chance to grow on me yet.

Anyway, I'd intended this thread to be about what keeps you coming back to a game, but I've just rambled about something else now. I was thinking about Bosto's narrowing tastes thread and thinking that applies to me, but I'm full of inconsistencies and things keep coming along and contradicting what I previously thought about my own taste. So, I think I just needed to empty out these thoughts, sorry everyone.

[The Boston Crab]

Really interesting thread, I'm going to have to think because what keeps me playing and coming back and having fun are often pretty different things.

[The Boston Crab]

I'd say that feeling an improvement is what keeps me playing, for the most part, which is why I really like games which have a heavy focus on mechanics over anything else.

For shmups, there is always a clear target in place and that target constantly moves out of reach when you achieve it. For Ikaruga, I really wanted to get S Class on the first stage and so I practised for about twenty hours until I could do that regularly. I was so burned out after that, though, that I couldn't face rinsing stage two in the same way and going back to the very start of the whole ordeal, so I left it alone.

With Psyvariar Delta, I wanted to get 1000 Total Buzz on the first stage so I learned it inside out and ended up moving my target to 1100 which took quite a bit longer to achieve. I've only broken that three or four times so it's still a really enjoyable and tantalising goal for me to aim at. That's how I play that game pretty much. I've finished it ten times or so but my actual preference is to totally rinse one level. Now, fortunately and fantastically, that has a per-level score attack mode so I'm inclined to also have a go at lots of other stages to mix it up but 95% of my time is on stage one. I know that's a bit weird, but it epitomises 'what keeps me playing'.

For fighting games, it's feeling my skills improve and seeing my rank go up. At least, it was for SF4 and it was for ARMS for a while. I've been playing a fair bit of Dragonball FighterZ recently and while I do have some great matches, the general populace is much better than me (because it's been available elsewhere for a good while?) and that is a little dispiriting. I tend to play casual matches now to just mess around and experiment but that doesn't really get the blood pumping, but at the same time, I don't have the time or interest to invest in getting good at that to the exclusion of other stuff I'm enjoying.

I've got to go to work.

[bgmnts]

Literally no motivation to do anything else. In this sense, i don't know if ames are keeoing me afloat or dragging me down into the depths.

[The Boston Crab]

Move to another country. Start again. You need to break this feedback loop.

[bgmnts]

I would but Red Dead Redemption 2 comes out soon.

[brat-sampson]

It really depends on the game. 90% of the time I tend to prefer games with an ambitious or at least engaging story or writing. I'll also often find that while making progress through a narrative I'll be driven to go off and explore side-content, do side missions, engage with minigames etc as I go along. As soon as the credits roll though, chances are I'll lose all interest immediately, unless it's towards some True Ending or etc. See Warframe. Fucking loved it over the summer, plugged in 80+ hrs or so, logged on daily for the rewards, gave them some cash when I received a massive discount offer on credits (I feel fine about it, their systems are very generous and I think it's a great example of F2P). I was unlocking new frames, working towards specific weapons, leveling things, grinding occasionally for rare mods or playing missions for rare resources etc etc etc. All while slowly working my way across the Star Chart and making progress. Now, Warframe has quests and they're fucking fantastic sometimes. The writing drips with lore and intrigue, knowing just how much can be done with a few words and some meaningful actions. Some of the actual quest design is... less good, especially in terms of gameplay, but yeah, still some bloody great quests.

But now, I've finished the latest one (The Sacrifice), and have barely touched the game since. they've added more new frames and there's a huge amount of weapons and mods and frames I haven't tried, but I just... don't care. There are even more *quests* I haven't done that weren't mandatory for the main line stuff and I've ignored them too.

Destiny 2, I played it when it was free on PS+, finished the campaign and just kinda felt a bit lost, so haven't played since. I know that's bassically just the beginning of the game essentially, but I'm less driven to go back just to try out Strikes or finish Adventures, grind for engrams and phat l00t etc even though I know I like playing the game. Instead I've gone back to Octopath for a bit or am still happily journeying through Dragon Quest XI.

EDIT:

Oh yeah, and this probably doesn't belong here, but for anyone considering Destiny 2, Bungie just announced that from the 16th of October, buying the regular Forsaken expansion will now include the previous D2 DLC packs at no extra cost. If you already bought them, you'll get some free shaders, consumables, emotes etc as compensation. But if you haven't, you might want to hold off for a few days.

I think the most important thing is... play what you want. It's your time, and if you're having fun, fuck it. If you can get hundreds of hours from one game, especially a multiplayer focused one where you're often interacting with other people then good for you, you're making the most of your money. Kiwami 2 isn't going anywhere and D2's in a very interesting position right now, that's active and lively and changing. In the future, that might change, and you can just move on.

[Glebe]

It kinda gets unhealthy when you've been playing for hours and you go "I'll just do the next quest..." Still, better than be hooked on hard drugs, innit?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Much better these days at realising I've ceased to enjoy playing and stopped. Also on my current two games I've already reached a dominant position so I guess the challenge isn't that appealling anymore. I just dip in and out to ABSOLUTELY MOTHER FUCKING NAIL THE LOT OF THEM before stopping to do something else.