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March 28, 2024, 11:40:26 AM

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Why are you shit at games?

Started by Barry Admin, June 16, 2022, 03:50:38 PM

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Barry Admin

Quote from: Kelvin on June 16, 2022, 09:17:04 PMI can never tell whether I'm good, bad, or average at video games, because so much of it seems to come down to persistence and patience; trying the same bit over and over again until you finally push through to the next checkpoint or save. Do I complete every game I play, pretty much, yes. And I usually 100% every game I love. But I also lose at most multiplayer games - and am downright hopeless at online multiplayer.

So I'm not sure, really. The feedback from developers seems to indicate that most games don't get completed by the majority of players that buy them, so I suppose just completing games makes you better (or more committed) than average. But I'm useless at FPS games, sport games, rocket league, anything where I can't learn it at my own pace and am being humiliated by human opponents before I can get into it. Even Splatoon, which I've played for hundreds of hours, I'm still fairly useless at.  I think I just lack experience of playing online.   

Multiplayer just totally changed gaming for me.  Once I competed against real people in Quake, that was it, I could never really go back, and I guess I've rarely ever engaged with single player in the same way since.

Constant learning process too, I was in the firing range this week working on my strafing and movement. Been watching positioning videos etc. I'm never food enough to be satisfied, but I have my moments and pop off, or get some wicked looking sliding kill, and it just feels amazing. And the failures push you on to improve and try again.

Computer opponents are boring AF compared to real people.

falafel

Quote from: Pink Gregory on June 16, 2022, 05:46:14 PMI've never won a single game of Civilization, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6.  I think my problem is that I always try to avoid warfare because it's the least interesting part of the game, and what I'm probably doing is engaging with the game that I wish it was rather than the game that it is. 

The one chum I play with (if anyone on CaB wants to play Civ 6...) just automates everything and seems to just steamroll across the map every time.

Odd, because I play the same way (can't stand fighting so just play to survive) and almost can't help getting a tech victory every time. I think it's just a weird muscle memory because I started playing Civ around the same time my first memories as a human being emerge. It's the only game I would say I am unquestionably good at. Shit at most others because of a slightly delayed motor response and the fact that the bit of my brain that rewards gambling (and maybe perseverance) seems to be atrophied.

Pink Gregory

Quote from: falafel on June 17, 2022, 08:03:21 AMOdd, because I play the same way (can't stand fighting so just play to survive) and almost can't help getting a tech victory every time. I think it's just a weird muscle memory because I started playing Civ around the same time my first memories as a human being emerge. It's the only game I would say I am unquestionably good at. Shit at most others because of a slightly delayed motor response and the fact that the bit of my brain that rewards gambling (and maybe perseverance) seems to be atrophied.
i think the problem is that you kind of have to decide your target victory right away and stick to it; of course each Civ has an advantage in one area but if you try to diversify your cities in terms of what they output you seem to end up at a disadvantage.  You can never truly be adaptable.

beanheadmcginty

I absolutely hate the concept of magic (the fictional wizard kind, not the Paul Daniels kind) , so I end up playing through all RPG-type games as whatever the most physical character is with just swords/guns and only use magic as a last resort when it's the only way to overcome an obstacle. Even in games like Bioshock and Prey where you've basically got a magic left hand I only ever want to use the normal weapon in the right hand. I've completed the Mass Effect trilogy twice without using any biotics. Always end games with an inventory absolutely stuffed with potions that I've never once bothered using. I must be missing out on huge swathes of interesting gameplay but I just fucking can't stand wizards and psychics.

bgmnts

Shit reaction times, low cognitive ability and I get tired easily (yes, even just playing games, depression and obesity is that bad)

So any form of quick reflexes or complicated puzzles sans walk through are out of the question for the most part.

Pink Gregory

I'm absolutely terrible at lateral thinking as well, so quite a lot of the time if a game puzzle requires something a bit unintuitive or that's a little bit outside the game logic I go to pieces.

Perfect example is in Metal Gear Solid, Meryl's codec frequency being on the 'back of the cd case'.  I just brute forced through each frequency in the end, I had the time.

oggyraiding

The classic never using items in case I need them later. When I first played KOTOR back in the day I would not use the buff stims or grenades at all. Replaying it recently, those items got me out of a lot of scrapes so not sure how 11 year old me managed without. In Silent Hill 2 I did most of the game on low health as I didn't want to waste my health drinks, even though I ended the game with over a dozen of them in my inventory.

Spoiler alert
This bit me in the arse as spending long periods at low health gets you the ending where you commit suicide. If only I used my stockpiled health drinks.
[close]

There are probably other games where I could have survived death if I had just used items, but what if I need that item to survive death later in the game?

Also these.


Povidone

I have real issues with tracking action on screen in multiplayer games even when they're not split screen (in fact split screen is much easier for me to handle) I think this has to do with my having one good eye.

I had a bunch of mates who wanted to play nothing but Diablo 3 when we got together and I fucking HATED that game. I still think it's the single shittiest gaming experience I've ever had: me not being able to keep track of what character I was even playing as, literally watching another character for minutes and not realising it wasn't the one I was playing. Then nearly half an hour of sitting around between missions while these cunts fannied around with their armour and weapon set ups in the town, you know the kind of cunts that have to optimise everything  even if it only means getting one more HP or strength or whatever the fuck.

This is the kind of shit that makes me hate video games if I'm honest, I went from really enjoying the freedom of fucking about in World of Warfcraft and having fun to no longer having any interest in the game at all in about one second when a friend pulled me up for having put skill points in three skill trees "you can only max out two you know", oh right, can't be arsed then, shit game, I came to use my imagination and escape from real life not make a fucking spreadsheet.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: oggyraiding on June 17, 2022, 12:40:04 PMIn Silent Hill 2 I did most of the game on low health as I didn't want to waste my health drinks, even though I ended the game with over a dozen of them in my inventory.
Ironically, that's one of the conditions for getting the suicide ending.

Quote from: Povidone on June 17, 2022, 12:48:47 PMI had a bunch of mates who wanted to play nothing but Diablo 3 when we got together and I fucking HATED that game. I still think it's the single shittiest gaming experience I've ever had: me not being able to keep track of what character I was even playing as, literally watching another character for minutes and not realising it wasn't the one I was playing. Then nearly half an hour of sitting around between missions while these cunts fannied around with their armour and weapon set ups in the town, you know the kind of cunts that have to optimise everything  even if it only means getting one more HP or strength or whatever the fuck.

Oof, yeah. I remember a couple of people badgering me to play that and torchlight 2 online and it was a nightmare. People running around killing my munsters, filling my screen with their stupid particle effects, bozos flying around all over the shop. Realise I've been trying to kill a player character for the last 3 minutes, and then like you say they're either running ahead or they're stood still for half an hour.
No, no, no, an ARPG is a comfy, single player affair.

Quote from: Barry Admin on June 17, 2022, 07:35:44 AMMultiplayer just totally changed gaming for me.  Once I competed against real people in Quake, that was it, I could never really go back, and I guess I've rarely ever engaged with single player in the same way since.

Computer opponents are boring AF compared to real people.

Yeah, nothing can compare once you get into it. I really loved my time playing multiplayer fps. I used to like playing FFA on 64 man servers on cod 4, that was absolutely nuts. Just none stop fun, legging it around the map with my p90, mowing down arseholes, dodging the exploding corpses.

I think I got a bit burnt out with all the adrenaline, I'd get a bit too excited and try too hard. Especially playing a team game, it's daft but I really felt the pressure to perform and not let people down, so I transitioned to shmups where I can chill a bit more, there's less pressure because you're just on your own and you're only trying to beat your own score.

Brundle-Fly

I hate it in open world games if you have to participate in a game of poker or craps. And fishing? Forget it.

Mister Six

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on June 17, 2022, 02:43:46 PMI hate it in open world games if you have to participate in a game of poker or craps. And fishing? Forget it.

Try Yakuza 2 - you have to win a game of mahjong to complete the main storyline. Although there are a couple of cheat items you can pick up that let you win immediately, which helps.

Kelvin

Quote from: Barry Admin on June 17, 2022, 07:35:44 AMComputer opponents are boring AF compared to real people.

I'm kind of the other way. I love the power fantasy of outclassing my opponents. I remember back when I was a kid, massively into GoldenEye and Perfect Dark on N64, you could walk right up behind the enemies and they wouldn't even know. In the years after that, AI obviously improved and stealth required more skill, it was harder to just fuck about like that, and I remember slightly missing how incredibly stupid enemies were in those N64 games. I like games that make me feel like a superhero, not ranked 14 on the leaderboard.

Crenners

Who tf said I was shit at games?

popcorn

Quote from: oggyraiding on June 17, 2022, 12:40:04 PMThe classic never using items in case I need them later. When I first played KOTOR back in the day I would not use the buff stims or grenades at all. Replaying it recently, those items got me out of a lot of scrapes so not sure how 11 year old me managed without. In Silent Hill 2 I did most of the game on low health as I didn't want to waste my health drinks, even though I ended the game with over a dozen of them in my inventory.

This isn't you being shit at games, this is an entirely rational approach. Loads of people play games like this and then blame themselves or think they're just silly or whatever - but really it's the consequence of a baked-in design problem with a lot of types of games: the problem of the unknown unknown.

You don't know what the designer has planned for you around the next corner, so the sensible approach is to play conservatively. But this isn't necessarily desirable, or the most fun way to play a game (or what the designers had hoped for).

It's a difficult problem and it can usually only be mitigated rather than fully solved.

Shaxberd

Quote from: popcorn on June 17, 2022, 06:46:02 PMThis isn't you being shit at games, this is an entirely rational approach. Loads of people play games like this and then blame themselves or think they're just silly or whatever - but really it's the consequence of a baked-in design problem with a lot of types of games: the problem of the unknown unknown.

You don't know what the designer has planned for you around the next corner, so the sensible approach is to play conservatively. But this isn't necessarily desirable, or the most fun way to play a game (or what the designers had hoped for).

It's a difficult problem and it can usually only be mitigated rather than fully solved.

People complained a lot about Breath of the Wild's weapon breakage feature but there are a ton of items I would never have used otherwise, and since new weapons were always plentiful I didn't mind being made to change things up now and then. If designers want us to not hoard items there need to be positive or negative incentives to use them.

oggyraiding

I didn't like BotW's system, if only because when you unlock the cool champions' weapons, I was scared of them breaking so didn't use them.

Quote from: oggyraiding on June 17, 2022, 07:16:23 PMI didn't like BotW's system, if only because when you unlock the cool champions' weapons, I was scared of them breaking so didn't use them.

It's a weird one when it comes to hoarding. On one hand it makes weapons seem carefree and disposable so you go through them at a rate of knots trying all kinds of things, but then because everything is so disposable and temporary when you get something that feels special like the champion's weapons you mentioned it makes you want to wrap them in cotton wool (or just put them on the wall of your house).

Kankurette

Quote from: Barry Admin on June 16, 2022, 03:50:38 PMWhat are your weak points in gaming? What holds you back form true greatness?

For me it seems to be general inattentiveness and clumsiness. Get distracted far too easily, and also just don't really have the physical coordination to be as great at shooters as I wish I was.

I worry also about my reflexes these days. Think they're still actually pretty good for an ageing bloke tho tbh, and I attribute that to gaming.
Lack of practice, impatience, short attention span, and using an emulator. I'm not sure how good my hand/eye coordination is, but I find games like Bubsy the Bobcat absolutely nightmarish because they're so bloody fast and hard to control and you can't see anything for ages and then before you know it the cunt lands in a spike pit.

bgmnts

When it comes to conserving, I'm that dick who will reload a gun even if I just fire one bullet, if it's safe to do so.


Ha! Yeah, I used to do that. Looking in every bin and drawer as well, just in case the devs had decided to hide the best item in the game in some random bin.

Barry Admin

I'm getting a Strike Pack for my birthday! Wanted a pro controller for years so I can be a crouch-spamming bish. Now I'll see, though, whether this actually makes me any better, or whether it's just something you throw money at in the hopes it will make a difference. Don't fancy using all the recoil-nerfing shit as that's just cheating, but hopefully I'm coordinated enough to use the paddles it adds to the back of the controller.

Do you guys actually practice? I could spend more time doing that in the firing range really, but feel it's largely better to practice by playing. But I gotta get my strafing and crouch-spamming ingrained into my muscle memory more fully.

bgmnts

Just played my first ever game of Enlisted and got 56 kills to 3 deaths.

Beginners luck in games is almost universal but even so I either must be better than I thought or lucked out on a shit lobby.

Quote from: Barry Admin on June 21, 2022, 09:50:45 PMDo you guys actually practice?

I suppose with multiplayer first person shooters, depending on the game and game mode, there can be a lot of downtime between kills, so I think it does make sense to fart about in the training modes or whatever, get good at handling the different weapons so you're much more confident when you're going head to head with someone.

Especially with something like counterstrike where you have to get used to the recoil compensation of all the different weapons, finding out how long you can fire before the accuracy goes to pot, things like that.

Practising just feels too much like homework to me though.
There are some shmup players who'll find a part in a game that they struggle with, make a save state in mame and just play that part of the game 100 times until they can ace it.

Makes perfect sense, but it just doesn't feel right to me. It stops feeling like fun playtime and feels more like you're rehearsing your lines for a play.

I never use any of the best weapons/special items in any game, hoard them ''just in case'' then the credits roll

Replies From View

Poor attention span, I think.  I just get bored quickly and can't be arsed trying the same thing over and over again.  Then when games involve memorising routes back to an exit I get lost.  So all the latest games like Wario 4 on the Gameboy advance where they take out the stress of you losing lives are still too difficult, because you need to remember the route back.

Quite happy to watch someone playing a game on YouTube if their commentary is entertaining enough.  In the late 80s / early 90s, watching friends play their games was more fun than holding a controller myself, so YouTube fills that gap when needed.

Oh yeah, everyone dunks on linear stage design, but in those twisty turny maze like levels where everything looks the same, I just end up walking around in circles and crying.

Goldentony

Have a habit of fucking the camera around in Resident Evil when firing and i've never been able to stop it. It reminds me of being shite at TEST YOU ARE FUCKING MIGHT in Mortal Kombat but then watching hard older lads just arsefuck giant diamonds in with Kano, I could just never grasp it at that age. Watching an older lad on Konami International Track and Field was the same experience, I was total shit at it til I saw a lad just go apeshit on the buttons and I was still dogshit and never got past javelin but I got to javelin which was all I was arsed about

Beagle 2

Too bold. Zero interest in stealth or hiding, just like to steam in there. Also I get quite a lot of enjoyment from dying in funny ways or crashing or letting my opponent score because I'm titting about. I don't really put any stock in being brilliant at a video game, it's more about the vibe. And if I have to go back and do a bit I've already done again, I get progressively worse at it each time because I'm already bored.

C_Larence

#59
I'm petulant to the point of toxicity on online games. I recently threw 7 games in a row on Rocket League because my team mates were bad and I didn't think they deserved to win. I've also started doing it if a team mate joins the game AFK, which happens a shocking amount considering how fast matchmaking is. If they don't use the quick chat to say sorry then it's absolutely game over. I finished last season in Champ 2 and ended up placing this season in diamond 1 due to throwing so many games. In fairness people really are quite awful at this level, constantly chasing for the ball, refusing to defend and hitting random shots to the wall any chance they can get even if someone else would have a much better chance to score. I usually try to give them a chance, but if it happens more than a couple of times I'll just leave them to it and drive around aimlessly, maybe make a snide comment about how they clearly don't need my help.  I also tend to forfeit early when it's obvious, at least to me, that we have no hope of winning. Usually both the other team mates won't agree to it, then will vote to forfeit after conceding a few more goals. When that happens, and it happens often, I don't agree to it just to waste their time and prove my point.

I recently picked up Apex again and have the same problem. People seem to just want to drop and die asap and I don't understand the fun in that. The second a jumpmaster drops without pinging where they're going, (or, if I'm jumpmaster, says no to where I ping) I get as far from them as possible. 9 times out of 10 they'll die within a minute and leave. Ranked games are a little better as there's an incentive to play more tactically. Hopefully as I progress up I will consistently get placed with likeminded people