I have already admitted to a video game addiction, but in some ways it goes deeper than that. One of my largest problems is that I don't just want to beat a game, I want to conquer it. I want to beat every aspect of the game.
This partially stems from my overall personality, and partially from the fact that we only had two games for our first six months with our first video game system (a Nintendo Entertainment System): Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt. I learned every aspect of both games. While my father set and made a goal of "rolling" the score with Mario, I set both speed and completion goals. My final goal: complete the game without warping and without losing a life. I managed to complete that goal before I received our third game (it would be another six months before we would get our fourth).
That third game was the NES version of Ninja Gaiden. I played the game so often that I had memorized (with different voices) almost all of the dialogue from its (at the time) innovative cut scenes. Beating the game on a single life proved to be a goal that was beyond my skill, but I did manage to beat it without having to hit "continue," an achievement about which I still hold a bit of pride.
Video game creators know about people like me, and so they often load their games with extra content and challenges beyond what most people would attempt. In truth, I kind of hate them for that. Some of the challenges have become so obscure and sadistic that trying to accomplish them is a form of punishment. Worse, my compulsive desire to beat everything goes unfulfilled, leaving me with a vague sense of being a "quitter" and more than a little residual anger.
The worst offenders are games that give achievements for aspects of the game that are outside of the normal game's purview. Examples of this are games like Starcraft II that only gives 100% campaign completion if a player puts hours into its Lost Viking mini-game (not just beating the mini-game, but beating it multiple times) or the Arkham Batman games that require completion of combat "challenges" in a mode separate from the main game.
Following closely are games that incorporate multiplayer elements that count towards completion of a game that is primarily single player, or vice-versa. After this are "cheap" awards for beating a level in a certain time limit or without taking any damage. I call these cheap because well-designed levels have additional challenges that require more than just rote memorization of the level.
I like many of the more ingenious challenges that make me think about the game in ways that standard gameplay does not. However, I would prefer to not deal with a lot of the crap that games incorporate to supposedly create "replayability" but are, in truth, just annoyances. That said, I have recently been playing through the Assassin Creed II games in an effort to finally get "100% synchronization." My wife says that such goals are "stupid," and she's probably right; I recently threw one of my controllers in frustration (the "tank" level of Brotherhood) with enough force to damage it, something I haven't done since my Super Nintendo days.
Still, I finally conquered the level.
This partially stems from my overall personality, and partially from the fact that we only had two games for our first six months with our first video game system (a Nintendo Entertainment System): Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt. I learned every aspect of both games. While my father set and made a goal of "rolling" the score with Mario, I set both speed and completion goals. My final goal: complete the game without warping and without losing a life. I managed to complete that goal before I received our third game (it would be another six months before we would get our fourth).
That third game was the NES version of Ninja Gaiden. I played the game so often that I had memorized (with different voices) almost all of the dialogue from its (at the time) innovative cut scenes. Beating the game on a single life proved to be a goal that was beyond my skill, but I did manage to beat it without having to hit "continue," an achievement about which I still hold a bit of pride.
Video game creators know about people like me, and so they often load their games with extra content and challenges beyond what most people would attempt. In truth, I kind of hate them for that. Some of the challenges have become so obscure and sadistic that trying to accomplish them is a form of punishment. Worse, my compulsive desire to beat everything goes unfulfilled, leaving me with a vague sense of being a "quitter" and more than a little residual anger.
The worst offenders are games that give achievements for aspects of the game that are outside of the normal game's purview. Examples of this are games like Starcraft II that only gives 100% campaign completion if a player puts hours into its Lost Viking mini-game (not just beating the mini-game, but beating it multiple times) or the Arkham Batman games that require completion of combat "challenges" in a mode separate from the main game.
Following closely are games that incorporate multiplayer elements that count towards completion of a game that is primarily single player, or vice-versa. After this are "cheap" awards for beating a level in a certain time limit or without taking any damage. I call these cheap because well-designed levels have additional challenges that require more than just rote memorization of the level.
I like many of the more ingenious challenges that make me think about the game in ways that standard gameplay does not. However, I would prefer to not deal with a lot of the crap that games incorporate to supposedly create "replayability" but are, in truth, just annoyances. That said, I have recently been playing through the Assassin Creed II games in an effort to finally get "100% synchronization." My wife says that such goals are "stupid," and she's probably right; I recently threw one of my controllers in frustration (the "tank" level of Brotherhood) with enough force to damage it, something I haven't done since my Super Nintendo days.
Still, I finally conquered the level.
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