Expressing yourself in video games?
I couldn't think of a better subject title, since 1up, where I'm stealing the idea, used both potential titles.
So I read this article: http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3167625
Then I read this blog: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8723292&publicUserId=5434927
Then I ate cookie dough! Then I thought about the GTA4 thread and all the different takes on the game. Then I made this thread. Then I walked 4 miles. Then I walked 2 miles. Then I walked 5 miles! Then I turned left. And then I found a turtle. Then I followed the turtle. Then I fell asleep.
So I was thinking why don't we all talk about things we've done in games that maybe showed us a little bit of who we are? Something to do with the article and the blog and blah blah blah. Let's steal from 1up! It's alright if most of these stories are about The Sims and Grand Theft Auto, but if you can think of other games to talk about that would be awesome.
I'll start with The Sims, though. There wasn't any one specific thing that showed me something about myself, it's just the way I usually play the game. More often than not, I use the cheat to give myself a retarded amount of money. I then build a house and create a family. Could be anything. Single mother with a newborn living in a single-room sh*t-hole, "perfect" American family with a father, mother, son and daughter living in a two-story house, a bachelor living in a mansion, young gay couple living in a hedge maze, etc.
Then, I just let them go and watch them. I don't give them any commands, I just move the camera around with my finger hovering over the "take picture" button. Whenever something interesting happens, I take a picture and write a caption for it, trying to create a cohesive story based on stuff happening that I have no control over as I go.
I guess what this means is that I'm destined to be the director of a reality show. The rest of this post is off-topic.
One interesting thing that happened once was that a man was eating a burger, when suddenly he peed on the floor. He began crying, placed the burger in the puddle, and ran to his room. His son came into the room, picked the burger up out of the puddle and ate it.
Also, the bachelor in the mansion developed OCD. He woke up one morning and immediately washed his hands. Then he walked outside and stamped on roaches in his bare feet, then came inside and washed his hands. Then he washed his hands. Then he sat down to read a book, but immediately got up and went to the bathroom to wash his hands. He set the kitchen on fire, and the first thing he did was run to the bathroom and wash his hands. It was insane.
My favorite part of that was when he opened the door when a friend came over and they were talking with the little picture balloons over their heads, because the first one that came up when he opened the door was a picture of a sailboat. I just imagined him walking over, opening the door and immediately screaming, "BOAT!!!"
!
That cracked me up!!
Hilarious!!
I will open one of my six mouths, and sing the song that ends the Earth.
I think it's more likely that it means you'll get into voyeur porn (not that some reality shows aren't exactly that, of course).
"I'm absolutely retarded. Not 100% sure why." - atom
"Dhelor + intarwebs = Great ideas." - wordsmythe
"Do I what I do: hate everyone." - Quintin_Stone
Always a pleasure, Mechy von Slinkenheimer.
I guess one of the odd things I do is 'punish' my RPG characters if I feel they aren't performing reasonably. 'If you can't bother to do decent damage with that fire spell, maybe you don't need that healing item I *was* going to use on you.* Usually bouts of unconciousness (or even a stern, meaningful look at the 'game over' screen) will guide my characters back on the path of light, and no further actions are necessary.
8-bit quizzes: http://www.pucemoose.com/g-quizindex.htm
Xbox Live: aFifthofGin aFifthofGin + Frank Sinatra's Hotdog Hut
Me- I'm overly optimistic....
Sure, I can run into a group of heavies with my lil ole flamethrower and kill them ALL.
Hmm...I'm level 16, he is level 21...hey, I've got potions, right??
Nah, we can do the whole dungeon without a priest, no problem.
I'm like that in real life too. I'll leave my house unlocked, drive my car till the gas tank is empty. Guess I like living on the edge.
This is great. I need to go back to The Sims... but I love to mod stuff, and with a game that big I get Mod Shock. I feel like if I don't look at every mod that's been released since I last played (years ago), I'm missing out.
The only interesting Sims story I can remember, well, other than deliberate acts of cruelty on my part, was when I tried to put a random assortment of unrelated people living together in one house. They weren't totally wacky and completely different, just, y'know, people.
One was a teenager (female) who became really good friends with one of the adults (male). Innocent me, I thought she just looked up to him since he was a nice and responsible guy, and he thought she was just a good kid. Well as soon as she turned into an adult, he knocked her up! What the hell! That bastard! Not only that, but she could never really rest while she was preggers. She was too hungry to sleep but so tired she'd pass out on the way to the kitchen. Eventually she died because nobody would bring her a sammich. But then I played rock-paper-scissors with Death and she lived somehow.
Lived and went on to be a horrible mother.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
BF2142 Stats
And, uh, what's your address again?
!
I started reading this thread and was worried that I had split the conversation back to the front page article. Then I read further, and my conscience was easied.
At least once in any RPG with non-armor clothes available, I run around in fancy duds. I'll also run around naked, or just wearing riding boots or something, to see if NPCs will react differently.
I think this may be my standard reaction to hearing NPCs repeat themselves.
rabbit wrote:
1Dgaf wrote:
XBL: E Munnie
Once in a while in RTS games, I like to make suicide missions. I've got a good base set up, lots of income, and, while building my army and protecting from attacks, I will randomly start making basic units and send them to the enemy side of the map. Continually. For 20 minutes. We're talking riflemen vs. mammoth tanks. Its just sad.
I'm an Uncle!!! -8/20/07
I buy even though I have 2 of them. I likey the Snakey. - Scrub, I'll leave it to you to guess what this is about
ICO: General Fancypants l Steam: Grenn[GWJ] l WoW: Goquelyrslf, Grendwar
Grenn hates freedom. We must keep him off our airplanes.
!
Something I noticed while playing GTAIV last night. I get really frustrated when the game doesn't play along.
I was having trouble on that mission where you have to kill the three strip club managers. So, like I always do when I'm having trouble in a GTA game, I decide to find another way to approach the mission. I knew the managers run out the back door and hop into a truck, so I went around back to find their truck and take it out of commission beforehand. That's weird, no truck. So I broke into a nearby car, drove it over to the strip club and parked it pressed right up against the door. I figure that'll keep them from escaping. I go into the club, shoot the first manager and the other two take off. I run for the front door and go around the back. The managers take off in a truck that I'm pretty sure didn't exist a minute ago and the car I parked in front of the door has disappeared completely. The game wasn't playing by it's own rules. I was frustrated and the suspension of disbelief had been broken. I wasn't playing in character any more. The next time through the mission I just pulled out my grenades and started tossing them all around the strip club, even though I'd previously been really careful not to get any innocents in the crossfire. It was a pretty suicidal run and I died pretty quickly, so I just saved the game and quit playing for the night.
It reminds me of my favourite GTA moment, and the reason I love open world games. It was in GTA3, and I was having trouble with this mission where you had to kill this guy. It was very similar to the strip club mission. When you first attack him, he would run off, hop into his car and drive off. You'd have to chase him and it wasn't an easy chase at all. So as I was driving up to where he was waiting, I noticed his car parked around the block. I thought to myself for a moment, then jumped into his car, drove it to 8-Ball's and had a bomb planted on it. I drove it back, parked it in the same spot and armed the bomb. I went around the block, attacked the dude, he ran off toward his car. Twenty seconds later *BOOM!* Mission accomplished. I felt like the cleverest little stinker in the world. That's why I love open world games, and why the strip club mission in GTAIV was such a disappointment. It feels like they're cheating to prevent me from doing anything clever.
I too disliked it when missions in GTA games would reset the game world, making the super fast car you parked outside disappear and be replaced with a beater.
In RTS games, I like to have one of everything. If I can, I will get to the point where the mission is nearly done, then stop and just build units. I won't have them do anything, and I most likely will put them somewhere out of harms way and just let them sit there. Once I've researched/built every possible thing I can (including taking over enemy structures and building everything they can), I will send a mob of weak units to finish the mission, while I sit and admire my pretty collection.
Duoae wrote:
Stengah's Steam ID
ICO: Stengah
After a childhood full of Infocom and Sierra games, I'm the ultimate bug tester for finding fun things that you shouldn't be able to do. I'll spend weeks, sometimes months, of game time doing the following:
- Trying to get to places I shouldn't be in ways I shouldn't be able to use.
- Using every combination of items/abilities/animations/sounds to find unintended consequences. Especially funny or naughty ones.
- Thinking up new and creative ways to alter the game or interface.
I pursue this stuff with dogged determination. Getting invited to WoW Beta 2 led to years of screwing around interrupted by short periods of actually playing the game as intended. I like to think I contributed (I did send in regular bug reports!) but the only result of my time spent was probably higher mountains and invisible barriers in certain places in Azeroth along with a couple of texture cleanups and animation/item fixes.
"There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!" -- Richard P. Feynman
I, too, wish GTA4 didn't cheat and be gay sometimes, but the way I play I never really experience this stuff. I feel like I'm an actor playing the role of Niko Bellic, and as such, I tend to want each mission to be as "cinematic" as possible. If I have to replay a mission, I usually try to approach it only a slightly different fashion. Blocking off a door that I know the guy will run through is something I don't do because it's like none of this ever happened and Niko can't see into the future.
Still, if I fail a mission a second time, I'll usually break that rule and try something vastly different, and if it doesn't work because of the game being a dirty, filthy whore, then I get annoyed, too. I have yet to fail a mission more than once in GTA4, though.
!
I, uh, used to type every curse word I could think of into Zork. Then I would try to eat every thing.
Xbox Live: JayhawkerGWJ
last.fm: JayhawkerGWJ
How often does this happen. I'm early into the game and I'm struggling. I'm starting to think this way (using little tricks, etc.) and I don't want to be stymied constantly.
DSGamer GWJ Live | Facebook
Rather often, I'm afraid. It tends to reset the world whenever there's a cutscene, I think, which is kind of a bummer.
In GTA IV, sometimes I find myself thinking whether I'm being smart or playing just the way the devs meant me to. Like in the lawyer mission last night, I jumped out of the window after killing the guy, instead of running/fighting through the building, presumably to find cops greeting my outside.
Overall, I'm a sucker for roleplaying. I can do the most nonsensical things, punishing myself because I think my character wouldn't act in a certain way. When the game prevents me from acting "in-character", I become very disappointed.
http://dustygamer.mcmuumio.net | Xbox Live Gamertag MC Muumio
Hmmmm... All of that and no tanks. That's how I used to express myself in GTA. That kind of stuff. I might need to find another game to express myself. Or go back to expressing myself by forcing Pinatas to raise chocolate cash for me.
DSGamer GWJ Live | Facebook
I had a friend who, during deathmatch in Goldeneye, would look straight up or down, run around in a circle and karate chop for the entire match. Strange thing was, no matter what weapon I used or where I stood, I could never hit him while he did this.
In a board game called Hero Quest that's sort of like D&D but way more board gamey, he spent the entire time attacking a wall for no reason. After spending five turns just attacking this wall, I gave the wall 100 HP since I figured if he could actually manage to hit the wall enough without being killed by all the stuff I was sending his way, he deserved to go through to the other side. He eventually managed to break through and won the entire quest for his team, who were near death and busy wandering around the correct way.
He also drove backwards in most races of Mario Kart, or stayed in one area in Mario Kart's battle mode and filled it with turtle shells. He never seemed to play games the "correct" way, and they were always more fun because of it.
!
But if he were smart, he'd have planned ahead and blocked off some of the more likely escape routes.
Similar problem happens in games where you position yourself (and any party members you might have), knowing you're walking into a fight. Then there's a cutscene and you're all dumped into the middle of the room. That cover you were behind? It's now the target's cover. That explosive barrel you brought? Reset to its original location.
That's some BS.
rabbit wrote:
1Dgaf wrote:
XBL: E Munnie
i always used to execute infantry units ins Red Alert for insubordination. every now and then when they wouldn't move where i clicked, i'd reprimand them and then have their commrades open fire.
I tend to play Halo on Normal difficulty, though I can usually get through pretty well on Heroic, because I like to finish every level with all my marines alive.
ou gar dokein aristos, all' einai thelei
http://livingepic.blogspot.com: where Classics and gaming meet
I'm a big guy who works in a library. This means that the vast majority of my colleagues and co-workers are female. Since moving to a new position where I am the only man in the department, I've become very aware that I'm literally twice the size of most of my co-workers and have a very loud voice.
I realized this was embedding myself in my subconscious when I started to think about how much I love playing a hobbit in LOTRO. Then I got to thinking that just about all of the characters I've rolled in any rpg since I became a librarian have been wee little folk.
At least there is a classical model for this kind of preference. In my own private Illiad, I'm the Locrian Ajax, rather than Telamonian Ajax.
We all know that there is no quicker way to empty a joke of its peculiar magic than to try to explain it -- to point out, for example, that Lou Costello is mistaking the proper name "Who" for the interrogative pronoun "who," etc. - D.F.Wallace
Oso, that's a great story. Made my morning.
http://dustygamer.mcmuumio.net | Xbox Live Gamertag MC Muumio
In RPG's I usually take the route of the most loot. I will base my choices on the amount of loot they will get me, and even go so far as killing the quest giver to get the item back after he gave the gold for it to me.
Being the good guy is also part of the equation. I'd rather do the good thing than the bad thing if the loot seems about the same.
I don't watch, I interact!
Yeah, but if I didn't think to block off those routes the first time, I don't bother the second time. If I had thought to block off those routes the first time and the game reset them, I'd be very annoyed.
This is off-topic as well, but one thing that annoys me about GTA4 is that people keep calling me up and initiating missions without any input from me. It's cool in that it's more realistic, but it's annoying because I'm usually standing right next to my bed, ready to save my game. Suddenly I can't save my game and I'm going to be 10 minutes late for work.
!
Most of the time you can accept the missions and just save and quit after that, though. Time-critical missions are rare.
http://dustygamer.mcmuumio.net | Xbox Live Gamertag MC Muumio
No, but this actually launches the mission. Like, suddenly there's a yellow dot on my radar and saving has been disabled. It's rare, but it has happened more than once.
!
I was getting rather sick of GTA4 but finally I unlocked the middle island. Upon seeing that I had many new things to do in this island, I promptly drove to all the clothing stores until I found one that sold suits. After outfitting Niko with a proper black suit, I let out a sigh of relief. I felt so content at that moment. I'm now really looking forward to playing more GTA4.
If I'm roleplaying a character in the modern era, they need to wear a suit. Especially if they kill people.
Certis wrote:
AOC: Jozak - Conqueror on Wiccana
XBL: elliottxW
rabbit wrote:
1Dgaf wrote:
XBL: E Munnie
I didn't buy a suit until a particular mission where someone suggests you buy a suit. The suit cost $1000, and completing the mission was worth $1000. Cheap prick...
I wear the suit everywhere. On dates, at the strip club, while killing people, while swimming. And the suit totally made the Three Leaf Clover mission a million times better.
!