The science and aproach of game playing

[SoulBlazer]

We all aproach our game playing a different way. Some people are serious, some are fickle. Some are casual players, others play anything they can get their hands on.

So what's your aproach when it comes to console games?

Are you content to have your systems hooked up to a 13 inch Hello Kitty TV ( ;) ) or do you HAVE to play on your big widescreen with 5.1 speakers? Do you always read the manual first, or just dive in and figure things out? Do you refuse the temptation to play if you know you only have 15 minutes, or would you rather prefer to have a hour or two of uniterupted time? Do you have food or drink with you when you game? Listen to music or TV in the background, or keep the game's music on? Will you play during commercials?

Tell us about your favorite hobby. :D

[Dahne]

The rest of the world's standard approach to gaming seems to be to

1) Gaze at previews of game
2) Buy game
3) Beat game
4) Forget game

I can't do that. I might pick up a new game, play it for a bit, then suddenly get struck with the urge to play MegaMan. Eventually I'll come back to it. By then, everybody's on to something else.

[Half Japanese]

I almost never play games for short spurts. I have to have a least a good 45-1hr window to even think about turning a system on. As for setup, I've got a 27" HDTV (component cables Xbox/GCN, S-vid for ps2) and a 6.1 receiver and speakers. It's awesome in the games that take advantage of it (which is Xbox usually, since ps2/GCN only do Pro Logic II and rarely have progressive scan support) and well worth it. I don't really listen to anything while I'm playing the game because it's distracting for me and sort of ruins the experience...sort of like how you wouldn't take a walkman to the movie theater; I've gotta have the whole experience. I do drink when I play games, usually whatever we have in two-liter format. I slayed those things over the summer.

[Flack]

Unfortunately, I've had to adapt my game playing style to match my world.

When I was a kid, I was all games, all the time. When Wizardry (yes, the original) came out, I would play it in 8 hour spurts. The cool thing was, my dad worked 3pm-11pm, so I would come home from school and play until bedtime, and then my dad would come home and play all night. We were always leaving each other notes and maps ... great memories.

My teen years, I spent way too much time playing games. Mostly Commodore 64 games, but some console stuff. Again, it wasn't uncommon on a weekend for me to play a game until the wee hours of the morning.

Now though, I'm not so lucky. This week for example, my wife's out of town, so it's just me and the boy. The first moment I'll even get to myself will be around 9:30pm, and since I have to get up at 6am to start getting ready tomorrow, I just don't have it in me to stay up all night anymore.

Right now I'm sitting in my living room chair, typing on my laptop. My son's playing the SpongeBob Jakks joystick, and after I'm done surfing I'll probably play some C64 or NES games. Emulation isn't always the most realistic solution, but around here it's quite often the most practical.

[Simply Dave]

Lately, it seems as if I like my gaming in short spurts. I've been playing the new Paper Mario game for 30-60 minutes a day and then I put it away until the next day (no wonder I'm only on Chapter 2 LOL ). Of course, I rarely have time to game for hours on end anymore. :(

[Kilik Kurosawa]

I'm still in college so:

1. Donuts
2. Mountain Dew
3. Any new game with lots of replay...right now Fifa 05

[VinnyT]

I have to have atleast a half-hour to really sit down and play. Sometimes i'll just pop in a game to play for a few minutes, just to get a fix. I haven't really had a long gaming period since school started again(Obviously).I knew it really started to get bad when I started hearing Shining Force II songs in my head, as if a tv was right next to me, but i'd be in class, or in the car.

'Course, it's better than hearing PokeMon battle music while i'm trying to sleep.

[Algol]

I play in 30-60 minute spurts. Sometimes as much as two hours at a time, if I really get into it, but I can't go on for longer without taking a break.

I can't STAND hearing anything but the game while I'm playing, so I'm usually alone and play when the house is quiet.

I also have a bad habit of starting a game thinking "I'm playing this to the end!" and eventually forgetting about it, and shelving it for a few weeks or months before I play it again.

[lendelin]

I have a game room, and it is important to me that every system is on the best video connection possible. No HDTV (yet), but lots of component videocables, and S-Videocables are behind my two TV sets. Four stereospeakers give a good sound, too.

I take my time when playing a game. I never wanna rush through a game, I wanna sit back, relax, and enjoy. Relaxing time includes playing adreanaline pumping schmups as well as RPGs. 30 minutes for an already finished game like a racer is ok, otherwise I really wanna dig my teeth into a compelling game.

I give every game a fair shot. That means, I play it for at least an hour before I put it back on the shelves convinced that it is bad, or just not my kind of game. This only happens for games I got incredibly cheap and bought it merely for the sake of the game library. Otherwsie, I know what I like, I like what I know, and read at least three reviews before I buy a game.

I love to get lost in a game; but at the same time I'm always on the search for the nuts and bolts and secrets of game design.

It is a strange rationalized love relationship.

Even during a game, certainly after I played it, I always ask WHY?...WHY is this game so good or bad? WHY isn't this game convincing or completely accessible when it comes to gameplay and story? WHICH elements of game design make the games a failure or success? Is there something new in there? Do the simple game mechanics match game content? Is it a simple or complex game, why and what does it achieve?....and then I even compare it to other similar games past and present, and try to figure out differences and similarities.

As much as I love playing games, I love to think about themand analyze them.

[jgenotte]

I need at least 1 hour of dedicated time to start playing a game.

I enjoy a good picture and sound from my xbox but for everything else I dont care.

When I play a game for the firsst time with the intention of beating it, I dive right into the game, but I play very meticlously. I always put the game on the second hardest difficulty, screw that pansy easy setting, anybody can beat that. This is why I dont like to play RPGs, because it drives me crazy to know that I cound never possibly talk to everyone, get every power up, explore every place, etc.

Here is a dime...you owe me 8 cents.

-james

[Sibs]

I always have to have a big window open for playing games(usually more than an hour) and I have to make sure that all of my crap for the day is done so I don't have to worry about it.

As far as a TV goes, I'm fine with my 21' screen TV. I used to have one of those special TVs they have at Best Buy for game demos, but it stopped working last year :( ...

I'm always the kind of person who dosen't bother to read the manual unless I just plain don't understand the concept or controls of the game. As far as food and drink goes, I've always gotta have a Mountain Dew on my table next to my bed(which is in front of my TV) and sometimes I'll have a bag of chips too(I prefer Munchos, Fritos, and Funyons).

[le geek]

I am trying to be better at sticking with a few games and finishing them. I have too much quality backlog (i.e. DC Ikaruga still in shrink, etc.) It sucks when you get far in a game then get distracted then forget where you were in the game to begin with...

I am trying to pick a system and stick with it for a bit, right now its PS2 with Katamari Damancy, The Getaway, Ico (second play through) and Silent Hill 2.

For modern stuff I tend to buy only what seems compelling, since I have too many other games...

I like reading the manual if needed and am not above going to gamefaqs for the occasional hint...

I play on a 36" teevee when I can otherwise on a 19" teevee. Some games are meant for longer play than others, but I like to play for around 2 hours or so. I prefer the videogame music on with the lights low...

I'm pretty addicted to this stuff as I hang around three videogame message boards, check out four videogame news websites daily, and have my own rather large videogame website. So I try to spend at least some time doing other stuff so I don't mildew and my gf doesn't leave me for the milkman! LOL

Cheers,
Ben

[mezrabad]

I'm the type of player, that if a game is a sequel, I have to play the game that came before it. Example: I had to play the first 7 Final Fantasies before I could play FF8. As I played through them all, it was a real treat to see how the series had built upon itself and changed through each iteration.

Eventually, as I started thinking about the design of most games and how they build upon previous ideas, I decided it would be neat to follow this development from the "beginning". My approach now is simple:

Play all the games.
Play them in as close to chronological order as possible.
If I can't find the game in its original form (or simply can't afford it), emulated will do.
If I can't find it emulated (very hard for early COIN games), I read all I can about it and hope to stumble upon it someday at an expo or in someone's dungeon.

At the moment, my gaming chronometer is set at 1974 which means I can play any game that came out prior to January 1974. I can't advance the year until I finish playing or writing about any game that came out prior to that date in the arcades or on a home video console. In 1977, I will have to start working on the PCs (apple II, pet, trs-80).

Anyway, that's the theory. The reality is that it's hard to get through these early years without spending a ton of money or passing over a lot of the old arcade games. It's also hard to not go out and grab a modern title like "Katamari Damacy" or check out "Fable" or whatever. Regardless, I'll spend a maximum of about two hours an evening, if I get to start early enough that I'm not too brain-dead.

When I am brain-dead, which is most of the time, a real timesponge is searching ebay looking for games from a future year. I'm only in 1974 but already I have most of the games for the channel f, rca studio II, a cuttle cart 2 for the 2600 and an o2 multi cart. I need to stop shopping and really start playing so I can recoup my purchase price for things like the 3 Interplanetary Voyages or all the other doubles I picked up along the way to a complete Magnavox Odyssey collection. (double W.I.N., double Wipeout, double Invasion, double Volleyball, triple Shooting Gallery and 5 consoles.).

It's a fun plan, but so far, implementing it has been difficult.

[postulio]

ILL PLAY ANYTHING ANYWHERE ANYTIME. BRING IT ON!!!

[mizarkgram]

Back in the good old days, when university was still a long ways away, I would play one player (mostly RPG) games all day and then go out with my friends and play multiplayer games all nite. Now, with the 'females' whcih I call roomates (and who are more interested in quiet study time, and a girlfriend who worries more about my school than I do, I rarely get any time to play games, let alone beat any. Right now, I am lucky to get 2 hours a month out of my game systems that I brought with me.

I like to sit for at LEAST 2 hours in playing a RPG-type game, but I can sit for more or less time when playing other games. I have really lost the quality gaming time I used to find everywhere, and I keep on finding myself behind in studies, so I prioritize and try to get wrok done quicker so I can play, but alas... stupid midterm papers mess up my planning.

That being said, I'm off to play The Hobbit for Gamecube, I'll study for my Biological Antrhopology midterm later tonite (Exam is tomorrow morning) @_@

Later all
-Mike

[jdc]

This is a great thread!

Hmmm, lessee.....

I typically arrive home with the new game(s).....make tea or something....and read the instruction manual from front to back. This is not to find out how to play the game, but rather to look at screen shots or art that might be on the pages. I then ALWAYS let the game run in order to check out opening CGs or previews loops before actually pressing "start". Then it's setting options and diving in. I listen to the game sounds only and usually mute the music volume down to zero if it is an option, usually in racers and games like Tony Hawk.

I buy games that are for "now" as well as games that are for later. I can get distracted. I bought Demonstone and played about 4 chapters....then got RE-distracted by Norrath again....and then distracted from THAT by X-Men Legends AND a repurchase of R:Racing Revolution. (it's running right this minute).

I like quick sessions with racing games.......but once the season turns to winter I really look forward to savoring "heavier" RPGs......I'm one of those thorough RPGers. I love random battling and talk to every person in a town.

I occasionally get into a retro frame of mind. I collect Genesis but don't play them much....yet. They're mostly being acquired for future consideration. ( THAT all started when I left the gaming industry and was given a Genny and a complete copy of Shining Force #1 as a going away gift by someone who knew that I loved RPGs). I mainly collect N64 and DO play those. I have Paper Mario 64, Quest 64, Conkers BFD and Jet Force Gemini on my list of N64 games to complete this winter.

Cube comes and goes......I've been playing PSO entirely offline in order to get a character to level 200 without any outside help from hacks eg. Sitting at 138 right now. I pick at it here and there. Tales Of Symphonia and Windwaker are waiting for a date. The new Paper Mario will be bought AFTER I finish the N64 one.

Lots of games...lots of time, I guess. One more thing though......as far as my Cube and PS2 are concerned, I used to buy most releases.......now I tend to only buy and/or KEEP games with depth or replay, such as dungeon crawlers and racers.