Palate Cleansers

[WulfeLuer]

Something I've wanted to get off my chest and ask for a while now.

I've made no secret that I specialize--hell, revel--in RPGs of one stripe or another. The big ol' time wasters that make you sink 40+ hours before you can even think of seeing the final credits (not even going into postgame territory). Publisher, sub-genre, developer, I've never really cared. But over the years, I've come to realize that gaming burnout is real (not helped by my bizarre work schedule). After a bit of mental fiddling, I went ahead and starting playing "palate cleanser" games; Metroidvania platformers, old shumps, even FPS (where I don't have to deal with PvP anyway) or hack-n-slash. I found that it helps to let my brain scrub out of some the outside stress and pull away from whatever RPG system I'm into long enough to let things reset and refresh.

Am I the only player that does this? Are there any other strategies in use that help keep up that nerdy little spark and make up pick up that controller?

[celerystalker]

It's usually those games that I know inside and out, to where my hands and sub-conscious can basically do the work with minimal active thought, and I can just sit back and revel in an old favorite. Some of my personal favoritesc

Super Metroid (SNES)
Rygar (NES)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1)
RBI Baseball (NES)
Contra (NES)
Time Soldiers (Arcade)
Black Tiger (Arcade)
Centipede (Arcade)
Baseball Stars (NES)
Super Mario Bros. series (up through 64)
Gate of Thunder (TGCD)
Bible Adventures (NES)
Zelda II (NES)
TMNT: Turtles in Time (SNES)
Keith Courage in Alpha Zones (TG16)
GI Joe (Arcade)

There are more, but those are the ones that jump out at me at the moment. Stuff that can handily be blown through in a sitting (save Symphony), and largely stuff I've been playing for 25-30 years in some capacity.

If you're feeling like you need to reset your mood and want to feel innocent again for a minute, turn out the lights and spend a night starting a new game of A Boy and His Blob for Wii. In my mind, that game, in the right context, is very special, even moreso if you have kids. It made my brother cry happy tears. As for me...

Um, never mind... *sniff*... I'm gonna go play Rastan... *sniff*... and kill stuff... *sniff*... because I'm manly, dammit...

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, even with RPGs being one of my favorite genres, I've never been able to relate to diehard RPG fans who play one after another after another. I need to play some action games in between to get full enjoyment out of the RPGs I play. It's kind of weird that I play visual novels back-to-back when they're even more passive than RPGs, but it probably is to the detriment of how much I enjoy them. I just can't resist trying out a new visual novel that catches my interest. I also have paying gigs to cover games fairly regularly, so I can't always control when I can play a game.

For me, platformers are the ideal palate cleanser. They're like comfort food to me, whether it's an old favorite or one I've never played before. But in lieu of that, just about any kind of action game will do in between stuff like RPGs and visual novels. What I'm mainly seeking is something that moves much quicker, has more interactivity, and puts up more of a challenge. Once I get my fill of the action game, then I'll ideally be eager to start up something more relaxed and cerebral. I like my gaming like a swinging pendulum, I guess.

[Tanooki]

I've been known to fire up something I know I can either cruise through or used to and know i won't get ticked off if I do not. It's all about giving things a little space and that's fine.

Also on the whole, probably not best to keep a large collection around unless its of everdrives and emulators because then you'll sit too long questioning what to use to clear your mind you won't have time for it.

[WulfeLuer]

I've tried that 'workmanlike' approach in my gaming a few times, but like Aussie describes, I just wind up with burnout and having my opinions and impressions getting more and more negative the farther I go in the 'chain' of games.

Having something relatively light-hearted and straightforward just helps a lot. I've found that doing that keeps me a bit more even-keeled for the 'rougher,' more numbers and strategy oriented RPGs out there. I have reason to believe that some of the games I have negative opinions about may well have gained a better reception if I had been doing this all along. There's some games I'm willing to give a chance for vindication (except Dawn of Mana, harrumph).

One of the reasons I started this thread is that most of the gamers I know IRL are kinda...flighty. They have a habit of picking a game, playing the hell out of it for a week or maybe a month, and then dropping it and acting like it never existed. It kinda drives me crazy.

[Aussie2B]

Speaking of light-hearted, I find I benefit from mood and tone palate cleansers too. If I attempt to play multiple games that are gritty, dark, and depressing back-to-back, it drags me down. I don't know how, say, diehard horror game fans play those games one after another. When I play a heavy game, I want to then balance things out by playing through something sunny and cheerful with bright, colorful graphics. Then I'll be refreshed to tackle another dark game.

[WulfeLuer]

Some people have a particular groove that they play best in. Some people just have that one 'off' game they really like, even if it's way out of their usual preferences.

I used to know a guy that would play anything that had guns (even if the guns made no sense, like Rachet and Clank) or was 'gritty' or 'grim' in some way. God knows how he responded to Borderlands or Red Dead Redemption. That was all he wanted to play or talk about. Then I brought in a Game Informer I nabbed that had a KH2 preview. I didn't really know or care all that much about the franchise then, and was just getting laughs at the Nazgul jokes GI was pointing at the bad guys (remember when GI was funny and snarky and not just a pack of sycophants?), and my hardcore gun-nut friend pulled a 180 and went on about how Donald is awesome and how he spent half of forever crafting Ultima Weapon and did a Kingdom Key challenge run, and so on and so on. I expected a rant about 'kiddie Disney friendship garbage' but there I was listening to squee.