playing to *perfection*

[Kid Ice]

I've been playing RE4 for about two months now and I'm still only 7 hours into it. It's not because I don't play it a lot and it's not because I'm bad. It's because I go back and load the last save every time I make a mistake.

Foot stuck in a bear trap? Reload. Wasted ammo in a skirmish? Reload. Used up too many herbs in a boss fight? Reload.

These tendencies are the same that caused me to take over a year to finish Vice City.

These tendencies go back to the VCS days. If I lost a ship playing Defender, the reset switch got slammed. Lost a guy in Berzerk? Reset. Now this is really bad; in Missile Command, my goal was to never lose a city. Never mind that the game coughed up a bonus city every time I lost one. Reset.

In the Commodore era it got worse. Do you know how many times you have to play Law of the West to stop every bank robbery? Do you know how hard it is to pitch a perfect game in Hardball? In Questron I thought there might be a way to win so much money gambling, my money would roll to $0. Then there was Wasteland...there was one building in one city you had to have a password to get into...it had nothing to do with finishing the game, but I had to get into that building (and after 100s of hours of playing I never did).

When Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II came about, I focused on complete and total mastery of one character (still do...to this day I can barely control any character besides Honda and Lui Kang...in Samarai Shodown make that Haohmaru, in VF make that Sarah, in Tekken make that King).

I'm the kind of guy that will run Mario off a ledge chasing a 1-up.

When I unlock a level in a game like Tony Hawk or SSX, I ignore it until I have completely mastered the level I am working on.

Rez...haven't played level 5 yet...still don't have 100% on the first four.

I've played the first level of Gradius V at least fifty times because I can't stand to lose one ship on the first level.

I do not continue. Ever notice how when the continue clock comes on, you can make it go faster by pressing one of the buttons? That's for people like me. I'm perfectly fine with reloading a save after I mess up...I'm not saying I have to go to the beginning every time. But to continue, and to sacrifice all the extra lives, power ups, items, weapons, and score I could achieve by starting over, is unacceptable. Lately games have included continues in the stat tracking...it's like they want to hurt me.

This is not a brag. This is a psychological condition. Finishing a level is not good enough...I don't even want to see the next level until I've achieved every possible goal in the previous one, in perfect health with maximum ammunition when applicable. I'm sick I tell you.

[Uzi 9mm]

Looks like we are both sick, because I do the same thing. Whenever I die in Pac-Man, I always reset the console. :/

[shvnsth]

im the exact opposite

although i refuse to cheat, i only play games for their story, or the experience, and usually not for the challenge. i find games much more enjoyable this way. if i find i really like a game's gameplay, i might restart the game on a harder difficulty, but that rarily happens

[Cantaloup]

I know where you're coming from. I do the same thing myself sometimes. But as far as RE4 goes, I suggest just relaxing and playing through the game normally, since you will probably want to play it again right after you finish it. You can go for "perfect" on your next play-through and you will likely find it much less frustrating. I've played through RE4 about 4 times now, and I rarely replay this type of game, unless it's been a long time since I've played it.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

I know exactly what you mean because, like you, I too i'm a videogame perfectionist: Lost a life in Contra.. Reset. Getting killed in only the 2 level of Metal Slug 3.. reset. I don't know why, I never was like that when I was younger but nowadays I simply strive to be the best in every videogame I play.

By the way, I made a similar thread about a year ago.

[tony_good]

For me, with certain games, I don't consider perfection a goal, but rather a standard.

I'll tell you this - it is not healthy.

But then, without games I really don't have too much to live for anyway.

I don't know what to tell you. I have no advice. Once you get into that perfection mentality, it is impossible to lose it. And I have tried.

I have gotten world records on certain games, been the best player at the arcade time and time again, and it still isn't enough.

On occasion, I have had to take anti-anxiety medication because I was so infuriated at losing.

Once, I was so depressed about being unable to complete a game that I actually turned to drinking.

The one exception to that rule was GTA: San Andreas. I told myself, "this will be a test. I WILL NOT go for 100%. I WILL STOP once I reach 95%."

That didn't exactly work, as I am at 97.86%. I can't decide whether to go for 100 or not.

But, if I do, I will give in to the demon that is my perfectionist attitude.

I can't tell you how many high scores I have refused to submit to Twin Galaxies because they were 2nd place. Unless I can't get a world record, I will never send it in.

I don't even want to discuss this further, because as I am typing this, I am fighting the urge to turn on GTA:SA and go for 100%.

I know I CAN do it. That's not the issue.

Look... 'nuff said.

I have to go.

[max 330 mega]

i bet if you tried to beat Nam 1975 for Neo Geo without ever dying, you would give up your perfection technique reaaaalll quick.
or maybe you could try Viewpoint...

[drwily008]

My best friend and I used to punch each other hard if the other one couldn't go through a level perfect in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. Knowing how fekkin' impossible that game was you can imagine the bruises on our legs & arms. We beat it in one summer though not ever using a single warp zone (We were trying to win a Nintendo Power contest by being the first to beat it)!

[Berty]

When i was trying to get into the world rankings for ikaruga i was like this. but i am usually pretty careless in other games.

[Dangerboy]

I'm the kind of guy that will run Mario off a ledge chasing a 1-up.

Guilty as charged here!

[Kid Ice]

I have gotten world records on certain games, been the best player at the arcade time and time again, and it still isn't enough.

On occasion, I have had to take anti-anxiety medication because I was so infuriated at losing.

Once, I was so depressed about being unable to complete a game that I actually turned to drinking.

Damn.

My perfectionist tendencies sometimes get the better of me in my gaming life, but that doesn't extend to real life.

I do remember one occasion (documented here in a post months ago) when I woke up in the middle of the night with stinging, throbbing hands because I would not give up on Super Metroid.

Otherwise, it doesn't get to me once the system is powered down. I can go to bed or do something else.

[Crush Crawfish]

Heh, I'm so far from a perfectionist that It's not even funny. I die very, very frequently in most games and rarely finish anything 100% percent. But I feel that I enjoy the games more if I'm not preoccupied with trying to perfect it.

[pacmanhat]

When i was trying to get into the world rankings for ikaruga i was like this. but i am usually pretty careless in other games.

Damn...how'd that turn out for you?

[studvicious]

I'm the same way with Abadox, if I die at all I start over from the beginning.

[robotriot]

I agree about the continues - since quite some time now, I only use the first continue, and I retry how many times it takes until I advance further in the game. When I was younger I used to cheat as well to see how the later levels of a game look like, but I don't do that either anymore. If I can't beat the game, then I can accept it. I'm otherwise realyl not a perfectionist, in fact, I'm such a bad gamer that I'm really happy if I manage to barely beat the game with my last hitpoint or whatever ;) Also these days I always use the default difficulty level, I used to set it to easy all the time.

[Berty]

When i was trying to get into the world rankings for ikaruga i was like this. but i am usually pretty careless in other games.

Damn...how'd that turn out for you?

I practiced the first level so much that i managed to get an A++ ranking once, its been a while but i think it was in the order of a 136chain, 2.7million points.

I spent sooooo much time on the first level that i neglected to focus on anything else. I thought that i was doing well till a friend of mine brought the appreciate DVD, then i just gave up. I came close though to getting into the top 100. I got 7.9million on one credit. Maximum respect to those with scores of like 32million etc.

I really wanted that ikaruga saki set, but it wasn't meant to be.


Back on topic though, as soon as i made ONE mistake, i reset the game. Although i became VERY good at the first level, i had spent so much time in the one section that i eventually got bored and lost interest.

These days, im just happy to have enough time to playa game, yet alone play it to perfection.

[IntvGene]

I think that "hitting the reset switch" is a common phenomenom for the 2600 games, but I do that mostly because of the score. I don't do it much these days because most of them are story-driven, and as long as I'm surviving, I don't care. I never care for getting A+ or S on levels as I find when I take the time to be so perfect in each level, I'll never finish a game outright, and usually get bored eventually. I also find that some of their criteria to meet perfection these days is just annoying also, and I won't bother with it. Not even to mention annoyances like "bad camera" which hurt my ability to play perfectly, and that's it..

I can see where you are coming from, Kid, but I can't be bothered with it these days... I guess I don't suffer from the same condition.

[Iron Draggon]

I used to be that way, especially with shmups, but not anymore. I'm over it.

[jdc]

You've got too much self-inflicted stress. I've really cut down on games-that-piss-me-off. If I get annoyed with a game any more than a token amount....it's trade in fodder.

I'll go for 100% completion in most N64 platformers/adventurers, but to tell you the truth I don't find many of the current-gen games WORTHY of finishing to 100%, let alone finishing at all. It's amazing how much shit gets offered these days. Either the difficulty ramps up to the moon in order to stretch a game's playtime, or the game falls apart half way through.

Why put yourself through it?

[FurinkanianFrood]

I think that "hitting the reset switch" is a common phenomenom for the 2600 games

More than you know.... I need to invent the finlonger now.... I think that my back has gotten worse from doing too often this recently.

I used to (occasionally still do) get perfectionist about some games. I had to fight it off. I would end up getting pissed off and not playing a game for a year or so sometimes. Of course, some games just piss me off because they control badly or are horribly unbalanced. Those I get rid of.

What really throws me off is games that make me care about the characters and then have a depressing ending and a happy ending. I don't mind sad endings at all if they are the only true ending, but I don't like it when replay value feels too forced. I have too many games that I haven't had time to play to spend 80 hours on a 20 hour game.

You've got too much self-inflicted stress. I've really cut down on games-that-piss-me-off. If I get annoyed with a game any more than a token amount....it's trade in fodder.

Been moving in that direction. In fact, I do that with consoles that piss me off too.... (2 PS's, 4 PS2's to date). I'm just lucky that my systems didn't crap out, it was always happening to someone I knew and scaring me silly.

That and a high proportion of the games on those ticked me off somehow. Probably a genre preference thing (I love RPG's but Saturn + PCE have much better ones IMO, counting imports that is).