“It’s safe to say that it is an obsession of mine,”
August 14, 2018 9:40 AM Subscribe
How do you like to find your own fun after putting hundreds of hours into a game? by Danielle Riendeau [Waypoint] “It’s funny to me, just how much I love this game and feel like it’s part of my life. I think about it in idle moments, craving the feeling of a great turn, scrambling the enemy bugs across the map so they destroy each other. It’s fascinating to me that I keep setting goals for myself, long after the marathon of the game’s own achievement system (no cakewalk) has been completed. I guess I just like Into the Breach this much. How about you, dear readers? Is there a game out there that you love so much, that you’ve played half to death, that you’ve made your own increasingly ridiculous goals for, to keep things interesting?”
i was at one point in my extreme ac4 obsession one of the top 500 wealthiest pirates on earth
posted by poffin boffin at 9:44 AM on August 14, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 9:44 AM on August 14, 2018 [8 favorites]
I wish that could be me. But my thing with games is that I play them until I understand the game mechanics, then I usually lose interest. I often quit games half way through; it takes something with particularly good art or story to keep me interested until the end, like Horizon: Zero Dawn or Assassin's Creed Origins.
A weird exception to that is No Man's Sky. The game mechanics are simple and boring. But it's pretty, and there's enough of an upgrade / collect loop that I have some 150+ hours into it. About 40 hours at a time, as they release new content patches.
posted by Nelson at 9:49 AM on August 14, 2018 [9 favorites]
A weird exception to that is No Man's Sky. The game mechanics are simple and boring. But it's pretty, and there's enough of an upgrade / collect loop that I have some 150+ hours into it. About 40 hours at a time, as they release new content patches.
posted by Nelson at 9:49 AM on August 14, 2018 [9 favorites]
The Sims 3. I've easily put about 3000 hours into that game and I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface.
posted by Autumnheart at 9:57 AM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Autumnheart at 9:57 AM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
I continue playing Asphalt 8 for a little while every morning because at this point it's a kind of mental reset for me to zoom a car around a track for a couple minutes. Tangentially I might be the only player they've ever banned from PvP without ever having played PvP. I can't prove any causation between posting about how to earn free in-game currency and my banning, although since I'd previously also posted about some of my gameplay habits I kind of wonder.
posted by ardgedee at 9:59 AM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by ardgedee at 9:59 AM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
There was a point in my life when I spent a lot of time raising chocobos. A lot of time.
posted by betweenthebars at 10:06 AM on August 14, 2018 [15 favorites]
posted by betweenthebars at 10:06 AM on August 14, 2018 [15 favorites]
There was a point in my life when I spent a lot of time raising chocobos. A lot of time.
I was this way only with fishing in World of Warcraft. I no longer have an active account but I spent so much of my time fishing. There was just something relaxing about fishing in that game. It also didnt' hurt that you could make so much bank if you caught the right fish and mixed the right potions.
posted by Fizz at 10:08 AM on August 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
I was this way only with fishing in World of Warcraft. I no longer have an active account but I spent so much of my time fishing. There was just something relaxing about fishing in that game. It also didnt' hurt that you could make so much bank if you caught the right fish and mixed the right potions.
posted by Fizz at 10:08 AM on August 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
I've been playing the "Angband" for 32 years now. Which is a bit sad, given that it's not even the rogue-like most likely to reward that kind of obsessive behavior.
posted by Ipsifendus at 10:09 AM on August 14, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by Ipsifendus at 10:09 AM on August 14, 2018 [10 favorites]
I feel like most of the Bioware games do this for me. The character creation gets me hyped to start another playthrough, the collectibles scratch the hyperfocus itch in my brain. The roleplaying options let me customize the story to my liking, which is to say that I make the exact same choices and play the same character with a different face every time.
posted by specialagentwebb at 10:09 AM on August 14, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by specialagentwebb at 10:09 AM on August 14, 2018 [6 favorites]
I don’t think I have ever gotten all the achievements on a game, much less kept playing it afterwards.
posted by egypturnash at 10:12 AM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by egypturnash at 10:12 AM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Dark Souls, DA: Inquisition, and Horizon Zero Dawn. I’m kind of aching for the next game as good as these. Meanwhile I guess I have a real life?
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:13 AM on August 14, 2018
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:13 AM on August 14, 2018
There was a point in my life when I spent a lot of time raising chocobos. A lot of time.
A maxed out gold in every pen, for 3 different playthroughs. Man I spent thousands of hours on that game and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
posted by numaner at 10:13 AM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
A maxed out gold in every pen, for 3 different playthroughs. Man I spent thousands of hours on that game and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
posted by numaner at 10:13 AM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
There are people who manage to ascend as vegan atheist peaceful tourists in Nethack. I just...
I recently went through a period of proving how long you can live on sea ice in Rimworld, where there are literally no resources except those you land with.
posted by praemunire at 10:20 AM on August 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
I recently went through a period of proving how long you can live on sea ice in Rimworld, where there are literally no resources except those you land with.
posted by praemunire at 10:20 AM on August 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
Sounds a little like the phenomenon of “dadgames”. Many dads (and others, but mostly dads) pair with one videogame to play for the rest of their lives and eschew all others. For my dad it was Sid Meiers Silent Service, a game released 1985 that as far as I know he is still playing to this day.
posted by rodlymight at 10:21 AM on August 14, 2018 [16 favorites]
posted by rodlymight at 10:21 AM on August 14, 2018 [16 favorites]
I have sunk silly amounts of time doing this into Castlevania SotM, legend of Zelda ALttP, and multiple Final Fantasy games.
“Ok THIS time Ima get 5 crissaegrims. No, 10!”
“Ok THIS time no damage from you stupid swirly caterpillar thing!”
“Ok THIS time Don Corneo will pick me! Then a date with Barret. This game has a surprising amount of dating.”
posted by supercrayon at 10:23 AM on August 14, 2018 [7 favorites]
“Ok THIS time Ima get 5 crissaegrims. No, 10!”
“Ok THIS time no damage from you stupid swirly caterpillar thing!”
“Ok THIS time Don Corneo will pick me! Then a date with Barret. This game has a surprising amount of dating.”
posted by supercrayon at 10:23 AM on August 14, 2018 [7 favorites]
Beyond Earth. 20+ cities, an exodus gate, an emancipation gate, a beacon and the mind flower at once. If I've been super annoying to the AI players in the process, so much the better.
(It's such a beautiful game and I love it past all good sense and reason.)
posted by Otto the Magnificent at 10:30 AM on August 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
(It's such a beautiful game and I love it past all good sense and reason.)
posted by Otto the Magnificent at 10:30 AM on August 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
I raise the difficulty by not using scoped weapons in Operation Flashpoint, I destroy every enemy in every level (got to really search to find weapons to defeat the tanks sometimes) and every mission I create is some version of the story of the Alamo. I'll be really sad when I no longer have a computer capable of paying it.
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:31 AM on August 14, 2018
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:31 AM on August 14, 2018
I have been enjoying my sweet time going through Zelda: Breath of the Wild, just exploring and enjoying the beautiful world. It's about time to go fight Gannon in the castle but I don't want it to end. I'm not enough of a completionist to hunt down the last Korok seed yet I keep finding excuses to prolong the game.
posted by exogenous at 10:34 AM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by exogenous at 10:34 AM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
Oh, man. https://www.factorio.com/ I have gone from owning a pickaxe to nuclear power five or six times now. Optimizing the trains still pains me.
posted by poe at 10:34 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by poe at 10:34 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
ProZD's Avoiding the story path in a dungeon so you can explore all the other paths
posted by praemunire at 10:40 AM on August 14, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 10:40 AM on August 14, 2018 [6 favorites]
Stardew Valley, for me, sort of embodies the stillness and tiny moments you'd see in a Miyazaki film.
posted by typify at 10:46 AM on August 14, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by typify at 10:46 AM on August 14, 2018 [10 favorites]
I have put about 1500 hours into DAI but still haven't finished the game because most of those hours were spent troubleshooting broken mods.
I have most definitely spent well over 5000 hours on the Sims (1, 2, and 4).
They're my equivalent of tinkering with a car. I like to break the game and fix it.
posted by Hermione Granger at 10:55 AM on August 14, 2018
I have most definitely spent well over 5000 hours on the Sims (1, 2, and 4).
They're my equivalent of tinkering with a car. I like to break the game and fix it.
posted by Hermione Granger at 10:55 AM on August 14, 2018
oh yeah, I almost forgot the months I spent getting through a "crimeless" run for GTA4. and that was maybe my 4th playthrough so I'd already spent a ton of time exploring everything else in that game. it's basically a playthrough where you try to commit the least amount of crime as possible. there's a gamefaqs guide for it and everything.
posted by numaner at 10:55 AM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by numaner at 10:55 AM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
As many people know, I loved the Mass Effect games, and I did many playthroughs each. One of the main features of Mass Effect (and of Bioware games generally) is the rich characterization and interaction options of your squadmates; many debates still rage about who's the best-written, who's the best romance option, combinations for particular missions, etc. The last DLC for the Original Trilogy, Citadel, gave you an option to not only play one last mission with the squadmates from that game, but also to hang out, play games, dance, and party with current and former squadmates from the previous games. It was great. There was also a "memorial" wall in the SSV Normandy in the third game, for those crew members who fell in the line of duty; there were bound to be at least nearly a couple dozen, between the two squadmates (minimum) who died in the first game and the twenty-one or so crewmembers who died in the second, even if you saved all your squadmates from the suicide mission.
And, after I forget how many playthroughs of all three games, I resolved to fill that wall up. I made sure that the maximum three squadmates from the first game died, that as many squaddies as possible died during the suicide mission in the second game--you have to have at least two surviving squaddies for Shepard to survive, so I made sure that the survivors were characters who were destined to die in the third game--and delayed starting the suicide mission so that a bunch of the crew would die as well. The third game didn't give me many opportunities for cold-blooded skulduggery, but there was the Virmire Survivor. The Citadel party was, shall we say, sparsely attended. Heh heh heh. I have no regrets.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:58 AM on August 14, 2018 [15 favorites]
And, after I forget how many playthroughs of all three games, I resolved to fill that wall up. I made sure that the maximum three squadmates from the first game died, that as many squaddies as possible died during the suicide mission in the second game--you have to have at least two surviving squaddies for Shepard to survive, so I made sure that the survivors were characters who were destined to die in the third game--and delayed starting the suicide mission so that a bunch of the crew would die as well. The third game didn't give me many opportunities for cold-blooded skulduggery, but there was the Virmire Survivor. The Citadel party was, shall we say, sparsely attended. Heh heh heh. I have no regrets.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:58 AM on August 14, 2018 [15 favorites]
i like the concept and existence of that but at the same time i'm already doing an irl crimeless run and i want to do virtual stabs and no one can stop me.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:59 AM on August 14, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 10:59 AM on August 14, 2018 [10 favorites]
My past "Forever Games" are mostly early 3d collect-a-thon platformers and adventure games for the Nintendo 64 and early GameCube. At that time there wasn't a lot of choice in terms of gaming for me: it was before the Indie Renaissance, we didn't have a good computer, and since games were $60 and I was small and had no money, stretching the games I *did* have was gravely important. I researched which ones to buy very meticulously and mostly did a very good job on picking winners.
I still think of them with great fondness. I completed all the emblems, skulltulas, jiggies, stars, bananas, what-have-yous, and a lot of my "fun" after came from trying to get to bizarre places that the game wouldn't normally allow me to go or getting the playable character to do something silly-looking. It came from looking up glitches or alternate ways to beat the game online and trading off the controller to my siblings to try to get to a certain peak, or skip a certain level. In the case of more story-heavy games, it came from exhausting every dialogue tree and story path with every party member and every character.
As an adult belaboured with an overabundance of Steam games, I have a lot more to pick from so I tend to do less of that kind of thing. I have spent an absurd amount of time on Rimworld though, a colony-building sim game, challenging myself not just with hard scenarios, but by intentionally making suboptimal choices or coming up with ridiculous goals. How about a colony based around an enormous turkey farm? How about a colony based around an enormous cat farm? (That one was hard.) Can I turn a bunch of my colonists into RoboCops? What if I run a "rehab" center for drug-addicted raiders?
I think it works really well because Rimworld is specifically designed to create little stories. There was that time my colony was taken down by a chain reaction caused by a single deer bite, or that time my favourite colonist heroically sacrificed herself in a blaze of glory only for her sarcophagus to depict her punching a raccoon unconscious.
But my personal favourite was a desert colony where I decided to name the starting character after myself. I had a trait called "Chemical Fascination" which made it difficult to prevent myself from taking drugs. Of the next three people who joined, two of them also had that trait while the third was a teetotaller, and none of us could cook. So there was a vicious circle of smoking joints, getting the munchies, eating bad food, throwing it up, and then getting hungry from vomiting and eating more bad food. It was like some awful frat house.
To my increasing horror (NEVER name a colonist after yourself), I ended up falling in love with and marrying one of the drug-interested colonists named MadDog. During the ceremony we were both smoking the leaf, but food poisoning hit him hard at just the wrong time and he puked, dropping his blunt in the process. The officiant, our third chemically-fascinated member, then picked it up off the puke-encrusted dirt floor and finished smoking it while the straight-edge colonist watched on in horror. Beautiful ceremony.
posted by one of these days at 11:00 AM on August 14, 2018 [15 favorites]
I still think of them with great fondness. I completed all the emblems, skulltulas, jiggies, stars, bananas, what-have-yous, and a lot of my "fun" after came from trying to get to bizarre places that the game wouldn't normally allow me to go or getting the playable character to do something silly-looking. It came from looking up glitches or alternate ways to beat the game online and trading off the controller to my siblings to try to get to a certain peak, or skip a certain level. In the case of more story-heavy games, it came from exhausting every dialogue tree and story path with every party member and every character.
As an adult belaboured with an overabundance of Steam games, I have a lot more to pick from so I tend to do less of that kind of thing. I have spent an absurd amount of time on Rimworld though, a colony-building sim game, challenging myself not just with hard scenarios, but by intentionally making suboptimal choices or coming up with ridiculous goals. How about a colony based around an enormous turkey farm? How about a colony based around an enormous cat farm? (That one was hard.) Can I turn a bunch of my colonists into RoboCops? What if I run a "rehab" center for drug-addicted raiders?
I think it works really well because Rimworld is specifically designed to create little stories. There was that time my colony was taken down by a chain reaction caused by a single deer bite, or that time my favourite colonist heroically sacrificed herself in a blaze of glory only for her sarcophagus to depict her punching a raccoon unconscious.
But my personal favourite was a desert colony where I decided to name the starting character after myself. I had a trait called "Chemical Fascination" which made it difficult to prevent myself from taking drugs. Of the next three people who joined, two of them also had that trait while the third was a teetotaller, and none of us could cook. So there was a vicious circle of smoking joints, getting the munchies, eating bad food, throwing it up, and then getting hungry from vomiting and eating more bad food. It was like some awful frat house.
To my increasing horror (NEVER name a colonist after yourself), I ended up falling in love with and marrying one of the drug-interested colonists named MadDog. During the ceremony we were both smoking the leaf, but food poisoning hit him hard at just the wrong time and he puked, dropping his blunt in the process. The officiant, our third chemically-fascinated member, then picked it up off the puke-encrusted dirt floor and finished smoking it while the straight-edge colonist watched on in horror. Beautiful ceremony.
posted by one of these days at 11:00 AM on August 14, 2018 [15 favorites]
P.S. Here's the wall [spoilers for parts of the original trilogy of Mass Effect]. There are literally not enough spaces on the memorial wall for everyone that I killed.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:04 AM on August 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:04 AM on August 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
I guess I'm just a rogue-like kind of guy. Before the recent indie game renaissance, I must have put at least a thousand hours into dungeon crawl stone soup. Over the past few years I've sunk a few hundred hours into both FTL and Nuclear Throne. Still, I do always have to have some vague goal in mind, and I only get back into these games once I have a clear idea what I want to do. Having beating hard mode with every ship in FTL, and having looped twice with my favourite characters in nuclear throne has essentially ended these games for me (...or has it!?!).
posted by Alex404 at 11:06 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Alex404 at 11:06 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Dark Souls challenge runs. So many things to try.
posted by fellion at 11:10 AM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by fellion at 11:10 AM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
It's about time to go fight Gannon in the castle but I don't want it to end.
So, fun fact about that: I accidentally stumbled upon Ganon when I was wandering around the castle, not really paying attention to the map. After you defeat him, the world gets reset to the moment before the battle began so you can keep playing forever.
I stopped playing for months, and picked it back up last week when I had some downtime. It's just such a great game.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:16 AM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
So, fun fact about that: I accidentally stumbled upon Ganon when I was wandering around the castle, not really paying attention to the map. After you defeat him, the world gets reset to the moment before the battle began so you can keep playing forever.
I stopped playing for months, and picked it back up last week when I had some downtime. It's just such a great game.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:16 AM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
Kerbal. Currently working on a crewed Mun/Ike lander that fits in a single cargo bay of my mk2 SSTO.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 11:17 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 11:17 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Once I saw how long I could last in Civ after I nuked the planet and turned everything into wasteland and pollution. Turns out, pretty much indefinitely, but it's not much fun.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:18 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:18 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
In Fallout, I hoard all my special ammo (rockets, mini nukes, fusion cores, etc) and then play a special game (no save) where I just nuke the shit out of everything and kill all my friends and everybody in town. Or I'll do the exact same thing, but with just a baseball bat.
posted by sexyrobot at 11:18 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by sexyrobot at 11:18 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Bayonetta 1 & 2 are some of the few games I've revisited more than half-heartedly after completion. Mainly because the trophies provide a very tempting and achievable goal, since you have the ability to loop back around to earlier chapters while retaining your accumulated gear.
I have many, many abandoned attempts at alternate Skyrim playthroughs that I just never commit to. My initial character still hasn't seen everything, so it feels weird to start a new one, even if I set out with the goal of trying like a sword & board or magic build or whatever.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:21 AM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
I have many, many abandoned attempts at alternate Skyrim playthroughs that I just never commit to. My initial character still hasn't seen everything, so it feels weird to start a new one, even if I set out with the goal of trying like a sword & board or magic build or whatever.
posted by tobascodagama at 11:21 AM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
Sims2 and Sims3. Sims2 had a buggy engine that would produce neighborhood rot after about 8-10 generations, and I think I played Strangetown to db-rot at least three times with about four families each time. Then I did a thing of doing these extended soap-opera legacies with custom skins, or generations where everyone was a supervillain. Sims3 was almost but not quite that.
I've done Neverwinter Nights at least a dozen times, enough that I just got the Enhanced edition and ended up dragged through NWN2 again. There it's more a matter of "what weird race and class combinations have I not tried before." I should probably get a mod for more classes.
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 11:33 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
I've done Neverwinter Nights at least a dozen times, enough that I just got the Enhanced edition and ended up dragged through NWN2 again. There it's more a matter of "what weird race and class combinations have I not tried before." I should probably get a mod for more classes.
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 11:33 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
The Dishonored series fills in the gaps between other games. Or just takes them over completely. I've played through both full games and their DLC more times than I can count. I've done both low & high chaos runs, of course, but also ghost/no kill, kill every last living thing in the whole miserable world, and as much in between as I could stand.
Every time I play through them, I find something new: a book I haven't read, an area I haven't explored, something. (The first Dishonored has 1 line spoken by Carrie Fisher, and the steps to make that line appear are arcane and easily missed.) It's both confounding (damnit, I thought I'd done *everything*) and gratifying (how do they do this?). I love the gameplay, I love the characters, I love the world and world-building, I love the story, I love the design and artwork. There are paintings and photos from the game world that I'd love to have on my own walls.
And I love that in the last DLC, "Death of the Outsider," there's an in-game book of slashfic between Corvo and the Outsider.
My next run in D2 is going to be a no powers run. I've tried before and given up. I think I'm ready, though. Should be interesting.
posted by malthusan at 11:37 AM on August 14, 2018 [10 favorites]
Every time I play through them, I find something new: a book I haven't read, an area I haven't explored, something. (The first Dishonored has 1 line spoken by Carrie Fisher, and the steps to make that line appear are arcane and easily missed.) It's both confounding (damnit, I thought I'd done *everything*) and gratifying (how do they do this?). I love the gameplay, I love the characters, I love the world and world-building, I love the story, I love the design and artwork. There are paintings and photos from the game world that I'd love to have on my own walls.
And I love that in the last DLC, "Death of the Outsider," there's an in-game book of slashfic between Corvo and the Outsider.
My next run in D2 is going to be a no powers run. I've tried before and given up. I think I'm ready, though. Should be interesting.
posted by malthusan at 11:37 AM on August 14, 2018 [10 favorites]
I’ve been playing it since the tail end of Alpha, but I suspect I’ll be futzing with Minecraft off and on for the rest of my days.
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:40 AM on August 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:40 AM on August 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
god the last time i tried to do a Clean Hands run i had all my carefully knocked out people piled up in a corner, out of the way, over a dozen of them snoozing innocently, when i accidentally knocked over a flammable bottle of alcohol and set them all ablaze; the bottle smashing alerted a dozen more guardsmen who rushed in to behold the horrifying immolation of their companions and i was forced to slaughter them all in self defense
i don't like that trophy
posted by poffin boffin at 11:43 AM on August 14, 2018 [22 favorites]
i don't like that trophy
posted by poffin boffin at 11:43 AM on August 14, 2018 [22 favorites]
I'll pop in to Cardhunter a couple of times a day for a little one-on-one online battle with someone. It's a great way to scratch that strategic gaming itch without getting stuck in a time sink.
posted by vverse23 at 11:48 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by vverse23 at 11:48 AM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
God, when I was a kid and we only had like 4 SNES games, I played way too much SimCity considering how bad that game was on SNES. IIRC there were two game modes - one where you build a city from scratch, and one where you start with a built city facing a crisis (like Los Angeles facing smog, traffic, and crime in the 70s) and then you have a certain number of years to fix it. My favorite self-defined game was to start with one of the prebuilt scenarios, turn on ALL the disasters at once, then try to see how much I could rebuild before I failed. Good times.
posted by muddgirl at 11:56 AM on August 14, 2018
posted by muddgirl at 11:56 AM on August 14, 2018
Also I must remember the LA scenario because it was my favorite. Bulldozing acres and acres of roads and mixed industrial space to build rail and parks was very satisfying.
posted by muddgirl at 11:57 AM on August 14, 2018
posted by muddgirl at 11:57 AM on August 14, 2018
I've been playing and replaying the original Wasteland on a semi-yearly basis ever since it came out in '88. I went through three separate Commodore64s playing that game until the Interplay 10 Year Anniversary CDROM came out for the PC. (unfortunately on CD you could no longer do the selective game-disk rewrite trick that allowed farming Meson Cannons and Ion Blasters from the Guardian Citadel). My most recent run was a solo character run, all melee and occasional RPGs, no NPCs, sprinting to Vegas as early as possible for the Proton Ax, and then powerlevelling with all the xp concentrated on one character.... until I got to the Sleeper Base cloning pods (and the bugged lootbags) and walked out with identical septuplet murdergods who could tear apart Cochise Base with nothing but axes and pure grit. After the Clone Chopper Army, I'm hard pressed to find a better way to beat the game again, which is truly bittersweet.
posted by FatherDagon at 12:13 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by FatherDagon at 12:13 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Once I saw how long I could last in Civ after I nuked the planet and turned everything into wasteland and pollution. Turns out, pretty much indefinitely, but it's not much fun.
I used to play Alpha Centauri well past the official end of the game. One time I got obsessed with returning the whole of Planet to xenofungus, using ridiculously advanced hovering terraforming machines (I put all my production into orbiting greenhouses and the like so my colonies kept humming along, churning out more ultra-terraformers every turn ). After I did that, I got a little more crazy and tried to terraform away the oceans. Planet was...less happy about that. I never did get that to work, which probably means the game maps were pretty well designed.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 12:21 PM on August 14, 2018 [6 favorites]
I used to play Alpha Centauri well past the official end of the game. One time I got obsessed with returning the whole of Planet to xenofungus, using ridiculously advanced hovering terraforming machines (I put all my production into orbiting greenhouses and the like so my colonies kept humming along, churning out more ultra-terraformers every turn ). After I did that, I got a little more crazy and tried to terraform away the oceans. Planet was...less happy about that. I never did get that to work, which probably means the game maps were pretty well designed.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 12:21 PM on August 14, 2018 [6 favorites]
When I played games, I did this with Pilot Wings 64, and tend to do it with flight or other motion sims with free movement worlds. If I was into playing games today I'd likely be doing this with Flight Simulator or GTA5.
I also tend to do it with racing games and tend to be supernaturally good at any racing game if it has accurate and usable physics. Like time dilating, hacking the matrix good, people around me going "holy shit what how" good at racing games with the smoothest, tightest apex turns and slot-car acceleration out of turns. (In another life and timeline I'm probably actually a rally car or F1 driver, and this is actually one of the secret reasons why I don't really want to own a car or motorcycle because I'd immediately start hooning all over the place.)
In Pilot Wings 64 I'd go for fastest/best/highest scores across the board, but I'd also do a lot of map poking and nearly impossible acrobatic flying with the gyrocopter. At my peak it's likely I had one of the best times in the world for the gyrocopter speed runs. I never met anyone in person that could beat my scores, and I was so much better at it people often got mad about it.
I can fly that dumb little gyrocopter through any of the struts of the Space Needle model in the game, and through any barnstorming gap that's possible to barnstorm, including some that involve bouncing off of something with a landing gear touch and go on vertical surfaces. I can land it and take off on improbable places like some old bush pilot. I don't just fly under bridges, I fly through the spans, cables and roadways. There's even a couple of actual barns you can fly through, and if you're really good you can put it through the hay loft or even land it right in there.
Part of the reason why is because I had a roommate who imported a Japanese N64 almost a year before it was released in the US, and we had that thing hooked up to a really good rear projection big screen TV in a day when a "really big tv" meant a Sony 36" Trinitron, which he also had three of all set up in the living room. Because he was one of those weebs that had every. single. console. game. ever. to date. no really.
So I got to play those early n64 releases for almost two full years before the N64 really gained adoption and market saturation.
I don't game much any more, and that's fine. And I'm definitely am not into deep dives. If I'm going to interact with my computer for fun, I'd rather DJ or work on music. DJing is a lot like playing a cool video game with all the blinky lights and a cool controller with knobs and sliders and buttons. And then I get to listen to and explore a bunch of cool music. I also tend to get paid to do it, too, so the more I practice, the more I get to do that.
posted by loquacious at 12:39 PM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
I also tend to do it with racing games and tend to be supernaturally good at any racing game if it has accurate and usable physics. Like time dilating, hacking the matrix good, people around me going "holy shit what how" good at racing games with the smoothest, tightest apex turns and slot-car acceleration out of turns. (In another life and timeline I'm probably actually a rally car or F1 driver, and this is actually one of the secret reasons why I don't really want to own a car or motorcycle because I'd immediately start hooning all over the place.)
In Pilot Wings 64 I'd go for fastest/best/highest scores across the board, but I'd also do a lot of map poking and nearly impossible acrobatic flying with the gyrocopter. At my peak it's likely I had one of the best times in the world for the gyrocopter speed runs. I never met anyone in person that could beat my scores, and I was so much better at it people often got mad about it.
I can fly that dumb little gyrocopter through any of the struts of the Space Needle model in the game, and through any barnstorming gap that's possible to barnstorm, including some that involve bouncing off of something with a landing gear touch and go on vertical surfaces. I can land it and take off on improbable places like some old bush pilot. I don't just fly under bridges, I fly through the spans, cables and roadways. There's even a couple of actual barns you can fly through, and if you're really good you can put it through the hay loft or even land it right in there.
Part of the reason why is because I had a roommate who imported a Japanese N64 almost a year before it was released in the US, and we had that thing hooked up to a really good rear projection big screen TV in a day when a "really big tv" meant a Sony 36" Trinitron, which he also had three of all set up in the living room. Because he was one of those weebs that had every. single. console. game. ever. to date. no really.
So I got to play those early n64 releases for almost two full years before the N64 really gained adoption and market saturation.
I don't game much any more, and that's fine. And I'm definitely am not into deep dives. If I'm going to interact with my computer for fun, I'd rather DJ or work on music. DJing is a lot like playing a cool video game with all the blinky lights and a cool controller with knobs and sliders and buttons. And then I get to listen to and explore a bunch of cool music. I also tend to get paid to do it, too, so the more I practice, the more I get to do that.
posted by loquacious at 12:39 PM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
i like the concept and existence of that but at the same time i'm already doing an irl crimeless run and i want to do virtual stabs and no one can stop me.
the funny thing is you're still committing crimes left and right, but you just don't ever get the counter for "cars stolen" or "people ran over" to go up unless it was mandatory by a cutscene or by the mission requirement.
basically this meant calling Roman 24/7 for him to send his actually-kind-of-decent old sedan over to you whenever you needed a car, or to ask his driver to drive you everywhere, or hail a lot of cabs.
one of my favorite ways that was basically the only method to kill a boss without having the game count as a kill is to shoot him in the legs until he's writing on the ground, and then "ghost" a run-over by driving Roman's car at him and bail out of the car right before it hits the boss on the ground. the way that mission was set up when you run it over him the car would also fly off a ramp on top of a building into the street below. i will never forget that scene for as long as i live.
posted by numaner at 12:40 PM on August 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
the funny thing is you're still committing crimes left and right, but you just don't ever get the counter for "cars stolen" or "people ran over" to go up unless it was mandatory by a cutscene or by the mission requirement.
basically this meant calling Roman 24/7 for him to send his actually-kind-of-decent old sedan over to you whenever you needed a car, or to ask his driver to drive you everywhere, or hail a lot of cabs.
one of my favorite ways that was basically the only method to kill a boss without having the game count as a kill is to shoot him in the legs until he's writing on the ground, and then "ghost" a run-over by driving Roman's car at him and bail out of the car right before it hits the boss on the ground. the way that mission was set up when you run it over him the car would also fly off a ramp on top of a building into the street below. i will never forget that scene for as long as i live.
posted by numaner at 12:40 PM on August 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
oooh for me it's a tie between Journey and Portal 2. I think a lot of people play and re-play journey, the decoration on your robe changes the more times you play through, and it's just so beautiful and relaxing that it feels a bit like a meditation, the repetition becomes soothing. I've played it enough on the PS3 to get the white robe, and then I broke down and got it on the PS4 as well and am almost at the white robe again. I love it so much. Portal2 I have played through at least 6 times, but not in the last few years. I think I lent the disk to my brother, so it will probably never be seen again. Sigh... and now this thread has made me go look it up and I could just get it again for $20. so much for getting things done...
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 12:50 PM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 12:50 PM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
ah yes, i think i helped at least 50 randos through Journey with the auto-matchup online play. i love that there's no chat or anything, you just have a button to signal people. i need to get it for the PS4 and play the whole thing again.
posted by numaner at 12:53 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by numaner at 12:53 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
I keep coming back to the Dark Souls games year after year. I pick a new new outfit/armour, pick weapons that look stylish with it, and keep playing/grinding until I have all my items levelled up. Then I go beat some bosses. My favourite game from the series is Dark Souls 2, because coming back to Majula and its five o'clock sunshine feels like coming home after work.
Another thing I've played for almost 10 years now is Resident Evil 5. I just play the bonus modes, Desperate Escape and Mercenaries, usually together with my spouse. We try to beat our old high scores, or try to achieve some randomly chosen goal ("beat all levels with this specific character combo that we don't use much").
posted by CompanionCube at 12:55 PM on August 14, 2018
Another thing I've played for almost 10 years now is Resident Evil 5. I just play the bonus modes, Desperate Escape and Mercenaries, usually together with my spouse. We try to beat our old high scores, or try to achieve some randomly chosen goal ("beat all levels with this specific character combo that we don't use much").
posted by CompanionCube at 12:55 PM on August 14, 2018
I have many, many abandoned attempts at alternate Skyrim playthroughs that I just never commit to. My initial character still hasn't seen everything, so it feels weird to start a new one, even if I set out with the goal of trying like a sword & board or magic build or whatever.
I just restarted Skyrim recently as a new character - thinking I'd try to do things a little differently just for kicks. Instead, I keep thinking about when I get to meet my last husband again! And I don't want to switch sides! Or be a vampire! Soo... basically I'm just doing the same things all over again.
I didn't finish my first run-through either, because I just didn't want it to end (finished the main storyline and Dawnguard, but hanging onto a few unfinished things with Dragonborn).
posted by slipthought at 12:58 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
I just restarted Skyrim recently as a new character - thinking I'd try to do things a little differently just for kicks. Instead, I keep thinking about when I get to meet my last husband again! And I don't want to switch sides! Or be a vampire! Soo... basically I'm just doing the same things all over again.
I didn't finish my first run-through either, because I just didn't want it to end (finished the main storyline and Dawnguard, but hanging onto a few unfinished things with Dragonborn).
posted by slipthought at 12:58 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
i've had the ps4 skyrim remaster for ages now and i STILL haven't played bc 01) overwatch ruins lives and 02) i accidentally made a slutquisitor to bang everyone in skyhold when i realized my intended nightmare trophy run was in fact an actual nightmare
posted by poffin boffin at 1:02 PM on August 14, 2018
posted by poffin boffin at 1:02 PM on August 14, 2018
inquisition aka 1400h of my life i will never get back
posted by poffin boffin at 1:03 PM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 1:03 PM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
ah yes, i think i helped at least 50 randos through Journey
I played it through with a friend while we texted each other - it was late at night so not many other people were playing; we just made sure we started at the same time and then stuck together for the whole game. It's fun and you get a trophy!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:10 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
I played it through with a friend while we texted each other - it was late at night so not many other people were playing; we just made sure we started at the same time and then stuck together for the whole game. It's fun and you get a trophy!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:10 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Also in SNES SimCity open mode, there were like 1000 or so boards so trying to build a prosperous city on each board was another goal. Now I am jonesing to play again after 25 years...
posted by muddgirl at 1:16 PM on August 14, 2018
posted by muddgirl at 1:16 PM on August 14, 2018
Clicking Bad, oddly enough. I've given myself the goal of gaining all of the achievements (except, maybe, for "Burnout") with no more than 121 clicks. It's not in any way challenging but I enjoy tending to my little garden meth empire whenever I need a little break.
posted by suetanvil at 1:42 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by suetanvil at 1:42 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
I will happily put hundreds of hours into a game. I've spent at least that amount of time wandering Pandora, Gotham City, Steelport, or the rooftops of Mirror's Edge 1.
I'm not great at making up my own goals, though. I did do a Fallout 3 run where I ignored the main story and got all the bobbleheads.
Empyrion: Galactic Survival basically has no story, so for me it was mostly about building ever-more elaborate bases and capital vessels. (I'm playing No Man's Sky right now and man, do I miss Empyrion's generous and versatile building blocks.)
posted by zompist at 2:10 PM on August 14, 2018
I'm not great at making up my own goals, though. I did do a Fallout 3 run where I ignored the main story and got all the bobbleheads.
Empyrion: Galactic Survival basically has no story, so for me it was mostly about building ever-more elaborate bases and capital vessels. (I'm playing No Man's Sky right now and man, do I miss Empyrion's generous and versatile building blocks.)
posted by zompist at 2:10 PM on August 14, 2018
Farming simulator 17. No battles, no shooting, complicated gameplay, grinding to meet goals, lots of different ways to approach the gameplay. Total stress relief. I probably have 1200 hours or more into it so far this year, and there’s a new version coming in November, so there goes my winter.
posted by disclaimer at 2:19 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by disclaimer at 2:19 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Stardew Valley was the first game I bought as an adult, and I bought it right after the 2016 election when I really really needed something into which I could retreat from reality. I poured over 1000 hours into that godforsaken game. This is my crowning achievement - after finishing all the main objectives, I spent millions of gold turning my farm into an orchard/B&B. Once THAT was over, I started playing new games with arbitrary restrictions, like no buying anything except upgrades, or only choosing the skill paths I had previously avoided, or dating every dateable character at once. At this point, I could almost certainly draw the entire game map without looking.
I'm mostly over it now, though.
...Because I just found out about Civ, and now my life is ruined all over again.
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:30 PM on August 14, 2018 [6 favorites]
I'm mostly over it now, though.
...Because I just found out about Civ, and now my life is ruined all over again.
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:30 PM on August 14, 2018 [6 favorites]
Sounds a little like the phenomenon of “dadgames”. Many dads (and others, but mostly dads) pair with one videogame to play for the rest of their lives and eschew all others. For my dad it was Sid Meiers Silent Service, a game released 1985 that as far as I know he is still playing to this day.
I still play Spaceward Ho!. We had it on the family computer when I was little in the early 90s, and when I got my own laptop for college I installed it on there and have kept reinstalling it on every computer since. It's just soothing for me. I know exactly how every little bit of it works.
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:35 PM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
I still play Spaceward Ho!. We had it on the family computer when I was little in the early 90s, and when I got my own laptop for college I installed it on there and have kept reinstalling it on every computer since. It's just soothing for me. I know exactly how every little bit of it works.
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:35 PM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
I still play Spaceward Ho!. We had it on the family computer when I was little in the early 90s, and when I got my own laptop for college I installed it on there and have kept reinstalling it on every computer since. It's just soothing for me. I know exactly how every little bit of it works.
I totally get that. I played Escape Velocity long after its end of life (and am somewhat tempted to see if I can get it to run in emulation right now…). And Alpha Centauri is another one I fire up once in a while (Sid Meiers Alpha Centuari, huh, maybe it runs in the family). But more lately, I seem to have somehow accumulated over 1000 hours in Caves of Qud according to Steam. In my defence, it's been getting weekly updates so in addition to the procedural never-quite-the-same-ness, it actually has new content on a regular basis. Before CoQ, Brogue (the prettiest ASCII game that ever was) was nearly my dadgame, so I guess I'm a rouguelikeliker, and I can totally understand playing Angband or Nethack for decades, except not those specifically tho Sil is pretty good…
posted by rodlymight at 3:10 PM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
I totally get that. I played Escape Velocity long after its end of life (and am somewhat tempted to see if I can get it to run in emulation right now…). And Alpha Centauri is another one I fire up once in a while (Sid Meiers Alpha Centuari, huh, maybe it runs in the family). But more lately, I seem to have somehow accumulated over 1000 hours in Caves of Qud according to Steam. In my defence, it's been getting weekly updates so in addition to the procedural never-quite-the-same-ness, it actually has new content on a regular basis. Before CoQ, Brogue (the prettiest ASCII game that ever was) was nearly my dadgame, so I guess I'm a rouguelikeliker, and I can totally understand playing Angband or Nethack for decades, except not those specifically tho Sil is pretty good…
posted by rodlymight at 3:10 PM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
FF7 (chocobo breeding and gold saucer), FF8 (triple triad), Kirby’s Dream Course (why‽), MarioKart64 and DoubleDash, mindless farming for mats in WoW. So many hours...
posted by lazaruslong at 3:11 PM on August 14, 2018
posted by lazaruslong at 3:11 PM on August 14, 2018
More than a year later, I still find surprises here and there in the odd corners of Borderlands 2. Sometimes it's no more than a bit of character dialog I hadn't heard before. Sometimes a new "solution" to a boss fight occurs to me. And sometimes you just want to try to run the game with nothing more than an Infinity Pistol and ginormous stack of Anarchy.
posted by SPrintF at 3:20 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by SPrintF at 3:20 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
I've been playing the "Angband" for 32 years now. Which is a bit sad, given that it's not even the rogue-like most likely to reward that kind of obsessive behavior.
Moria. Come at me.
posted by The Bellman at 3:29 PM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
Moria. Come at me.
posted by The Bellman at 3:29 PM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
Kerbal Space Program. Ask me about my Laythe colony. Basically a permanent settlement on an earthlike moon of Jupiter. Inflatable habitats, mining equipment, scout rovers, tractors for farming, SSTO return shuttle, orbital lab... I'll finish it someday.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 4:01 PM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 4:01 PM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
I realise that I've spent probably way too much of my life playing games. Sticking just to computer games, my earliest obsession was probably hack, a Nethack variant. The most long-lasting, especially if you count subsequent iterations on the theme, is probably Civ - starting with the first, played obsessively on my brother's computer c 1992, lasting up until the present day, since I still spend several hours a week playing Civ V with a friend (we tried Civ VI but didn't like it, went back to Civ V). Other obsessions, not quite as long-lasting but definitely involving lots of staying up late and game-world-dreams, include DungeonKeeper, Diablo, Morrowind (just that one) and NeverWinter Nights. I still miss NWN and wish the Vault hadn't gone under, there were some awesome mods that I had deleted because I foolishly assumed it would always be there.
More recent obsessions involve lots of phone/tablet games that come and go to an extent, but Polytopia is a stayer despite the AI personalities having changed annoyingly even in non-hard mode. Its resemblance to Civ mechanics is probably no coincidence. I have been obsessively trying to get 3 stars with each tribe in Perfection mode (I have managed it with all except the Unicorn tribe, which was released after the AI personalities went completely aggro) and have also been known in Domination mode to leave one enemy city occupied but not yet annexed while I get all the special buildings, or develop each tile including fully-evolved water temples in each deep ocean square, that kind of thing.
posted by Athanassiel at 6:12 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
More recent obsessions involve lots of phone/tablet games that come and go to an extent, but Polytopia is a stayer despite the AI personalities having changed annoyingly even in non-hard mode. Its resemblance to Civ mechanics is probably no coincidence. I have been obsessively trying to get 3 stars with each tribe in Perfection mode (I have managed it with all except the Unicorn tribe, which was released after the AI personalities went completely aggro) and have also been known in Domination mode to leave one enemy city occupied but not yet annexed while I get all the special buildings, or develop each tile including fully-evolved water temples in each deep ocean square, that kind of thing.
posted by Athanassiel at 6:12 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
World of Warcraft is kind of the perfect game for that, which is why it's been so wildly popular. I must have sunk in at least $500 in that game from the expansions and subscriptions. The /played information is scary, something like 250-300 days played - 6000 hours?
I raided as a maintank for two years. Raided as a healer for two years. Raided as a DPS for a year. I made a character for PVP and did the GM grind as a team lead with a virtual 24 hour roster (play for 8 hours, hand-off control to 2IC, sleep for 4 hours, wake up and eat then and resume control). I was team manager for multiple Arena 5 teams. Even had the odd scenario at the higher ranks with few teams playing where I was playing on one team and then got matched with my other team who were doing unofficial "practice" without me. (I won of course, would have been embarrassing if I had lost). Got pulled out of retirement to play for older teams who still couldn't believe how much burst a Renataki's trinket on a fully geared Hunter could do in PVP, in an era where Hunters were the weakest class in Arena. It was one of the rarest items in the game. I grinded out a Quel Serar, then later actually passed on a Sulfuras. Got some server first boss kills with that. Played 2v2 arenas with a bad composition but had a tonne of fun.
WoW has been with me through university and the first 5 years of my working life. I even talked about it during my one and only real job interview: how I recruit teams, how I look for a balance for personality and technical capability and internal motivation. Dispute resolution, personal growth. How to fire someone. How you headhunt effectively and create effective teams. I even look at my job like playing WoW: there's so many things to do, you can't possibly finish doing them all, I may be one of those people who just work for one company their entire lives.
I haven't touched the game for 5 years but in some ways I've never left.
posted by xdvesper at 7:08 PM on August 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
I raided as a maintank for two years. Raided as a healer for two years. Raided as a DPS for a year. I made a character for PVP and did the GM grind as a team lead with a virtual 24 hour roster (play for 8 hours, hand-off control to 2IC, sleep for 4 hours, wake up and eat then and resume control). I was team manager for multiple Arena 5 teams. Even had the odd scenario at the higher ranks with few teams playing where I was playing on one team and then got matched with my other team who were doing unofficial "practice" without me. (I won of course, would have been embarrassing if I had lost). Got pulled out of retirement to play for older teams who still couldn't believe how much burst a Renataki's trinket on a fully geared Hunter could do in PVP, in an era where Hunters were the weakest class in Arena. It was one of the rarest items in the game. I grinded out a Quel Serar, then later actually passed on a Sulfuras. Got some server first boss kills with that. Played 2v2 arenas with a bad composition but had a tonne of fun.
WoW has been with me through university and the first 5 years of my working life. I even talked about it during my one and only real job interview: how I recruit teams, how I look for a balance for personality and technical capability and internal motivation. Dispute resolution, personal growth. How to fire someone. How you headhunt effectively and create effective teams. I even look at my job like playing WoW: there's so many things to do, you can't possibly finish doing them all, I may be one of those people who just work for one company their entire lives.
I haven't touched the game for 5 years but in some ways I've never left.
posted by xdvesper at 7:08 PM on August 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
I, too, have been playing an iteration of Civilization on and off FOR MY ENTIRE ADULT LIFE. Played the original in college on a Mac SE (I think)....down to this day. It's not quite the same thing, but it's still, well, something.
posted by praemunire at 7:16 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 7:16 PM on August 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Moria. Come at me.
I think you mean Sil.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:33 PM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
I think you mean Sil.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:33 PM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
A/RPGs with tons of loot do this to me. Especially if they have quests. I have explored every corner of Diablo 2 so often that I can more or less run through it racking up gold and items half asleep on any character. Do not ask me how many alternates I have or how many hours I've spent grinding for set items.
Grim Dawn scratches the same itch. Few hundred hours in that.
Skyrim is similarly engrossing. I love just wandering around from undiscovered point to undiscovered point with no connection to the main quest. In no playthrough have I got past the point where you're supposed to choose sides. Have I sunk at least a hundred hours into every playthrough? Yeeeeeep. I play the same way in Witcher 3.
Some games are just where I want to hang out and spend time, I guess, and others are gotta catch em all!!!
Also why I don't play MMOs anymore. I sunk years into MMOs that are now just gone and disappeared. At least if the game is on my computer I can cradle my save files forever.
posted by E. Whitehall at 8:54 PM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
Grim Dawn scratches the same itch. Few hundred hours in that.
Skyrim is similarly engrossing. I love just wandering around from undiscovered point to undiscovered point with no connection to the main quest. In no playthrough have I got past the point where you're supposed to choose sides. Have I sunk at least a hundred hours into every playthrough? Yeeeeeep. I play the same way in Witcher 3.
Some games are just where I want to hang out and spend time, I guess, and others are gotta catch em all!!!
Also why I don't play MMOs anymore. I sunk years into MMOs that are now just gone and disappeared. At least if the game is on my computer I can cradle my save files forever.
posted by E. Whitehall at 8:54 PM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
FTL (Captains Edition) and, now Slay the Spire (which is awesome) do it for me. Unexplored is also really good. Into the Breach was great, but ultimately I felt like I had too much control over the outcomes, which made me feel bad for losing.
The keys to both is that a whole game takes less than 90 minutes, so I can justify doing it for a "break." There is enough randomization to make it interesting every time and make losing not your fault. Random drops to add that slot machine feeling. And, finally, lots of tense moments that resolve quickly.
posted by blahblahblah at 10:12 PM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
The keys to both is that a whole game takes less than 90 minutes, so I can justify doing it for a "break." There is enough randomization to make it interesting every time and make losing not your fault. Random drops to add that slot machine feeling. And, finally, lots of tense moments that resolve quickly.
posted by blahblahblah at 10:12 PM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'll pop in to Cardhunter a couple of times a day for a little one-on-one online battle with someone. It's a great way to scratch that strategic gaming itch without getting stuck in a time sink.
Ooo, HeroQuesty!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:02 PM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Ooo, HeroQuesty!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:02 PM on August 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
I recently returned to Football Manager, what with the Worldcup reflagging my interest, restarting my Southampton campaign in FM2015. That's well over a thousand hours, though a lot of that time is idling as I tend to keep fM just running.
With Mass Effect, I still have to even start the 3rd one as I first want to play ME1+2 to perfection. Saints Row 3 is another game I've played and replayed and cannot get tired off.
More casually, BanG Dream is a rhytmn game that it's very easy to put a lot of hours in.
I played the shit out of various installments of the Steel Panthers series, including the more modern now also obsolete followups by other companies, but time has caught up with them to the point they're mostly unplayable on a modern computer.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:51 PM on August 14, 2018
With Mass Effect, I still have to even start the 3rd one as I first want to play ME1+2 to perfection. Saints Row 3 is another game I've played and replayed and cannot get tired off.
More casually, BanG Dream is a rhytmn game that it's very easy to put a lot of hours in.
I played the shit out of various installments of the Steel Panthers series, including the more modern now also obsolete followups by other companies, but time has caught up with them to the point they're mostly unplayable on a modern computer.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:51 PM on August 14, 2018
I'm excited to play more into the breach. FTL has been my go to coping mechanism for a while now. And, curiously, the only place I've ever really posted on reddit is r/ftlgame. Just a bunch of people saying "nice job" to one another.
posted by macrael at 2:20 AM on August 15, 2018
posted by macrael at 2:20 AM on August 15, 2018
I have thousands of hours in Skyrim and the key for me is definitely mods. I'm a big fan of Scarcity, which reduces all your payouts so you don't get meaninglessly wealthy too quickly. There are plenty of fun ways to change the perk system, the way your character looks, and the way the world looks, and even the interface so that it never gets old to me. A new favorite I've recently started using is Books Books Books, a tiny mod which fills out the world a little bit more by adding in 200 books from the rest of the game series.
I agree about Slay the Spire. That is a hell of a good game which manages to feel both epic and ephemeral.
I am also a huge fan of the Culdcept games, and Culdcept Saga in particular I 100%-ed multiple times. I think it's a game series with unique, challenging mechanics. Like Monopoly, when it goes badly, it goes very badly, so once your deck is developed/optimized enough that you're able to play competently on certain boards or against certain enemies, it's very satisfying. It's basically impossible in Revolt to build a deck that's good enough that you're guaranteed a win against any enemy. And since you're rolling dice, you never know exactly how a game or even a turn is going to go.
posted by heatvision at 2:32 AM on August 15, 2018
I agree about Slay the Spire. That is a hell of a good game which manages to feel both epic and ephemeral.
I am also a huge fan of the Culdcept games, and Culdcept Saga in particular I 100%-ed multiple times. I think it's a game series with unique, challenging mechanics. Like Monopoly, when it goes badly, it goes very badly, so once your deck is developed/optimized enough that you're able to play competently on certain boards or against certain enemies, it's very satisfying. It's basically impossible in Revolt to build a deck that's good enough that you're guaranteed a win against any enemy. And since you're rolling dice, you never know exactly how a game or even a turn is going to go.
posted by heatvision at 2:32 AM on August 15, 2018
Oh man, this has happened to me with a few games, but Opus Magnum really got me at the end of last year / beginning of this year. Competing with other people online—first Steam friends, then the whole world via Reddit—was what kept me going. I'm pretty sure this stamina potion is still the cheapest known minimum cycle solution.
posted by panic at 5:08 AM on August 15, 2018
posted by panic at 5:08 AM on August 15, 2018
Skyrim may be the best vehicle for the personal-goal-setting the article describes; certainly, the best I have experience with. (Damn excited for ESO VI, btw.)
But for me, making my own stuff is the thing that keeps me obsessing. I've modded in my own set items in Diablo II; my own NPCs, items, homes, and dungeons in Skyrim; and my own friggin' everything in Civs 1-4. I've discovered that there's a definite cap on how deeply/how long I can obsess over a game, and it correlates to my ability to mod it (which, naturally, is also constrained by the health of its modding community).
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 5:11 AM on August 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
But for me, making my own stuff is the thing that keeps me obsessing. I've modded in my own set items in Diablo II; my own NPCs, items, homes, and dungeons in Skyrim; and my own friggin' everything in Civs 1-4. I've discovered that there's a definite cap on how deeply/how long I can obsess over a game, and it correlates to my ability to mod it (which, naturally, is also constrained by the health of its modding community).
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 5:11 AM on August 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
CheesesOfBrazil, you might consider checking out Frostpunk, I have a feeling you'll really enjoy it. Anyone who likes Civilization should check it out, it's a bit more grim but there are a lot of interesting sim building mechanics thrown in that makes creating a city/town in the middle of a savage winter wasteland deeply engaging.
posted by Fizz at 5:41 AM on August 15, 2018
posted by Fizz at 5:41 AM on August 15, 2018
It's kind of like Civilization combined with This War of Mine. Takes the kind of brutal ethical decisions that shape your story from This War of Mine and combine them with sim building.
posted by Fizz at 5:43 AM on August 15, 2018
posted by Fizz at 5:43 AM on August 15, 2018
I occasionally fire up supreme commander: forged alliance and build a good base and army and setup up stacked routes and auto-builds and then let it play untouched for an hour or two and then check to see how things have gone. If it is really dire I then play out the game trying to win.
posted by srboisvert at 5:57 AM on August 15, 2018
posted by srboisvert at 5:57 AM on August 15, 2018
I like the concept of dadgaming. I dadgamed three over the last two decades or so: Marathon, including the major (and most of the minor) mods, which sort of petered out (I tried Halo, Bungie's major franchise, but couldn't get into it, despite certain elements that were similar to Marathon); City of Heroes, which I got into not long after it went live, up until the servers went dark; and Mass Effect, for which the single-player game seems effectively dead.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:19 AM on August 15, 2018
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:19 AM on August 15, 2018
This is what the fishing achievements in Warcraft were designed for. I’ll sign in and just cast at the Dalaran fountain for 15 minutes a go.
posted by simra at 7:26 AM on August 15, 2018
posted by simra at 7:26 AM on August 15, 2018
Oh, so it isn't just me who didn't consider a game of Alpha Centauri "won" until the entire map was land covered in max-size cities except for the lone remaining enemy city?
posted by "mad dan" eccles at 7:38 AM on August 15, 2018
posted by "mad dan" eccles at 7:38 AM on August 15, 2018
Many dads (and others, but mostly dads) pair with one videogame to play for the rest of their lives and eschew all others.
I just had a vivid flashback to everyone in my house going slowly insane as the elephants from Civilization II trumpet endlessly.
posted by zeusianfog at 9:42 AM on August 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
I just had a vivid flashback to everyone in my house going slowly insane as the elephants from Civilization II trumpet endlessly.
posted by zeusianfog at 9:42 AM on August 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
Heroes of Might and Magic is what, 20 years old now? Older? But I just keep going back to it. I just bought it for my tablet and it’s eating my summer.
posted by arcticwoman at 9:46 AM on August 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by arcticwoman at 9:46 AM on August 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
Lords of the Realm II, from 1996, which is when I started playing it. Just this year, I discovered a new way of optimizing peasant farming, so now I *have* to replay every map and scenario to try out every possible variation.
In alphabetical order.
posted by Mogur at 11:43 AM on August 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
In alphabetical order.
posted by Mogur at 11:43 AM on August 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
I've been dad-gaming Borderlands 2 for a few years now. I don't even want to think about how many hours I've sunk into it. I wore out my XBox 360 with it, so I got a PS4 and another copy of the game.
What keeps me coming back are things like elemental damage types and special player abilities, which provide a huge number of different ways to play. They also mean that an otherwise unremarkable piece of equipment -- because of the way it fits in with the rest of your kit -- can turn you from a regular player into a walking god of destruction, just flattening everything in your path. (And in my case, cackling with glee.)
posted by bjrubble at 1:57 PM on August 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
What keeps me coming back are things like elemental damage types and special player abilities, which provide a huge number of different ways to play. They also mean that an otherwise unremarkable piece of equipment -- because of the way it fits in with the rest of your kit -- can turn you from a regular player into a walking god of destruction, just flattening everything in your path. (And in my case, cackling with glee.)
posted by bjrubble at 1:57 PM on August 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
Might and Magic VIII! Might and Magic VIII!
So, New World Computing/3DO came out with Might and Magic VI in 1998, and it was this incredibly long slog of a game, this total dungeon-hacking-go-on-a-thousand-quests-and-get-the-loot kind of game, with a nifty points-based character improvement system, and a directly-facing (not overhead) view of the action, and it was fun, and had a wonderful goofy ending with robots and space laser blasters, and I loved it.
And then they came out with Might and Magic VII in 1999, which wasn't quite so long of a game, but had some neat improvements (you had to pick the "good guys" or the "bad guys" at some point, you got to move a bit when you were in turn-based mode, etc.), and that game ALSO had a wonderful goofy ending with robots and space laser blasters, and it was also quite fun.
And THEN came Might and Magic VIII in 2000. The engine was more than a little tired at this point. The game play wasn't quite as interesting as it had been a year or two before. The plot was flimsy, the characterization nonexistent, the game development was clearly rushed, etc. etc.
But, oh man, you could recruit a dragon into your party quite early in the game, and you INSTANTLY became WILDLY OVERPOWERED, and it was SO MUCH FUN to just run rampant over EVERYTHING. SO MUCH FUN. You could fill out the rest of your party with underpowered doofuses, and it didn't matter! You had a dragon! It could fly and shoot fireballs and was super powerful!
Anyway, I am the kind of masochist who loves playing repetitive, non-MMO, single-player RPGs from decades ago, and Might and Magic VIII is one I play every year. Every year! It's just so much fun to rampage to victory with my ludicrously powerful dragon and the doofuses who round out the party. Maybe it's not in the spirit of this post, in that there really isn't a lot of variety in the gameplay, but I just love that silly little game.
posted by cheapskatebay at 1:58 PM on August 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
So, New World Computing/3DO came out with Might and Magic VI in 1998, and it was this incredibly long slog of a game, this total dungeon-hacking-go-on-a-thousand-quests-and-get-the-loot kind of game, with a nifty points-based character improvement system, and a directly-facing (not overhead) view of the action, and it was fun, and had a wonderful goofy ending with robots and space laser blasters, and I loved it.
And then they came out with Might and Magic VII in 1999, which wasn't quite so long of a game, but had some neat improvements (you had to pick the "good guys" or the "bad guys" at some point, you got to move a bit when you were in turn-based mode, etc.), and that game ALSO had a wonderful goofy ending with robots and space laser blasters, and it was also quite fun.
And THEN came Might and Magic VIII in 2000. The engine was more than a little tired at this point. The game play wasn't quite as interesting as it had been a year or two before. The plot was flimsy, the characterization nonexistent, the game development was clearly rushed, etc. etc.
But, oh man, you could recruit a dragon into your party quite early in the game, and you INSTANTLY became WILDLY OVERPOWERED, and it was SO MUCH FUN to just run rampant over EVERYTHING. SO MUCH FUN. You could fill out the rest of your party with underpowered doofuses, and it didn't matter! You had a dragon! It could fly and shoot fireballs and was super powerful!
Anyway, I am the kind of masochist who loves playing repetitive, non-MMO, single-player RPGs from decades ago, and Might and Magic VIII is one I play every year. Every year! It's just so much fun to rampage to victory with my ludicrously powerful dragon and the doofuses who round out the party. Maybe it's not in the spirit of this post, in that there really isn't a lot of variety in the gameplay, but I just love that silly little game.
posted by cheapskatebay at 1:58 PM on August 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
ummm, Borderlands. 1 & 2. I don't know why. I'm currently, trying to get to the same place with Diablo 3, though I'm on my first play through and I'm only at level 23. We'll see...
posted by evilDoug at 5:52 PM on August 15, 2018
posted by evilDoug at 5:52 PM on August 15, 2018
Glitch.
Where is ErisLordFreedom to back me up?
Also, now that they are feasting on dollars from developing Slack, how about bringing it back, developing easter eggs in Slack.... SOMETHING!
(yes, sometimes dumb things matter to me.)
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 6:04 PM on August 15, 2018
Where is ErisLordFreedom to back me up?
Also, now that they are feasting on dollars from developing Slack, how about bringing it back, developing easter eggs in Slack.... SOMETHING!
(yes, sometimes dumb things matter to me.)
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 6:04 PM on August 15, 2018
Sid Meier's Railroads! - Steam says I have 970 hours, second only to Portal 2 (probably making custom maps) at 757 hours and finally Planet Coaster, with 571 hours. Yes, I have a family, a full-time job and I am still going to college.
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 5:00 AM on August 16, 2018
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 5:00 AM on August 16, 2018
I'm not sure I've played any game to 100% completion in regards to achievements and such, but man, there are some games that I've played WAY too much.... does it count when it's an old game that I keep going back to just to play through again every couple of years? That would be the Hero's Quest/Quest for Glory series. I've played more than I should probably admit, maxing out all my skills and having the best fighter/mage/thief combo character by the end of the IV.
Currently playing Betrayal at Krondor which I spent a lot of time on back in the day. It's not bad, but I forgot how annoying and often it requires you to save.
Mount and Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaade! So many hours in this trying to take over all the towns. Fighting hugely disadvantaged massive battles and finding the one door where all the enemies had to come thru and just cutting them all to shreds by myself. Such fun!
The Might and Magic series was great, too... but I think I peaked in that series on III.
I also read an article about great parts of old games that unfortunately didn't get copied in all future games and it reminded me that I really need to go back and play Red Faction: Guerrilla. It really is a shame that not all games have fully and realistically destructible worlds!
As for modern games, I play Rocket League quite a bit... they keep adding fun new modes/cars and the ranking system is quite good, so I can keep playing even after months away because it puts me in with other players of similar skill level.
posted by Grither at 7:58 AM on August 16, 2018
Currently playing Betrayal at Krondor which I spent a lot of time on back in the day. It's not bad, but I forgot how annoying and often it requires you to save.
Mount and Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaade! So many hours in this trying to take over all the towns. Fighting hugely disadvantaged massive battles and finding the one door where all the enemies had to come thru and just cutting them all to shreds by myself. Such fun!
The Might and Magic series was great, too... but I think I peaked in that series on III.
I also read an article about great parts of old games that unfortunately didn't get copied in all future games and it reminded me that I really need to go back and play Red Faction: Guerrilla. It really is a shame that not all games have fully and realistically destructible worlds!
As for modern games, I play Rocket League quite a bit... they keep adding fun new modes/cars and the ranking system is quite good, so I can keep playing even after months away because it puts me in with other players of similar skill level.
posted by Grither at 7:58 AM on August 16, 2018
Also: the Bethesda Fallouts and (to a lesser degree) Skyrim. Those are games I don't play so much as move into.
I logged around 400 hours in New Vegas on the XBox and another 500 on Steam. Then, I discovered Tale of Two Wastelands (a mod which imports Fallout 3+DLC into Fallout: New Vegas) and started another run. At which point, Fallout 4 came out so I played that for over a year 'til I'd finished everything and had gotten sick of it.
After that, it was New Vegas + TTW + other mods for most of last winter. Now, I'm back to Fallout 4 again, but this time with lots and lots of mods.
In between, I did a Vanilla Skyrim playthrough and started another one but with Frostfall installed. (Frostfall is a mod which makes cold weather dangerous and adds a bunch of skills for surviving the cold.)
Also, I sometimes play other games too.
posted by suetanvil at 8:37 AM on August 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
I logged around 400 hours in New Vegas on the XBox and another 500 on Steam. Then, I discovered Tale of Two Wastelands (a mod which imports Fallout 3+DLC into Fallout: New Vegas) and started another run. At which point, Fallout 4 came out so I played that for over a year 'til I'd finished everything and had gotten sick of it.
After that, it was New Vegas + TTW + other mods for most of last winter. Now, I'm back to Fallout 4 again, but this time with lots and lots of mods.
In between, I did a Vanilla Skyrim playthrough and started another one but with Frostfall installed. (Frostfall is a mod which makes cold weather dangerous and adds a bunch of skills for surviving the cold.)
Also, I sometimes play other games too.
posted by suetanvil at 8:37 AM on August 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
"I was this way only with fishing in World of Warcraft. I no longer have an active account but I spent so much of my time fishing. There was just something relaxing about fishing in that game. It also didnt' hurt that you could make so much bank if you caught the right fish and mixed the right potions."
Oh man, not to tempt you back in anyway but as a fellow WoW fishing fan, Legion was a fantastic fishing experience. You end up getting a legendary fishing pole artifact. On top of bonus to fishing skill, it offers other benefits, like walking on water, teleporting to nearby fishing nodes, reduced enemy threat range while fishing, and ability to fish up entire schools in a single cast from time to time. There were also a series of fishing NPCs, who had you fishing a special way in certain areas -- eventually allowing you to buy/unlock fishing toys, mounts, and other stuff. You have lots of choices for unique bobbers now too. Best part was that the best way to do the fisherfriend stuff was to join a raid group of other fisherfolk. 40 people all devoting themselves to efficient fishing in specified daily areas was an awesome sight to behold and be part of.
Sadly, BfA has nothing close to all that.
posted by GoblinHoney at 1:06 PM on August 16, 2018
Oh man, not to tempt you back in anyway but as a fellow WoW fishing fan, Legion was a fantastic fishing experience. You end up getting a legendary fishing pole artifact. On top of bonus to fishing skill, it offers other benefits, like walking on water, teleporting to nearby fishing nodes, reduced enemy threat range while fishing, and ability to fish up entire schools in a single cast from time to time. There were also a series of fishing NPCs, who had you fishing a special way in certain areas -- eventually allowing you to buy/unlock fishing toys, mounts, and other stuff. You have lots of choices for unique bobbers now too. Best part was that the best way to do the fisherfriend stuff was to join a raid group of other fisherfolk. 40 people all devoting themselves to efficient fishing in specified daily areas was an awesome sight to behold and be part of.
Sadly, BfA has nothing close to all that.
posted by GoblinHoney at 1:06 PM on August 16, 2018
My partner used to spend hours in WoW pre-Cataclysm exploring the "hidden areas" accessible through gaps in the landscape surface model or visible only through flight paths. In some, there were entire cities and unfinished landscapes that the modeling team just moved out of the way and replaced with the visible surface. Most of that was replaced with the Cataclysm world redesign.
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 1:38 PM on August 16, 2018
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 1:38 PM on August 16, 2018
Or, like Ironforge Airfield, they opened it up and made it a part of the game, which took out about 99% of the fun of getting there. Although the talk of fishing reminds me of the tall coin I used to get by making fishing lures. Oh crap, am I tempted now to reactivate my account? Maybe just buy a code to see if it's improved enough to make it worth my while. Yeah, just one month...
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:07 AM on August 17, 2018
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:07 AM on August 17, 2018
Then, I discovered Tale of Two Wastelands (a mod which imports Fallout 3+DLC into Fallout: New Vegas) and started another run.
Going to the Fort with Lincoln's Repeater... mmm...
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 8:07 AM on August 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
Going to the Fort with Lincoln's Repeater... mmm...
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 8:07 AM on August 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
ok I got my white robe again. and almost all the trophies
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:43 AM on August 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:43 AM on August 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
« Older How Enslaved Chefs Helped Shape American Cuisine | Every Rosé has it's ... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Fizz at 9:42 AM on August 14, 2018 [3 favorites]