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How often do you go outside your gaming comfort zone?


Mr. Brow

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Most of my fondest gaming memories are firsts: the first time I played a text adventure, my first Robotron run, the first time I played an RPG that required by-hand mapping, just to name a few.

 

Do you ever make an effort to try something totally different from what you’re used to, just because it’s different?

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I tried playing Dota 2 a few years back to see what all the fuss was about, I think it lasted about ten minutes.

 

In all seriousness, I do actually try to get into different games now and then. My comfort zone was always RPGs, being brought up with them with my brother playing them and handing some down to me. Being a  hoarder  collector I got into "retro" gaming (or to me, buying things for consoles I've always owned). Even though the 2600 was my first console, I wouldn't grab any more than my original 3 games for it in years, and it is only recently I went over 20 to get a hundred more.

 

Now, my comfort zone traditionally is anything RPG, strategy or retro, but games I'm playing / played recently is Echo on PC (unfortunately developers have shut down, was their only game) and casual games like Offspring Fling which I finished the other day (basically, anything that is super meat boy styled difficult platformer). I've enjoyed things like Bit Trip Runner series and Terraria / Starbound which is games I didn't think I'd ever get into, minecraft does nothing for me.

 

I've never played Endless space, but I did play "Love Thyself, A Horatio Story". I think it helped that I had played games like Analogue: A hate story and its other game, Hate Plus which is a similar style. I liked the hate games for its use of retrofuturism mixing spaceships with traditional Korean history and culture.

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I'm learning that many of my comfort zones are that way for a reason. Some people play just one game for years (MOBA, MMO, multiplayer shooters) and while I can kinda appreciate the depth of those games, I'll never put in the hours to make it worthwhile in the same way as a die-hard. 
 

There's a somewhat kiddie version of Monster Hunter that looks really good on my phone that I mean to get back into. I feel that if I could just pay attention and stick with them, long RPGs could be my jam. The problem for me is paying attention and sticking with them. 

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I'd say no, not really- but my comfort zone is fairly diverse. I enjoy platformers, JRPGs, puzzle, rhythm, shmups & hack n' slash action games most. I don't typically play fighters or racers, but I will dabble on occasion depending on the title. The biggest diversion I've tried recently is Driver San Francisco, aka the only driving game I own ( for clarity, racing=arcade style & driving=story based.) I genuinely don't know if I'd try another- I bought DSF after watching a video on its bonkers story... I do love me a good bonkers story in a videogame.

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4 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

I'm learning that many of my comfort zones are that way for a reason. Some people play just one game for years (MOBA, MMO, multiplayer shooters) and while I can kinda appreciate the depth of those games, I'll never put in the hours to make it worthwhile in the same way as a die-hard. 
 

There's a somewhat kiddie version of Monster Hunter that looks really good on my phone that I mean to get back into. I feel that if I could just pay attention and stick with them, long RPGs could be my jam. The problem for me is paying attention and sticking with them. 

 

Yeah, RPGs definitely require a lot of time investment, especially the big online ones.  

 

I had kind of the opposite hangup for a long time.  I was only interested in story-driven games like RPGs and graphic adventures, while the action games seemed pretty mindless.  I don’t think that anymore — the best action games have as much nuance as rpg/adventures, it’s just of a different variety.  I didn’t appreciate how much TLC goes into creating a game like Pacman.

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I like gaming of all kinds if it’s a good game. The only genre I generally don’t play are sports games. I have no interest whatsoever except for Golf and Tennis games. I play Mario golf on the GameCube every so often, and Virtua Tennis on the Dreamcast. I also enjoy tiger woods golf on the original Xbox.

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4 hours ago, adamchevy said:

I like gaming of all kinds if it’s a good game. The only genre I generally don’t play are sports games. I have no interest whatsoever except for Golf and Tennis games. I play Mario golf on the GameCube every so often, and Virtua Tennis on the Dreamcast. I also enjoy tiger woods golf on the original Xbox.

I'm not very enthusiastic for sports games either, they have a tendency to feel mechanical and unimaginative.  There are plenty I have played and enjoyed over the years, but few that have left much of a lasting impression.

 

Real sports, however, are a remarkable thing.  Aside from stretching the human machine to its limits, the games themselves are ripe for detailed analysis, not to mention emergent to the extreme. 

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Like others have mentioned, Sports Games are not one of my favorites.  There are the "Big Three" of basketball, football, and hockey... meh...  Soccer is pretty huge, but nah.  Tennis, no thanks.  But golf games I can get into.  And if you include racing, then I like those okay, too.

 

The genre that I think is even less "in my comfort zone" though is one on one fighters like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat.  I never play these.  Never was good at them and just didn't have enough to hold my interest long enough to get good at them.  I like games with a little more to them.  A story or plot or something.  I mean, some fighting games try to have a plot, but it's really pretty much the same as every other fighting game.  Last fighting game I spent any time with was Ultra Vortek for the Jaguar.  And that was really only to goof around because I hadn't played Jag in a while.

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I do this thing quite often where I sit down with MAME or my console emulators and just pick random games.  It's not unheard of for me to find stuff that's fun and outside of my typical fare, but the vast majority of these new-to-me games that I end up enjoying are the ones where it would be predictable that I would enjoy them because they're my style of game.  I think in retro games from the range of years that I enjoy - roughly speaking, late 70s to early 90s - there are only so many tropes that got used and after a while you develop a very clear idea of what you have any chance of enjoying. 

 

For example, I know there is no point in trying to force myself to dig into an RPG or a Metroidvania-type game.  If there were any chance of me enjoying these experiences, then by now I would be able to name at least one game from those genres that I like, but I can't. 

 

For years I've been telling myself that I will one day dive into some 1-on-1 fighter games.  I've spent very little time playing them but it seems like lots of them have a fair bit of depth and could be quite fun if one were to master the fancy moves of certain characters.  But, I just never seem to get around to it.  With the time I have available the task just seems too daunting.  Not only that, but it's not much fun fighting against computer opponents.  If I had a buddy of equal experience/skill level/enthusiasm with whom I could explore these games, I can tell you right now I'd be very into it, but I don't have that.   

 

 

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