Tanukitsune

Quitter's Club: Don't be ashamed to quit the game.

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So I pretty much quit antichamber the other day. I just got to a point where the catharsis of uncovering a new opaque puzzle mechanic was simply outweighed by how frustrating looking for it was. It just wasn't fun anymore. 

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Yeah, the reason I created this thread is to understand and accept why people quit a game, I think it's incredibly unhealthy to quit a game unless you actually understand why you are doing it.

 

I myself will continue to play a game I don't like until I can pinpoint the reason I don't like it because, if you can't express or understand why you don't like a game, you're likely to make the same mistake again.

 

I think calling it unhealthy is a bit of a stretch. The fact of the matter (for me) is: most games are mediocre, a few are above average, and maybe 1-2 games a year are memorable, brilliant, and engaging experiences. A game can not have any glaring problems and still fail at drawing me in.

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I didn't fully realize it until I posted in the Shantae thread, but I guess I quit Ducktales Remastered.  The nostalgia wore off quickly and once it did the game didn't hold up at all.  And that new last level has some serious bullshit in it.  I know I'm at the end, but I really don't want to finish it.

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I think calling it unhealthy is a bit of a stretch. The fact of the matter (for me) is: most games are mediocre, a few are above average, and maybe 1-2 games a year are memorable, brilliant, and engaging experiences. A game can not have any glaring problems and still fail at drawing me in.

I find unhealthy in the sense that if don't know why you don't like in a game, you won't know what to avoid and potentially spend a lot of money in games you won't enjoy. Of course, if the game doesn't draw you in, that's enough, but if you know why it's not drawing you in, it's even better.

 

PS: You only find on average two games brilliant a year? That's a bit harsh... :|

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So I've been trying to catch up with 'classic' PS3 titles before a PS4 arrives in my life and takes over (probably not for another 12 - 18 months, but still). I only got my PS3 in 2011, so I've almost never paid full price for a game, because I've always been far enough behind that there's tons of good cheap games to buy. I've also always thought of myself as someone that is more wowed by good game play than outstanding graphics. I still replay the original XCOM on steam, for example, and if you put me down in front of Civ 2 tonight, I'd probably play until Sunday quite happily.

 

All of which is why I'm kind of bummed out that I've bailed on Yakuza 3. Bailed as in 'stuck it on eBay'. In the spirit of the thread, I guess I need to figure out why.

 

First up, the game was old when it came out, if you see what I mean. Example: There's fully voiced dialogue in cut scenes, but then also long periods of text dialogue that you cycle through pressing x. The graphics look like high end PS2 to me, and certainly don't come close to GTA IV, let alone anything that came since.

 

So it doesn't look great. Also, the pace is glacial. It feels like the game wants to give you a tutorial on everything. When I got to hour 6 or 7 and I was learning how to play golf? Alarm bells were ringing. I'd been promised a great GTA style open world type deal - where the hell was that?

 

A more serious problem was that I just couldn't play the game. I beat the first boss on the second or third attempt, the second boss after 10 - 15 minutes, but boss 3? Not only could I not beat him, I couldn't even figure out how I was supposed to beat him. My reactions are not terrible, but I do seem to struggle a bit with 'twitch' beat em up fighters (though I have mad love for the Arkham Asylum combat system). After a good 45 minutes, and ignoring repeated messages to drop the difficulty to Easy, I realised this one was going to have to pass me by, and I quit.

 

I think what's bugging me about this is that a lot of why I quit basically comes down to the age of the game. I'm sure if I'd played it when it came out, I'd have stuck with it. This does not bode well for the Tomb Raider and Hitman HD collections currently sitting on my shelf, and it kind of bums me out because I'm not quite the gamer I thought I was.

 

Ah well, on to GTA IV.

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I don't know who told you the Yakuza series is a GTA-like game, it's more of a spiritual sequel to Shenmue. Yes, it has an open world, but it's nothing like a GTA game, it's closer to River City Ransom than anything else.

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I find unhealthy in the sense that if don't know why you don't like in a game, you won't know what to avoid and potentially spend a lot of money in games you won't enjoy. Of course, if the game doesn't draw you in, that's enough, but if you know why it's not drawing you in, it's even better.

 

PS: You only find on average two games brilliant a year? That's a bit harsh... :|

 

Yeah it's slightly harsh and probably unnecessarily hyperbolic. The salient distinction is a game that I have absolutely no doubt I will finish and that I find my mind wandering to even when I'm not playing it. This year it's been Gone Home and The Last of Us.

 

A counter example would be Papers Please, which is absolutely fascinating to play but also is such an emotional drag that I pretty much have to force myself to turn it on. I am in serious doubt that I will be able to get to an 'end' before my patience falters.

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Papers Please seems like a good example, I haven't bought it yet, but I will eventually and I will have to force myself to play it like most games with harsh gameplay but interesting mechanics or stories.

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I finally bought Papers Please after talking to Lucas Pope at PAX (and some cajoling from Argobot).  I thought it would be super depressing, but strangely enough I'm not feeling that way at all.  I think I'm too fascinated by it for it to actively depress me, if that makes any sense.

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My only problem with Papers, Please is that it reveals in me the potential to be an inhumanly dogmatic and uncaring bureaucrat. It's like the Hotline Miami of paperwork sims.

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Another World...

I'm at the cave with the water trap. I've done, and completed this part probably 20 times already. And then I die in the next segment and I'm put back at the cave. This is really a pain in the ass.

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It appears I was doing something wrong. I first needed to do something else before doing the water trap. After that point there are more save points. So the game will let you continue and skipping [arts it will just become very very difficult. Right now I've ran into the problem with the shitty controls of the game, timing is really important but sometimes the game thinks I wanted to stop running and shoot instead. This of course results in my death.

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Are you playing the updated version? It adds checkpoints if you are doing that branching portion in a certain order. Otherwise it's more difficult in the original version.

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And I nearly booted up Link to the Past again last night since I know I must be less than five hours away from the end and part of me would like to say I'd done it but that's free time I could put into having guaranteed fun with Rayman Legends which I'm thoroughly enjoying instead so I eventually convinced myself to do that. 

So did you do the side quests in LTTP?

Did you get the tempered sword and the upgraded armor and the magic boomerang and all that?

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Tribunal is definitely the most difficult piece of content available for vanilla Morrowind, but if you go at it post-main quest, it's totally doable.

What turned-out to be doable was losing. Did you mean after beating the quest in Tribunal?

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No, no. Tribunal is balanced around being undertaken after doing Morrowind's own main quest, becoming the Nerevarine and all of that. You should have at least a level 20-30 character before tackling Tribunal. (Additionally, its story loses most of its impact without having first played through Morrowind's main quest, it's very much meant to be post-game content.)

I remember Blood Moon being considerably more flexible about how early you can approach it, but Tribunal definitely wants you to have a more fully developed character. (Which honestly makes it kind of bullshit how early on the Tribunal expansion confronts you with its quest when you start a new game. Go as far as getting to the city so the attacks stop, but then head back to the main game until you're ready for it.)

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So did you do the side quests in LTTP?

Did you get the tempered sword and the upgraded armor and the magic boomerang and all that?

Some of them, I had at least two sword upgrades I think but no magic boomerang that I can remember.

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Knights of Pen and Paper +1 :tdown:

A 10 euro free to play game. You earn hardly anything from completing quests. You rarely find new equipment (if ever?). You can buy gold for real money, and that's pretty much the only proper way to get enough gold to attempt to get better gear. Yes, attempt. Because to get better gear from a smith you roll a die to see if you succeed in buying.

I got this game as part of the huge Paradox Bundle. I wouldn't waste money on it.

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I think Knights of Pen and Paper works really well on a smartphone. I really enjoyed it and felt like I got my money's worth.

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I almost bought Knights of Pen and Paper when it was on sale on Steam, now I'm happy I didn't.

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Can you quit a game before you even start it?

The beyond two souls reviews are in and I'm a little bummed out by some of what I read, hearing it described as boring is a little worrying

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=693583

I don't really know what I was expecting to be honest, I haven't played anything "properly" since the last of us and I've just been looking forward to a big budget, turn the lights off, strap yourself in for a few hours of undisturbed games playing. And I've been looking forward to this for like a month, mainly because there's been nooooothing else (I'm holding out for a next gen GTAV)

I think I'll still give it a shot, but I'll be straight back in here if it turns out to be garbage

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It's Quantic Dream, the studio's motto is "failure to deliver".

All their games start out quite awesome, but quickly degrade.

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I was really into Indigo Prophecy, despite it's non-sensical ending. Despite giving it 3 stars, Giant Bomb says "Beyond: Two Souls is still easily Quantic Dream's most fully-realized game to date." so I guess I'm in, though probably not for a little while, my backlog is huge.

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