Fun Club Things people do in games that you just can't understand?

[Magic-Man]

For example, asshole playthroughs. AKA where you go through an entire RPG picking the worst possible choices in character interaction. The most known example would be the Undertale Genocide route. It's just... I can't understand it. I feel so shitty when I make a single bad choice, so much so that I go back to an earlier save if I can. I can't imagine doing that intentionally for an entire game.

Another example (although this will be way more controversial) is using gyro in Splatoon 2. My hands tend to move around a lot when playing so that makes it a giant nightmare for me.

 

[Deleted member 1108]

Hot take: speedrunning.

"I'm going to play this particular game every day for a good chunk of my life on this Earth so I can nail down the exact inputs / exploits required to complete it as a fast as possible, very likely for no discernable gains other than feeling good about it".

 

[Ex-Psych]

I rarely see this on let's plays and streaming, but I have a friend who will skip and disrupt the flow of voiced dialogues if they're able to read the subtitles faster, doesn't if it's the first time hearing it or not.

Like, I get it, you got all the info in record time and want to move on. It still doesn't feel right.

 

[meatbag]

I rarely see this on let's plays and streaming, but I have a friend who will skip and disrupt the flow of voiced dialogues if they're able to read the subtitles faster, doesn't if it's the first time hearing it or not.

Like, I get it, you got all the info in record time and want to move on. It still doesn't feel right.

Simple: not all video game stories are good enough to warrant that level of engagement. Especially when it’s flavor dialogue for generic side quests.

For example, asshole playthroughs. AKA where you go through an entire RPG picking the worst possible choices in character interaction. The most known example would be the Undertale Genocide route. It's just... I can't understand it. I feel so shitty when I make a single bad choice, so much so that I go back to an earlier save if I can. I can't imagine doing that intentionally for an entire game.

Another example (although this will be way more controversial) is using gyro in Splatoon 2. My hands tend to move around a lot when playing so that makes it a giant nightmare for me.

Sometimes evil nets you greater perks. Just like in real life. (This is partly a joke, I am not an advocate of immoral activity).

You know what I don’t get? People paying up to hundreds and thousands of dollars for gacha pulls.

 

[Phendrift]

Hot take: speedrunning.

"I'm going to play this particular game every day for a good chunk of my life on this Earth so I can nail down the exact inputs / exploits required to complete it as a fast as possible, very likely for no discernable gains other than feeling good about it".

Definitely this for me. It seems like a massive waste of time that could be spent enjoying countless other games for the first time, in my opinion.

I love Super Metroid to death but I could never replay it for hours on end like that, in fact I think it’d LOWER my enjoyment of the game since I’d be constantly looking for glitches to exploit and whatnot. Kinda breaks the immersion and makes the game a soulless quick series of memorized inputs at that point.

 

[Phendrift]

Oh and another one - playing other music and muting the game’s music. Less so for multiplayer games.

But a curated single player experience…. I would say literally all of my favorite games are massively enhanced by the soundtrack in terms of atmspkhere and memorability. It’s a key part of the experience and a great OST almost always takes a game to the next level. I cannot imagine playing some of my favorite games without the soundtrack.

 

[Deleted member 540]

Another example (although this will be way more controversial) is using gyro in Splatoon 2. My hands tend to move around a lot when playing so that makes it a giant nightmare for me.

You've broken your own premise. This is about things you don't understand. Surely you understand why people who don't have that problem would use gyro?

 

[freedomseekr]

Oh and another one - playing other music and muting the game’s music. Less so for multiplayer games.

But a curated single player experience…. I would say literally all of my favorite games are massively enhanced by the soundtrack in terms of atmspkhere and memorability. It’s a key part of the experience and a great OST almost always takes a game to the next level. I cannot imagine playing some of my favorite games without the soundtrack.

I do that, though it depends on what I'm playing and why. Like, even the best VGM gets tiresome when you're about to grind some levels in a RPG and it goes for at least an hour or so. Don't do music though, I mainly put on podcasts or something else like a listen-only video essay.

Speaking of grinding, I don't get people who overlevel their characters in an RPG relative to the area and then complain the game's "too easy" or "just a grind". Bonus points if the game has a system that disincentivizes grinding and they start complaining they are struggling with late-game stuff (cough*DQ VII*cough)

 

[PixelKnight]

I rarely see this on let's plays and streaming, but I have a friend who will skip and disrupt the flow of voiced dialogues if they're able to read the subtitles faster, doesn't if it's the first time hearing it or not.

Like, I get it, you got all the info in record time and want to move on. It still doesn't feel right.

I’ve played enough RPGs to understand why- verbosity and repetition of info you already have, paired with irritating NPCs. Sometimes the main appeal of an RPG is the combat and party build, less so sitting through lengthy justifications to get into the dungeon you want to get to as fast as possible.

For me I kind of get speedrunning in terms of the skill in perfect inputs over a lengthy period of time, I like to see the 2D ones where they tend to be shorter and you can see what’s going on (although maybe it’s also that I’m more familiar with them). What I don’t get is the appeal of watching speedrunning using sequence breaking and bugs. So you’ve worked out how to glitch through a wall allowing you to complete a 20 hour game in 12 minutes, I guess it’s interesting in terms of how games are built but not very interesting to watch.

Gacha whales are something I don’t get. Gambling for jpegs.

 

[Intoxicate]

Living a second live in a video game, like going fishing in an open world game.

 

[Deleted member 540]

I’ve played enough RPGs to understand why- verbosity and repetition of info you already have, paired with irritating NPCs.

For me I kind of get speedrunning in terms of the skill in perfect inputs over a lengthy period of time, I like to see the 2D ones where they tend to be shorter and you can see what’s going on (although maybe it’s also that I’m more familiar with them). What I don’t get is the appeal of watching speedrunning using sequence breaking and bugs. So you’ve worked out how to glitch through a wall allowing you to complete a 20 hour game in 12 minutes, I guess it’s interesting in terms of how games are built but not very interesting to watch.

I don't particularly care to watch them, but I did like ScottFalco's parodies of Zelda speed running. But that's less because of the speed running and more because of Link's banshee scream and him trying to seduce Tetra with Beach Boys music.

 

[PixelKnight]

I don't particularly care to watch them, but I did like ScottFalco's parodies of Zelda speed running. But that's less because of the speed running and more because of Link's banshee scream and him trying to seduce Tetra with Beach Boys music.

Lol that sounds great, I’ll look that up!

 

[Deleted member 540]

Lol that sounds great, I’ll look that up!

 

[PixelKnight]

Appreciated, thanks!

 

[Deleted member 101]

I rarely see this on let's plays and streaming, but I have a friend who will skip and disrupt the flow of voiced dialogues if they're able to read the subtitles faster, doesn't if it's the first time hearing it or not.

Like, I get it, you got all the info in record time and want to move on. It still doesn't feel right.

I do this too. 99/100 the voice acting isn't good enough to engage with. Rather just have mumble speak.

 

[tender]

lol i think i do everything thats been posted so far (except 100ks into gacha).

 

[Nintendianajones64]

Hot take: speedrunning.

"I'm going to play this particular game every day for a good chunk of my life on this Earth so I can nail down the exact inputs / exploits required to complete it as a fast as possible, very likely for no discernable gains other than feeling good about it".

Agree. I can't stand speed running. In fact the only thing I don't like about the Metroid series is that you have to get a low completion time to unlock everything.

I've never played the games like that. I always take my time to explore everything.

 

[granth]

Basically anything that entails a huge commitment to one game (I'm not including "Always online / MMO" type games here). I like to play a game through and move on as there's always other games I would like to play. I don't understand trophy hunting, 100% item completion etc as I don't have enough time to commit to a single game to do multiple playthroughs.

I get that other people feel differently but I'm more of a "one and done" guy, although I will revisit games years later.

 

[Irene]

I rarely see this on let's plays and streaming, but I have a friend who will skip and disrupt the flow of voiced dialogues if they're able to read the subtitles faster, doesn't if it's the first time hearing it or not.

Like, I get it, you got all the info in record time and want to move on. It still doesn't feel right.

I do this all the time. I'm just a very fast reader, and impatient I guess.

 

[Jersh]

very likely for no discernable gains other than feeling good about it

Sums up video games, doesn't it?

I don't speedrun, but I do get it; having played a few Kaizo and Kaizo-esque Mario levels, there's a certain joy to be had in nailing precise input sequences.

I love Super Metroid to death but I could never replay it for hours on end like that, in fact I think it’d LOWER my enjoyment of the game since I’d be constantly looking for glitches to exploit and whatnot.

Most runners don't actively look for new routes, they just practice what's already known.

Oh and another one - playing other music and muting the game’s music. Less so for multiplayer games.

But a curated single player experience…. I would say literally all of my favorite games are massively enhanced by the soundtrack in terms of atmspkhere and memorability. It’s a key part of the experience and a great OST almost always takes a game to the next level. I cannot imagine playing some of my favorite games without the soundtrack.

This I agree with. I can't even do it for multiplayer games or games with no music.

 

[Phantoon]

I rarely see this on let's plays and streaming, but I have a friend who will skip and disrupt the flow of voiced dialogues if they're able to read the subtitles faster, doesn't if it's the first time hearing it or not.

I do this all the time. Voice acting is generally not good enough to bother with if subtitles get the information across. I want to play the actual game, so whatever gets me back to that is good. Also I love reading, so I lose nothing

 

[Phosphorescent Skeleton]

Oh and another one - playing other music and muting the game’s music. Less so for multiplayer games.

But a curated single player experience…. I would say literally all of my favorite games are massively enhanced by the soundtrack in terms of atmspkhere and memorability. It’s a key part of the experience and a great OST almost always takes a game to the next level. I cannot imagine playing some of my favorite games without the soundtrack.

I get where you're coming from but I would always rather listen other music or a podcast. I like game music fine, but not enough to only listen to it.

 

[Timefire]

Hot take: speedrunning.

"I'm going to play this particular game every day for a good chunk of my life on this Earth so I can nail down the exact inputs / exploits required to complete it as a fast as possible, very likely for no discernable gains other than feeling good about it".

Don't we all just play games to feel good about it?
Plus, speedrunning is fun. Feeling like you're getting better and better on your own skills instead of an just increasing an arbitrary RPG level/number feels great

 

[Yzz]

Plus, speedrunning is fun. Feeling like you're getting better and better on your own skills instead of an just increasing an arbitrary RPG level/number feels great

I think the problem is that speedrunning mostly rewards optimization, which is tedious and boring, instead of creativity. I love arcade-y games with extrinsic motivation (where the player gets better instead of giving experience points) like Sonic, Bayonetta, etc. because there is a massive amount of player expression. When you, or someone else, plays those games, it will always be a different experience.
Speedrunning, on the other hand, consists of who follows the exact same route without screwing up the least, which is boring AF. I rather play Factorio or something like that, at least that's fun.

Don't get me started on super glitchy speedruns lol. Talking about sucking the soul of a game.

 

[BotenAnna]

.

Hard to tell if this is bait or an honest attempt to end up on a certain twitter account.

 

[Timefire]

I think the problem is that speedrunning mostly rewards optimization, which is tedious and boring, instead of creativity. I love arcade-y games with extrinsic motivation (where the player gets better instead of giving experience points) like Sonic, Bayonetta, etc. because there is a massive amount of player expression. When you, or someone else, plays those games, it will always be a different experience.
Speedrunning, on the other hand, consists of who follows the exact same route without screwing up the least, which is boring AF. I rather play Factorio or something like that, at least that's fun.

Don't get me started on super glitchy speedruns lol. Talking about sucking the soul of a game.

I disagree! It's still really rewarding to practice something for hours and hours and then hit it perfectly when you really need it. It's like practicing a really hard song on an instrument and then nailing it live. It might not be everyone's thing but those that are wired for it find it massively satisfying.

Hard to tell if this is bait or an honest attempt to end up on a certain twitter account.

I don't think that counts as a scrubquote, it's just a minor forum disagreement lol

 

[Brock Reiher]

Hot take: speedrunning.

"I'm going to play this particular game every day for a good chunk of my life on this Earth so I can nail down the exact inputs / exploits required to complete it as a fast as possible, very likely for no discernable gains other than feeling good about it".

I feel like this but with multi-player games. At least with speedrunning you're working for a tangible goal, just playing multi-player matches all day feels like pouring your life force down the drain.

 

[Leo]

I don't understand watching let's play videos. I don't get any enjoynment out of watching people playing videogames, especially if I haven't played that game and I'm getting spoilt on everything.

I also don't understand online multiplayer. I don't care about multiplayer if the person isn't there sitting right next to me, and if they aren't a friend. The thought of playing with someone I don't know and can't even see gives me anxiety. I've never subscribed to an online service in my life and never touch online multiplayer in any game ever.

 

[BotenAnna]

I don't think that counts as a scrubquote, it's just a minor forum disagreement lol

It comes across as ignorant at best, which happens. It's like there's this giant community driven collaborative effort to break games to their actual limits where people express their love for the games by approaching them from all angles. Glitch hunters love to spend time digging around in the games in all number of ways and walk away with a deeper understanding of the systems at play. They get the satisfaction of solving the "puzzle" and spreading strats to the world. You have people who mostly route or TAS games where you see mountains of fiddling and creativity to get to the end result of what runners/TASbots do. Then the actual runners express themselves via mastery, and many games have all kinds of routes and categories if you really wanna get into player driven content.

As far as glitches go, BLJ is the heart and soul of Mario64 where I'm concerned, and manipulating the spawn positions of various bugs to jump off is the real meat and potatoes. Pannen and the rest of the A press challenge community have brought me far more hours of entertainment and insight than is reasonable for a single game to give off. There's a lot of heart and soul to be found by digging around in the exploitative mechanical and programming side of games. You'll often find more things to appreciate about games than detract by exploring that stuff.

You can not "get" wanting to explore and appreciate games like that, but it might be worth it to become more informed into what goes into it all. The people who do runs LOVE these games and just want to get more out of them than doing simple replays over and over. So they explore them to the absolute limit either via human mastery or breaking them wide open on a technical level. Usually through that more things to appreciate and love about the game rise to the surface and it's better for most everybody at the end of the day. I'll admit it takes a certain kind of brain and particular affection for game systems to really get into on a personal level, so it's cool to me if you don't "get it" after all is said and done. It's just far less reductive than "brainlessly grind to go fast" or "do glitch to win". Mario64 really is one of the best games to go check out and see all the different personalities, approaches, and content that really comes out of this particular hobby.

 

[Yzz]

It comes across as ignorant at best, which happens. It's like there's this giant community driven collaborative effort to break games to their actual limits where people express their love for the games by approaching them from all angles. Glitch hunters love to spend time digging around in the games in all number of ways and walk away with a deeper understanding of the systems at play. They get the satisfaction of solving the "puzzle" and spreading strats to the world. You have people who mostly route or TAS games where you see mountains of fiddling and creativity to get to the end result of what runners/TASbots do. Then the actual runners express themselves via mastery, and many games have all kinds of routes and categories if you really wanna get into player driven content.

As far as glitches go, BLJ is the heart and soul of Mario64 where I'm concerned, and manipulating the spawn positions of various bugs to jump off is the real meat and potatoes. Pannen and the rest of the A press challenge community have brought me far more hours of entertainment and insight than is reasonable for a single game to give off. There's a lot of heart and soul to be found by digging around in the exploitative mechanical and programming side of games. You'll often find more things to appreciate about games than detract by exploring that stuff.

You can not "get" wanting to explore and appreciate games like that, but it might be worth it to become more informed into what goes into it all. The people who do runs LOVE these games and just want to get more out of them than doing simple replays over and over. So they explore them to the absolute limit either via human mastery or breaking them wide open on a technical level. Usually through that more things to appreciate and love about the game rise to the surface and it's better for most everybody at the end of the day. I'll admit it takes a certain kind of brain and particular affection for game systems to really get into on a personal level, so it's cool to me if you don't "get it" after all is said and done. It's just far less reductive than "brainlessly grind to go fast" or "do glitch to win". Mario64 really is one of the best games to go check out and see all the different personalities, approaches, and content that really comes out of this particular hobby.

What I don't like about speedrunning is like I said is that a huge part optimization and not screwing up, like some sort of rhythm game, however I don't deny that there's more to it. There are innovator types in the speedrunning scene, but as an outsider to the hobby I really don't know or remotely care about that stuff, because a lot of it is not shown in the competitions. The innovator aspect of speedrunning is mostly done in a controlled lab behind the scenes, while in fighting games, for example, you can see players trying fresh new techniques against professional opponents, that makes the match really emotional because those techs might fail or succeed.

And I don't really know where you got that I deny that speedrunning doesn't have passion behind it lol. You can express your dislike of something while having respect and empathy behind the people that make said thing. Like I'm sure the billions of people that don't find watching Tennis engaging don't think that Federer is a hack.

 

[BotenAnna]

What I don't like about speedrunning is like I said is that is about optimization and not screwing up, like some sort of rhythm game. I don't deny there are innovator types in the speedrunning scene, but as an outsider to the hobby I really don't know or remotely care about that stuff. The innovator aspect of speedrunning is mostly done in a lab behind the scenes, while in fighting games, for example, you can see players trying fresh new techniques against professional opponents, which makes the match really emotional because those techs might fail or succeed.

And I don't really know where you got that I deny that speedrunning doesn't have passion behind it lol. You can express your dislike of something while having respect and empathy behind the people that make said thing. Shocking I know.

I really don't know how to not be rude about this, but this comes across as bait or just willful ignorance after what I wrote. The long forum debate isn't worth it so I'll just leave it at this. The comparison between FGs you've used here is extremely ironic considering the shared appeal and crossover between those two scenes. Just wanted to drop some insight into why speedrunning is appealing because it's so much more than the end result of runs if anybody cares to look into it more in an attempt to "get" it. I bring up the passion and emotion cause, well, some attitudes so far have come across as dismissive about what goes into it all besides the grind. That's all.

 

[doodlewhizz]

Oh and another one - playing other music and muting the game’s music. Less so for multiplayer games.

But a curated single player experience…. I would say literally all of my favorite games are massively enhanced by the soundtrack in terms of atmspkhere and memorability. It’s a key part of the experience and a great OST almost always takes a game to the next level. I cannot imagine playing some of my favorite games without the soundtrack.

This pretty much. I understand when grinding is involved or in a multiplayer game but I've seen people talk about putting Spotify on instead of the game soundtrack for sections that really aren't that. I know some people prefer to listen to other kinds of music but if a person is changing the soundtrack during cut-scenes or story moments then I find that super odd.

 

[Yzz]

I really don't know how to not be rude about this, but this comes across as bait or just willful ignorance after what I wrote. The long forum debate isn't worth it so I'll just leave it at this. The comparison between FGs you've used here is extremely ironic considering the shared appeal and crossover between those two scenes. Just wanted to drop some insight into why speedrunning is appealing because it's so much more than the end result of runs if anybody cares to look into it more in an attempt to "get" it. I bring up the passion and emotion cause, well, some attitudes so far have come across as dismissive about what goes into it all besides the grind. That's all.

Cool. What I was saying all this time is that a game like Bayonetta doesn't require memorization and optimization skills, unlike speedrunning (I think everyone can agree on this).
Sorry if my post was offensive to you, I'll try to be less snarky next time. No need for a big patronizing wall of text of why i'm not REAL Gamer™ enough.
EDIT: Also yikes at threatening with screen-capping.

 

[Sahasrahla]

Oh and another one - playing other music and muting the game’s music. Less so for multiplayer games.

You will love me, I play Lumines muted. I like to play puzzle games while listening to podcasts and music.

Living a second live in a video game, like going fishing in an open world game.

My real life sucks most of the time so I like to escape I caught a lot of fish in Stardew Valley...

I don't understand watching let's play videos. I don't get any enjoynment out of watching people playing videogames, especially if I haven't played that game and I'm getting spoilt on everything.

Sometimes it's fun to share an experience. I grew up watching my older brother play a lot of the times, because he was better at games. I also like to do play-a-longs, where I play a game for a while and then watch the VoD of a Let's Play afterwards (only works in linear games obviously, I did this with Tomb Raider 1-3 recently for example) , It's really interesting to see someone else get stuck in the same spot or figure things out completely different.

 

[Puruzi]

People that buy fighting games only for the single player. Absolutely mind boggling to me

 

[Nmanic]

The big one is people who mute music, listen to other stuff or generally just don't care about game music.

Game music is what inspired me to pursue a career in the field, and it's inseparable from gameplay for me personally.

To each their own, but this one always surprises me when people talk about it.

 

[Alent]

Not saving before and after upgrading/reorganising party equipment.
Not saving before and after buying/selling to shops to upgrade/reorganise the party equipment.

What if you die after doing all that and have to do it all again!? Watching my friend play old RPGs is stressful lol

 

[WestEgg]

For example, asshole playthroughs. AKA where you go through an entire RPG picking the worst possible choices in character interaction. The most known example would be the Undertale Genocide route. It's just... I can't understand it. I feel so shitty when I make a single bad choice, so much so that I go back to an earlier save if I can. I can't imagine doing that intentionally for an entire game.

Another example (although this will be way more controversial) is using gyro in Splatoon 2. My hands tend to move around a lot when playing so that makes it a giant nightmare for me.

I have trouble playing an evil character, but it can be hilarious to play an over the top amoral one. I would never play New Vegas and side with Caesar’s Legion. But I have done runs where I will just indiscriminately kill and then cannibalize everyone I come across, and suddenly the game becomes a comedy. Who should I side with, the settlers of Good Springs or the Powder Gangers? How about my dinner!

 

[Brofield]

Knew someone who would play Guitar Hero 3 while listening to Breaking Benjamin/Linkin Park/Beastie Boys/Papa Roach. I mean, he was still good at the game, but fuck I remember one party in high school everyone had to yell at him to either turn it off or wear headphones because we'd much rather listen to Cult of Personality than whatever earbleeding edgerock he wanted to listen to.

 

[GamerJM]

Holding an N64 controller like this:

 

[condesachocula]

People who rush a game they like, complete it 100% in a few days just because they loved it, then, when trying to help others, just ruin their experience.
It happens all the time to a friend of mine, and the most annoying time was while playing Blooborne together. He was over a week into the game, and everytime he came help me defeat a boss, he would just do it in a couple of hits.
This broke most of the experience for me, till the point I had to tell him not to be my partner anymore

 

[Phosphorescent Skeleton]

People who have the attitude that newer=better drive me crazy. Same energy as a self described cinephile who refuses to watch old films.