Summary
Gaming is a strange hobby. Most entertainment, like movies, books, or podcasts, allows its audience to settle in and relax as they do all the work. Video games demand work out of their users, meaning that players get only as much out as they put in. Even more strangely, some video games can evoke very negative responses from their players, and not always because they were designed to do so.
While there is no “wrong” way to play a game, there are a few ways in which players ruin all the fun they might have by their own hand, whether they realize it or not.
RPGs and story-rich games likeFallout: New Vegasuse gaming’s interactive potential to tell stories that books and movies couldn’t. But using save files to go back and peek behind the veil at what could have been ruins the magic, as does creating a new character over and over again to explore all possible options at the start of the game instead of enjoying the natural pacing that the game’s designers painstakingly laid out.
Reloading is inevitable if a game doesn’t have interesting ways to deal with death or failure states. However, most players will avoid experiencing the consequences of their actions even if it means slight inconvenience, which takes away from what could be a formative (and fun!) experience. Some games, like Outward orDarkest Dungeon, havean innovative save mechanicthat forces a player’s decisions with an autosave, but not all gamers enjoy hearing that there is only one save file as backup, especially those who have been traumatized by save file corruption.
The enjoyment of games is far more subjective than any other medium. A prospective gamer should never struggle through something they don’t like because other people rate it highly. Gamers should remember that it’s okay to abandon games that don’t vibe with them. Conversely, those who stay strictly to their own preferred genres or flavors of games may equally be spoiling their own fun in the hobby.
Passing on a game with universal praise because the box art doesn’t seem appealing can be a huge wasted opportunity to have a perspective-altering experience. This is especially true for those who pass up indie games in favor of big-budget games on the assumption that more money guarantees a higher quality product. There are so manyunderrated indie gameslikeUnderRailwith less-than-stellar graphics but incredible gameplay that get passed up for the latest confusingly numbered big-budget shooter.
Blame it on the incongruity of having a story in a persistent online game, but many players feel the need to turn finishing the game as fast as possible into their own personal mission, and that includes skipping all the context or information about why the player’s character is doing what they’re doing.
Having to sit through anoverly long cutscenecan be irritating, but blasting through every single one to get through the action destroys any tension about a fight and turns every game into wack-a-mole. Worst of all are players who skip story moments in single-player games likeMetal Gear Solid 3on their first playthrough, which is the equivalent of only reading every other four pages of a novel.
They say that perfect is the enemy of the good, and no more is this evident than with those players who spend more time installing (and fixing) mods in games than actually playing them. This applies to some very specific games (Skyrim) and is made all the worse when themodding community is as active and talentedas they are.
The potential for perfection is tempting, but at a certain point, it crosses over a line and becomes work (unpaid work, at that). At some point, players need to rein themselves back in and actually enjoy their game or risk messing with load orders and finding broken texture files all day and night.
3Suffering The Sunk Cost Fallacy - Destiny 2
Sunken Cost Is Not Proof Of Quality (Or Enjoyment)
Competition in online games doesn’t just take place in PvP. Showing off rare skins, exclusive weapons, or seasonal titles is a core part of the experience. Players can’t help but compare themselves to their peers. Working toward a cool cosmetic or loadout can be motivating, but playing (or worse, paying real cash) just to keep up with Xx_The_Joneses_6969_Xx, like aDestiny 2player chasing the newest ornament might, maycompel someone to keep grinding, not because they’re having fun, but because they feel like they have to.
Gamers often mistake time or money invested as proof of a game’s worth. In doing so, they turn what should be entertainment into a second job, or a social scene they pressure themselves to keep up with. Players who’ve sunk real money into cosmetics or season passes are more likely to stay, even when recent updates haven’t been fun, and better games are sitting idle in their library.
Few games represent the intensity of competitive gaming better thanLeague of Legends. But when competition crosses into obsession, every match becomes a pressure cooker. Losing becomes personal. Teammates become enemies. Every misplay is dissected, every moment judged.
That high-stakes mentality, while thrilling for some, often leads to frustration, anger, or burnout. Games designed for fun (even challenging fun) stop being relaxing and become emotional labor when dealing with a toxic attitude to play, which doesn’t just hurt everyone else, but also the one throwing the flames.
From copying and pasting a broken, meta (most optimal tactic available) build inWorld of Warcraftto trying to finish a game as quickly as possible to clear their Steam backlog, gamers will “optimize the fun out of a game,” as Soren Johnson, one of the developers behindCivilization, once said. Some players might see the main objective of the game as victory, but if they’re sacrificing their own enjoyment to maximize their own power with painful grinding and, in turn, minimize a game’s difficulty, is it really winning?
Players should stop and smell the roses and enjoy the moment once in a while, especially because video games have (potentially) proportionately longer runtimes than movies or books. Treating everything like a checklist is hardly conducive to amindful state of mind, and worse, players concerned only with completionism will fail to absorb the beauty and fun before them.
