Am I the only stupid person when it comes to games?

I bought my first computer, a Mac SE, in 1994, used. The previous owner included a couple of games: “Leather Goddesses of Phobos”, “Deja Vu”, and “The Uninvited”. It is now 2001. The “Deja Vu” diskettes got corrupted at some point, but I still have the other two games. I still play the other two games now and then.

One of these days I’ll figure them out and win. I WILL, I tell you!!! (Especially if I can get Lynn Bodoni to send me some more cheat sheets).

But on a good day, I can beat “Hangman 2000”.

Gamefaqs does indeedy kick ass. I’m not sure why anyone buys print guides any longer. The downside is I can freely admit to often not trying very hard at adventure games. I know that in a matter of minutes, I’ll have the solution on screen. I’m a sucker for temptation.

It does take a little while for guides to reach the net, though. Recently picked up Startopia, a simmish/building game, and the manual is probably the worst I’ve ever seen in any game, bar none. I suspect 80% of the Official Guide are things that should have been in the documentation in the first place. It just came out, so there’s not much on the net yet, but it will get there.

Sigh.
True fact–for mental relaxation, stimulation and fun I play poker.
This may (probably) won’t translate at all, but there are games and then there are games. Some are consructed up front and others–poker, for example–are organically variable. And lethal. And challenging.
Poker’s short on visual pyrotechnics but looong on probabilities and gonzo human mind-fucking.

Never mind.

Veb
(Who’s drawn an unlikely inside straight in her day and cleaned the table on a pair of deuces.)

Yeah, I’m exactly the same way. In fact, I visited my grandfather today, and he told me all about life… so I guess I can go kill myself now, since I already know what’s going to happen.

Bingo.
So to speak.
A true game is huge, mystifying and infinitely complex. It’s a process, involving skill, luck and experience. Could be why most “built” games irritate then bore me. Games solvable by a key or cheat sheets aren’t games; they’re just clever puzzles.
Games don’t end, they just become more involving.

Veb

theend - Yeah, I know why they’re called cheats…'cause they allow you to “cheat” your way out of the endless frustration, screaming blood frenzies, and general hopelessness at never being able to get anywhere you’d otherwise experience.

You think I’m exaggerating, right? Well, you’ve obviously never seen me play Tekken 3.

Or World Heroes 2.

Or any of the Puzzle Bobbles.

Or International Track and Field. Or Mortal Kombat. Or Captain America and the Avengers. Or T2: Judgment Day. Or the training modes in Virtua Tennis. Or the Crazy Box challenges in Crazy Taxi. Or every computer RPG I’ve ever played. Or every computer war strategy I’ve ever played. Or…

You get the idea.

It may shock you, but I find that having fun and keeping my sanity are a lot more important that weird concepts of “honor”. Guess I’m just weird.

I used to be able to just sit down and hammer away at a game until I finished it. I beat Prince of Persia that way, for example, and The 7th Guest except for the Ataxx “puzzle”.

But these days most computer games just don’t seem important enough for me to devote that kind of time. So I end up using strategy guides just to get to the interesting bits of the game. Starcraft, for example; I play that about once every two months or so, and I’ve gotten to the seventh or eighth mission in the first campaign, but I don’t practice it regularly. Without a strategy guide I would get clobbered every time I went back to the game because I would be out of practice, but with the strategy guide at least I have a chance of finishing the next level in less than three weeks.

I have the same problem. People will tell me stuff about a game and it amazes me that they’ve figured it on their own, just through playing. I think I’m doing the same things as they are, but I don’t get the cool shit. I think next time I’ll send them to the corner with your son :slight_smile:

Wanna know how to take down grand dragons the first time you go through Gizamaluke’s Grotto in FFIX?

<Hangs his head and shuffles off to stand quietly in the corner with Sterra and biggirl’s son>

i have never finished a console game.

really, its true.

generally, i break down and get the strategy guide (or, more recently, print something out from GameFAQ’s or GameWinners’) play through most of the game, and do everything but kill the final bad guy.
but never anything more, i almost always stop.

right now, i am trying to break this.

i am playing Legend of Legaia, a great game. i haven’t looked at the gamefaqs, i havnt checked gamewinners, and i stayed away from the strategy guide. all i did was get an Arts list to speed things up.
currently i have about 48 hours of playtime in, and am about 3/4’ths of the way through. all i have left is to return to the Seru-Kai and come back, break into the Warped Juggernaut Edifice, and then make Songi and his arm-mounted Juggernaut Rogue into my bitch.

soon, i shall finish a console title!