Are you boring when playing games?

Boring might be a bit clickbaity, but the question stands. I'm currently making my way through Dishonored 2, on the last level in fact, and it struck me that despite having a great toolset of powers/items at my disposal, I have been going through the whole thing with just the (admittedly effective) combination of teleporting, dark vision (detective mode equivalent) and choking.

Now, granted, I've been doing a non-lethal playthrough, which in fairness could be blamed slightly for not going crazy with the powers, but in all games where I have an interesting/varied toolset, I find myself opting for the simplest and most reliable actions, repeated again and again. This doesn't harm my enjoyment of a game, but a part of me does wonder if I'm missing out. A bit like going to a theme park, and spending the whole day on the various Tower of Terror-likes, enjoying slight variations in design and still getting the same thrill each time, but not really experiencing all the other attractions on offer. The Last of Us and its limited ammo was quite good, as it really made me use everything that I had at my disposal, which was a nice change.

So, getting back to the original point, in a game where there are several options for tackling a level/encounter, do you experiment and mess around with how you can interact with it, or do you tend to stick to a tried and tested method most of the time? Interested to hear how you all play.

(If anyone wants an example of someone not 'boring', Tom Francis, the guy behind Gunpoint, is a really entertaining watch when it comes to playing games. He'll upload clips of games like Dishonored or Far Cry, showing him messing with the rules and manipulating enemies/the environment with the tools at his disposal., definitely recommend his YT channel)

I'm a bit of a hypocrite here because that's how I play, and I don't think it's boring at all. Conversely, I cannot abide by anyone who plays Mass Effect as the soldier class and then complains that it's boring and the shooting isn't that great.

I'll say that as long as it's satisfying in its own right then don't worry about it. Exploring the environments is more than enough satisfaction for me, the combat/stealth is a hurdle to be overcome.

I usually stick with what works and what I can pull off.

I'll do whatever is fun to me. In a game like Devil May Cry, you can beat the game just using the basic YYY combo and dodging, but I have a lot of fun messing around with the huge toolsets they give you. But in a game like Splinter Cell: Blacklist where I have a million little gadgets, I'll opt to use none of them and only knife myself through levels. I just don't think the game is challenging enough when you use the extra tools.

I have actually thought about this quite a bit, stemming from the fact that often on the Bombcast the guys tend to say that they find a few weapons that work and then just stick to them. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but to me I often feel like I don't really get all a game has to offer playing like that. I also think some of the most fun in games comes from experimenting with the mechanics.

Its very common in stealth games especially, since most of the gadgets usually help with killing. Especially iI noticed this in MGS V/Dishonored. In both I found that playing purely stealthily is just kind of boring at times. In Dishonored for example I found high chaos much more fun than going non-lethal, and I played through it twice. Once without killing anyone, and the other doing the complete opposite. The latter was a lot more fun.

Don't worry too much about it, play like you want. Though, I have almost always been a stealth game purist that feel like non-lethal is the way to play stealth games. I have since gotten over that and just try to have fun with the games though, and usually have more fun for it.

@atwa: I always found non-lethal kind of dull, my own twist on stealth is to go predator style. Zero alarms, never get spotted but also leave no survivors. Depends a little on the game and the level, but that can occasionally be more difficult than regular stealth just by way of encounters being designed to be bypassed and not assaulted. Started having a lot more fun with stealth games after that self-imposed rule.

One thing I like about Doom is that every weapon is viable and forces you to switch up your weapons on the fly, even after I discovered the over powered rune setup that let's me dump ammo like mad. I usually only find a few weapons or power combos I like for games. It helps me get into a rhythm where I can have fun and immerse myself.

I'm very much a "Wow me" type of person and I usually won't change my playstyle until I'm forced or the game introduces something awesome for me to use.

I get stuck in ruts a lot, especially if given a lot of freedom in the game. Without something prodding me to switch it up I'll tend to just use whatever seems best without much thought. Using Doom as an example I WOULD just use the machine gun all the time (Plasma rifle is better but sound / design sucks, it sounds lame) but they limited ammo just carefully enough to make you switch it up. Later on it sounds like enemies have a more rock paper scissors thing going with weapons but I'm not there yet.

For Racing games I'm a little more experimental with driving lines but that also usually ends up at youtube trying to figure out how to do a fast lap.

The more I sit and try to write an answer to this question the more I wonder if I'm not the reason games I start get abandoned mid game. Do I not know how to have fun with a game?

No. I'm always looking to improve my style. Remnants of being blown away by DMC3 back in the day and having a soft spot for looking cool while doing shit.

I found Dishonored 2 to be pretty disappointing for a variety of reasons, but its (eventual) toolset certainly was not part of that. You can do some insane shit in that game.

As long as you're having fun, I don't think any of this is a problem. I have been playing games on easy because I don't have the time to restart as much anymore, still having fun with most things.

Unsure, I do tend to play a lot of games as a long range hitter/sniper - MGSV I basically used non-lethal sniper rifles as much as possible (I went through suppressors like it was going out of style), and moved in once everyone was sleeping soundly.

I seem to play at long range and middle range in most things - keep my distance but have something handy if the enemy gets close.

All of that gets tossed out the window for any kind of twicth multi player though, I'm hopeless at them and tend to stick with a middle range loadout.

@markini6: Apart from the gameplay toolbox, I don't think it improves upon the first game at all. I have so many small frustrations about it that I actually more or less stopped playing it. For instance: you can do some cool shit in that game right? You can choose whatever you want to do? Not really. Because that tooltip in loading screens kept telling me: hey! If you kill dudes you're a bad person and the world will react to bad people!'

Then all the high chaos nonsense too. I felt like I was being slapped on the wrist for engaging with their sandbox. I don't want to be punished for that. I hate good/evil sliders without nuance. That game doesn't do a good job of surfacing what direction you're going in while playing. I didn't know if I actually had to stop killing people or not, so to be safe I did. And I was suddenly limited to what I was 'allowed' to do. I hate that. Games should stop doing that. If you're telling me I can do what I want, then let me do that and just have morality be something that is on my conscience as a player; not in my face with a hidden 'you're a bad person' meter.

Oh man, you pretty much nailed everything I disliked about the first Dishonored. Add to that the fact that I could not be stealthy for the life of me in that game, and I'm normally pretty decent at stealth games, and it was just a bad time overall. I take it I shouldn't bother with the sequel?

My dog sure thinks so

Do agree about the chaos system, but having seen the ending and what you get for being a total saint, it's really not worth playing with 'achieving the good ending' as your main objective. There are types of story moments in games that have to be experienced, but this definitely falls into the category of 'watch in a 1 min youtube video' (the ending is super short. The only important bit in it, as far as I could tell, is that by not killing a certain character, the part of the ending where that person is referred to may be setting up the DLC). There's also supposedly the nuance of using the heart to listen to peoples' thoughts, and it not affecting the chaos if you kill someone who is revealed to be a murderer, for example, but in all honesty I don't think the chaos system adds anything to the game, and is more or less just a carrot on the end of a stick for playing non-lethally (that, and encountering fewer bloodflies)

If you don't have anyone watching you the creative kills van feel empty and more trouble than they're worth. I play flashy, or at least try to, when people are watching me play (is after a few beers after pub) but I play pretty standard at home with the odd creative flourish.

@darth_navster: I don't know. As I said, I don't know the extend of the consequences for killing people, but I imagine that tooltip doesn't keep telling me that for funsies. That was a real nail in the coffin for me. If you strongly dislike that too, then I would try to research what the consequences exactly are. Perhaps it isn't bad? I don't know. I felt the game should've been more up front about what's what so I didn't bother.

But yeah, sometimes you get spotted at weird angles are really, really quick too. There is a great game in there if they adjusted the time it took for guards from being unsuspicious to full alert and removed that morality system in the background.

In character action or similar I'll usually stick with 1 or two weapons or skills that generally work the best for me. I think there's a term for the concept in game design that I remember hearing years ago.

I think one of the reasons I love Hitman (2016) is that it makes me want to try all of the tools in my arsenal to take down targets in a multitude of ways. I'm a big fan of games that reward you for diversifying your play style. Tough to do though.

I think it's worth bothering with if you like what they excel at (really detailed environments with lots of cool details to uncover, levels with lots of pathways that can be fun to explore with the traversal powers, taking part in the side-quests that present themselves), but would be a hard sell if you didn't like the original game/DLC. As for the stealth aspect, I felt like I was being spotted a bit more easily in this one, but once I remembered that the easiest and most effective stealth tool in these games is using height, then it went back to being fun. Like, in the whole game, I could probably count on two hands the times when I didn't have something high up to teleport to, as there's almost always pipes/chandeliers/balconies to go on, offering good vantage points but also a haven from detection. Despite the things that weren't great/were hindrances (the chaos system, sound design), I still really enjoyed the game. But I think that was largely in part because I hadn't played any Dishonored for 3 years and was happy to have a new one.

I don't singularly focus on maximizing efficiency, if that's what you mean.

That can be fun, don't get me wrong, but it's typically not the only way I'd approach a game. If anything I err on the side of flashy/dramatic. Depends on what I'm in the mood for, and of course what the game is even able to facilitate.

@markini6: But I think that sucks. I don't know how the ending turns out when I'm still playing the game, so it telling me it matters is making me alter my playstyle even though I didn't want to. I understand it is a small or even not noteworthy issue for you, but it was annoying for me. Real annoying. They shouldn't have done that. I don't understand how they were in meetings and eventually concluded 'let's artificially force our players to not be able to play how they want, but they can watch a YouTube video if they do anyway'.

I'll probably go back to it later after my frustration vent on it has fully emptied and I'm in a state of 'I don't care anymore'. Then play it how I want to. Don't feel like doing that now though.

This is an awesome discussion point because I too, would consider myself careful, calculated, aka...boring. I only say this because after watching hours upon hours of videos on giant bomb or youtube, I realize I would not be fun to watch.

However, who cares if you are boring, if you enjoy your playstyle. Vinny and Dan's playstyle of Hitman, although entertaining and hilarious, is grating to watch because of the countless times they rely on cleaning up mistakes they made. Brad and Dan however, take on a more methodical approach which may be less exciting, but so more rewarding when they do something similarly to how you would. It takes all types.

The moments I have found most rewarding involve introducing new mechanics which change the gameplay. For instance, XCOM's Iron Man mode or removing the ability to see through the walls in The Last of Us add a weight to your decisions that doesn't change your playstyle. These types of additions in games improve the experience, without requiring you to play differently.

Depends on the game for me. You mentioned The Last of Us. That's a game I remember playing really boringly. I threw bricks/bottles at enemies, ran up and smashed their face in over and over again 'cause it was so satisfying. MGS games, Hitman games I go minimal. But like some people said, character action games all I care about is how cool I can make it look and proceed to die a lot. lol

I'm the guy that always plays as the Soldier in Mass Effect.

I'm pretty much the "tried and true" guy through and through. Particularly in stealth games, I am obsessed with playing them as though I'm a ghost who is never perceived outside of the feeling of my bicep pressing against your carotid. That said, this is how I like playing these games, by that I mean that it is fun for me to play this way. But I guess to answer the question, yeah, I usually play games in a set manner.

However, the further away a game gets from telling me "here's the challenging, expert way to play", the more likely I am to experiment and do weird stuff. Stealth games, as mentioned, usually have a trophy (or endings) based around never being seen, never killing, etc. So, that's my first (and usually only) playthrough right there. Character action games that rate your performance based on a S-E system or the like will lead to me finding the quickest methods and best combos to eliminate my enemies (see MG Revengeance).

If this was any other year, this would probably be the end of my post. However, Hitman came out tis year, and it has wrenched me from my game-rut in the most fun way possible. Hitman does have a trophy/challenge for a SA run. But that is just one run, and then you're finished with being stealthy unless you want to. So, when going for mastery on levels - which I love doing - I will build my experience around "fun" rather than efficiency.

My target is on an easily intercepted, but crowded path? ICA phone time! He's around other people shortly thereafter? That's just funny. Target is in a tough to clear out area? Let's try sniping, seems fun. Recently I did an escalation in Colorado which ends with "Kill targets while dressed as a scarecrow". This outfit gets you spotted and shot immediately, so I simply cleared a path of dead bodies from the scarecrow disguise to my targets. This is SO far out of my wheelhouse of usual gaming, it's crazy and I couldn't love Hitman more for it. It's so obviously built for both fun and the perfectionist player, and it's wonderful. It just seems so friendly with its get-and-forget nature of challenges. "Cool, you did the mission without being seen, killing unnecessarily or being recorded. Now you NEVER have to worry about stealthiness in this mission in an official capacity EVER again. Have fun!"

So, I guess I'm boring unless the game tells me "it's okay to not be perfect all the time".

Tried and True

lately I've tried to mix it up more, watching Vinny play Quick looks for years has definitely changed my attitude on how to have fun playing a game. So what I tend to do now, is good tried and true for main missions and mix it up for side quests etc.

I'm pretty boring, but at times i do set certain goals for myself when the easiest option is just too easy / non-fun. It also depends whether i'm crossing off a list of quests as fast as possible, or if i'm following an interesting story and want to squeeze as much juice out of the game as there is. Like i remember MGSV eventually turned into me plotting a run between 10-ish side-missions and completing them in the fastest way possible.

I also tend to stick to what i find works best. For me it's more about the satisfaction of perfectly executing what's in your head and that's just easier to pull off with abilities/equipment that you are more comfortable with. So, boring to watch probably but fun to do for me as a player.