Do you have any bad gaming habits?

As in, do you tend to do things that ultimately detract from your gaming experiences?

My own vice is collectables, such as Assassin Creeds' flags, Uncharted's treasures or something equally useless. I don't care about achievements or trophies, but I'm doomed to searching every inch of a game that include collectables in an adventure. I wouldn't mind doing this on the second playthrough or something, but I struggle to stop myself from doing it the first time around. I wish I could toggle them off or something so I could just focus on everything else.

I will stop and reload at every opportunity I get, even when I know that my loaded magazine/quiver/magic thing is full. That doesn't sound too bad, but if I were to record myself playing any FPS, it'd be unbearable to watch. I'd run from one point of cover to another, then stand still for a few seconds while I check to make sure everything I have is fully (re)loaded.

COMPULSIVE RELOAD SYNDROME

i get 1 kill and automatically reload and get murdered by dead guy's 3 buddies who were in plain sight when i started shooting

I must scan every inch of a given level, room or cave. I kinda ruin the focus and the experience by stepping on every reachable square meter 

@Ubersmake said:

I will stop and reload at every opportunity I get, even when I know that my loaded magazine/quiver/magic thing is full. That doesn't sound too bad, but if I were to record myself playing any FPS, it'd be unbearable to watch. I'd run from one point of cover to another, then stand still for a few seconds while I check to make sure everything I have is fully (re)loaded.

God, I do that too. Mine's probly due to paranoia more than anything; I just figure, the one time that don't reload is going to be the time that kills me, even if I've only used a bullet or two. Perfect Dark was probably when I started doing it, and now it's to the point that I'll cycle through my entire inventory to make sure everything's ready incase I get ambushed.

I tend to try and play like 5 games at once which usually means I forget the plot in about a week = /. I also end up not finishing a lot of games because of this habit as well.

Chronic restart syndrome. I usually get it with RPGs where you can design a character. I'll play a character for the first 20-40% of the game, come up with a better concept, then be unable to continue. The worst is when a previous concept ends up actually being the one I most like, because my second biggest flaw is compulsive save delete syndrome. So instead of jumping back in with that old character, I'll feel compelled to restart from the beginning, even when I do have the old save. (My CSD syndrome is in withdrawal). I'll usually actually complete a game when I drop it after this routine, play a non-creatable playable character game, then come back months later. Somehow that breaks the curse.

I've gotten 40+ hours on 4 characters in Skyrim recently. This last one may actually make it through, but I've been putting in a lot of 12 hour shifts this week and I need to hop back on that game before my restless game syndrome kicks in. (My 3rd disability - unable to return to an RPG save I haven't touched in a while).

Quick saving every 5-10 minutes. Like OCD or something. I simply can't accept consequences if I made the wrong choices. And I partly blame that on games not being clear what each choice exactly means.

Doom Syndrome. 
 I refuse to take cover. I think that, in shooters, the solution for every problem is running right in front of my enemy and shooting him with a shotgun while screaming "TAKE THAT, PIECE OF MOTHERFUCKER!".  I even play Gears Of War this way. 
Also, "Flying Kick + Lower Kick" in fighting games is a "combo" i use a lot, thanks to SF, and it makes me lose much of the fun in finding effective combos and shit.

Oh, my habits never surfaced again like they did in Max Payne. I would not be happy with how a gunfight went if I ended up with less than 8 painkillers. Instant quickload. If I came across painkillers and I had max, I would bring harm to myself, so I could use what I have and take the new ones...

Reloading for me too, except not when enemies are around. Even if I get a headshot or something and really only use 1 bullet from something with a huge clip I'll reload.

Also never using supergood items. I'll hang onto everything until the last boss fight because...what if I need it?

I like a challenge but as soon as I feel the game is being unfair, and I can't get passed a spot, I'll stop playing the game. I not huge on overcoming challenges because, I don't know, I don't see that as being fun. The only time that has really happened to me (being amazingly challenged and still trying) was Super Meat Boy and, even then, the challenge wasn't unfair so I guess that's why I kept trying.

I don't know if this is "bad" but I always wash my hands when I go from eating food to playing games, and when my hands get sweaty - I will wash my hands. I probably wash my hands at least 10 times a day :/

I strangely don't do this at work though... much.

@IAmNotBatman said:

I don't know if this is "bad" but I always wash my hands when I go from eating food to playing games, and when my hands get sweaty - I will wash my hands. I probably wash my hands at least 10 times a day :/

I strangely don't do this at work though... much.

That is not a bad habit if you are handling a controller/hitting keys

@mandude said:

Oh, my habits never surfaced again like they did in Max Payne. I would not be happy with how a gunfight went if I ended up with less than 8 painkillers. Instant quickload. If I came across painkillers and I had max, I would bring harm to myself, so I could use what I have and take the new ones...

I hated leaving painkillers behind, also. I wonder why...

Mine is I get lazy, and then find that a game wanted me to actually try to get past a hard section. Eventually I flip and enjoy it instead of feeling I am being put to work. Also my skills are hit and miss till usually the last third of a good game. Batman is creeping along because I am so anxious to really do it right, which again requires improvement from me.

On the Xbox, it was achievement whoring. I prided myself on my achievement completion percentage.

On PC, it's the temptation to cheat when the going gets impossibly tough in a single-player game without achievements and with a built-in console. When all else fails, ` and god.

On the PS3, it's dropping the controller in frustration. I've dislodged internal components and the case integrity twice.

If I get to a really hard part of a game and keep losing. Instead of getting up and taking a break. I tend to bitch and yell until I get passed that part of the game. It also drives me insane to not get all collectables but I usually get bored of the game or too annoyed at not being able to find them that I give up, I very rarely complete a game. I'll beat it but never get everything even if I really want to.

My posture. When I start playing a game I start off sitting comfortably and in the correct posture but 30 min in I find myself leaning over or lying down and at the end of a marathon gaming session I often have back or neck pain.

Uber-cussing - fighting games and online FPS's make me lose my shit. Like "Someone robbed you at gun point, but before leaving has the balls to show you it was just their fingers the whole time before running off" level of insanity. I'd like to play them, but I don't keep up with shooter trends and I don't have it in me to train myself in fighting disciplines. I end up avoiding them BECAUSE I know I'll lose my cool.

I hate using potions, I'll run back to a distant save point to heal rather than use one from my maxed-out inventory.

I don't know how to ragequit, I simply can't give up properly. Untill the enemy is dead.

I have to absolutely see everything, fuse this with "not wasting my time" and you end up with me speeding through the levels while trying to see everything.

I absolutely have to get the best ending, if there is one. I can't take a mediocre or bad ending at all. It must be the best one available.

Every time I die I finish something hard I always take a drink of what evs is next to me.

My worst gaming habit is not being able to enjoy games sober. They simply are too dumbed down these days for my brain to stay entertained long enough to enjoy them without some sort of help.

Chronic restart syndrome. I usually get it with RPGs where you can design a character. I'll play a character for the first 20-40% of the game, come up with a better concept, then be unable to continue. The worst is when a previous concept ends up actually being the one I most like, because my second biggest flaw is compulsive save delete syndrome. So instead of jumping back in with that old character, I'll feel compelled to restart from the beginning, even when I do have the old save. (My CSD syndrome is in withdrawal). I'll usually actually complete a game when I drop it after this routine, play a non-creatable playable character game, then come back months later. Somehow that breaks the curse.

I've gotten 40+ hours on 4 characters in Skyrim recently. This last one may actually make it through, but I've been putting in a lot of 12 hour shifts this week and I need to hop back on that game before my restless game syndrome kicks in. (My 3rd disability - unable to return to an RPG save I haven't touched in a while).

Ya i break headsets about once a year so i need to always buy warranties for them.

Quick saving like a motherfucker when I can. As far as I'm concerned, the elder scroll series can be summarized with "F5."

When I'm playing a game and I keep having to repeat a section, I get into my head the perfect way to complete the challenge and restart that moment something happens that forces me to deviate. I started doing this with Limbo recently: I wanted to get the "No Point In Dying" achievement, and I eventually reached the point where I restarted that whole game whenever I died before the hotel sign.

Usually this tactic doesn't do me good, as you can imagine.

i tend to play different video games at the same time. it gets pretty confusing to finding where i am in the game. 
 
i always reload after i shoot.

@Paul_Is_Drunk said:

Chronic restart syndrome. I usually get it with RPGs where you can design a character. I'll play a character for the first 20-40% of the game, come up with a better concept, then be unable to continue. The worst is when a previous concept ends up actually being the one I most like, because my second biggest flaw is compulsive save delete syndrome. So instead of jumping back in with that old character, I'll feel compelled to restart from the beginning, even when I do have the old save. (My CSD syndrome is in withdrawal). I'll usually actually complete a game when I drop it after this routine, play a non-creatable playable character game, then come back months later. Somehow that breaks the curse.

I've gotten 40+ hours on 4 characters in Skyrim recently. This last one may actually make it through, but I've been putting in a lot of 12 hour shifts this week and I need to hop back on that game before my restless game syndrome kicks in. (My 3rd disability - unable to return to an RPG save I haven't touched in a while).

I have this for almost every RPG I play! Funnily enough though, it also happens when I play other games. I try and get the best save file I can in every game and that almost always involves restarting the game to get everything I can or be the highest level!

I also suffer from reloading after every shot I take!

I save compulsively and tend to reload whenever I screw up a little bit.

I CAN'T STOP GAMING!!!

Saving all the best equipment with a limit meter because I think Im gonna waste it

Oh shit... I'm a fucking mess. Now to make a pretty list. 

Always be reloading, I can't handle having less than a full clip if I've been outside of combat for more than 5 seconds. 
 
Chronic Quicksaver, I can't handle anything going wrong. If the game allows me to, I will try a perfect run through every room in an FPS. Using a health pack means I failed, this was extra prominent in Max Payne for whatever reason.
 
Never use or leave healthpacks behind. This one is plain insanity. I never, ever use items to heal myself, but I'm chronic in picking every single one up. I throw away equipment to pick up more healthpacks and then never use them. I finished Fallout 3 with over 400 Simtpaks in my inventory, for no goddamned reason. I've gone through entire Jrpgs based entirely on attrition and abusing my poor white mages. I think this is a serious case of "what if I need it later?" gone horribly wrong.
 
I loot everything. EVERYTHING. You know the original Baldurs Gate? You know how many barrels there are in the towns? Do you know, how many houses you can enter? I know, all too well... I did the same in Fallout/Skyrim as well. Every barrel, every container I can reach. Doesn't help much that I play those games as an kleptomaniac, more containers to open. This one wouldn't be so bad if I thought it was fun, but I don't. This had made me quit more games out of boredom then I can count.
 
Related to the previous two, I hate wasting ammunition. When a shooter gives me a melee button, I will abuse it to no end. 16 000 assault rifle rounds in my pocket is better than 3 in some other dudes face, right? (16 000 is the actual number of 5mm rounds I had in New Vegas, no counting the Armor Penetrating ones). The same goes for money, I never buy anything unless I have to, and the obsessive looting makes me so goddamned rich in every game I play. I actually enjoy that though, there is something about being as rich as I can that just soothes my mind (I took it to the extremes in WoW, where I started spending more time at the Auction House than I did questing).
 
Chronic restart syndrome, I will find something I hate with my character, 15h in, and then just restart. Over and over again, I perfectly remember the early parts of more games than many people probably even have played. This leads into my next habit...
 
MIN/MAX ALL THE THINGS! I want my character to be perfectly crafted and specialized. If I make a sniper, he is going to be the best goddamned sniper ever. If I make a rogue, he will have 0 survivability, but hit like a goddamned truck. I'm probably one of very few people who played a glass cannon barbarian in Diablo 2. And if I realise one of my older skill points was badly spent? Restart.
 
Steam Sale syndrome. I have way more unfinished games than anyone should be allowed to. Money not well spent...
 
Thank you for the question, if you need anything else, I can be found at the cheapest shrink in town.

i play a game for hours then stop ether when the system freezes or i have to go some were or i am tired - basic human needs. i rarely play games these days like once every 2 weeks or 1 a month. i used to play a lot in 3 hour session or some thing.

in 3words marathon game sessions.

two things that complement each other:

1. i don't finish games i start often enough

2. i buy too many games, even if they're cheap and i'm glad i'm supporting game developers in general. humble bundles and steam sales have left me with quite a few games i don't play.

hell, i bought Portal 2 a few months ago and i expect it to be good and i think the original is great... but i haven't even started up portal 2.

and i don't think i'm capable of writing a quality sentence at this point in the night. not so much a gaming habit as much as a being tired on the internet habit.

sometimes when i can't beat a level i pick up the 360 and throw it at the wall. honestly i can't afford to do it anymore, it's running me into the ground.

I'm a Cheater. If I find an exploit or cheat code in a game or online, I HAVE to use it. Luckily this has been fairly downsized with the massive absence of cheat codes in modern video games. But in a game like Saint's Row or GTA, where using cheat codes disables achievements... well....

Let's just say I've completed Saint's Row 2 eleven times and I don't have a single achievement for it.

@phrali said:

COMPULSIVE RELOAD SYNDROME

i get 1 kill and automatically reload and get murdered by dead guy's 3 buddies who were in plain sight when i started shooting

Oh man this is so true. I'll never learn not to do this.

I save way too much and in multiple slots in games like Skyrim just in case I don't like how something went or if I want to go see it again even though I never do. And more generally, I end up buying new games before finishing a decent amount of old ones. I still have games like Bayonetta and Arkham City on my pile to get to.

Getting overly angry at the game itself when nine times out of ten, it's my own dumb-ass fault.

Reload syndrome: I am not as bad as some people here, but I do tend to reload alot even when I know that I am going to die because of it. 
 
Accept death: Sometimes in multiplayer games or hard games(Dark Souls) I just accept that there is no way I am going to make this, and not fight anymore. Like the bosses in Dark Souls, whenever I am taking too many hits and have like 2 estus flasks left, I just let the dude kill me and I'll try again. Same as in BF3 alot of times instead of switching to a pistol to kill the guy I let myself reload like a dumbass and let him kill me. It's very frustrating. 
 
LOOT EVERYTHING: I am getting better at handling this in Skyrim, mainly because the loot is often shit, but I can't help myself in other games. I WILL LOOT EVERY DEAD BODY EVEN IF IT SAYS EMPTY. I can't help myself. 
 
Do everything: I have to do everything in the game. Every stupid side-mission there is, every fucking escort and every damned bad racing. The weird thing is, I don't feel the same way about achievements. As long as I get more than 60%, I can't give a shit about the rest of them.

I have to constantly reload after any kill and constantly have full ammo. It's especially irritating in any multiplayer shooter.

This is mainly for when I'm playing RPGs, but I have a horrible tendency to get so sucked up in the story that I keep going from one area to the next without any regard for leveling properly for the next giant boss battle. Then, there's always that one enemy that gets me in three hits because I didn't level enough.

I usually buy a new game prior to finishing the Previous one and promptly lose all interest in continuing. As a result 2/3d of my games list is also backlog.

I am a packrat. I loot everything i see and then agonize forever about what useless thing i wanna drop. then the next thing i pick up i have to do it all over again.

I have a lot of games that are finished 65% of the way. My biggest problem is thinking "I would have made this game differently"

I only colect anything in games if it adds anything to the experience at all. If it all detracts and doesn't have any shreed of importance, I don't do it.

@phrali said:

COMPULSIVE RELOAD SYNDROME

i get 1 kill and automatically reload and get murdered by dead guy's 3 buddies who were in plain sight when i started shooting

I used to do this a lot. To the point where I reloaded a gun with 100+ ammo after 5-10 shots. I'm slowly getting over it though.

@AhmadMetallic said:

I must scan every inch of a given level, room or cave. I kinda ruin the focus and the experience by stepping on every reachable square meter

I know what you mean. This causes me to give up on many games halfway through. Or to give up on trying to complete everything and rush through the game, ultimately not enjoying it. Slowly getting over this as well.

@Paul_Is_Drunk said:

Chronic restart syndrome. I usually get it with RPGs where you can design a character. I'll play a character for the first 20-40% of the game, come up with a better concept, then be unable to continue.

Same here.

@mandude said:

Oh, my habits never surfaced again like they did in Max Payne. I would not be happy with how a gunfight went if I ended up with less than 8 painkillers. Instant quickload. If I came across painkillers and I had max, I would bring harm to myself, so I could use what I have and take the new ones...

I had the same experience with that game. Was mostly cured of that habit while playing Chaser.

@YI_Orange said:

Also never using supergood items. I'll hang onto everything until the last boss fight because...what if I need it?

I also do this. It's apparently very common: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TooAwesomeToUse

@IAmNotBatman said:

I don't know if this is "bad" but I always wash my hands when I go from eating food to playing games, and when my hands get sweaty - I will wash my hands. I probably wash my hands at least 10 times a day :/

I strangely don't do this at work though... much.

That's basic hygiene and I do it too. Imagine what our keyboards would look like if we didn't!

@Vonocourt said:

I hate using potions, I'll run back to a distant save point to heal rather than use one from my maxed-out inventory.

Same here.

@Deleth said:

I absolutely have to get the best ending, if there is one. I can't take a mediocre or bad ending at all. It must be the best one available.

Totally know what you mean!

@Chop said:

I also have the same problem with returning to old saves. Although that's not limited to RPGs. If I leave a game for anymore than a week, I'll restart instead of continuing off my save.

Combined with my other bad habits causing me to take extended breaks from games frequently, this is a very annoying one

@TobbRobb said:

I loot everything. EVERYTHING. You know the original Baldurs Gate? You know how many barrels there are in the towns? Do you know, how many houses you can enter? I know, all too well... I did the same in Fallout/Skyrim as well. Every barrel, every container I can reach. Doesn't help much that I play those games as an kleptomaniac, more containers to open. This one wouldn't be so bad if I thought it was fun, but I don't. This had made me quit more games out of boredom then I can count.

@Daiphyer said:

Do everything: I have to do everything in the game. Every stupid side-mission there is, every fucking escort and every damned bad racing.

These two were a major problem when i played Fable, causing me to quit the game and not play any RPGs until Skyrim. Now I seem to be mostly cured though.

Looking at what I wrote above, I wonder how I managed to enjoy gaming a few years ago...

This right here... I mean, what if I need them later? Right right? There's always a final boss... it's... it's an investment restarting this section for a perfect run and saving the healthpacks.... and and, what if THAT ONE barrel I missed is the one with the surprisingly located rare Item that I'll need in just a second, even if I don't know it right now...

I also over-analyze numbers, no matter what they're relating to...

I need help.

@hurricaneivan29: Ohey I remember this thread.

Thank god I pretty much lost that habit now. I managed to repeatedly stop myself from looting every little thing until the habit went away. PHEW.

Still never use health items in games though. SKILL, CHEESE AND STRATEGY WILL PREVAIL THROUGH A DUMB AND UNNECCESSARY HANDICAP!