Hello all and merry Listmas! For those who don’t know, Listmas is a multi-blog event masterminded by our friend C.T. Murphy of Murf Vs Internet. It’s a wonderful time of sharing, story-swapping, and lists! Oh such wonderful lists! Keep an eye on CT’s blog and United We Game from now until the 25th, as we’ll be bringing you all the wonderful Listmas goings-on! And with that we move on to, you guessed it, another exceptional list! These are the 3 Worst gaming moments I can think of.
Thinking of bests is easier than thinking of worsts. Your best moments are just that, moments. Beautiful points in time that you hope you’ll hang onto for as long as you live. Worst on the other hand are something else entirely. They’re forgotten, becoming these vague periods in life associated with embarrassment and rage. So this list is going to be a little different from it’s predecessor, instead focusing on that which brings about the worst things a gamer can encounter rather than the moments themselves.
Finishing a Game
Okay, this one might be cheating a little, but I’m serious. Even though beating a game feels like an accomplishment, that feeling is always quickly replaced with that dreaded question: “Well, now what?” Moving from game to game is difficult, even when there’s new games to play. It’s always the same, you go from being on top of the food chain to being the equivalent of a bug. You have to learn how to play all over again, learn new rules , and get oriented to a whole new landscape. Sure it’s all part the fun once you get going, but until then. finishing and starting anew kinda sucks.
Getting stuck on a cheap boss or broken level
Some say there is no greater motivation for success than utter frustration. I can see where they could get that idea, when something frustrates you, you want nothing more than to see it overcome. However, when it comes to games I find it has the opposite effect. When challenge is genuine, it spurs you on. You want to beat it, to enjoy the sweet taste of a hard won victory. When it isn’t though…all you want to do is break you controller and call it a day. Cheap difficulty isn’t rewarding, IT’S ENRAGING! I SWEAR IF I EVER SEE CRISIS CITY AGAIN IT WILL BE TOO SOON! …*ahem*…so yeah, difficulty brought about by cheap and broken design is frustrating.
Getting Destroyed in Multiplayer
This is a common one but you can’t argue with the truth: it sucks to lose. I’ll admit it, I’m a sore loser. I’m the type to rage quit out of a game where I’ve died 15 times to my own 2 kills. I’ll usually try to stick it out, but in games where I’ve been left to fend for myself or have an absolutely rotten string of luck…or LAG, I’ve learned to quit. I’m not proud of it, but quitting before going overboard with online rage is a much better option as opposed to breaking another chair…
Those are my picks for the top rage inducing or just plain crummy aspects of gaming, but I’m more interested in yours. Is there anything out there that causes you to make the furniture fear for it’s life? Any game music that instantly puts you in a bad mood for some unknown reason?
I pretty much agree with exactly what you said, and I’ll add a few of my own. Finishing a great game does make me quite sad, but I also don’t like those times once you’ve beaten a game, but are sticking around for a few extras. With the game complete, playing the game feels a lot less satisfying, even if you have a few more things to do, and it just isn’t nearly as fun as when you still had that final boss to look forward to.
And glitches. Glitches can suck. My worst gaming moment ever was likely when I bought a used copy of “FFVII” that wouldn’t stop freezing at this one spot. It made me so mad. I had to buy a new copy, but I still hate the location that froze on me.
Post-plot play is weird isn’t it? It sounds great in theory, who doesn’t want to have more happening in the game after the main plot? But more often than not, it just feels like so much padding. Unless it’s established from the beginning that the main plot is only a small piece of what’s going on in the world, all desire to do the post-plot stuff kind of evaporates.
Yeah, finishing anything that draws you in as deeply as a game is a horrible experience. It’s kind of like losing a loved one or a bad breakup, but far briefer and far more compact. It’s especially terrible with a series, whether all your questions and concerns are answered or not.
I’d argue that it’s almost worse when every question is answered. You can’t fill in any blanks yourself or speculate. The hope of a revisit to the game world in the future is also dashed.
I really relate to that first one. That’s why I often put off finishing games (and TV shows I’ve been marathoning, etc.) because I don’t want it to end!
I wish it were easier to delay ending a game or tv series sometimes. The problem is that when one gets you sucked in, you wan to know everything about it. Which leads to burning through a game or show a little too quickly to properly enjoy it.
First of all, I can relate to almost everything that you’ve said but one thing that I’m sure is the worst experience for me is when I’m almost far (for example in sims) when I’ve already had too much money and my account is alreadt pregnant. I am really happy about that and suddenly my laptop/computer dies without saving it not as if SIMS has autosave.. :/ it always happen to me, its not that my pc sucks but I think I overuse it at times even when I’m watching a marathon and it died. OMG I always cry. I hate it when I’m not yet done with what I’m doing and it dies. Poop. Secondly, before I had my pc, my brothers and I always share the use of pc and the worst thing I hate is that when I’m playing and my older brother would come up to me saying “finish that or save it, I’ll use the computer” I hate that especially when I’m on the verge of playing. Well Lastly, I don’t think I have any other worst moments or maybe I do but I already forgot. (Kuddos to you. Nice post)
Thanks, losing game saves really is annoying isn’t it. It can completely kill a games appeal if the loss strikes at the right time.
I identify mostly with the first. When I finished Dragon Age and Mass Effect for the first time, it really did feel like, “Now what?” Usually I do get excited when I find a game that’s equivalent to an epic game I’ve just finished. At least this game annoyance is only temporary.
Yeah, same with me. Finishing a game is the worst, as it’s inevitable, and then we’re faced with finding another game to play. And if it was a really great game you just finished, sometimes you just can’t help but feel depressed, even though I do usually get over it pretty fast. Occasionally, though, I can miss a game for a good several weeks after finishing it.