Gamer Obsessive Moments

[Zeus]

I'm guilty of #1, #8, and #12 but for Castlevania instead of Mario 3

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/110/1109240p1.html

[Blotus]

All but 6, 7, 9, an 10.

[Shrinweck]

4, 8, 10, 11 (so MUCH this one). Not so much 100%ing everything except for RPGs.

[Lox]

Haha...nice.

I'm guilty of 1, 2, 3 (allll the time in aLttP), 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, and 12 (again...all the time).

Wow...that's a lot....is that bad?

[SineSwiper]

I hate it when you have games, like Mass Effect, that have a limited number of saves. In Fallout 3, I think I have around 75 saves. I use a new slot every time I save, just in case I want to go to a different part of the game, or if I fuck up so badly I need to go back a few hours.

And yes, I have a ton of stuff in my lockers for Fallout 3.

10 out of 12. I've never heard of "nut knocking elevators" and I don't play Animal Crossing much.

[Lox]

I have another one that I always do that's similar to the wand-catching in SMB3. Whenever I play Zelda:aLttP, I have to catch the items that drop from the ceiling after you beat a boss so that they don't touch the floor. I don't know why.

[Flip]

Haha, yeah im sure we could come up with some of our own...

Im SMB i always got the fire flower even if i already was fire mario.

Im FPS's i always reload while walking to the next area even if i just used a a few bullets to kill something.

Is talking to every single NPC in a town of an RPG considered obsessive?

[Louis]

Im FPS's i always reload while walking to the next area even if i just used a a few bullets to kill something.

That is actually tactically correct in real life! Well, actually, you should reload before moving to the next area even if you aren't out (and retain the semi-depleted magazine), but that's close enough.

[Oracle]

13 fucking page article? Fuck IGN. Fuck them to hell.

P.S. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 (Castlevania: SOTN), 7, 10

[Zeus]

When I play any FPS or gun game, I re-load every split second I get, even if I've only used one bullet. It's not to pick up any ammo but more because I want to make sure I'm not even that one bullet short in case I get swarmed

[Don]

I've seen pages like that before and it's actually pretty unexciting. Catching item in mid air saves you time from the stage, and also in Super Mario 3 you get the star at the end of the stage if you're running and approach at an exact angle so the game encourages you to do stuff in a rhythm anyway.

Megaman's jumping animation looks better than walking. In MMZ I dash into the boss room as often as I jump since Zero's dashing animation is pretty good. You have to destroy every jug and blade of grass because valuable stuff is often hidden in it.

To me an obsessive moment would be like say insist on finishing someone off with Raging Demon in Street Fighter. The stuff listed in the page are more like just smart playing.

[Louis]

I am:

• Anxious Ammo Clipper
  Legendary Lawnmower
  Heavy Inventory Hoarder
  Regular Race Restarter (The last two tracks of Hydro Thunder Hurricane are getting quite a bit of this.)
  Save Slot Psychopath
  Relentless Wand Grabber

[Shrinweck]

In Fallout 3 I would quickload if I missed my headshot crits in VATS if I was using a weapon I didn't have a backup for to repair it with to preserve the condition. The combat shotgun could take out swarms of enemies but the damn thing wouldn't last for more than six rounds of 12 before being utterly useless. Guns like the scoped magnum were a tad more forgiving but good luck finding magnum ammo in the goddamned wasteland.

[SineSwiper]

In Fallout 3 I would quickload if I missed my headshot crits in VATS if I was using a weapon I didn't have a backup for to repair it with to preserve the condition. The combat shotgun could take out swarms of enemies but the damn thing wouldn't last for more than six rounds of 12 before being utterly useless. Guns like the scoped magnum were a tad more forgiving but good luck finding magnum ammo in the goddamned wasteland.

You found it. I would just use up ammo, and switch to another weapon. I had several good weapons that used different ammo. I never gave away that Lincoln Repeater because it was such a good rifle, and I loved the sound it made when you fired it.

[Shrinweck]

Never got that weapon but I always wanted to take the time to grab it.

[Kupek]

I agree with Don that most of that is not obsessive behavior. But I disagree that it's rational; it's mostly irrational, but it's predictably so.

Take Zelda and getting coins in the grass. There is incentive to mowing the grass: items. But, the quantity and denominations of the items is very small. There are more efficient ways to get those items. If the player was acting completely rationally, with their goal to maximize getting the most items as they could, they would not mow the grass. So, they're not being rational. But it's not surprisingly that players do this, because: 1) they get satisfaction from interacting with the virtual world; 2) there's the illusion of "free items" when they are spending time; and 3) the slot machine effect of the thrill when you do get something.

I think 1) explains a lot of the behaviors. Our opportunities to interact with the virtual world are much more limited than in the real world, so we take the few opportunities we get. Doing something often feels better than nothing (hence pounding on an elevator or shooting at a door), and if we're temporarily stuck in a situation where real interaction is limited (walking through a boss corridor we've seen many times before, waiting for the end-of-level item to drop) we'll invent meta-games to make those sections more interesting.