A few years back I decided to watch an associate, Danny Cowan, play Bonk's Revenge for what I think was maybe the second time in their life, on a stream. It was fun watching someone explore the world with relatively fresh eyes, but at the same time I kept being like “hit the THING. get the BONUS!! AAH!!!”
I realized there are some games where, through mild OCD or whatever other brain worms I've got, I play certain ways to collect everything, or optimize route, and things like that. I thought of it again yesterday because I saw a relatively (lol) cheap board of Bloody Wolf for arcades on ebay, from a seller from whom I was already buying something and thus could combine shipping, so I was considering it real hard. So I watched a youtube video of a playthrough and people were like... not going into all the doors! not shooting all the windows! and can you even ride the motorcycle in this version because nobody on any playthrough was doing it! and that kinda pushed me over the edge to getting the thing so I could find out for myself. (I haven't splurged in a while, so it's okay... I think)
anyway, what's this game for you, and how does it manifest itself? for me, in bonk's revenge, you've got to hit the ground by the intro signpost of every stage to get the bonus. you've got to get every flower and go to the bonus stages. leave no rock unturned! But especially that signpost thing gets me for some reason.
what do YOUR brain worms compel you to do in games you play a lot?
I always examine Wesker's desk 50 times or whatever the number is to get his weird creepy photo of Rebecca when I do a Resident Evil 2 run.
I immediately rush to get the Uchigatana in Dark Souls even if I'm not doing a dex build every time I play Dark Souls.
I collect everything in each No More Heroes playthrough. One time I even took photos of all the Easter Island statue heads for some reason.
My inventory in Resi 4 has to be organised with weapons on the left, corresponding ammo as close to the weapon as possible and then healing items packed as tightly around them all a possible. The auto arrange in REM4ke is for low grade individuals.
I like game based brain worm things. They aren't as debilitating as my real life OCD.
In the first stage of Ristar there is a snake miniboss that enters and exits holes on a grid and is surrounded by vines you grab and use to fling yourself to the next vine. If I touch the ground during the battle I have failed. There are also bonus sections in Ristar where I adhere to that same ruling of not touching the ground. I don't know why.
Probably Streets of Rage 2 for me. There are a bunch of hidden 1ups that people often don‘t get, especially the one right at the start, or when they get thrown and don’t hold up + C to avoid damage. I also have a particular way I like to play Skate, lots of backflips and moving around in a way which feels very cool to me, and watching anyone else play as him makes me very frustrated.
@“TracyDMcGrath”#p114479 Okay but excel/sheets for real though! One of the most frustrating experiences of my professional career was working with a beloved coworker who was responsible for several important spreadsheets of her own design. They were fine, solid Bs for sure, but they could have been so much better (and more to my own personal design aesthetics). Information coded in colors instead of alphanumerics, extra rows at the top that made it hard to filter or sort, presenting info in ways that made it hard to use formulas to easily count important totals. I was constantly having to hold in my “No! You're doing it wrong!!!” She recently left, which is overall sad, but now I get to make MY spreadsheets I‘ve always wanted and they’re definitely a little better, but mostly just way more done my way haha.
I cannot watch other people use Excel it‘s the final circle of hell. Even just watching someone open a csv and not immediately going through the wrap text (alt h w), autofit width (alt h o i), autofit height (alt h o a), and filter (ctrl shift l) konami code immediately sends me into an uncontrollable "you’re doing it wrong!!!"
@“TracyDMcGrath”#p114490 I literally can‘t watch other people operate computers, period. Years ago I worked with a guy who was proud of how many hours he put in to the job, and looked down on everyone who left earlier than he did. And then one day he had to show me how to do a thing with some software I wasn’t familiar with and it slowly dawned on me that he worked so many hours because he had this absolutely laborious hunt and peck way of using the software that took ten times longer than me. Horrifying!
This is a psychological challenge for everyone. It’s why streaming sucks. I try so hard to not backseat game. It’s especially pungent with…Dark Souls… because the player is likely to ask for help, but you really shouldn’t help them at all with anything besides controls. I’m also really irked when someone gets overly angry or bummed from dying in dark souls, like you gotta zen out, dude. accept failure
I dunno, I’ve never had good gamer friends really so pretty much any time I see someone else play anything irl I’m like damn… they really can’t hit the buttons! Like I tried to play super Mario 3D world with a buddy a few years ago and every time I did anything he got really frustrated instantly and was like “what button does that”… and I’m like dude, it’s Mario, there are three buttons: jump, run, crouch. He said he played Mario before and that’s why we chose it haha. Then when we pick up THPS he’s busting insane combos I’ve never done before lol.
It’s definitely sad when the only gameplay footage online doesn’t even scratch the surface of the games mechanics.
And yeah, for how much my epic gen x father does on the computer all day every day, he’s pretty slow to navigate, at least when I see him do it. I guess he’s just relaxed when I am there. He knows all the shortcuts from working jobs like lowrys digital restoration, but he doesn’t really use them casually. (Born 1971, so a fair 8 years or so older than my imagined median age of the IC crew. I’m 30 so you do the math. Kind of a best of both worlds situation we’ve got goin)
**I guess what really has bothered me most in the past is anyone playing anything of any consequence on mute and then proceeding to criticize the game. You can play on mute, but don’t turn around and be critical like “it was ok I guess”. No. You don’t get to have an opinion anymore. You lost your critic card when you muted the game.**
saw a dude play earthbound on mute on his phone behind the counter at the card shop he owned then be like “this game sucks” in 2011 and I decided we can’t be friends. It’s an emotional experience and like 60% of that is the tunes.
Super Mario Bros. world 1-1 - I am always compelled to get the secret 1up and go down the pipe just behind it. It's about halfway through the level and you do need to be careful because if you go too far the pipe becomes inaccessible.
@“treefroggy”#p114497 It’s definitely sad when the only gameplay footage online doesn’t even scratch the surface of the games mechanics.
I remember seeing footage of _Kiki Kaikai_ for the MSX that didn't seem to learn about the gohei reflect mechanic until about 2/3 of the way through. It was weird seeing them learn about it in real time, like it happened by accident, then they pressed the button a few more times to test it out, then they went on using it as intended. Frankly it's impressive to get that far without using it, but come on!! The gohei is the whole point!!
- Watching people play Super Metroid or Mario and they forget there is a run button
- Especially in Super Metroid when they get to the early part of the game in Brinstar that requires running before you get the Speed Booster upgrade.
- Watching people play character action games (Bayonetta, etc.) and they only press one attack button
- Watching people who always go in with a jumping attack in a 2D fighter
- Watching people play stealth games and they immediately decide it's an action game
@"Kez"#p114484 I hear ya on the beat 'em ups. Irks me when someone just automatically marches from one enemy to the next without exploring the levels or trying all the moves. Then they say it's boring. 🫠
@“copySave”#p114502 In my younger days I was a jump-in fella when it came to fighters. Still hard to break that habit when I'm playing versions of Street Fighter with Ken.
@“copySave”#p114502 Watching people play Super Metroid or Mario and they forget there is a run button
The first thing I do when I get a new game is go into the settings and look at the button map and what video options I get to adjust. It has gotten to the point where my wife will mention "Oh, you're going to have fun with this new game, it looks like it's got a good settings screen." Yes. You can't threaten me with a good time!
So now that you've got the settings opened you can go down and correct the default y-axis setting. I get it that I'm old and my muscle memory was trained in a different context, but I also can't play games that don't let you flip this. Otherwise I spend the whole game staring at the ceiling or floor's nadir.
>
@“TracyDMcGrath”#p114490 the wrap text (alt h w), autofit width (alt h o i), autofit height (alt h o a), and filter (ctrl shift l) konami code
Holy hell. As if we weren't already forum friends. This is very actionable information! The joke answer is to just pull it all into R, but I have drank a certain flavor of Kool Aide lately and it may not be a joke for many applications!
beat world 1 getting the two warp whistles
get the warp whistle in world 2 (skipping 2-5 and the pyramid) then immediately go to the warp zone
warp to world 5 for the collection of powerups and to play the frickin SHOE LEVEL and the dang TOWER TO THE HEAVENS, the best two levels in the game, skipping the fortress down there. one you beat the tower and are in the sky half of world 5, go to the warp zone
when in the warp zone, use the last warp whistle to get to the world 8 warp
in world 8 you MUST beat the ships-on-lava level by running to the far left, jumping into the lava, and swimming under the boat the entire level and you MUST enter the first quicksand bit in 8-2
otherwise beat the rest of the game, congrats you are a super mario super player
if you do not follow this route it is assumed you are doing a 100% run
you need to get alllll the way up the top of the left incline, facing left, then slide down on your butt backwards and jump at the last second so you clear the whole right side and land directly under the right-hand pipe
in super mario bros 1 there a pipe you can enter in 3-1 where there are bricks and if you break a certain number of them in certain positions, leaving the rest, it looks kind of like mario's face. this is called Mario Face and is required
accept failure