Editor’s note: How do you play your games: at a breakneck pace or a leisurely stroll? Like Omri, I also prefer to take my time and explore every corner — no matter how inconsequential. I attribute this to the 16-bit role-playing games that taught me that the best secrets always unlocked after talking to some random nobody in a small town far off the beaten path. -Rob
My roommate has become something of a shut-in.
When he gleefully got his hands on Mass Effect 2 for PC, the last memory I can recall of him was his eagerly gleaming eyes staring hungrily at the box as his bedroom door slowly creaked shut like the portal to some hallowed tomb.
While the rest of the world continued on, my roommate was locked into the deep and myriad webwork of ME2’s story, seemingly hell-bent on wolfing down — in one sitting — all that the game had to offer.
Sure, he had to leave his chair for the occasional bite of food or restroom break, but his griping at being interrupted only got stronger as the day wore on. He had the game beaten in record time — far into the night when sane people are asleep.
Do games with high-caliber quality such as ME2 deserve to be completed in such a short amount of time?
I can certainly attribute the ravenous attitude of experiencing an anticipated game to launch-day madness, but there seems to be a trend among contemporary gamers that goes above and beyond that.
My roommate’s surging through the content of his video game simply for the sake of experiencing how well-crafted it is could lead to missing the beauty in the details. Rather, a game’s myriad features can really impart stronger memories when we take the time to meticulously value them.
That each of us seek to reach that sweet, sweet goal of beating a game is an obvious aspiration — but when we cut to the chase by eschewing immersion for exposure, it can drastically change our opinions of how the structure of the game fared.
Granted, if someone naturally plays fast, then the game would probably progress rather quickly. After all, it’s the simple methods that we employ to experience video games that defines us as gamers; however, such methods probably wouldn’t translate well into playing the game with other people. We nullify the lore or exploratory elements inherent of sharing gameplay experiences by blazing through a game.
I’ll readily admit that I am a staunch completionist when playing games. I leave no quest unfinished, no nook unexplored, and no dialogue unspoken. But I tend to plod along the pathways of a game at a manageable speed; if it takes me days — or even weeks — to complete a game, I would feel none the worse for having put an exorbitant amount of time into the experience.
We all have a certain comfort zone as to how fast we play our games. Do you try and complete a brand-new game within the first day? Do you strive to complete games as fully as possible, or by some other criteria?