Games That Should Be Played "The right way" - Real or imagined

[Judge Dredd]

What are some games that should be played a specific way to enjoy them, or games you're told need to played a specific way even if that way is dumb? Do you agree with them, or not?

It'll be easier if I start with some examples.

Dark Souls.
I've tried this game several times, and each attempt I didn't care for it. Whenever I mention this, fans get mad and give me a long list of rules to "play it right", and say my run "doesn't count" because I didn't follow these supposedly widely agreed on restrictions. These rules include

• Must play as the knight
• No summons
• No guides
• No items
• No magic (except for heal)
• No ranged weapons (except to cut the dragons tail)

I think one of the reasons I like the Dark Souls clones more than the original is because these stupid restrictions don't exist and I can talk about the game without people getting butthurt.


Smash Bros.
A fun, chaotic, casual mascot fighting game that is rendered unplayable due to the "no items, fox only, final destination" crowd. ie. Remove all the fun stuff from the game in a futile attempt to turn it into a highly competitive 1v1 fighter. If you want a highly tuned competitive fighting game, there's lots of games made just for that. If you're trying to crowbar Smash Bros into that, you're missing the point.


Xcom Enemy Unknown/Within, and other tactical RPGs.
There are two ways to play. Casual, or Ironman/Permadeath/Hardcore. All different names for basically the same thing. You can play either option, and I don't think there's any shame on playing on casual, especially if you're new. I do agree that you should try to overcome and adapt to mistakes or losses, as that is where the fun is, but having a backup save to reload if you completely wipe on a vital mission or the game bugs out is fine too.

That said, I often see people insist that Ironman etc. is the "real way" to play those games, only to use save scumming or other tricks so they never lose. I fail to see the point. You're just playing casual with extra steps. eg. If you're playing Ironman, but alt-tabbing to copy your save file every turn so you can essentially reload previous saves, just play Casual with autosaves which is basically the same thing.

Edit: Clarified the Dark Souls section because so many people seemed to get the wrong idea.

 

[Ogre Magi]

Dark Souls.
I've tried this game several times, but each time I'm given a long list of rules to "play it right", and if I don't follow these rules my run "doesn't count". These rules include

• Must play as the knight
• No summons
• No guides
• No items
• No magic (except for heal)
• No ranged weapons (except to cut the dragons tail)

I think one of the reasons I like the Dark Souls clones more than the original is because these stupid restrictions don't exist and I can talk about the game without people getting butthurt.

Who the fuck cares what others think? Play the game in whatever way you enjoy it best.

I guess the one thing I could add to the list is Rimworld and similar games like it (Kenshi comes to mind. I am just learning Dwarf Fortress, but I suppose that is another one). Play them with mods. The base games are fun, but QOL mods are absolutely essential for me in games like that.

 

[Agarathium1066]

If you don't exclusively play games by screaming commands into a text to speech parser then you aren't playing games right.

 

[Ogre Magi]

If you don't exclusively play games by screaming commands into a text to speech parser then you aren't playing games right.

Not exactly the same thing, but this came to mind:

 

[Cloaca Rimjob]

Forget all this original hardware shite and paying all sorts. Old games should be freely downloaded and played on emulators with every action replay cheat activated and save states used.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Who the fuck cares what others think? Play the game in whatever way you enjoy it best.

Agreed, but it depends on the game.

In the case of Dark Souls, talking about the game runs the risk of running into said autist, especially if I mention I don't like the game. Also, the multiplayer works in such a way that all sorts of etiquette and rules that you can end up getting fucked over by a minmaxed character because you wandered into the community designated high tier PvP zone.

With Smash Bros, it's a multiplayer game, so having most people declare that 1v1 fox only no items means that it can be ignored as a casual multiplayer game.

With Xcom, I completely agree with you. Play how you want, but people seem to get it in their heads that they have to play with Permadeath, then use exploits so there is no permadeath, which makes no sense to me.

Play them with mods. The base games are fun, but QOL mods are absolutely essential for me in games like that.

Fallout 4 Sim Settlements is essential imo if you want to engage with the settlement building or not. If not, you can set it to automated and get the benefits. If you do, you don't have to place every door, window, and chair. You can just plop down houses, services, etc.

 

[Neet Tokusatsu]

I wonder how many people do truly believe that the original Legend of Zelda should only be played by not picking up any sword.

 

[Mr.Miyagi]

The only "you should do X" stuff that should be considered are recommendations on how to get certain games running, patches, or other technical or QoL issues (and even that can come down to personal preference on aesthetics and design). Caring about internet strangers' rules on how you should play a game, especially a single-player one, is pointless.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I wonder how many people do truly believe that the original Legend of Zelda should only be played by not picking up any sword.

Kind of like those people that won't shut up about Pokemon Nuzlocke.

 

[Tism the Return II]

Directly related to XCOM but you have to name your guys after people you know IRL, it makes watching them eventually die more dramatic.

 

[Ogre Magi]

Kind of like those people that won't shut up about Pokemon Nuzlocke.

Challenges can be fun when you've played through the game more than once, but yeah. Anyone trying to impose, "this is how you play my favorite game and if you don't play it my way you aren't experiencing it", are autistic.

 

[Ogre Magi]

Directly related to XCOM but you have to name your guys after people you know IRL, it makes watching them eventually die more dramatic.

I've done that in Rimworld with colonists for shits and giggles. I would say it's appropriate to do in Worms too, but I usually just give my worms joke names anyways.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

You don't have to play XCOM with Ironman enabled on EVERY run, but if you don't do it at least once, you's a bitch.

 

[Neo-Nazi Rich Evans]

anyone who tries to take smash brothers seriously just need to be shot for the betterment of humanity.
i'd say anyone who primarily plays minecraft in creative mode is bitch lasagna. and if you play the game then you should try playing on hardcore a few times. cant really complain about being blown up by creepers until it leads to perma death.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

Forget all this original hardware shite and paying all sorts. Old games should be freely downloaded and played on emulators with every action replay cheat activated and save states used.

Unless you've never played Chrono Trigger and the like, cause that good shit needs to be enjoyed without cheats first, lest the game lose all challenge and enjoyability pre-NG+.

 

[Cloaca Rimjob]

Unless you've never played Chrono Trigger and the like, cause that good shit needs to be enjoyed without cheats first, lest the game lose all challenge and enjoyability pre-NG+.

I know this will sound like blasphemy but I could never really get into chrono trigger. I'll try replaying it again at some point.
I hate grinding in games, it seems like a waste of time. Games are more a procrastination source to me than a genuine hobby. I'd rather piss about in them than git gud.

 

[Fascist Frederick]

The original Deus Ex's default renderer is way too dark on modern hardware, and the brightness setting has no effect. This is easy to fix but nobody knows it's a problem because "atmosphere" or something. Every goddamn youtube video of the game has the issue, the game isn't supposed to be particularly dark even though it takes place entirely at night. Everyone is playing it wrong.

 

[Hijo de Dang Woodchucks!]

I've tried this game several times, but each time I'm given a long list of rules to "play it right", and if I don't follow these rules my run "doesn't count". These rules include

• Must play as the knight
• No summons
• No guides
• No items
• No magic (except for heal)
• No ranged weapons (except to cut the dragons tail)

I have never heard anyone say that runs "don't count" because some fucking autist thinks you need to tear the hairs off your nostrils in frustration because you're playing against your strengths. Sure, there are challenge runs where faggots come up with convoluted self-imposed rules, but that's just for fun*.

I think one of the reasons I like the Dark Souls clones more than the original is because these stupid restrictions don't exist and I can talk about the game without people getting butthurt.

Those restrictions never existed, you're just retarded.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

There's a big difference between gay fake rules like that Dark Souls autism and people playing SSB as they prefer. I mean, I'm sure there's people out there who crank the items UP and NEVER play Final Destination, and that's equally valid. Gay and boring but valid.

Nobody should have shit to say to anybody about how to "really" play a game usually. I try to play games on normal but if I'm going to have more fun on easy then that's what I'm gonna do, even though a lot of people criticize playing that way.

I think the only time I really think about this this is when I try to limit save states myself (not sure this is really the same subject though). I don't care that other people think it's cheating, some games are literally designed to cheat you so cheating back is fine, and other times they're just poorly designed, etc so I'm justified in using them. But where I draw a line is tough, otherwise I just end up brute forcing everything and ruining the fun.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

or games you're told need to played a specific way even if that way is dumb?

Fighting games come to mind regarding this particular point. I purposefully go against the rules of how certain characters are supposed to play because fuck them.

• Wall Dive Spam with Claw - Fuck you, I'm instead going to never wall dive once and beat the opponent legitimately.
• Sagat/Dhalsim/Guile/DeeJay are zoners - Fuck you, I'm going to get up close to the opponent with them and pull off combos that no one else has even thought of doing with them.
• V-ISM/A-ISM are the only ISMs that matter in Alpha 3 - Cool, I'll pick X-ISM them.

Puyo Puyo is the only other one I can think of that has strict serious players that swear up and down that you need to be continuously building autistic walls of chains and to do them in specific orders like how the japanese do them or else you ain't playing it right.