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The title pretty much says it all.
I've noticed a depressing trend over the past few years. While I've never been particularly good at games in general, somehow I've only been managing to get worse and worse. For the record, I'm not just talking about extremely competitive online games like Starcraft or Street Fighter, I'm also talking about your average, run-of-the-mill singleplayer game.
Case in point: I recently went to play a horizontal shmup I used to play many years ago: Platypus. While it wasn't exactly easy back then, I still remember not having that much trouble with it. But now when I play the game, it's almost like I think the enemy bullets are powerups. In just the first stage alone, I lost several lives and was about to lose a continue. Keep in mind that this is a shmup where are are only about 4-5 bullets on screen max. Not even 1-2% of the screen is occupied by bullets, and yet I was magnetized to every single one of them.
After giving up in frustration, I went to another game I bought recently and was looking forward to play: Half-Minute Hero 2. But within no time at all I was already stuck. I was presented with an option of taking one of two quests, only to find out I couldn't do either of them. This was in the first chapter, which was essentially the tutorial chapter. My only thought at that point was "How fucking terrible do you have to be at video games to not only get game overs on a tutorial chapter, but eventually get stuck and be unable to proceed?" I then did a quick search to see if maybe this was a common point where other people got stuck. Nope, I'm just that bad.
Another example of embarrassing lack of skill comes from a few years ago when I still used to play multiplayer. I was playing a SC2 match against someone who claimed that they were AFK for the first part of the match and asked I return the favor. Thinking they were probably lying, I refused and played the match normally. I ended up losing in record time, and upon viewing the replay it turns out the guy was AFK for a full minute at the beginning of the match. He hadn't even sent his workers to mine. How the hell do you lose in less than 5 minutes when you have a full minute head start? I don't even know.
At this point you might say "Skill doesn't matter as long as you have fun." The problem is, being this awful isn't fun. Losing on tutorial levels isn't fun. Being unable to get to the very first checkpoint in Bit Trip Runner isn't fun. And in the era of games where I need to "git gud", combined with the resurgence of hardcore games (mostly indie), it just puts me off from playing video games all together.
So, yeah. That's my whine/rant. To make this blog have some purpose, I'll end it with an invitation to post your stories of games you're so amazingly terrible at that it's hilarious in a sad way.
 
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Have you ever heard of / played Pocky and rocky 2? It is the most rage inducing game I have ever played I think...me and friend spent months trying to beat it and never could get past like 4th / 5th level with the ghosts...
If you want to get better you have to just lose the negative mindset of being so terrible.
It is all in your head, if you want to be good, you will be good.
Practice makes Perfect.
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On January 02 2015 09:17 GGzerG wrote:
Have you ever heard of / played Pocky and rocky 2? It is the most rage inducing game I have ever played I think...me and friend spent months trying to beat it and never could get past like 4th / 5th level with the ghosts...
If you want to get better you have to just lose the negative mindset of being so terrible.
It is all in your head, if you want to be good, you will be good.
Practice makes Perfect.
No, I've never heard of that game. I tend to avoid games that brand themselves as hardcore/frustrating. The only thing I've gotten from metaphorically ramming my head against the wall over these types of games is a softer skull.
The thing is, nobody has to practice to beat a tutorial level. That's unheard of (with the possible exception of brutally punishing games). And the fact that I've been playing games for 20+ years and have only been getting worse instead of better is rather telling. I don't know, maybe I just lost my passion over the years.
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TLADT24920 Posts
Never had this problem since I was always terrible at games (when it came to MP) lol. I always played games for the SP component and the story/abilities/micro etc... so I never played much MP. It's why I can't crack D+ in BW (likely also because I don't have much time to get better).
I lost my passion for gaming several years back. It just happened. Felt like it came out of thin air. Before that, I was keeping up with lots of different games and have played games since I was a kid then all of a sudden, not a single game kept my interest. Games that I used to love before felt like a chore now. I'll start a game, force myself to play for a bit then wonder why I pushed myself to try it or I'll just close it off as soon as I start because I didn't feel like wanting to play it.
I guess to put it another way, it felt like a waste of time to play games. Probably a mix of growing up and having more real life responsibilities. Starcraft is the only game that I can play casually now but it's usually with a friend since ICCup doesn't give me any sense of excitement (and I'm too bad for Fish lol).
In your case, it sounds like the solution is simple. Get better so that you don't hate the game. Chances are that it's going to be hard to get better if you say you're steadily getting worse so I would honestly just accept it. Accept that gaming doesn't occupy the same amount of time as it did in the past and find something else that you can do that gives you the same sense of excitement. As for a game that I'm terrible at, I have no clue. Probably too many lol.
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On January 02 2015 10:33 BigFan wrote:
I lost my passion for gaming several years back. It just happened. Felt like it came out of thin air. Before that, I was keeping up with lots of different games and have played games since I was a kid then all of a sudden, not a single game kept my interest. Games that I used to love before felt like a chore now. I'll start a game, force myself to play for a bit then wonder why I pushed myself to try it or I'll just close it off as soon as I start because I didn't feel like wanting to play it.
Yeah, that's almost where I am right now. I have a notepad with a bunch of backlog games that are begging to be played, and my response is almost always "Eh...maybe some other time." Maybe my apathy is being caused by becoming jaded over the years, or because of work/other soul-sucking obligations. It also doesn't help that my patience with games is lower than it's ever been.
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Does this happen to you with turned based games too? As I get older I've found I enjoy games where I can stop and think, over ones that test reflexes and quick decisions. All I play these days are turned based RPGs or roguelikes. It's fun because you can play as fast or slow as you want, or make the game more or less difficult based on how you build your characters.
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On January 02 2015 13:10 Glowsphere wrote:
Does this happen to you with turned based games too? As I get older I've found I enjoy games where I can stop and think, over ones that test reflexes and quick decisions. All I play these days are turned based RPGs or roguelikes. It's fun because you can play as fast or slow as you want, or make the game more or less difficult based on how you build your characters.
Unfortunately it happens with turn-based games too (I remember getting absolutely destroyed in Final Fantasy Tactics), although I don't like being pressured for time. That's why I'll avoid games with an emphasis on speedrunning, or games where your turn is on a timer (most tower defense games). Most traditional roguelikes are too bogged down with stat and inventory management for my taste (not to mention they are usually very difficult).
Interestingly enough, I don't think my reflexes have dulled or anything. I recently played One Finger Death Punch (which is basically like a twitch-based rhythm game without the rhythm) and was able to beat the hardest difficulty on it. It's one of the very few games right now that's so satisfying, simple and fun that I'll go out of my way to play it from time to time.
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dude, don't worry. as long as you're having fun playing those games, good or bad you at it, you're playing it right. isn't main purpose while playing games to have fun?
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Man loosing in 5 minutes is pretty tough, upload a replay I'm curious how you did it.
Cuz a 6 pool + a minute of afking means lings hit at about 4 minutes.
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On January 02 2015 17:29 Daniliniho wrote:
dude, don't worry. as long as you're having fun playing those games, good or bad you at it, you're playing it right. isn't main purpose while playing games to have fun?
Like I said in the OP, losing horribly isn't fun, and sometimes prevents me from even playing the game. Like with my example of Half Minute Hero 2, I can't get past the tutorial levels, which means I essentially wasted my money.
On January 02 2015 18:05 hellokitty[hk] wrote:
Man loosing in 5 minutes is pretty tough, upload a replay I'm curious how you did it.
Cuz a 6 pool + a minute of afking means lings hit at about 4 minutes.
This was back in Wings of Liberty, so I doubt that replay exists anymore or is playable. If your statement about timings is true, it might not have been under 5 minutes, but regardless it was a quick loss.
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EPT
