Author Topic: Temperament and mood - the reason some games click and others don't.  (Read 1844 times)

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Offline Pixelated Pixies

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It's not that 'Don't Starve' is a bad game. Neither is it the case that 'Child of Light' is a great game; A good one certainly, but far from perfect. Yet, I extracted little enjoyment from the former and deeply embraced the latter. I'm sufficiently self aware to know the reason why. I can't deal with games that make me feel weak, or are highly stressful.

With films and books, it's different: to an extent I can extricate myself from a film like 'Hunger', or a book like 'Darkness at Noon'. With games, however, you're not only asked to experience their narratives, you're tasked with pushing them forward, and that can be problematic for introverts and people who already feel ill at ease. It's for this reason that I will never be able to truly appreciate horror games (Shattered Memories being a notable exception - perhaps in large part because it establishes a sense of general unease, without turning the 'stress' nob up to 11).

Academically, I really appreciate games like 'Cart Life' and 'Papers, Please'; they, in fact, touch upon topics which interest my greatly. However, in practice playing those games leaves me feeling very drained (no doubt by design), and I invariably find myself gravitating back to games with satisfying mechanics, beautiful music, or spectacular worlds. That's not to suggest that the categories described above are in any way mutually exclusive, but it is true that I am less likely to make progress in games which instil in me negative feelings.

It's all about temperament and mood, and in my current mood? I'll take 'Child of Light' over 'Don't Starve'.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2014, 07:07:43 PM by Pixelated Pixies »
Gouge away.

Offline Ian Sane

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Re: Temperament and mood - the reason some games click and others don't.
« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2014, 07:55:30 PM »
Super Mario Galaxy 1 came out during one of the absolute worst years of my life.  I never really gave it a fair shake.  I could recognize in theory that it was a good game but I had no real motivation to play it.  Super Mario Galaxy 2 came out at a more neutral time in my life and I loved it.  It inspired me to go back to play some more of a Galaxy 1 and I loved it, too.  The mood I was in at the time I got it had affected my initial enjoyment.

My dislike of motion controls really makes sense to those that know me personally.  First of all I don't hold still all that well and constantly change positions on the couch and such.  That does not mix well with a controller that can interpret shifting on the couch as "make the character jump off the cliff".  But even ignoring that, my personality is such that I like things to go smoothly.  I also am distrustful of situations where I give up control.  Something like a car that parallel parks for me freaks me out because I don't trust the car to not crash.  The imprecise nature of motion controls, particularly in comparison to the very precise nature of traditional controls, was always going to piss me off.  I have a very low tolerance of things that **** up that I have no control over but should realistically expect to work right.  The first time my Mii swung his golf club when I was doing the exact opposite movement to get my club into position I thought "**** this!"  That's my personality.  I used to have more control, you forced me to give some of that up and then YOU fucked up on your end.  That's like a how-to guide on getting Ian Sane to not trust you.

Hell I could probably write a book on how the Wii (and by extension the Wii U) does such a good job at pushing my buttons to annoy me.  If you designed something to specifically turn off someone with my personality it's almost exactly what you would make.  The SNES on the other hand was, for the time period it existed in, pretty much exactly what you would make if you wanted to win over someone with my personality.

Zelda is a perfect series for me.  It rewards thinking over action but still streamlines the process and doesn't focus too much on details like an RPG would which is just the right balance for the way I think.  It encourages exploration and provides escapism which really fits my curious nature and tendency to daydream.  Metroid is similar but requires a bit more reflex skill, which I suck at, and presents a dangerious environment at pretty much all times.  Zelda has neutral areas.  I'm not a big adreneline junkie.  I need to balance stressful and relaxed experiences and Zelda offers that so while I love both series it makes sense that I would favour one of them a bit more.

Offline Oblivion

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Re: Temperament and mood - the reason some games click and others don't.
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2014, 02:01:21 AM »
Somehow I knew you would twist his topic into how much you hate the Wii. pls stop

Anyway, I tend to agree. Maybe not with horror games (because I love getting the pissed scared out of me) but in Don't Starve and Papers, Please where I need to manage many different things at once I just get really stressed and end up abandoning the game. Minecraft is the only game where I am able to get over that hump of being overwhelmed.

I can't stand most Civilization and Age of Empire games for this very reason.