Are there any games you don't play as it was intended to be played? If so, what game and how?
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I know I remember seeing some people talk about how nice some of the environments in Hitman were, and that they'd just walk around as a tourist from time to time, treating it like a walking simulator/virtual tourism thing instead of the stealth assassination game it is. Curious about other things like that, where you play a game totally differently than it was meant to be played.
Some friends and I play multi-world randomizers together. Randomizers modify a game so that important items/unlocks are in different locations or are obtained in a different way. I usually play Ocarina of Time and a randomizer changes all the "treasure chest" items found throughout the world, so instead of finding the bow in the Forest Temple (where it should be in the game), it could be found behind a rock in a cave in the middle of the field. I constantly have to ask myself "What items don't I have yet?" and "What areas do I have access to that I haven't searched yet?" It turns the game into a kind of puzzle game. There is a website we use called Archipelago.gg that lets you connect randomizers together. I can play an OOT randomizer and my friend can be playing a Pokemon Emerald randomizer, and when I open a chest I can find items from his game and he gets a gym badge, an HM, or something else dropped into his inventory. And it works the other way when he beats another trainer, he could get one of my items and I get some rupees, or a hookshot dropped into my inventory.
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I know I remember seeing some people talk about how nice some of the environments in Hitman were, and that they'd just walk around as a tourist from time to time, treating it like a walking simulator/virtual tourism thing instead of the stealth assassination game it is. Curious about other things like that, where you play a game totally differently than it was meant to be played.
Hah. As a kid I used to just hang out or make up stories in Lucasarts games, like Monkey Island and especially Maniac Mansion. I know I wasn't alone, because there were multipe contemporary games built around that idea, including form Lucas, even before The Sims came out. Toe Jam and Earl 2: Panic on Funkotron was also a good, weird roleplaying avenue.
And I did engage in some amount of "let's make my house in this map editor" back when games came with map editors. We all did, I think.
Oh, and some games I'd play just to listen to the music. It's hard to argue this was unintended, though, given how many games had sound test modes. I remember I'd fire up Panzer Dragoon just to gawk at the intro, which I realize seems silly if you look at it now.
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I know I remember seeing some people talk about how nice some of the environments in Hitman were, and that they'd just walk around as a tourist from time to time, treating it like a walking simulator/virtual tourism thing instead of the stealth assassination game it is. Curious about other things like that, where you play a game totally differently than it was meant to be played.
I mostly play according to the intended game design. The only exceptions that come to mind at the moment are:
- Open world games (GTA, Fallouts, Elder Scroll series etc) - I tend to act like a normal, civilian part of the world. I eat and drink, travel like a person rather than player (i.e. safely, without quick travel), avoid violence and do peaceful tasks when possible. I also go on trips and take screenshots of the scenery.
Finally, if there's an equipment system I limit myself to "reasonable" amount of baggage (both in terms of weight and volume). - Mirror's Edge and Portal - the only games I learned to the point of speedrunning. I'm nowhere near the level of being able to compete with professionals (nor am I interested in that) but I can get through both pretty quickly and without issues.
- Open world games (GTA, Fallouts, Elder Scroll series etc) - I tend to act like a normal, civilian part of the world. I eat and drink, travel like a person rather than player (i.e. safely, without quick travel), avoid violence and do peaceful tasks when possible. I also go on trips and take screenshots of the scenery.
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I know I remember seeing some people talk about how nice some of the environments in Hitman were, and that they'd just walk around as a tourist from time to time, treating it like a walking simulator/virtual tourism thing instead of the stealth assassination game it is. Curious about other things like that, where you play a game totally differently than it was meant to be played.
This is pretty much the basis for the entire speed-running community. Maybe not totally different (like walking around as a peaceful tourist in Hitman), but definitely not utilizing mechanics as intended
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There are a few mobile or web idle/incremental games I have used as a substitute for a Pomodoro Timer. Oh, I am really into the game and it only progresses if this is the focused tab? I really want to make progress, but I am in a period of the game where active play isn't that rewarded, and just watching the screen while I wait to earn the upgrade is pretty boring? How about we just leave my phone with that as the active tab, and I check back when the upgrade should be earned? Keeps me off my phone and doing the actual things I should be doing instead. Somehow, "abusing" games like this works better for me than the Forest app which has the explicit intention of making sure you do not touch your screen for a set length of time and instead do something else off your phone.
I also "abuse" Pokémon Masters EX in a similar fashion. You're expected to level up with some combination of putting them through battles that cost stamina to play through, and some pretty easy-to-obtain level-up items. And although there is an Auto option I have a feeling you are intended to manually do the battles in-game. Instead, I start story mode battles which cost no stamina to play through, that still reward me with XP no matter how many times I repeat it, and have the game fight the battle for me with the Auto setting. I check back when the battle is done and restart it. I have essentially turned this into an idle/incremental game, albeit one with a pretty short time between waiting and checking back in on the game. Free level-ups! Even though it does take much longer than the intended way, which is why I suspect nobody tried to prevent this method from working. I like doing this for some reason, and it's probably the main reason I still keep this game downloaded despite my usual allergy to gacha games.
Huh, never knew my approach to work had an actual name. That's neat! Thanks for teaching me something new.
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I know I remember seeing some people talk about how nice some of the environments in Hitman were, and that they'd just walk around as a tourist from time to time, treating it like a walking simulator/virtual tourism thing instead of the stealth assassination game it is. Curious about other things like that, where you play a game totally differently than it was meant to be played.
I played the story in GTA a few times.
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Like playing Gwent instead of fighting monsters as the witcher?
An argument could be made that Gwent offers better gameplay than the larger game in which it resides.
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I know I remember seeing some people talk about how nice some of the environments in Hitman were, and that they'd just walk around as a tourist from time to time, treating it like a walking simulator/virtual tourism thing instead of the stealth assassination game it is. Curious about other things like that, where you play a game totally differently than it was meant to be played.
I did that with RTS like Starcraft or Age of Empires II. I would just build a city, develop every upgrade, build good defenses and basically play it like Sim City
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I know I remember seeing some people talk about how nice some of the environments in Hitman were, and that they'd just walk around as a tourist from time to time, treating it like a walking simulator/virtual tourism thing instead of the stealth assassination game it is. Curious about other things like that, where you play a game totally differently than it was meant to be played.
I'm playing Overwatch but actually having fun while doing so /s
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An argument could be made that Gwent offers better gameplay than the larger game in which it resides.
Then you purchased a wrong game and should just play solitaire.
Witcher 3 is absolutely great, but if you just go through only the main quest, won't explore the world and won't do side quests then I can see you ending up disappointed.
What I like is that side quests can impact the main quest and even the ending.
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I play heavily modded Elder Scrolls, where my character never touches the main story.
My favorite Morrowind run was a princess who ended up creating an agricultural baron, buying up every plantation and owning probably hundreds of slaves. She also got into the skooma business on the side (needed money for all of her dresses). Morrowind had a ton of wacky mods that were just fun to play in general - people made Star Wars and LOTR questlines. There’s also the work of Tommy Khajiit (RIP), which is something unique and which has never gotten the respect it deserved. (Or Lady Rae - she liked to recollect the game bright neon colors, and basically got bullied out of the modding community.)
Skyrim is a hunting/vagrant simulator for me. I usually play a Dunmer refugee and avoid the in-game quests entirely. Survival and economy mods to make the focus of the gameplay getting enough gold to afford a room for the night, tweaks to loot to make things more “mundane.”
I always like to see people who go all in on the roleplaying in RPGs.
I do wish people would leave mods that aren't for them alone. There are a bunch of mods extremely not to my taste that I just scroll past instead of intentionally clicking to tell the mod author just how much it is not to my taste and that they should not have made it because I am uninterested in the content.
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I play heavily modded Elder Scrolls, where my character never touches the main story.
My favorite Morrowind run was a princess who ended up creating an agricultural baron, buying up every plantation and owning probably hundreds of slaves. She also got into the skooma business on the side (needed money for all of her dresses). Morrowind had a ton of wacky mods that were just fun to play in general - people made Star Wars and LOTR questlines. There’s also the work of Tommy Khajiit (RIP), which is something unique and which has never gotten the respect it deserved. (Or Lady Rae - she liked to recollect the game bright neon colors, and basically got bullied out of the modding community.)
Skyrim is a hunting/vagrant simulator for me. I usually play a Dunmer refugee and avoid the in-game quests entirely. Survival and economy mods to make the focus of the gameplay getting enough gold to afford a room for the night, tweaks to loot to make things more “mundane.”
I'm not into mods but if I remember right, isn't Lady Rae the one who left the modding community and started making music?
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I always like to see people who go all in on the roleplaying in RPGs.
I do wish people would leave mods that aren't for them alone. There are a bunch of mods extremely not to my taste that I just scroll past instead of intentionally clicking to tell the mod author just how much it is not to my taste and that they should not have made it because I am uninterested in the content.
Modding is a really under appreciated art form.
Downloading unhinged Morrowind mods in the mid naughts exposed me to new franchises, music, ideas… Like this banger, which plays at some point in the Underground 2 along with this one. (btw, Dawnguard is Emil or whoever wrote it ripping off story beats from a 20 year old Morrowind mod based on the Underworld series lol)
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An argument could be made that Gwent offers better gameplay than the larger game in which it resides.
Are we certain Witcher is the larger game in which Gwent resides and not the other way around?
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I'm not into mods but if I remember right, isn't Lady Rae the one who left the modding community and started making music?
Did she make music? Holy shit - if you have a link I’ve been trying to figure out what happened to her for years. She’s genuinely a major inspiration for my painting and art.
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An argument could be made that Gwent offers better gameplay than the larger game in which it resides.
An argument could be made that you are a genius. Both arguments would be equally wrong.
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I know I remember seeing some people talk about how nice some of the environments in Hitman were, and that they'd just walk around as a tourist from time to time, treating it like a walking simulator/virtual tourism thing instead of the stealth assassination game it is. Curious about other things like that, where you play a game totally differently than it was meant to be played.
I like to play crusader kings II from the point of view of God. Using console commands, sketchy cheat mod, and knowing the right game mechanics you can make characters do all types of crazy stuff. Using the "observe" console command let's you play as a spectator, you can use the "play" command followed by a character ID and you will jump into playing as that character. I like to find a character, give them insane stats, and give them all of the best traits, make them immortal and then spectate for a few hundred years and see what my chosen one made the world into. I also like to try to determine before hand what I want them to do, like becoming emperor of brittania or whatever, and see how close I can get from just 1 or 2 interactions with them.
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Then you purchased a wrong game and should just play solitaire.
Witcher 3 is absolutely great, but if you just go through only the main quest, won't explore the world and won't do side quests then I can see you ending up disappointed.
What I like is that side quests can impact the main quest and even the ending.
Then you purchased a wrong game
Perhaps.
But you've made a lot of assumptions in your comment, and you're mistaken about most of them.
I played the side quests. Many came with a good story, but a story is not gameplay. Nearly all of them were copy/paste instances of a small pool of tedious tasks. There were a few good exceptions, but very few.
I explored the world, as much as one can "explore" something that is fully labeled with point-of-interest markers. They lead the player to a repetitive handful of uninspired encounters, cloned over and over again.
It has plenty of other flaws as well. If you loved it, then I'm happy for you, but I found the gameplay boring.
The strengths I found in The Witcher 3 were its story, lore, characters, and Gwent. Not its gameplay.
To each their own, I suppose.
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I know I remember seeing some people talk about how nice some of the environments in Hitman were, and that they'd just walk around as a tourist from time to time, treating it like a walking simulator/virtual tourism thing instead of the stealth assassination game it is. Curious about other things like that, where you play a game totally differently than it was meant to be played.
The only way to play NASCAR games is to drive backwards and see how many cars you can involve in a wreck.
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The only way to play NASCAR games is to drive backwards and see how many cars you can involve in a wreck.
Might as well play Flatout, you get nos from the damage you cause.
