We’ve all had these moments where a game breaks us. A rage-quit moment, if you will. The one I most vividly remember was with the first Darksiders title. When War received the ability to pause time, it was the second race-against-time puzzle that sent me over the edge. It didn’t matter that I was fairly close to the end of the game. At that moment, I stopped having fun, I was overly frustrated, and seriously, I have tons of other games to play. I know that puzzles involving a ticking time clock are not my forte. They aren’t fun to me, I don’t enjoy the pressure of the ticking seconds, the list goes on and on.
I know this about myself, and yet it took me awhile to admit it, and thus know when to call it quits. That may sound like a ridiculous notion, to know when to stop, but not everyone does. Most gamers have a competitive spirit that isn’t limited to playing multiplayer titles; many, in fact, are competitive against themselves. This competitive spirit pressures them in a multitude of ways. Pressure to get the newest shiny thing on the market. Pressure to complete every game. Pressure to obtain a Platinum trophy. Pressure to get as many trophies as one of your friends. Pressure to get different trophies from your friends. Pressure to play all the games in your stack of shame. Pressure to player on a harder difficulty. Pressure to git gud.
The competitive spirit is well and good, as long as the pressure doesn’t turn into stress. I kno...