Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@NintendoByNature - Yes. Please. I’ll have three. Sounds amazing. My same Philly friend introduced me to red gravy. It was his grandmother’s recipe. He said the difference between gravy and marinara was that the gravy had to have some kind of pork product simmered in it all day. He used tenderloins at home, and then pig spines when he opened a food kart (and later a restaurant). I could eat that red gravy plain, like a bowl of soup. I used to help him in the evenings when he was getting his kart going and got paid in sandwiches and beer. Cheesesteaks, sausage and peppers, meatball subs, pork sandwiches. Good lord, this is too much. I’m on my way to your place. See you around 9:30.

@Morpheel Well, @bimmy-lee gave it another try as well many years later, and as he mentioned only several comments ago, it didn't really make much of a difference. Some games just don't gel with certain people. Perceived sense of urgency or not, once you get that feeling, it's already too late.

And besides that, even though I'm not a graphics-wh***, I still find it hard, or rather: harder, to pick up old games that I either don't like, or have bad memories of. Of course, it's the same engine as Ocarina of Time, and that game I've actually replayed plenty of times, but that one was magical from the start, so that feeling stays with me, and softens the edges of the rather crude graphics. With Majora's Mask, they certainly don't...

Well, he admits to having actual issues that prevent him from playing it.

@Morpheel - It blows my mind that you could play that game without speaking it’s language, or any LOZ game for that matter. That’s a sign of a high level of intelligence. I’ll try it again some time. I’ll probably quit again sometime. Maybe my kids can do it one day and atone for their father’s shame.

@ThanosReXXX - Ha, before I tore down my game room and remodeled it into living space, I had all my old consoles hooked up to CRTs, and all my old carts out for display. All but one that is. I also couldn’t stand the shame of it.

Edit - For the record, I was never diagnosed with anything. I struggled intensely when I was young with OCD tendencies, light switches, door locks, did that burn FEEL like a burn, etc, but it wasn’t until many years after I was able to overcome this that I even learned the term. Only a select few things now bring some of those tendencies back, but games can be one of them. Especially LOZ games.

@bimmy-lee yep I did an easy gravy this go round. No meat, so it's not a technical gravy but did the job nonetheless. We use pork neck bones in ours. Which after simmering for 10 hours becomes like Italian pulled pork. Sometimes in a pinch I'll use ground Italian sausage. Be here soon, I got beers too

@bimmy-lee I kind of just tried everything until something worked. Same with Pokémon.

It wasn’t a speed run that’s for certain haha.

Edit: It’s completely understandable, I know certain things like time limits and the sense of urgency can be really hard for some people, and well, what’s the point of playing a game if it makes you feel bad?

@Morpheel True, but if you by any chance have followed the entire exchange concerning the game, then you may also have noticed me mentioning that I more or less feel that same pressure, even without OCD. And I also hated that moon rushing in all the time. I don't like having to do things in such a particular set amount of time, in situations where said thing is supposed to be just an entertaining hobby.

I don't see myself as suffering from actual OCD or anything related to it, but I may have some light tendencies that overlap with it. My expressive need in this regard, is that games MUST be fun, and I absolutely MUST be able to make progress in them, if I put in the honest effort. In the past, failing to do that has resulted in many a broken controller, due to them magically colliding with a wall or a door...

I'm not that aggressive anymore, but I do still feel some frustration in certain games, when I have to replay a level dozens of times, because I either don't have the pinpoint coordination and/or accuracy, to do stuff in the exact way that a game asks of me. I consider myself to be a casual gamer, so I'll more than likely never "get gud", in all but a small handful of genres, that I play often enough.

In general, I can't be defeated in racing games, especially not arcade racers, in beat em ups, and in soccer games, but other than that, I can't think of many games that I was able to finish without having made a truckload of mistakes or succeeded at completing in one go.

Now that I'm typing this, it suddenly occurred to me that me having once being diagnosed as highly empathic might also be a factor in this. I often feel very strongly for other people's pain, sorrow or emotions, but also for my own, and when I feel that someone or something (as in: a game, in this case) is treating me in an unfair manner, then this frustrated sentiment comes bubbling to the surface before you know it.

Depending on the type of game, I will then either simply stop playing, or fight through it, until I can end the session on a (more or less) positive and/or high note. An urgency that has sometimes resulted in ridiculously long gameplay sessions. I remember one evening being so engrossed in completing one of these infernal levels in a game (can't remember which one, though), that I completely lost track of time, and when I finally finished the level successfully, I looked up, and saw the sun rise through my living room window...

@ThanosReXXX - I agree with the fun. I have no problem turning my back on a game I paid good money for it it turns out I don’t enjoy playing it. I love a good, but doable challenge. For the most part, I’m a functioning adult (as much as we all can be), it’s just that occasionally the issues I conquered in my past can bubble up in certain scenarios. Just like your empathy. My wife mostly laughs at me when it does, gives me a gentle ribbing, and then I realize I’ve slipped into the dark side and pull myself out. Unless I’m alone playing Majora’s Mask. Then I feel like I’m wallowing in it.

Edit - Thanks for understanding Morpheel.

@bimmy-lee the only play time I had was on my break. Work was a nightmare after that. But I’ll let you know.

This paragraph describes my recent experience with Mega Man X. I don't deny that it's a decent game, but I had to be in the right mood to play it. Some of those platforming sections and a few bosses weren't exactly "fun" for me. Aneurysm-inducing, maybe....

_{...And I'm not sure if I would've made it through the Sigma stages without some restore point abuse.}

I agree that the stages themselves, outside of some platforming sections, weren't bad. Heck, I even got to where I could faceroll through the armored armadillo dude's stage. Some of the bosses though...yeesh. I did have some issues with a sub-boss in one of the stages since I only had Chill Penguin's weapon at the time. Sooo many buster shots....

@bimmy-lee I was able to dive into GK more. There’s no artificial time limits. Time just transitions from day to night to day, etc. It doesn’t force your character to go to bed before a certain time or penalize you for not sleeping at night. I’m 13 ‘days’ in and there hasn’t been anything that says I have to do something within a window of time. There’s only 6 days of the week, and that only seems to matter for when some NPCs drop by town or your place. The overworld is one map, so there’s no ‘loading’ screens between your home, town, forest, etc. there’s a stamina bar that can be replenished by goods or nature stuffs, or yes cooking human remains.
The way crafting is haphazardly explained means you’ll spend a few minutes figuring it out yourself, but it comes together.
Since we’ve all discussed HM and time-imposed restrictions, I thought I’d just dump this all here for everyone.

I like it, the price seems right, and I’m already aware I’ll play it more than Stardew.

Like I mentioned before MM is all about Time management make sure what to do each day stay focuesd on your objectieve.
For example the first day you go out and explorer a new area.
Second day you make sure what to do in that area,
3th day you finish it up.
Yes there is always a little pressure but for me thats where this game shines.

Majora's Mask is really easy if you have already beaten it once, because then you know where everything is and what you have to do, so it's much easier to manage your time.

Well, between you, bimmy, me and a couple of others, that's quite a few people already. I feel a new forum thread coming...

@bimmy-lee That just about describes what I experience. Basically with every game I suck at. Not having a significant other to pull me out of whatever downward spiral I'd fall into in such a moment, most certainly makes a BIG difference. Ultimately, I do always crawl my way back to the top of the well, but I have been known to become quite exasperated at times and to shout at my TV for no apparent reason, other than unfairly dying (in my opinion) in a game for the umpteenth time...

@Tyranexx Aneurysm-inducing indeed... I always feel like some games don't take casual gamers into account, or not enough, with either only normal and hard settings, or by more or less making you feel like a total n00b, because you can only successfully complete a level either at a setting below easy, or with a ton of retries or, like you said, by abusing save and/or restore points. Which in my case also makes the ultimate achievement feel a lot less grand. It still kind of feels like winning the proverbial expensive sports car, but it's one that has been rotting away in some barn for a couple of decades, so it has lost a lot of its shine...

@Link-Hero It's not about Majora's Mask being difficult, it's just about most of us not liking that pressure of time, with that annoying moon crashing down. It may only be perceived pressure, but for us it's still more than annoying enough to faze us, and mess up our chances of successfully progressing through the game.

@NorseGamerTommy Of course, once you've completed a game, any game, it's always easier and you obviously will also more than likely know where all the difficult parts are, where the traps lie, and so on, and so on, so that's pretty much a given. But to be able to experience that, you'd still have to beat a game for the first time...

@ThanosReXXX - Your story about playing a game until sunrise because you HAD to get it right reminded me of shooting hoops in the driveway as a kid. I used to pick a spot, make up a number, and tell myself I had to hit that amount of shots consecutively from that spot before I could be done. Then when I accomplished that, I’d tell myself I had to swish that amount of shots consecutively from that spot. There were times my dad had to pick me up and carry me inside.

@bimmy-lee Dood! I just finished Autopsy of Jane Doe, and loved it! Very suspenseful.

@HobbitGamer - That’s great! Glad you enjoyed it. There’s probably a personal connection for you as well. That scene where they’re hiding in a room and you can hear the bell tied to the zombie’s feet, then you see the feet shuffling by under the door before they stop at the door... terror. What Jane turns out to be is an under used movie character/monster/villain. Real solid horror movie.

@bimmy-lee Haha, I've had similar experiences when I was a kid. Well, if that's OCD, then I guess I might suffer from some form of it after all.

@ThanosReXXX Interesting about the empathic part - not so official as you but I think some internet survey or something at some point said I was as well...which might explain the mutual urge to help facilitate the mating of game controllers and walls.

Boss battles and having to repeat anything I've already done in a game are the rage-inducers for me.