@ThanosReXXX - I’ve never known where the line is drawn between a perfectionist personality type and OCD. Perhaps it’s the intent behind the actions. I’ve always assumed a situation like your desire to get it right in a game or the basketball scenario are perfectionist tendencies, while things like not believing a door is locked without unlocking and locking 10 times is more of an OCD trait. Even that would be a minor OCD trait as people with full blown OCD can barely leave the house because of how crippling it can be.
@bimmy-lee "while things like not believing a door is locked without unlocking and locking 10 times is more of an OCD trait"
I do that sort of thing, but it's less an OCD thing so much as a forgetfulness thing. I'll walk away 10 times and have no memory of if I actually locked it or not because I was only half paying attention and thinking of other things each time.
OTOH the necessity of my coffee mug handle to always be pointing precisely the right direction every time I put it down, including 1mm microcorrections of its position to perfectly align it....thaaat might be OCD....
Or it might be practicality because half the time I reach for it without looking at it and if he handle is slightly off muscle-memory position I'm likely to knock it over.... It'd be like spacing out someone's guitar strings by an extra mm.
@NEStalgia You DO know I'm almost 50, right?
That's one heck of a tiny picture to watch, without a magnifying glass...
@bimmy-lee I've always thought of OCD as something that is out of the ordinary, so I never thought having an excessive need to succeed in games was part of that. I always thought that OCD suffering people are the ones who MUST wash their hands a fixed number of times, or people who must make an even number of total steps when they go anywhere, or who have to turn a door knob 5 times before leaving their homes...
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
@ThanosReXXX LOL, I dislike how NL handles images. If you go too big you flood the forum with it, if you go too small you get the tiny postage stamp. No winning. I wish it would scale appropriately when you link an image like modern forum software does.
OCD: or people who need to correct grammar in anonymous forum posts...pretty sure that's on the OCD scale.
@NEStalgia - I think going back to check that the door is locked 10 times is different than standing at the door & unlocking/locking 10 times to know it’s locked. Now the coffee cup handle, that might be a trait, haha.
I think a lot of gamers have a certain amount of perfectionism in them as well as competitiveness. Whether you want a perfect run, or you want to beat a human opponent or “the computer”, there’s an inherent drive to do it right/be the best. When I was playing MT Punch Out obsessively when I was young going for a flawless run and resetting the first time I took a hit, even though nobody was around to see it; I think that was just wanting to achieve something perfect while being competitive against the opponents.
People say there’s no such thing as perfect, but games kind of give us a chance to do something perfectly, and it feels monumental to do it; even if you’re alone in the middle of the night facing off against pre programmed pixels.
@bimmy-lee I can definitely agree with games allowing us to “perfect” something. Humans like to manipulate their environments to suit their needs and wants. Many games let us do it. They’re like miniature science labs 😂
#MudStrongs
Switch Friend Code: SW-7842-2075-5515 | My Nintendo: HobbitGamr | Nintendo Network ID: HobbitGamr
@bimmy-lee
Speaking about perfection, when i play DDR arcade, i try to get highest score as i can. By standard of DDR A, if i cannot get AAA (Score at least 990,000 or more) for songs under level 13, it will be shame on me.
@ThanosReXXX I don't think I would have minded how long perfecting games like Mega Man X would have taken me when I was a kid (though there still would have been some rage quitting, most likely. ), but I'm a lot more sensitive how long a game takes me to beat/make progress on now that my time is more limited. That's why I find fully open-world games to be a double-edged sword; I like the freedom that they allow for, but that same freedom is almost too unstructured and (sometimes) too lengthy for my liking. As much as I'm looking forward to BotW and am sure I'll enjoy the snot out of it, my OCD to explore everywhere alone will keep me busy for at least 200 hours. I'm not even sure if I'll bother with the DLC at this point lol.
Another irritation for me is the limited number of lives in the Mega Man platformers. Sure, these can be farmed, but it still takes time. It does use a password system, but I really wish there was at least a quicksave feature or something.
Currently playing: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)
@Anti-Matter - I’ve been thinking about you and DDR during this “perfection” discussion. That’s a great example of someone challenging themselves to memorize very complex patterns and movements. I remember seeing a video you posted a couple years ago of you playing the game and getting a flawless score and it was pretty mesmerizing.
@HobbitGamer - Science lab is a great way to put it. All the controls are in place, it’s just up to us to work within the parameters of the code. It makes me thing of the speed bike section of Battletoads. Someone created a fiendish challenge, and yet it’s simply just a matter of memorization and trial to best it.
@Tyranexx - I played only BOTW for exactly a year. Ended up with a (near perfect) 360 hour save file, though some of that was me asleep while Link chilled on a mountain top. Other than a need to find and talk to all NPCs, that game was very, very relaxing. The lack of structure allowed me to just roam around. I didn’t do the DLC. Maybe I will if I get it on Switch. I would guess that if you end up obsessing over it, it’ll be out of love for the game as opposed to a need to complete everything. I could have cleaned out Hyrule castle after 80 hours or so, but I just wanted to keep roaming though I felt no need to find every shrine or Korok seed.
@bimmy-lee
Actually, i didn't memorize them. 😅
But i still have to memorize the song's characteristic (bpm changes, arrow patterns, stops, jackhammer arrows pattern, pivot, gallops, multi jumps, erratic melody, triplets, pseudo triplets, cluster, etc)
I just rely on my quick reading the arrows pattern before the white arrow bar.
I got the experience from playing other DDR songs with similar patterns.
I still could pass a lot songs i have never knew before as long still under level 17.
@bimmy-lee Yeah, we all like to win. But that's also programmed into the very core of all of us: humans are natural survivors, hunter/gatherers and conquerors. And video game developers have found an artificial way to address that primal instinct of ours, and turn it into an addiction to games and how to play them perfectly...
(edit: or at least try to play them as good as we can)
@Tyranexx Better stow it away and never play it then, because I can tell you from experience that BotW is indeed VERY addictive and entertaining. Trying to do a little bit for just a half hour/45 minutes often turns into an idea of also wanting to do this, and this, and now that I'm in the flow again, might as well finish that bit too...
For example: I've spent hours on end, just collecting ingredients and hunting and fishing, to be able to make and store food, and on other times, I've spent almost all afternoon or evening trying to (and succeeding in) catching a bunch of horses, and then taking my time to come up with some fitting names for them. And creeping up on Bokoblins and trying to kill as many as you can by using the environment is also loads of fun, so yes, you WILL enjoy the snot out of it...
But even though it's a time consumer, it's at least completely entertaining, and I've yet to find something that would make me want to throw my Pro Controller into a wall.
@ThanosReXXX - I agree. Deep down, games fulfill our latent and almost unnecessary (at this point) survival skills. BOTW is a great example. It was so fulfilling to have a huge surplus of something like hearty durians, and yet I was always on the hunt for more. Because... what if I NEED them. I laughed at your post above because nearly every session turned into a frolic. I’d mark a spot on the map and start heading that way determined to fully explore that area, and then... “Hey, a butterfly!” An hour later I’m on the other side of Hyrule wondering why I marked that spot in the first place.
I started a 10 day staycation yesterday, and the first order of business is do nothing at all for 48 hours. The plans start tomorrow, so I promise I’ll be done spamming this forum soon.
@Anti-Matter - Well, reaction speed like that is actually more impressive than memorization. You should become a kickboxer!
@bimmy-lee Well, far as I'm concerned, you're far from a nuisance, so don't stay away on my account...
The whole getting distracted thing is certainly something that BotW has down to a tee. The hearty durian story makes me think about one of those funny home videos of a hamster that stuffs an entire bag's worth of peppermint in his cheeks, which is probably less than comfortable, even though he can hold stuff in there, but they're just programmed that way. And in that respect, humans aren't any different from hamsters: neither of us can look into the future, so we might as well stock up for a rainy day...
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
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