I’ve got plenty of gaming-related secrets. A few of them I’ve shared before, but some are so embarrassing that I dare not ever let them see the light of day. These include times that I spent hours going about a task the wrong way in an RPG, re-rolling characters and bumping certain games down to easier difficulties because there were no achievements associated with finishing it on Normal. Yup.
And while I won’t speak directly about some of those things, the guys over at Wiki Game Guides have put together a rather humorous (and sadly familiar) collection of the 10 Most Humbling Experiences that a gamer can go through. This list might make you laugh and cry all at once, because it includes getting “perfected” in a fighting game, being asked to switch to Bass in Rock Band and running into the first Goomba in Mario 1-1. Each of those may have happened to me at some point. In a past life. I don’t like to talk about it.
So what about you guys? How many of these things have you experienced? What are some of your biggest gaming shames?
Source – Wiki Game Guides
My most humbling experience has got to be playing Super Smash Bros. Melee in comparison to Super Smash Bros. Brawl. SSBM was my religion; I practiced it every day. I honed my skills as Mario against a team of three level-9 bowsers. I had all the characters, finished all the challenges, and mastered Cruel Melee.
Then, Brawl came out. I figured the game would be a piece of cake given my leet skills with the predecessor.
Man, that game is hard. With luck, I could beat Classic on Normal with Mario on 5 stock, and maybe only use 1 continue. Forget about any of the other characters. That game kicked my ass in difficulty, which is probably part of the reason why I hate that game so much. Plus, there’s the fact that when I play against real people, they end up mopping the floor with my virtual sensei.
Nothing infuriates me more than when God of War would ask me if I wanted to play on easy mode. Me? A hardcore gamer? NO! And the Starcraft one is so true. Once I had all but started to begin my victory Marauder dance when I see an entire fleet of Void Rays roll over the horizon. I. Fucking. Hate. Void Rays. Within seconds my Marauders were obliterated, and my base taken. I screamed at the top of my lungs and nearly broke my hand as I slammed it down on my desk. It’s not like simply dying in an FPS. I just spent thirty minutes being crafty and besting my foe at every turn, and then THIS! Utter gamer humiliation.
I would say recently it’s been L.A. Noire. In most games, I’m a saving fiend. It’s nice to be playing Skyrim and L.A. Noire at the same time because they are so different. In Skyrim, my save folder is now bigger than the entire game, with about 1400 save files. I literally save before going around a corner, making a choice, all kinds of things. In L.A. Noire, I don’t have that luxury, and while I have once restarted a case for going 2/4 questions during an interview, the extra time it consumed taught me to just roll with the punches. It’s changed the way I approach choice in games I think, which is quite an accomplishment.