That's pretty much all I care to play anymore. When you're playing a game that's difficult for you, you usually have to learn something new or develop some new skill or ability. I guess that's one of the things I like most about playing games: that you can keep on learning new concepts and skills, essentially, that you can keep on improving yourself.
For me, it has to be difficult. Not necessarily difficult for the rest of the world, but difficult for me. When you're trying to do something that's really hard for you, then if you can't do it, well, that's kind of just the expected result, but if you can do it, then it's like overcoming a significant challenge, you know, doing something crazy. On the other hand, if you're trying to do something that's easy for you, then if you succeed, it's just what you expected, but if you fail, well that's kind of disappointing, right? It's why if I were playing DDR or ITG for fun, I would always play something like this rather than trying to get perfect on something easy for me. I know there are people out there who could high accuracy full combo the same thing, but right now, if I could even just pass that song, knowing my current stamina and skill, it'd be some kind of a miracle, and that's enough to make me excited to try it. (To be honest, watching these videos is making me want to go all out to make that miracle happen now, but considering that even 9 and 10 difficulty songs make me feel exhausted and that one's 12 difficulty, I'm not sure it's a good idea to try it.)
I also like trying to learn new things: new concepts, new styles of games, etc. Which is also part of the reason why I usually never play anything to perfection. Not only is it disappointing to fail and often only a relief to succeed, but you're going to be doing the same thing over and over with improvements that are so small (like going from 99.5% to 100%), and you really aren't learning anything new. If it were purely for the sake of having fun playing the game, I wouldn't play many things to perfection. I would probably just keep on moving through new genres of games, learning different concepts and strategies and becoming able to do them, and only really going farther than that if I really loved a specific game or if there were other reasons to keep playing.
Now, two player games are almost always exciting to me. Even if it's the same game, the way the game will play out is always different. Also, in most two player games you have the opportunity to make some big play, outwit or outplay your opponent at a critical point, or watch as your opponent outwits you. You've got to take advantage of the moment, make your best call or execute at your highest level, change your strategy on the fly as you adjust to your opponent's changes while you play to win the point, the round, the match, or whatever it is that may be on the line, fighting to maintain dominant results or to break an even match or to pull off the ridiculous upset... What, you don't like those kinds of stories?
I liked it when you could do better by trying harder too. Which is why I would probably find enjoyment playing most any sport. If it were convenient and there were people I wanted to play with, I'd probably be playing 1-on-1 basketball or any racket sport or team sports or even American handball... Which brings back memories of the last handball match I played, a long time ago. I was down, match point, and I was diving for the ball at the front, saved one that was short left and one that was short right when the opponent hit one long while I was still down at the front, and I jumped up, sprinted back there and dove and saved the ball as it came off the back wall, somehow hitting it into the corner and winning the rally to save match point. The only problem was that it was 9-20. So I got a couple more points and made it 11-20 just to lose 11-21. Sigh..., good times, good times. They say, "Who would try so hard in a lost match?" and I say, "I would. I would!" I'll take a limitless tolerance for failure and an unreasonable determination to go on against all odds, and with that I'll write my story. Or, as I suppose it could be argued, half of it, at least.
No comments:
Post a Comment