Lazy gamer

You know those times when you get stuck on a level? Running around for hours, backtracking through the map, searching every crook and cranny, going through your inventory five times over, wondering what other possible weak spot the boss could have, slowly enjoying your game less because it definitely isn’t you being stupid, this game is stupid, what the hell man?! *Huff puff, scratching your head and let out a huge sigh*

Eventually when all ideas have been exhausted it’s time to swallow your pride and log on to GameFaqs.com, or perhaps if you’ve got one of those BradyGames guide walkthrough beauties.

Here you shall find the answers to your game
Here you shall find the answers about your game

Now this is where the dangerous bit kicks in. The moment you’ve resorted to a guide there’s this lingering temptation to just follow it straight afterwards, meaning that you now don’t bother figuring it out on your own. You just simply read along and do as it says (yes I know that’s its purpose) but this then spoils the game content when you know what to expect, changing the way you perceive the game. When this happens I pull out the term, ‘lazy gamer’.

Games tend to have built in guides, tutorials and hints (making me less bothered to read a manual) and I’ve started to realise that it’s turning me into a lazy gamer. Recently I’ve been playing Batman Arkham Asylum and admittedly I’ve been capering around seeing the world of Arkham Asylum only in detective mode. Detective mode highlights objects you can interact with and clues you in on what you have to do next. It’s a mode that you can switch on and off but it takes away seeing the true colours and graphics built around you (which is a stunning experience) if you’re using it. Unfortunately my lazy gamer would say, ‘I’ve had to use this visual mode for pretty much most of the time so why not be in it all the time for convenience?’

If the Tenchu games had this feature I'd be raping those GrandMaster Rankings!
If the Tenchu games had this feature I'd be storming those GrandMaster Rankings!

When I was stuck on Obscure (PS2), I turned on the lazy gamer tactics. There are six playable characters with their unique abilities and the game often required finding and using items to progress. One of the characters, named Josh, had the ability to spot things in the room so after being stuck for a small time period; it wasn’t long after that I’d start abusing the powers of Josh. Running into every single room on the map location and just pressing the circle button waiting for two responses along the lines of, ‘There’s something in this room’ or ‘There’s nothing left for us here’. My horror game was no longer filled with silence and suspense, they were replaced by a character constantly rinsing and repeating these two sentences to the finish.

A different sense of laziness, while playing any of the Pheonix Wright series on the DS my thinking cap totally turned off after at least 10 minutes of being stuck. In short the game needed me to investigate various locations and speak to people to reveal clues and evidence for upcoming court cases. Now what you get is a still landscape background which you poke about with your stylus in particular areas to find things. However after you’ve taken twenty logical guesses where only half may have produced positive results, you’ll resort to a quick barrage of tapping with the stylus like a pneumatic drill all over the touch screen starting from left to right, top to bottom.

So the order is that if at first I don’t succeed, try, try, again. After a good portion of time while trying and I’m still trying, I’ll try by spoiling and abusing the game mechanics. Then if I’m still stuck I’ll log onto an online walkthrough and follow that to the end. Usually I get more satisfaction completing something by myself but nowadays I’ve become equally satisfied to just finish the game using a guide. I’m sure we’ve all been a lazy gamer at some stage.


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5 responses to “Lazy gamer”

  1. James avatar
    James

    You’re not the only one Shaz! I mean, I wouldn’t resort to such measures, but I’m sure there are other people out there who go to GameFAQs for more than every other game. Heh.

    I think it comes hand in hand with the amount of pointless collection puzzles and achievement-hunting that we’re now forced to do before we can consider a game having been ‘completed’. Sure, a lot of games had stuff like that in them before but now they’ve made it all public and it looks terrible if you’ve only been bothered to get a fifth of the set milestones in a game, especially if you haven’t even completed it on hard mode.

    It’s gotten so bad now that they try and fob off the guides to the games when you buy them on release day! I went to a midnight launch of ODST and they had a deal for people who bought the EVIL CHEAT BOOK along with the game, before they even got stuck!

    And that is not a hard game.

  2. The Rook avatar
    The Rook

    I have used walkthroughs when I’m stuck but wouldn’t use it to play alongside the rest of the game until beaten (unless it was Tomb Raider 3).

    If I do use a guide, I try to scan to the part I’m stuck and try to hide the scroll bar on the webpage. This is so I can’t guage how close I am to the end.

    I like to find things out for myself as much as possible and will only go to a guide if truly stuck.

  3. Sarah-Lou avatar

    Oh yes I’ve been a lazy gamer, especially when playing the Professon Layton series.

    Unfortunately I’m not that smart when it comes to solving some of the tricky puzzels, so once I’ve pondered to the point where I lose me patience, I have had a peek at a guide just to get the answer.

  4. Duncan avatar
    Duncan

    I’ve only bought guides to games I really like, because I like to know I’m getting the most out of it.

    I still have all my PS1 game guides from back in the 90’s, because I still haven’t bled all those games dry of entertainment yet!

    I’ve never done it to complete a game though… not yet anyway. ;D

  5. mike avatar
    mike

    i pretty much agree with this but once i beat i the game i go back and look at manual to get the stuff tht i miss. espically in ff games.

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