DailyDirt: Not Playing To Win Can Be Fun

Computers

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Wed, Feb 26th 2014 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Playing video games can become an obsession. Just like some people like to re-read books they've already read over and over again, some gamers play their favorite games even after they've finished all the levels in a game. And now, there are more and more games that don't really have an ending, so you could just keep playing the game forever until you got bored -- or figured out your own goals to accomplish in the game. Here are just a few examples of gamers getting creative with how they play.

Somebody thought it'd be fun to try to get the *lowest* possible score on Super Mario Bros while still finishing the game. You really have to be amazingly good to get a score of just 500 points. The video of this game shows some incredible button-pressing skills. [url]
There's a Tumblr dedicated to playing video games according to unconventional rules. Examples: Permadeath Minecraft where you have to delete your entire world if you die, democratic group playing of Pokemon where each move is chosen by majority decisions from a streaming chat session of thousands of players, etc... [url]
In 2007, Super Mario World was hacked to become "Kaizo Mario World" which contained insanely difficult obstacles that would require hours just to complete a single level. Players have stepped up to the challenge, recording their efforts, and one impressive (or deeply philosophical?) video superimposes 134 attempts to complete the first level (only 2 attempts succeed). [url]

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Filed Under: gamers, group playing, kaizo mario world, minecraft, permadeath, super mario brothers, super mario world, video games
Companies: nintendo

11 Comments

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silverscarcat (profile), 26 Feb 2014 @ 3:30pm

What?
No Twitch Plays Pokemon in here?
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- Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2014 @ 5:57pm
  
  Re: What?
  "democratic group playing of Pokemon where each move is chosen by majority decisions from a streaming chat session of thousands of players"
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  - Watchit (profile), 26 Feb 2014 @ 9:53pm
    
    Re: Re: What?
    Yes that's Twitch Plays Pokemon, but only in democracy mode. I'd just write that down as the author not fully understanding what was going on, or getting only a partial view of the event. But that's fine too.
    
    To explain for those who don't know:
    Most of the time the twitch stream is in anarchy mode where the game takes in every command at once, with some latency of course. To get into democracy mode the stream needs a super majority.
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    - Watchit (profile), 26 Feb 2014 @ 9:54pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: What?
      P.S. Praise Lord Helix ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
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      - silverscarcat (profile), 27 Feb 2014 @ 1:20am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: What?
        But now is not the time to use that.
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rycho (profile), 26 Feb 2014 @ 6:18pm

Escapism!!(TM)(c)
We clearly need more effective ways to bury our heads in the (highly-monitored) sand, that is our lives.
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- Anonymous Coward, 26 Feb 2014 @ 7:22pm
  
  Re: Escapism!!(TM)(c)
  Sounds good to me. Have you seen life lately? The government is cribbing from Nineteen Eighty-Four, corporations are cribbing from Neuromancer, and police are cribbing from The Minority Report. We're living dystopian fiction.
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  - Ninja (profile), 27 Feb 2014 @ 2:00am
    
    Re: Re: Escapism!!(TM)(c)
    When life meets art?
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Ninja (profile), 27 Feb 2014 @ 2:05am

Reminds me of that mahjong anime... If memory serves there was the main character called Saki that got pro at scoring exactly zero so she would be always in the middle of the players avoiding being mocked for being the loser and being bullied by her siblings for winning too much. One must note that scoring exactly zero several games in a row is an insane strategic exercise. Still it could be fun.

Take the RPGs for instance. I like those that need strategy to win. Or those that allow you to become so overpower that the fun is how to kill a boss without taking damage for instance. Or those that you can up the difficulty to insanity and still be able to beat it if executing the things carefully (and in a reasonable time frame). Disgaea comes to mine for this last example!
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David, 27 Feb 2014 @ 10:25am

DIdn't Data do this already?
Didn't Lt. Cmdr. Data 'beat' that one alien by simple playing for a tie, and was able to continue the game indefinitely? Thus 'busting him up'?

Similar to Arthur Chu playing for the tie, just ensuring he can continue to play the game (and make more money!)
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mahmud, 16 Apr 2014 @ 9:49am

BABY SMACKS CAT
We clearly need more effective ways to bury our heads in the (highly-monitored) sand, that is our lives.
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