#4 Running An Incomplete Marathon
There’s nothing worse than being hooked on a game for 14 hours straight only to promptly quit and not return to it for weeks. That’s when you replay it from the start and do it all over again.
With that being said, there are many valid reasons to stop playing a game. But often times, the reasons we have for stopping our run mid-way through can be the fault of a little hangup, like a particularly difficult time-based puzzle. In some cases, the reason can come from forgetting to save the game often and having to replay an hour-long section, which only adds to the feeling of tedium.
#3 Altaholics Anonymous
The only thing less productive than replaying a game to try out a completely different class and to get a different experience is to replay the game using the exact same class but with some slight variation on skills, and then doing it a dozen times over. For some reason, I’ve always gravitated towards fighter classes in RPGs, so the experience was largely identical save for the use of a few different skills and weapons.
However, this isn’t so much a problem with single player RPGs as it is with MMORPGs. There’s a reason why some players never even manage to level a single level 85 character in World of Warcraft despite playing the game for several years and owning dozens of characters under their accounts.
#2 Searching for the Perfect Build
Almost as bad as replaying the game multiple times to try out every different class, searching for the “Perfect Build” is as pointless a task as pursuing the Holy Grail. Most RPGs have flexible difficulty levels and don’t need you to build the perfect character for any reason at all.
Mostly an issue with games like Diablo II and Titan Quest, finding the perfect build can be as much of an adventure as playing through the campaign without skipping any of the optional parts. It also happens to be the reason why so much time is spent in Diablo II’s Durance of Hate.
#1 Grinding Because You Can
In most new RPGs, grinding is unnecessary to make progress in the story. Yet those of us who grew up with the old “Final Fantasy” games and “Daggerfall” may often find ourselves leveling up on countless trash mobs and performing menial tasks just for the sake of hitting the max possible level before pursuing the main storyline. It’s terribly anticlimactic when the biggest, baddest boss in the game dies in five seconds.
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Speaking of anti-climactic, I remember playing oblivion constantly in sneak mode and using my bow and arrow. By the time I finished most of the quests, I could take out just about any enemy with one shot, including people who were supposed to be bosses.
Well, to deal with the two major reasons for restarting, the first DAO mods I got were: one that allowed me to remake my character's appearance and one that introduced a 'potion of respec' into the game (though originally that was to deal with the terrible specs that the companion characters come with if you have the bad luck of picking them up later in the game).
Lol yeah agree with a few points like hording potions, items, spells etc (then again I hardly ever use magic in any rpg, prefer to hack and slash), but one major time consumer in rpg is the hording of items you collect from dead enemies or find around the game world, I almost always end up with too much weight from trying to pick up every last seemingly useful or valuable item lol, then it takes an age to get to the nearest sale location or I have to take ages sorting out what I can and can not drop...
But as for the rest of the points, they seem to be applicable to anal compulsive people only, I am way too chilled out to give a shit how my fake character looks in the escape from reality I am playing in, it is the game world and npc's etc that I pay attention to, afterall I consider the ingame me the same as the real me, I am happy with the real me so don't care if the ingame me matches up lol (I think of it doing so, thats all that counts). Also for those who love to try out every last skill, perk etc, wtf? Seriously is the game gonna become 100% better just because you found a skill that allows you to weild the dragon sword of doom? Sure it looks cool but to replay the last two weeks just to try it, that is fooking sad and pathetic. If you like to marvel at shit, just stare at it in your inventory...
Honesly? Can't really say I'm guilty of any of these(first playthrough). When I pay a game, I feel I'd like to do it the proper way first. Of course when the game is beaten THEN I proceed to replay and do all the fun little things that way I can get 100% experience out of the game. Afterall, these things ARE meant to be done. Just once the game is beaten is all.
I've played every opening in dragon age SO many times. Yet I've completed it once... And that was only because i forced myself to carry on with the big nosed mage. I'm a sucker for grinding too but i cant stop! Great list =)
lol i completely agree with the list i have probably restarted dragon age like 14 times or more just because of character looks lol XD mods that add more hairstyles and stuff more class skills more magic attacks and loads of other stuff lol then redoing decision on mass effect just to try to see what happens im a good person so i always went down paragon due to me being myself on it lol but every now and then i do try and do other because it can be quite funny lol like you said i also know what you mean when ou say restarting for "practical" reasons i mean i recently played demon souls i restarted just because i couldnt use the bastard sword XD then comes saving items at certain times im like that also but not all the time the only time i use important items are in boss fights in every rpg that i play lol its just the same in white knight chronicles where i only use lenards transformation in a boss fight other than that i always fight normal lol Now when it comes down to creating alts im not really an altaholic i sometimes do create alts to try out different classes but thats it i got a level 85 on WoW but cant do heroics yet due to item level being too low due to me playing loads of other mmorpgs lol lastly GRINDING for the sake of it that is SO me even when i dont have to i just MUST grind i have to kill everything in the area before i proceed further its something that is hard to get rid of but easy to get into lol XD
Rant Over
Man, I'm a huge offender for #10. Not just potions, but powers even. If a power has a 5 minute cooldown I treat it like the big red button and never use it. Even when a boss fight comes along, I find myself hesitant to blow a long cooldown.
From someone who obviously knows their stuff. #8 was right on the money for me, as I literally replayed the opening sequence of Dragon Age so many times I got tired of the game and quit, because my character never looked quite like it should have. *ewww those nostrils are way too big, reroll*
From always saving potions and never using them *just in case*, to running back and forward for countless hours in Final Fantasy, this list was well done.
I would have made it a top ten list and put breaking or opening every single barrel in there too.
I must say I don't recognize myself in the habits. I truly hate the mathematics behind RPGs and don't want to know anything about that, as it takes me out of the gaming experience (that is very much here and now). Of course, when choosing between taking up a new weapon or armor I of course compare with the strength and condition of the ones I already carry, but apart from that I treat RPGs as action/stealth games with leveling up as a bonus. Consequenctly I stay away from all turn-based games.
most could be solved if they just include a NG+