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Finding New and Unintended Ways of Playing Games

Posted by Soulskill on from the trickjumping-and-speedruns-and-bears-oh-my dept.

Ronald Diemicke writes "World of Warcraft players sometimes hang out in front of Ironforge and dance. Fallout 3 players seek out new and elaborate ways of destroying their avatar. Brawlers in Smash Brothers have an itchy pause finger, ready to catch any humiliatingly hilarious screengrabs. The thugs running rampant in Grand Theft Auto are putting Evil Knievel to shame by using a full assortment of vehicles to pull off some incredible stunt work. Personally, I like to collect and move things. My favorite is making piles of bodies in any game that lets me move them around. Ever catch yourself doing something in-game that isn't exactly part of the game, or just something really dumb?"

4 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. Explorer by omnilynx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm not sure if this really counts because often it fits in with the intent of the game, but I like to completely explore everything. Especially if there's a map that gets filled in as I explore; I will happily criss-cross a bare desert if it's the last uncharted corner of the map. It really clues you in on the quality of the game: the best games are the ones where the designers stuck all sorts of cool little things away in corners for people like me to find. The worst games are the ones where none of the doors open but the ones you need to reach the next story point.

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    1. Re:Explorer by dhasenan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, you need a non-trivial reward *not related to gameplay*. An exceptionally beautiful scene, for instance. Or an old woman sitting on her front porch with fifty times as much dialog as a typical character, just talking about her life and the things she's seen and the places she's been.

      It has to be something you can't take with you, but there should be a reward.

  2. Operation Flashpoint by Laser+Dan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I always liked playing coop Operation Flashpoint with friends, there was a particular map where the enemies had 2 or 3 tanks next to each other with the drivers standing next to them. The map was supposed to operate with you fighting the tanks with RPGs etc as the drivers would jump in as soon as you were detected, but we found that you could put everyone in a jeep, then drive full speed at the camp and if you were lucky you could run over the drivers before they got in the tank. Then everyone jumps in the tank, blows up the enemy tanks before they can turn the turret, and go on a rampage in a mission where you aren't supposed to have a tank. Soo much fun.

    There was another mission where you could steal a helicopter in a similar way.

    Sometimes it would take many tries to do it without someone being killed, but it was so worth it!

  3. Re:StarCraft with nothing but the most useless uni by DMUTPeregrine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So instead of single-mindedly killing fake people it's better if he single-mindedly killed real people? Perhaps not such a bad change after all, eh?

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