I will not ever "git gud" at videogames again
One of the main things that has prevented me from completing almost any game that I play all the way to the finish is one major obstacle: I am an adult with a job and other responsibilities and I cannot devote my life to being excellent at a game.
I think that most adults end up this way especially if they have kids or really any sort of responsibilities that take priority in their life as far as their time is concerned.
There are a lot of great stories out there about epic games such as Witcher 3 and RDR2 and many others. While I appreciate these games and recognize them for the masterpieces that they are, I have never come even close to completing them because life got in the way.
When I hear things like "git gud" it is very insulting and infantile to me. I'm not a bad gamer, I just have changed over time as my life takes on responsibilities that children and young adults simply do not have.
src
Recently, you might have noticed that I have been writing quite a lot about Nobody Save the World and how this game really appeals to me. The main reason why this is the case is because you don't really ever NEED to "git gud" in order to enjoy it. The controls are simple, it doesn't use all 27 buttons on the controller, and the commands are right there on screen any time you boot the game up. While this likely seems too easy to people that enjoy a hardcore experience - and I hold nothing against you if that is what you like - for me, this sort of game is perfect.
src
So any time that I don't play for several days in a row I don't feel as though I need to go through the tutorial again in order to even know what to do. I remember when trying once again to get into GOTY Witcher 3 every time I would take a few days off from playing I would jump back in only to realize that I was mad-button-mashing and had to constantly refer to the controls section to do something simple like summon my horse. I just don't remember this many things because since I have to remember so many things that supersede the importance of gaming in my regular life, things like remembering all the controls to a game get pushed out of my brain.
I recall that in that particular game you had 2 swords on you: one was more effective against spirits or supernatural enemies and the other was more effective against anything "normal" such as wolves or men. I would NEVER remember which was which after taking a few days off.
src
This is too much stuff for me to remember unless I am playing this game every single day. Maybe I have sort of mental deficiency and remembering and remembering 17 different buttons is just easy peasy to others out there. To me, and trust me I am not bagging on the game and recognize that it is a great game, this is just too much. This is why as soon as I took a few days off playing W3 I actually started to dread "relearning" the controls when I would fire it back up. Then when I did fire it back up I also had to contend with not really knowing where the hell to go and getting my ass handed to me by enemies because I forgot rather crucial aspects of the game such as locking on to a single opponent. Things like that slip my mind when I have other things that I must tend to in my life.
src
This controller setup interface always makes me laugh because if we eliminate the obvious directional buttons, there are only 2 buttons that are the same for each character. The rest of it you would just kind of figure out by messing about for a bit. It's never frustrating because you can literally not play this game at all for months and jump straight back in there like you were never away. Your "learning curve" is very short whereas in other games if you walk away for a long period of time, you probably would be better off just starting the entire game over.
I have done this multiple times with long games like W3 and RDR2 only to repeat the cycle of taking a small break of few days, then getting back in there and being completely lost, then deleting the game again. I am convinced I will never actually complete either of those games even though they aren't actually all that difficult.
There are other difficult games such as Hollow Knight that because of the control scheme, it is actually quite easy to jump in and out even after weeks or even months away.
Maybe I am just not hardcore enough to ever enjoy the more difficult games in existence. When it comes to any "Souls-like" games you can basically just forget about it, I'm never going to "git gud" at something that not only requires knowing a ton of buttons, but also having pinpoint accuracy as far as parries are concerned.
For all intents and purposes, and despite the fact that I own 3 major modern consoles, I simply do not dedicate a huge amount of my life to gaming. In fact, there are many days that I decide to not game even though I definitely have time.
I am a filthy casual and I am perfectly ok with that. If you are a casual like me, I think you would probably enjoy a lot of the games that I do as well. Am I missing out on an epic journey by not delving more into the harder and more complicated games? Maybe. When I was younger and didn't have responsibilities I probably would have taken the time to get better at them but these days, I honestly don't really care if I am.
How about you?
Congratulations @whoisjohn, your post was upvoted by @supportive.
This post has been upvoted by @italygame witness curation trail
If you like our work and want to support us, please consider to approve our witness
Come and visit Italy Community
I'm on exactly the same page as you. I'd be playing RDR2 as we speak if I wasn't afraid of booting it up and seeing how many of the controls I can remember! I made good progress on Batman Arkham City after a few days playing and I can't load that up now because I can't remember what any of the buttons do.
I think that's why retro consoles are so popular. The Master System only has 2 buttons. Mega Drive - 3. It's probably also why Nintendo consoles are forever popular despite not having the best graphics in whatever generation's console war (although the N64 and GameCube controller might be an exception here!)
I watched a YouTube video yesterday about somebody replaying Cannon Fodder on the Amiga in 2024/25. Left mouse button - soldiers move. Right mouse button - soldiers shoot. Both mouse buttons - soldiers shoot big weapon. He still absolutely loved the game. That should send a message to modern game makers which force you to pause the game every 2 minutes to remind yourself what each button does.
Or maybe we're just getting old and senile.
This is something that has stood in my way of continuing any game that I am playing in modern times. I look at my list of installed games and think "nah, that's gonna be frustrating to try to remember" and then eventually delete it from the local files. I later will return out of boredom and try again but it ends up being the same every time.
Cannon Fodder was one of the only good games on the Atari Jaguar and I was one of the few people that actually bought that system. I remember how simplistic and awesome that game was.
Oh and I left the Arkham game for exactly the same reason as you. The huge problem with a lot of these games is that I will decide to "call it a day" at a particularly difficult part of the game, which is the WORST place you can call it a day. This almost always results in me never playing the game again.
0.00 SBD,
0.84 STEEM,
0.84 SP
I ended up playing RDR2 after sending you this and whilst I quite enjoyed it, I really didn't have a clue what I was supposed to do. I'm sure there are supposed to be missions but all I could work out was how to get on my horse and go for a ride. Eventually, getting bored and just shooting random people. I also died a lot. If this wasn't ranked #1 as the all-time best PS4 game, I'm not sure how much time I'd dedicate to it.
Were you able to play it with a mouse? This was always one of those games for me where a mouse felt essential.
Ha ha! Yes! Absolutely! And by the time you return, it's not just a difficult part of the game, it's impossible because you end up jumping when you want to punch or some other ridiculous control you've forgotten!
0.00 SBD,
0.00 STEEM,
0.13 SP
I played Cannon Fodder on the awful Atari Jaguar controller that was the size of most consoles these days. Man what a disaster that console was.
I can't see myself really ever getting involved in a game that utilizes the entire controller ever again honestly. That's all fun and games for a teenager with no life responsibilities but I actually have quite a few, and you mentioned you have kids so you probably have even less time to devote to that sort of thing.
I do recall running around without much direction in RDR2 in the past and that was reasonably entertaining I guess. It is a beautiful game after all.
0.00 SBD,
0.51 STEEM,
0.51 SP
Were you able to complete it? That must have been extremely difficult to control!
Exactly! Although... it's probably easier than memorizing every special move on Mortal Kombat / Street Fighter II which I'm sure we both did as kids! Many of which, I have little doubt that we still know 🙂
Yes - it's truly beautiful. Although I found some of it frustrating. After murdering a farmer, and dumping his body in his house, my character was tired. But there was no way for me to settle down for a peaceful sleep in my victim's bed. Instead, I had to set up camp somewhere... which I couldn't do because there was always too much activity nearby. There was probably a tutorial or moment in the game where I should have learnt what to do... but I didn't. So just got killed in a gun fight instead.
0.00 SBD,
0.00 STEEM,
0.12 SP
the one thing I remember that frustrated me at the start of RDR2 was the lack of fast travel initially. There is this one scene where you go and get ourtrageously drunk at the saloon with your friend and get into a fight. The cut-scene is actually brilliant but then you wake up on the side of the road and you have no choice but to walk all the way back to your camp. I suppose that was intentional on their part to let you know how vast this area was and how you need to stick with your horse or face consequences, but I nearly quit at that point. Plus those long stretches of leaving your horse on autopilot because fast travel wasn't available.
I get that they were going for a creative thing here but I didn't like it.
I really didn't make it that far in the game. Just as far as needing to do something to the railroads in the main story. Then, as we have discussed a bunch already, I stopped playing for a while and returned and didn't know how to do anything other than walk. :)
I never finished that Atari Jaguar game, no. Since I never knew the mouse commands I had nothing to complain about. Other PC games that appear on consoles, such as any RTS game like Age of Empires, Starcraft and what not, are just horrible on any console though, no matter how much they try to make it user friendly on any console.
0.00 SBD,
0.62 STEEM,
0.62 SP
I've somehow managed to avoid this part of the game! But I know what you're saying. When I loaded it up after a while, I wandered out of the camp without my horse... slow in quite the understatement!
by the way, I had been trying to reply to this for over a day but network issues resulted in the never ending spinning ball of doom.
0.00 SBD,
0.19 STEEM,
0.19 SP
Ah, that was probably me. I was fixing something with communities that broke posts which weren't in one. So I had to fix what I broke. It should all be good now though 🙂