It’s been a while since I’ve gone off on a good rant and I think it’s about time I got back to form. GTA IV is out, the anticipation is over, and we’re looking to see what’s out on the gaming horizon again. Frankly, I don’t care for a lot of what I’m seeing. If you’ve read my rant column before, I’m sure this comes as no surprise. For those that haven’t, or those that share my general sentiment… let me tell you why I absolutely HATE stressful games.
Gaming in general is an escape for me. It’s a relaxing hobby where I can be someone I’m not, where I can do things I normally can’t, and where I can explore places I usually can’t go. Sure, I could go out and initiate a personal make-over, pick up new hobbies and meet new people, but that’s a bit hard to do in the odd chunks of time I find here and there in my busy schedule. Exploring new places at 2:00am sometimes leads to very unexpected consequences and the unintentional bonus of meeting new people, but that’s a story for a different day.
Gaming, movies, television, (non-reference) books… I view them pretty much all the same way in that they’re mainly forms of entertainment to me. I like entertainment. Being entertained is fun. I’m never worse off for having been “too entertained.” Lately, I’ve noticed an increasingly popular trend in games. I call the trend “let’s see if we can get the gamer into therapy,” but you might know the games “survival horror” games and they typically fall into the “I’m going to scare the crap out of you with sudden noises/movements” category, or the “I’m going to stress you out as you constantly wait for me to scare the crap out of you with sudden noises/movements” category. Either type of game will likely lead to you being scared, stressed, or both.
In my youth, I could sit and watch the crappiest movies or play the lamest games for hours. As I got older, and my free time dwindled to a fraction of its former self, my criteria for something to be “worthy” of my time went up. Wasted time is very much a sore topic for me. When you’ve already got more than you want to do than time to do it in, wasting time is one of the worst things you can do to yourself.
I think it’s a combination of this time/value reassessment combined with the enhanced immersion and fidelity games now have with 5.1 surround sound, large HDTVs, large capacity storage media, photo-realistic graphics, etc. Those can all be harnessed to really get your blood pressure up… heaven forbid you’re actively taking medication to LOWER your blood pressure! I fought the notion of disliking scary games for quite a while, but right around the time Doom 3 came out, I had an epiphany. It’s not these individual scary games that I dislike, they’re great at what they’re intended to do, it’s the ideas behind the games that I don’t like.
For the same reason I don’t “enjoy” sitting down to watch Schindler’s List or reading War and Peace, I don’t enjoy playing scary and/or stressful games. My time is limited and I want to be entertained; to feel better than when I started playing. Call me selfish, call me shallow, but I can’t be alone in feeling this way. If my goal was to feel worse, I could probably just find someone to kick me in the crotch so I could get on with something “fun” more quickly.
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25 responses so far ↓
1 Lono // May 1, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I’ve got to totally disagree with this, but Rothbart and I usually have diametrically opposed views on video games anyway…
I like the stress and relief when you get out alive…
by the way Left 4 Dead is fracking awesome, but very stressful. I don’t think Rothbart’s fragile heart could handle it.
2 Phoenix // May 1, 2008 at 3:03 pm
I think the more compelling the game is, the higher your stress levels will increases along with frustrativity ( is that a word? ). I mean a game like Portal can make you get stressed when you really want to get to the other side of the room but you keep missing the platform. I think every game is going to be stressful but to a certain degree and making the experience online just seems to add on that. It also affects you more if you particularly like the game your playing a lot. If your playing a boring game stress levels will be low but if your playing something like (Again) Portal and you’re enjoying it then stress levels would probably increase.
3 Sean "Rothbart" Workman // May 1, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike struggle, adversity, fighting, danger, death, etc. in games nor excitement or a sense of accomplishment… I just dislike games that either thrive on building suspense (the “something’s going to kill you any minute” kind, not the “I wonder what I’ll find on this quest” kind) or stressful “I know what I need to do but I die before I can get the game to do it over and over and over and over” games (ie. COD4).
To me, the time it would take to invest to get past that in those kind of games is time I could easily be spending on OTHER games that don’t have that “sucky intro part” to playing them. Let’s see, spend hours getting past the sucky “getting used to playing COD4 multiplayer to the point you’re good at it” or play Burnout Paradise and have fun immediately? Um… I’ll be hittin’ the streets if those are my two choices.
4 JakubK666 // May 1, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Dunno why you’ve listed Prototype.Probably solely because of “wannabe zombies” as the gameplay is a lot more Assassin Creed-ish.
5 tomyg // May 1, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Ime not a huge fan of gta either but resident evil i love, ime tottlay gettin the popint yur trying to make but ime not a hater of scary games.
6 Crunkhippo // May 1, 2008 at 4:32 pm
I have to completely agree with you here Rothbart. I’ve actually had discussions with friends about this same topic before. What I usually end up doing though is playing the game in question for about an hour and then I have to turn it off, switch to something else, or go smoke or something.
I don’t play games to get my nerves worked up, life does that well enough for me on its own. They’re there to help me relax.
7 Anski // May 1, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I’m not actually a huge fan of horror/scary games/whatever like that, but for some reason, I actually get a kick out of them. They are the kind of games I wouldn’t really but, but… I guess I just like to scare myself. Also, my first real adventure into this was Silent Debuggers on the TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine. That game scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. It probably still would, too.
8 Phoenix // May 1, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I get what you mean rothbart but personally I like the sense of accomplishment of working hard at cod4 to get better rather than just playing Burnout. No saying you point of view is bad but it only applies in certain situations.
9 Logan // May 1, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Really, I love survival horror games. But then again, i love horror movies. I mean, I respect your opinion and everything but i guess those type of games rarely stress me out. Maybe i got used to playing them
10 Youlikeyams // May 1, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Hey Rothbart, just be glad you don’t live in Europe. Our PlayStation Store would have driven you to the bottom of a river by now.
11 Sean "Rothbart" Workman // May 1, 2008 at 6:01 pm
@JakubK666: From what I’ve seen of Prototype, they’ve taken the “sandbox” aspect of GTA or more closely Crackdown, and started sticking “demonic” (for lack of a better term) creatures in it that are (as far as I can tell) intent on hunting you down…
I guess I would’ve preferred a closer-to-Crackdown sandbox game than one where things slowly turn “monsterish”.
I guess there’s always iNFAMOUS… we don’t really know how that one’s going to turn out yet. The “tech” of Prototype impresses me, the storyline and theme do not.
@Lono: I like scary movies too, but I don’t get worked up by them… I guess the interactivity aspect of the games has something to do with it.
12 sp4ngle // May 2, 2008 at 2:11 am
I think it’s something that comes with age - I’d much rather play a nice games of Lumines or Hexic than be in the middle of a COD4 firefight.
Perhaps you could go round to Doc’s house and play him at Monopoly?
13 Riki // May 2, 2008 at 3:14 am
I hate survival horror games, but for a different reason. I don’t find them scary (I’m not easily scared) and I can only think of one that was actually fun to play, and had a cool, creepy atmosphere and story. That game was eternal darkness. It was freakin’ awesome.
Other games in the genre rely on cheapness (Doom 3: I cleared a tiny room, only to have a random zombie appear behind me when I walk out the only door) crap controls and gameplay mechanics to make your character seem weak (RE4: I can’t move and shoot at the same time, let alone back up and shoot, or aim a pistol better than Michael J. Fox) and making things pop out and go boo!
As for the stressful feeling, it can be part of an enjoyable experience. It gets your adrenaline pumping, and your heart racing. It’s exciting. It makes the experience more intense. Not everyone enjoys that sort of thing, but a lot of us do.
And beyond that, there are many types of “fun” experiences. When I was studying eskrima, I would spar, and my hands would get so brutalized that I couldn’t write for days. And I loved it. We would show off our cuts and bruises and get as much joy out of the taking hits as we did out of delivering them. Why? Because it was satisfying. And ultimately, isn’t that what entertainment all about? However it achieves the goal, it is meant to satisfy us on one level or another.
I hate games that are frustrating because they are cheap and unfair, or just poorly designed. But I love frustrating games that are just challenging. For example, my favorite gametype in Halo 3 is a juggernaut variant called Fear The Reaper. The juggernaut (or “Reaper”) gets 2x overshields, 50% shield vampirism, a huge motion tracker, and is restricted to an infinite assault rifle with one hit kills. Since he has a spray and pray weapon that is remarkably accurate in bursts, that means he can sweep a whole area, or take out a sniper with little trouble. It’s frustrating as hell to try and survive, let alone killing him, and it forces you to be smart, creative and skillful. It may take 20 or 30 tries, but when you finally take that bastard down, you feel like a F***ing god of death. It may be stressful, but damn is it satisfying.
14 evilsheepmaster // May 2, 2008 at 3:25 am
I have to disagree with you on this. I have nothing against less stressful games (I imagine puzzle games make a large chunk of this group), but I too like playing games to do things I normally can’t, generally more life-threatening things.
But maybe that’s cuz I’m a sucker for self-induced heart attacks…
15 noobfinder // May 2, 2008 at 7:42 am
heart attacks *gasp* sheep master you need to !!!!blame the game!!!
16 jwelda // May 2, 2008 at 10:15 am
I love games like that. RE4 was like the best game ever. Your just a lazy old man. May I suggest halo 3 or COD4 on easy? You can really lay back and do nothing. Or you could just sleep. Thats not to stressful. Except you might have a scary dream…like play COD4 on veteran. oohhh
17 Sentay // May 2, 2008 at 10:51 am
I understand where your coming from by saying this I felt the same way until I played RE4. Also Prototype isn’t a horror game its a free roaming action game.
18 Blades144 // May 2, 2008 at 12:16 pm
I would have to disagree as well, half of the fun to me is the emotions you can go through if you really get into the game. Like in Gears that first Berserker scared the hell out of me. I loved that.
19 Monkeyboo2 // May 2, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I have to disagree. The sole reason I play is to win, (online), and even if i die afew times on Gears, COD4, Shadowrun or Halo 3 and it is stressful along the way thats fine so long as i win.
You gotta learn from your stressful experiences and go back and make the decision which doesn’t make them stressful (like shooting them first).
If i didn’t get stressed about dying, i wouldn’t improve my game half as fast.
Its part of the learning curve. Don’t avoid it. It pays off to face it and learn how to not to be stressed.
20 Sean "Rothbart" Workman // May 2, 2008 at 3:00 pm
@sp4ngle: Monopoly stressed me out too, but it’s due to impatience. I can’t friggin’ STAND to play Monopoly. I intentionally play poorly and accept any “deals” to get out of the game if I’m somehow socially forced to play. I loved it as a kid, but it’s the whole “time versus payoff” factor… Monopoly is nowhere near worth my time.
Now if I were stranded on a deserted island with someone and we had a Monopoly game, sure, I’d play and probably love it since I wouldn’t have 100 better things I could be doing at the moment.
@Monkeyboo2: But my counter-question is “why?” I’m not the least interested in competing on game ranks, gamerscore, Achievements, ladders, leaderboards, etc. Why should I devote time to games that are immediately stressful with a potential payoff in the longrun when there are other games that are _immediately_ enjoyable? And no, I’m not talking puzzle games either… high action, quick reflex, possibly violent games… they just aren’t “stressful” like some games are to me. I don’t see the point it intentionally subjecting myself to prolonged stress in a gamble for reward when I could just pick a different game and go straight to reward (which is enjoying myself)…
21 Monkeyboo2 // May 2, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Well even if you don’t play competitively, surely you must feel the sense of achievement knowing you have worked for it. And don’t you find it just a little bit more rewarding beating people with 30 - kills and 1 deathn on CoD4 than shooting some random AI on a single player game?
22 Monkeyboo2 // May 2, 2008 at 4:45 pm
you say ‘why’ devote your time to a game with potential payoff when you can non-stressful entertainment.
Well for one, you can rub it in Lonos face that you beat him at CoD 4. Its something you can actually compare and share with others. whilst most of the instant enjoyment games your on about are single player, so you can actually socialise more ingame ,and perhaps, out of game.
Alot more enjoyment is worth working for.
Well in the long run, 40 hours to get to a reasonable non-stressful standard in CoD 4 isn’t all that much really…
After discovering multiplayer games, i haven’t looked back to going beating afew AI algerythms; its so much more rewarding to know you can beat another human. And its worth training to try and do it.
23 Trisch // May 3, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I can’t fully say I feel the same way, but I have two friends that absolutely refuse to play survival horror nowadays. For the same reason: too much stress, not enough fun. I won’t even send them a link to this, because it would give credence to something I’m trying quash and belittle in them. Back in college, it was a different story. We would get together, turn out the lights, and get the hell out of Raccoon City, passing the controller when we died. The last time I tried to get one of them to play it was with Dead Rising. She stayed in a whole other room and just watched from there. Her brother even wigged out and I ended up being the only person actually playing. And that’s not a particularly scary game. Frustrating? Sure. My opinion is that some forget that it’s just a game. You get a certain kind of emotional tunnel vision.
But I will admit that I stopped playing Haunting Ground for the reasons you stated. And I always finish games that I start. I realized that I was “working” on the game, instead of playing it. I hated that horrific cretin jumping out and chasing you and/or kicking your dog. I was getting used to the scare (sort of), but what I couldn’t get used to was having to run myself either into corners and getting killed in a lengthy death scene while my dog squealed in pain or having to run back to where I came, thus losing all my gained ground and having to start all over. I just got tired of having to run from one hiding place to another with the growing sickening feeling that the dog wasn’t gonna make it out of the game alive. I just didn’t need that. Where’s the fun in that? Animal death, not cool. So yeah, I get what your saying, but I would still like to try Left4Dead. I hear you can play as a zombie. That could be fun and take some of the stress off. BRAINS, YUM!!!
24 paulmess7 // May 4, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Wow, Rothbart….
I think reading some of these responses is more stressful than video games…
But I know what you mean. Cod4 - Safehouse - Veteran. Made me wanna kill myself!!! Then try mile high club, if the first 50 tries don’t make you quit, try getting to the hostage and not getting a headshot!!!
It’s like they make these games soo hard so the next version is out by the time you beat it.
25 FlintSteelton // May 6, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Rothbart hates Tetris when he only has 4 rows free on the top. Lol.
STRESS MAGNET!!!!!
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