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[Fahdis]

Yes, it seems like I have some criterias before I buy games or even play them. I've become a snob of some sort. But perhaps I'm economical on a subjective level. But either way here goes:

- Never buy a game more than $5-$10 (will wait years if I have to).

- Never buy a game on Launch.

- Buy Complete Editions or Final Patched Versions Only (made the mistake of buying Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V on Launch).

- Never spend more than a $100 on games every year (if I have to).

- Only buy on Steam and only when discounted.

- I prefer games with Achievements. Finishing them completely is a Challenge on its own.

- Play the game at the easiest difficulty to respect your time (unless Achievement requires to play on Hardest difficulty).

- Once finished I don't play the same game ever again, unless it has nostalgia (more adventures are waiting).

- If I can use ingame cheats or trainers on SP games for fun at times, I will.

- Avoid MP at all cost unless its fun.

- Avoid MMO's and GAAS as much as I can.

What's your gaming rules you have applied to yourself? Also Merry Christmas to you all.

 

[Kuranghi]

Merry Christmas pal.

I used to not play more than a couple of games at once but around the time of Phantom Pain that went tits up, now I'm playing like 19 games at once lol.

I don't have many hard rules in life and I apply that to games as well.

 

[Fahdis]

Merry Christmas pal.

I used to not play more than a couple of games at once but around the time of Phantom Pain that went tits up, now I'm playing like 19 games at once lol.

I don't have many hard rules in life and I apply that to games as well.

Game Pass? Game Pass.

 

[Kuranghi]

Game Pass? Game Pass.

*middle-aged spanish woman voice* I can no play the pass with games

Nah I own all these games I just keep getting lured in by the newest shiny. I like to keep a couple of big games going while I fire through some smaller titles.

 

[German Hops]

Merry X-Mas!

I don't stick to any rules, though.
I do whatever the fuck I want to do.

 

[Pantz]

- Stop trying to get 100% in the first playthrough, just get to the end!
- Don't reset playthrough after learning how some things work and realizing how much was missed, just get to the end!
- Don't buy sexy anime games on PlayStation due to censorship.
New: - No NFT's. I don't know what they are but I'm sure they piss me off!

 

[Krappadizzle]

Play on Hard at a minimum to stay even moderately challenged. Today's Hard mode was NES kid's Normal mode.

 

[Aenima]

I never play games on easy dificulty. Usually always the default dificulty as to me feels the way the developers designed the game to be played.

Never pay more than 20€ for a Ubisoft game.

If i start a game i must finish it. Only a few games make me quit before the credits roll.

 

[CitizenZ]

Merry Xmas to All have fun with family and friends.

Always play on hardest difficulty for all AAA games/ and just hard or -1 from hardest in strategy titles
Dont use guides/walk thru/ build guides
Avoid as many reviews/ trailers as possible for most anticipated
Usually a 1 hr what the fck am I supposed to do look up when doing puzzle/ exploration games
No marking enemies with with Binoculars or using wall hacks in games like GR. LOL, my friends hate that.

Some game design is just becoming so annoying right now everything is up in the air. A perfect example is in SCUM there is nothing to tell you how to piss or shit, you HAVE to HOLD down SHIFT to bring up a weapon wheel. Not explained anywhere except in discussion.

 

[Kev Kev]

-no fast traveling in skyrim VR
-only carry 5 of each potion type to keep weight down
-same thing with chems in fallout 4
-never stop driving on a goose in halo infinite mp big team battle, go in circles around the whole map, always full speed, running over anything in your way even your own team mates, and honk the horn at every mother fucker you pass by
-early on in Skyrim: only collect items to sell if they are worth 10x their weight in gold - midgame: 25x - late game: 50x

ill add more later

 

[ahtlas7]

No permanent enemy markers in open world games like Farcry, Ass Creeds

 

[Jaybe]

Play on Hard at a minimum to stay even moderately challenged. Today's Hard mode was NES kid's Normal mode.

I never play games on easy dificulty. Usually always the default dificulty as to me feels the way the developers designed the game to be played.

Always play on hardest difficulty for all AAA games/ and just hard or -1 from hardest in strategy titles

I’m such a minority here.

I will always play on the easiest mode first. My character is supposed to be a bad ass hero, and I got enough stress with work and life. Give me that power fantasy and make sure I don’t have to repeat content. I even modded out Mr X. I mayyy bump it up with a new game plus run once I’m powered up and know the environments/levels.

Merry Christmas!

The other rule that goes for all media is to remains as spoiler free as possible.

 

[GametimeUK]

Try not to replay games.

 

[CitizenZ]

I’m such a minority here.

I will always play on the easiest mode first. My character is supposed to be a bad ass hero, and I got enough stress with work and life. Give me that power fantasy and make sure I don’t have to repeat content. I even modded out Mr X. I mayyy bump it up with a new game plus run once I’m powered up and know the environments/levels.

Merry Christmas!

The other rule that goes for all media is to remains as spoiler free as possible.

Totally disagree, but as long as you are having fun and enjoying the experience, who cares. You do you.

Merry Xmas.

 

[Batiman]

Anything with too much cutscenes is a no go for me nowadays. I’ll give an exception to a few though. I just don’t have as much time anymore and I want most of that time spent actually playing. I’d rather watch a movie at that point.

Over designed menus and unlocks systems almost completely make me turn off the game. Now they’re in games that don’t merit them and only make them worse.

Ya also no easy mode for me. Takes me out of the game completely. Brain dead AI or just becoming a walking bulletaponge. I’ll even say very hard breaks some games too where the flow of the game just feels cheap either from the game or the way you adjust to play it. I’ll usually start with hard if there’s a very hard. Hard/normal if there’s only 3 options depending on the game type.

 

[Krappadizzle]

I’m such a minority here.

I will always play on the easiest mode first. My character is supposed to be a bad ass hero, and I got enough stress with work and life. Give me that power fantasy and make sure I don’t have to repeat content. I even modded out Mr X. I mayyy bump it up with a new game plus run once I’m powered up and know the environments/levels.

Merry Christmas!

The other rule that goes for all media is to remains as spoiler free as possible.

I dunno. I like the challenge, playing on Easy typically feels like playing on God-Mode which completely diminishes the point of most games.

Halo Infinite for example is a game with damn near perfect tuning. Playing on Heroic, the enemies will mess you up if you outright stand around like a fool or just make really poor choices, but they give you enough tools between the grappleshot, shield, tracker, dodge, that you can still feel like a bad ass super spartan ninja, while also having to consider what your enemies are doing. I wish more games were tuned as well as Halo Infinite.

 

[BusierDonkey]

I didn't make this one up, but I follow it now except for rare occasions.

 

[V4skunk]

Never use a mic. Refuse to talk to anons in online games.
I am a team player and in games like Squad and BF series I have a good enough skill level to single handedly influence the outcome of most matches.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

- Only a handful of games I buy day one splitting with my friend home sharing (COD and Diablo)
- Buy as much stuff as I can dirt cheap on deal
- No more buying EA games. I'll wait it out for EA Play
- Buy Xbox $$$ cards from Costco as they are 5-10% off
- Buy annual Gold cards from Costco as they are $10 off
- Never buy mtx or dlc (last time I bought extra was Map Pack #1 for MW3 on 360)
- Skip all cut scenes asap (unless it's a game where it's important to read and choose the correct response)
- Racing games I play on Hood View
- Always take Argonian in ES games
- Always play on Classic cam in NHL

Anytime a company says the video or demo download is an Alpha build. Never believe it. It's actually a close to release build but are trying to trick gamers it's a build from a year ago. In reality, it's more like a build from a month ago.

 

[Shifty1897]

More recently my new rule has been not to make myself play a game if I'm not enjoying it. Which means I'll probably drop 13 Sentinels soon.

 

[BennyBlanco]

-Buy a game
-Tell yourself you’ll play it
-Never play it
-Play Tekken 7 and MTGA instead

 

[Radrigal]

Meta:
- Don't listen to rando idiots on the internet about anything you like or dislike
- Never believe trailers
- Subtract around 30% of your expectations for the final product

Gaming:
- Do every side quest as it becomes available
- Non-lethal stealth is always my first choice if available
- Lawful good is always my first run if there are morality choices
- Play on harder difficulty

 

[TheInfamousKira]

One game at a time.

If a story heavy series, replay the last entry before the new one comes out, replay all of them time and motivation allowing.

After midnight, pants are forfeit

Only Platinum games that you have enough fun with to reach 90% of trophies without noticing/trying. By that point, it's proven itself worth your time.

If multiple releases come out on the same day and you're strapped, go in following excluding criteria:
-If a Final Fantasy game is one of the game's, pick it.
-If I've been waiting on title A longer than title B, pick A.
-Alphabetical order

Teabag everything.

Anytime my head is bopping instinctively, Shazam that shit.

Go on a massive screenshot taking chronicle of your entire journey through a game

If grinding on current/last gen games, Spotify. Pick an album. Grind until that album is finished.

 

[Danjin44]

When I accept a quest I wont accept any other quests until I finish the current one.

 

[Fare thee well]

No more mmorpgs (been burned by 6 or more of them)

No microtransaction systems with 'it's just cosmetics bruh' (customization is like 25% of why I play games)

No more early access

No pre-orders

If it's a Triple A studio I need to see a fuckton of letsplays and reviews before I go near it. So many have fallen in quality in the last decade and apart from graphics, don't deserve the name.

No NFT/Crypto bullshit

No crowd funding (eat my nuts Chris Roberts)

No scalped prices


Otherwise I like a huge variety of video games.

 

[DragoonKain]

Only play through a game once.

Never buy digital if a game has a physical version.

Don’t waste time on trophies or achievements.

Don’t have more than one play through going at one time.

Make sure I have enough money to buy every new equipment in every new town in RPGs.

Don’t eat food and game at the same time. Unless it’s a food item where you can’t dirty your fingers/hands.

 

[DaleinCalgary]

Always game naked

 

[nush]

Don't buy games cheap on sale now only because you think you'll play them later.

You don't

They sit in your digital pile of shame.

Forever.

 

[nemiroff]

my new rule has been not to make myself play a game if I'm not enjoying it.

Thats mine as well. Its the best one yet.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

1. Never buy digital games to 19.00$ no matter what game is.

2.. Never hurt Animals.

3. Wait Goty editions.

4. Never listen gaming reviews.

5. Physical games always.

6. Every sandbox game.... Kill anything that can move.

 

[Grechy34]

No fapping to pixelated characters as once you nut you realise how much of a piece of shit you really are.

 

[Guileless]

Spend the exact same amount of money on Warframe currency and Miller High Life every day. Do that, and the rest is cream cheese.

 

[teezzy]

- digital only
- only buy stuff during Steam sales
- Nintendo stinks
- anything over $30 isn't worth my time/money

 

[Tschumi]

Don't play online shooters.

Avoid online play whenever possible because most of the people there will try to grief you.

Don't do crafting unless it's supremely intuitive (like The Witcher 3)

Never buy anything but the main game, unless you're getting a dlc bundle on a huge discount

Only pay full price for games that are 100% guaranteed to satisfy you. Recently that includes kena, gt7 and elden ring.

 

[GnomeChimpsky]

I used to have a hard rule of never looking up solutions to puzzles etc because it was "cheating". But I was missing out on some great gaming because I would get stuck and not finish a lot of games so I gave up on that.

I also used to never skip cut scenes to not "miss out", but that went out the window when I started playing Ubisoft open world games lol.

 

[tommib]

Thank the heavens there are rich motherfuckers like me who preorder games at full retail digital price or this fucking industry would be dead in 1 hour. Don’t spend more than 10 bucks in a game, ever? Mary of God.

 

[lh032]

always play the game at highest difficulty except
1) Nosave or limited save/ 1 life only

 

[Fahdis]

Thank the heavens there are rich motherfuckers like me who preorder games at full retail digital price or this fucking industry would be dead in 1 hour. Don’t spend more than 10 bucks in a game, ever? Mary of God.

Lol, its the best feeling when someone assumes you're poor and wait for video game deals. Affluency has nothing to do with discipline. I'd rather spend money on food or experiences. Impulsiveness on economy is literally hilarious.

Outside of delisting, buying games on Day 1 or Pre-Ordering means you will always have the inferior incomplete experience than the laggards who will play the game completely, along with being fully patched and bug free later while also paying a quarter of the price for it. And then there's the subjective idea of enjoying your money's worth. Do as you must but that's my opinion.

Tl;dr - Buying games on Pre-Order or Day 1 gives you no sense of superiority or sense of entitlement over others when having inferior experiences on a subjective level.

 

[tommib]

Lol, its the best feeling when someone assumes you're poor and wait for video game deals. Affluency has nothing to do with discipline. I'd rather spend money on food or experiences. Impulsiveness on economy is literally hilarious.

Outside of delisting, buying games on Day 1 or Pre-Ordering means you will always have the inferior incomplete experience than the laggards who will play the game completely, along with being fully patched and bug free later while also paying a quarter of the price for it. And then there's the subjective idea of enjoying your money's worth. Do as you must but that's my opinion.

Tl;dr - Buying games on Pre-Order or Day 1 gives you no sense of superiority or sense of entitlement over others when having inferior experiences on a subjective level.

I reject your hypothesis.

 

[sigmaZ]

-Play games on their default and judge the game on it's design without imposing my own difficulties or handicaps on the game so that developers take responsibility for entertaining me. Same with gameplay.

-If RPGs or games have lots of exposition or needless dialog, just skip cutscenes and only watch meaningful ones or watch it later on YouTube. Never let story get in the way of gameplay. Games like Death's Door and Metroid Dread are perfect in this way. Even the new Tales game kept dialog somewhat to a minimum for the main story which was quite a surprise for a Tales game which are usually more fanficy.

-Like someone else said, don't waste time on games that either don't respect my time or are not engaging. I've beat several games the past few years, but I've dropped several as well including: Kena, Eastward, Spiritfarer, Flynn, and others.
For me, you can't compensate game play with aesthetic, though good gameplay and good aesthetics can be a very good thing as in game's like Death's Door.

 

[kanjobazooie]

- If even one character at the start of the game is really getting on my nerves, I'll refund the game.
- Boring cutscenes are skipped.
- If a game lets me create a character, I just go with the default. If the default male character looks like an idiot (like in Cyberpunk), pick the default female instead.
- Ignore quests that ask for seven hundred different items/ingredients.
- Only use the most powerful weapon (damage-wise), and sell everything else. I don't care about the 'meta'.

 

[Danjin44]

Buying games on Pre-Order or Day 1 gives you no sense of superiority or sense of entitlement over others when having inferior experiences on a subjective level.

Well for me it’s less about feeling “superior” and more about playing the game I’m excited about as soon as possible.

 

[Bartski]

buying games on Day 1 or Pre-Ordering means you will always have the inferior incomplete experience

only if you're not on youtube, never get close to gaming sites or social media, or don't mind playing every game 100% spoiled which is guaranteed nowadays unless you play games at launch.

 

[TheSweeper]

- play games on easy exclusively, just more relaxing for me

- don't play multiplayer, ever

- only play one game at a time, no switching until a game is finished or I dropped it

- play multiplat games on XBox, I prefer the Xbox controller

- preorder games I know I'll like, especially if they have a collector's edition

 

[Bartski]

This applies only to games I'm really super hyped for, the top anticipated list.

PREP:

- book time off at work for games I know I'll be binging. No point even trying - not a chance to focus on work anyway + likely sick leave faking.
- get toilet paper. 4-5 days worth of food, 12x redbull lite, a ton of various milkas and coffie. Gaming means no time for shopping.
- negotiate with girlfriend, agree on compensation plan to follow.
- always preorder digital deluxe edition.
- never watch "launch trailers" or any material after the point I know I'm in.
- never read or watch reviews except Metacritic bottom liners.

1st PLAYTHROUGH:

- start on launch unlock time, as "blind" as possible.
- start one step below the hardest difficulty available.
- roleplay even if it's not an RPG. Play without breaking character.
- play slow
- save ammo and consumables. End up never using them.
- literally impossible not to do a side quest. ALL area side quests done before moving on with the story.
- never stress getting all collectables on 1st playthrough or how close am I to 100% of anything.
- never look up trophies or achievements. Just play the game.
- beat the game. Drop a hot take on NeoGAF while credits still rolling.

2nd PLAYTHROUGH:

- play more like a normal person, experiment.
- play on hardest difficulty available.
- make the most of all systems, ammo, items, consumables.
- look up remaining trophies.
- try getting all collectables, plat and 100% the game with NO guide.

3rd PLAYTHROUGH and beyond:

- try breaking the game in every way possible.
- play lowest difficulty available, kill everything.
- speedrun
- 100% everything. If something is missing look up guides.

 

[nkarafo]

Only play single player games.

I had my fix with WoW ages ago, i don't want to go that route ever again.

 

[GymWolf]

The only rule i ever had was reading the instruction manual of every game before starting (kinda of a ritual), even if it was stupidly long like the one inside oblivion or morrowind (if i remember well) but i don't have this problem anymore...

Wow some of you have stricter rules than a fucking lager

 

[Damigos]

Maximum number of games simultaneously is 3. 1 “AAA”, 1 indie and 1 mmo. No more, these are already too much.
Never buy on launch/preorder except for WoW, Gran Turismo, God of War, diablo and Final Fantasy.
Always buy on heavy discount, more than 50%.
Go for 100% or plat even after you ve finished if it demands a bit more time, eg 2 hours.
Try to avoid MP, except ofc on MMOs.
All mobile games are tragic abominations (havent tried apple arcade)

 

[kyliethicc]

Yes, it seems like I have some criterias before I buy games or even play them. I've become a snob of some sort. But perhaps I'm economical on a subjective level. But either way here goes:

- Never buy a game more than $5-$10 (will wait years if I have to).

- Never buy a game on Launch.

That's sad.

- Play the game at the easiest difficulty to respect your time (unless Achievement requires to play on Hardest difficulty).

- Once finished I don't play the same game ever again, unless it has nostalgia (more adventures are waiting).

That's also sad.

- Avoid MP at all cost unless its fun.

- Avoid MMO's and GAAS as much as I can.

That also sounds rather sad.

Don't limit yourself so much, you'll probably have more fun.

No offense but like it seems like it would be legitimately depressing to experience the entire art form with those constraints.

What's your gaming rules you have applied to yourself?

Buy games if they interest me and I can afford them, and try to have fun since its ultimately just entertainment.

And play Knack 2 every year.

 

[Ebidramon]

When in doubt, play it on PC.