Stepping out of your gaming "comfort zone"

[Fenra]

Apologies first and foremost if this has been done before, put in the wrong place or what have you, despite being here a while only ever responded to forum threads, never created one.

So this weekend, it being grey and rainy where I live, figured I'd try something, try and step out of my gaming comfort zone so to speak. We all have our favorite genres or types of games but what about the other side...

I'm sure we all have them, those genre's we've never tried for one reason or another, or never managed to get into despite being intrigued by them.

So this weekend thought I'd take a shot, let me know what you've tried if you have, both game and genre, whether they clicked for you or not, would you try it again or did it reinforce your opinion or reasoning on why you don't play these games.

Made a sort of form/format for me but you don't have to use the same, just curious to hear, ok here we go...

Genre:

"Grand Strategy" I believe is the right term

Previous Experience:

Been intrigued by the Total War series for a long time but never really managed to wrap my head around it, always figured I was too stupid for them, the idea intrigued me, strategy on a massive scale, somewhat realistically through various periods of history

However after years ago trying to play demos of the old medieval and Rome games thought "this isn't for me" but always kept my intrigued eye on the genre and total war games, always curious

Game Played:

Empire: Total War

Experience:

From what I've heard, Empire is one of the weaker total wars, but its the one a friend of mine had and so had easy access to, plus its in a period of time that interests me so for the purposes of this it made sense. Feel I need to divide the game into 3 parts, the strategy map, land battles and sea battles

For the strategy map, this I had real troubles getting to grips with, not sure if its because the game expected prior experience with this type of game or with the total war series but so much left me confused. Each turn I did things that I wasn't quite sure what they did, each menu I brought up gave me lists of numbers and images I could barely make out how each affected what. The tutorial lady's voice in my ear wasn't being much help and mouse over tool tips would raise more questions than they'd answer. After giving me a headache (and being told by my friend there was a way to just do the battles) I left the campaign to try just the battles

The sea battles were impressive visually, a lot going on in some very faithfully recreated ships but the second they started moving that's when it fell apart for me. Had already read in reviews that this wasn't the best part of the game and an issue for most people so don't hold it against the game that heavily. The strategy seemed.... well seemed like it wasn't there, make your ball of ships circle the other ball of ships until for reasons unclear you won or lost. Did this a few times until I stopped, no matter what I tried I couldn't get into it

The land battles, saved these for last because I actually had a breakthrough with them. Started off with the same issue I'd always had with total war games in the past, my ball marching across the map, ended up out of position and slaughtered before realizing what I'd done wrong. However I'm not sure if its the technology present in the game, the fact that it was a time period I cared about or sheer determination to not go out on a losing streak but after a while things started to click and started to really have fun with it.

There was something incredibly satisfying about a perfectly placed line of infantry, watching the smoke from a 120 strong group of rifleman's front line go off into unsuspecting enemies, watching them fall, seeing them rout after walking into the "murder line" I'd created for them and herded into with my cavalry or line infantry. Once everything started to click I was using the terrain, the units, the orders, the tactics, everything fell into place and it had that addictive "just one more battle" effect, was having a blast.

Conclusion:

While still not sold on it I can see more now the appeal of it in total, there's a lot that still beyond my comprehension and would either confuse or frustrate me too much and cause me to bounce off the games and genre at large, such as the campaign map.

That being said I do certainly see why people play them and especially see the appeal of the land battles, hell if I could get a game that was just that I'd be all over it!

All in all glad I gave it another chance and came away with something positive.

 

[krazykidd]

I took a leap of faith with GTA V . I haven't played a sandbox game since GTA vice city . I remember purposely avoiding , Saints row and GTA 4 because i like more linear games , that way i don't lose focus on the story . However , GTA 5s story is so engaging , the characters so fun and relatable , the world so seemingly alive , i can't help but enjoy it . Sure i didn't do any of the side mission , but the main story missions are more than enough to satisfy me.

 

[windlenot]

MOBA games. Previous experiences with MOBAs? I played through the tutorial of League of Legends a couple years ago. Now, within the past month, I've gotten back into it with a few of my roommates. I'm really enjoying it, well, when we get to play a game where nobody is AFK and I don't constantly lag out. But other than that, it's fun for them to get onto their lower leveled accounts and play with me.

 

[Tanakh]

But other than that, it's fun for them to get onto their lower leveled accounts and play with me.

That is a premade smurfing... personally I find it morally questionable but putting that aside, you are having a very skewed experience of LoL.

OT: SF IV, has been years since played "seriously" a SF, have grown old and their freaking combos are easy but so unforgiving in the input window... have almost no time to practice due work. But will get better at it in time.

 

[windlenot]

But other than that, it's fun for them to get onto their lower leveled accounts and play with me.

That is a premade smurfing... personally I find it morally questionable but putting that aside, you are having a very skewed experience of LoL.

I know about smurfing and feel the same about "morally questionable," but I can guarantee without them along with me and helping me out, I would have never played it. And now that you say it, I probably do have quite a skewed experience.

EDIT: I will say though, making a smurf to play with a friend is way better than creating a new account to prey on new players.

 

[Prime_Hunter_H01]

A while back before GTA V was out I was interested in it from what I had seen and because I had recently got in to Saints Row. So i remembered that my dad had bought GTA III and Vice City waaay back when we got our PS2, so I decided to give them a try since I can usually go into old games with a fresh mind and forgive what has only been made bad by age. Holy shit, I question how people could have stood the controls even back then for the game to have become what it is. I mean i expected some thing primitive but holy crap, some weird auto target thing, weird camera, stiff walking, there were PS1 games that controlled better, was the freedom to go on a rampage that much of a big deal, I get the open world was an innovation but wow , I can only call it a miracle that the series survived to give us what it is now.

 

[Something Amyss]

My "comfort zone" is pretty much defined by what doesn't frustrate or bore me. And since I play video games to have fun, I don't see myself stepping outside that.

relatable

wot.

No seriously. Wot.

Who are you relating with in this game?

was the freedom to go on a rampage that much of a big deal,

Evidently, yes.

I mean, I didn't play GTA III that much, but really, that is the thrust of what people were saying.

 

[Tanakh]

I know about smurfing and feel the same about "morally questionable," but I can guarantee without them along with me and helping me out, I would have never played it. And now that you say it, I probably do have quite a skewed experience.

EDIT: I will say though, making a smurf to play with a friend is way better than creating a new account to prey on new players.

Yeah, I know, there is no easy way to go around this. GL HF in there.

 

[DeltaEdge]

Hm, I rarely ever step outside of my gaming comfort zone, since I play games to enjoy them, not to "broaden my horizons", not that I look down on anyone who does wish to step outside their comfort zone, it's just not my thing. I think the last game I played that wasn't explicitly from my comfort zone was journey, which I enjoyed, but really wasn't at all opposed to, to begin with.

I have, however, been expanding some other game related interests. I've taken up playing Magic the Gathering since a ton of people at my college play it, and I joined the tabletop gaming club, and am actively getting into learning to play non-video game RPGs. Going to try an get in on a game of Pathfinder once an opening comes up. Someone made an Adventure Time RPG, which was pretty funny, but I have a late class on the day that he set for it, so I don't make it early enough to join in unfortunately, considering that I had already created a my character in the spirit of Adventure Time, a hipster bladewolf named Vintage Doug, complete with a fedora, and made 100% out of metal, that shuns modern consumerist culture.

 

[Rariow]

As sad as it sounds, doing this has actually been the first new-year's resolution I've kept in ten years. Can't say I regret it.

First off, ventured straight into what I considered "the weird". Jumped into Katawa Shoujo, that dating sim visual novel dealing with disabled people that got very good press upon release. I honestly expected it to disgust me simply because I thought the subject matter would be used as some kind of perverted fetish fuel, but it actually turned out to be a really fantastic piece of entertainment. The disability-related stuff was treated with genuine taste, not looking down on and not over-fantasizing it. The actual writing was pretty damn good, and, for someone who mostly doesn't enjoy romance plots in anything, this was actually extremely moving. After finishing my first playthrough of it I was left emotionally crippled for two days. I'm currently waiting to have a big enough gap in my schedule to re-play all the paths for the third time. Only thing is, I don't know whether KS could be classified as a game. It doesn't really have any mechanics - after the first act, where you have frequent choices to choose which path you go on, every three or four hours you get a choice that will lead you to a good or bad ending, seemingly randomly unless you use a walkthrough.

Then, went into something my friends seriously recommended. Much like the OP, I picked up a Total War game, namely Rome, since it was recommended as the best one. Couldn't stand it. I enjoyed the overworld stuff enough, but I just didn't get what the battles wanted from me. It seemed random as to whether my units would get slaughtered by a smaller force or completely overpower a force that outnumbered me. I ended up quitting about five hours in when I realized that I could get the same enjoyment from baking a cake with stones randomly hidden in it and eating it.

Then, I went into the world of horror and fear. Never having played a horror game before, mostly because every encounter with a horror film I've had has been unpleasant for me, I delved into what's apparently the very best the market had to offer: Silent Hill 2. This one I also quit a few hours in, but not because I didn't understand it. I simply got too damn terrified, and I can't handle fear well. Childish as this sounds, this stuff was actually keeping me up at night and affecting my performance in school, so I uninstalled it with a sigh of relief.

Next, I jumped into a genre I'd experienced but never enjoyed before: The point-and-click. I'd always found the puzzles too frustrating to actually enjoy the games, with that use the screwdriver to open the teapot to get the milk to lure the lizard out of the honeycomb logic. I'm not going to speak much of my experience with Telltale's The Walking Dead. Just let it be known that finally, 6 years after I played it, Deus Ex was knocked out of its place as my favourite game.

Off the screen, I tried out DnD with my friends. It was enjoyable enough, but having no one experienced around forced me to be the Dungeon Master, and, I'll be frank, I was pretty bad at it. One of the aforementioned group of friends was going to take over, hopefully be better at it than myself... but he ended up leaving the country. That said, despite my not moving the plot anywhere and being very bad at forcing the players to not screw each other over (There was a situation where one of them had to sit in another room for a whole session due to the other three setting up a slave-smuggling ring behind his back), we all had some good times... I hope.

Don't know if this really counts, since it's just a genre that I've enjoyed in the past but left because I had a life to lead and couldn't afford to sink all my time into it, but I've been playing Final Fantasy X. Having played every single one except IX previous to it, I can't say it's half bad. I'm about ten hours in and the story's barely started, but I'm enjoying it enough to keep playing a half-hour a day of it.

The final game I've played has been the Multiplayer-2D-Platformer-Shoot'em'up-MOBA-thingamabob Awesomenauts. I've never really liked any of the genres it belongs to, yet it's quickly become one of my favourite games. Insane amounts of fun: Beautifully designed, colourful environments and characters, funny writing, a tonne of classes to choose from, and most importantly, fast-paced, immensely satisfying action. Sadly, I'm really, really bad at it, but I've had more fun failing in that game than I've had winning in anything else multiplayer-oriented (Except maybe TF2) in years.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Tried DOTA 2, didn't see the appeal of the game. Not at all, but then everyone has their favorites so I won't knock it. Just don't understand why its a widely played genre when the community is so toxic... Worse than WoW players in LFR/LFD.

 

[FoolKiller]

Umm... I like to play games that I'm not good at but I don't have games outside of my comfort zone. I like almost all types of games even if I suck at them. I don't play MOBAs or MMOs because I've tried them and don't find them entertaining but I've tried all types at this point (given my NTSC region games).

 

[Foolery]

Nope. I know what genres and types of games I like. Occasionally I'll try something different. Never sticks. For the most part I'm into RPGs, shooters, and beat'em ups. Hate RTS games with a passion.

 

[Chie]

Having Playstation + and Gamefly let me do this. For instance, I downloaded Saints Row on PS+ this year. I never would have bought it, but I realized that I actually enjoy this sort of thing to an extent. Then I rented SMT Devil Survivor Overclocked from Gamefly. Never been able to get into S-RPGs, but I was obsessed with that thing, and now I can't wait for the 3ds version of the sequel to be localized. Doesn't always work though... I got Super Mario 3d land and realized - nope, still don't love Mario games. And Uncharted on PS3 is not for me. But overall I enjoy getting out of my box.

 

[cdemares]

I specifically try to expand my comfort zone. Free-to-play MMOs have been great for this, and so have betas. That doesn't mean I don't end up disliking a lot of them, but I have good reasons for it and have developed a sense of taste for a genre I always though I would never touch.

Microsoft Flight was not a bad beginners' intro to sim-style flying. Yes, I know it's watered down and had so little content, but that's why. The challenges were pretty fun, too. I came to understand the reason people not only play, but love these games.

I played Sim City Social for about three months and learned about how free-to-play games throttle progression to a snail's pace to pressure you while offering the paper-thin illusion of balanced rules. It was educational. EA actually made me hate them purely through the language of game-design.

The thing I can never do is pro-sports games. I give up too easily whenever I try a little. They seem so different and hectic. I respect their subtlety, but that makes them tough to get into. I once tried playing a Winning 11 game on PS2, and even understood its mechanics. But that made me realize that I was not going to get good at it any time soon. I needed a kind of skill I didn't have. The game used analog sticks for juggling control. That's really cool, but how crazy is that? Are people good at that? Wow.

 

[Joffas16]

I've always been happy to play any game, except for one. The only time I would say that I ever went "out of my comfort zone" in games was the time I was dared to play Katawa Shoujo. Like Rariow I thought that it would be incredibly unpleasant because of its subject matter but I was actually pleasantly surprised. This game actually handled the disability stuff with taste and respect and it came from 4chan of all places. This game taught me not to make quick judgements, I would never have thought I would ever describe something created by 4chan as "tasteful" or even "good" but this game really blew my mind. I doubt I'll play it again, but I'll remember it.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Empire is one of the weaker titles. Rome 2, a couple patches in, is by far one of my favorite strategy games of all time. Rome is also up there too, naturally.

Simulation: Crusader Kings II. I jumped into this game really having no idea what to expect. I choose to be a duke because that seemed like the right mix between noob friendly but also challenging. After a couple false starts where the other dukes hate my guts and demand my ruler remove my title, I eventually learned to navigate the political system. My best playthorugh as of yet is one as the duke of Provence of the Holy Roman Empire. Through some clever machinations(assassinating the current duke while he was childless and then preventing the duchess from getting married and having children as I was next in line for her title), I inherited the Duchie of Tuscany, effectively doubling my lands.

Unfortunately, the other dukes now hate my guts but I've ingratiated myself to the emperor by marrying off any spare children I've got to him.

In the end, I'm not sure I'm going to get beyond this level of play. I'm really struggling to maintain my current level of power as it is. I don't think I'll be able to expand my power or lead a successful rebellion.

Nope. I know what genres and types of games I like. Occasionally I'll try something different. Never sticks. For the most part I'm into RPGs, shooters, and beat'em ups. Hate RTS games with a passion.

What wonderful fun you are. I bet you go to the same restaurant every weekend and order the same meal.(a joke, I'm nearly certain you'll discern)

But seriously, what RTS's have you tried? Some are pretty impenetrable even for me, a very RTS heavy gamer.

 

[Foolery]

Empire is one of the weaker titles. Rome 2, a couple patches in, is by far one of my favorite strategy games of all time. Rome is also up there too, naturally.

Simulation: Crusader Kings II. I jumped into this game really having no idea what to expect. I choose to be a duke because that seemed like the right mix between noob friendly but also challenging. After a couple false starts where the other dukes hate my guts and demand my ruler remove my title, I eventually learned to navigate the political system. My best playthorugh as of yet is one as the duke of Provence of the Holy Roman Empire. Through some clever machinations(assassinating the current duke while he was childless and then preventing the duchess from getting married and having children as I was next in line for her title), I inherited the Duchie of Tuscany, effectively doubling my lands.

Unfortunately, the other dukes now hate my guts but I've ingratiated myself to the emperor by marrying off any spare children I've got to him.

In the end, I'm not sure I'm going to get beyond this level of play. I'm really struggling to maintain my current level of power as it is. I don't think I'll be able to expand my power or lead a successful rebellion.

Nope. I know what genres and types of games I like. Occasionally I'll try something different. Never sticks. For the most part I'm into RPGs, shooters, and beat'em ups. Hate RTS games with a passion.

What wonderful fun you are. I bet you go to the same restaurant every weekend and order the same meal.(a joke, I'm nearly certain you'll discern)

But seriously, what RTS's have you tried? Some are pretty impenetrable even for me, a very RTS heavy gamer.

Your joke sucks. Looks more like passive aggressive flamebait to me. Anyway, to answer your question, I did actually enjoy Company of Heroes, but most I have a hard time getting into. Also when I say RPG that's a pretty large scope, same with shooters. I'll always try a large variety.

 

[Easton Dark]

I'm not good at fighting games, hardly have ever played them. I got Mortal Kombat a few months ago to fix that, played through the story, haven't picked it up since. 1v1 combo games just aren't my kind of thing, I have the wrong mentality for them, I plan ahead and don't make very good split-second decisions.