The Kate-Rules for Gameplay:
- Games suited for a certain season should be played in that season.
E.g. Amped 3 is a snowboarding game and so should be played in winter. Baja Edge of Control takes place in a desert and so should be played in the summer. Anything with zombies or is scary like Alan Wake should be played near Halloween. Except Dead Island because it's on a resort island so it's a summer-zombie game. (I didn't say that the rules make sense to anyone but me)
- Games in a franchise should be played in order.
You just don't play Assassin's Creed 3 before the original! Even if the stories aren't dependent on each other, I must play them in order. I do like to see how the franchise has progressed and improved (or not). And to miss a chunk of story? That is a heinous crime IMO! Story telling is one of the biggest reasons that I love games.
- No flippy-flopping!
I pick a game, stick with it through the end, and hopefully get all the achievements for it before I put in another game. Here's what happens when I flippy-flop (and is the reason why I have so many unfinished games): I get a game, get really into it, get close to the end, get a new game on sale for a great price that I'm excited to play, put it in, play it a while, go back to the old game and can't remember how to play or what I was in the middle of doing, get frustrated at the thought of starting it over, shelve it.
- Don't be an achievement whore.
I am totally an achievement whore as my Raptr profile can attest, but I am on the road to recovery. I refuse to play a game just for the achievement points. If I am just not into a game (I'm looking at you, Dead or Alive 4 and PGR 3), I don't mind letting it sit there and collect dust as atonement for being so sucky.
- Must be complete.
Most games now have DLC, season passes, or expansions. If I a get a just-released game (which doesn't happen often) that I know is going to RULE and I'm going to play all the time like whatever the newest CoD game is, I will get the season pass and stay up-to-date on DLC at a discount. I completely hate playing a game that has DLC or an expansion that I don't have, so I will wait until there's a sale on DLC or the GOTY edition to play it. E.g. I got Skyrim last Christmas with the awesome dragon statue and I played it for a couple of weeks but then DLC came out that I wasn't going to get right away so I shelved it. Just this week it was announced that Bethesda will not be releasing anymore content for it and in June 2013 will be selling a Legendary edition with all the DLC that was available for it. Sweet.
- Campaign Co-Op games get played with friends.
Lots of games nowadays have campaign co-op. I love co-op but only with RL friends who game, and I don't have many. Hubby has his own Xbox360 too so I will catch a good deal on a second copy and cross my fingers that we have time to play together. We never do. We started Borderlands almost 4 months ago and only played via LAN twice. Left For Dead is awesome in co-op but I only have one copy, so there it sits still in shrink wrap. I'd like playing co-op with friends-list friends but I have a hard time understanding people sometimes because of my hearing loss, so even with using my Astro A-50 headset (which is sweet!), I feel like I don't always understand people and it's just frustrating. Most of the time the problem is folks who use bad english or don't enunciate.
- Be thorough.
If I don't have the time or patience to thoroughly play a game start-to-finish with all the side quests and collectibles, etc., then I just wait until I do.
- Unfinished games get restarted.
Sometimes I will go years without putting in a game and it's so awkward to feel like I'm coming into the middle of the story and this half-fleshed out character, so I'll just restart. Time consuming, sure, but I will feel satisfied that I got the whole story in one sitting.
*Please note that my rules are a result of my perfectionist and neurotic self and not the way I think "normal" people should play ;)
