The Rules of Gameing

Before I go into my blog on XCOM (which I am having a blast with already), I want to get a little bit of how I play games out there, so that my playthrough doesn’t seem insane.

I have developed, over my time playing video games, a small list of cardinal rules that I try to adhere to at all times. These rules have helped me play and enjoy more games that I have ever before.

The first rule, my greatest rule, came about as a result of having never only very few games when I was growing up. it ties in strongly with rule 2, but at a different level. When playing games, its very hard to switch between the skills and challenges in each game. Rule 1 facilitates playing only games I really want to play:

Thou shalt only play one game at a time.

As a caveat to that, I was tired of having games hang around, that I would get to sometime in the far future. So the second cardinal rule was developed”

Thou shalt beat ever game you play.

The Third rule was created to save money and make sure that I only play games I want to play. I have to choose from among a pile of games in a given month or week, and pick the one I really want to play. because rule three is.

Thou shalt not buy a game before you beat Your current Game.

The final two rules are developments on the first three because I play relatively few games, and I want to get the most out of every experience. I really enjoy the discovery and challenge of video games, and find great pleasure in beating games. because of this, though, replay value for me is almost non-existent. All the above circumstances lead to the final two rules:

Thou shalt play all games on hard.
Thou shalt play all games blind.

Each of these rules is a consequence of some event or revelation that I had while playing other video games, and have truly served me well.
Before these rules, I could count the games I had beaten in single digits: Mega Man 3, XCOM: UFO defense, Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy VII, Rayman. there may be one or two that experiencing all, but since beating the original God of War, and experiencing the feeling of accomplishment that beating a hard fought game can bring, I’ve kept to the cardinal rules and can list on one hand the games I have abandoned.

This all wraps up with me finally beating HOMMVI, and launching into XCOM: Enemy Within with a reinvigorated furor. Playing blind, and playing on Classic is how its got to be!

Stay tuned, I should have my write up of my first week of XCOM on Monday!