A Sense of Achievement
I have been taking the easy way lately with some of my gametime selection. I have been choosing games that are longer than average but are not particularly hard. You see i get easily frustrated. And then i mean frustrated, i mean really pissed off. My neighbours may be under the impression that i am insane with all the yelling and screaming.
That’s why i have taken the easy way out. Long and easy games. Until i read SVGL’s blog on the feeling she gets when she is playing a particularly difficult game.
Here’s an excerpt from her article “Difficult Games: The New Brain Training”
I began to memorize levels, to arrange myself precisely on the same pixel time and time again to coordinate an attack. I accepted that I would fall, repeatedly, into the same gap, be slain again and again by the same boss. I realized that, yesterday, when I’d died so many times (where was my graceful leaping, my effortless succubus-spanking?) I’d presumed something was wrong, either with the game or with me. Now, I’ve got my memory back — this is the way it’s supposed to be.
Games can be challenging even when they are far more intuitive. But this kind of gameplay that engages every fiber of your concentration stirs old reflexes, wakes wrinkles in my brain that have been slumbering for years. Screw Brain Age, man. I’m gonna beat Rondo.
I read this at the time i was having the Metroid Dilemma. A game which i found frustrating and tedius at the time. That’s when i said, “Screw my peace of mind, I want to feel alive! I am going to beat Metroid Prime. ”
And you know what? As i get more into the game the less frustrated i get. In fact I am at 72%, and am loving every bit of it. A sense achievement can go a long way.