An Irony of Gaming

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I've noticed that games are primarily meant to combat boredom, and yet once the objectives have been met games then become a source of boredom itself.

What is with that? A game like chess is sometimes an exception to this, since each time you play it the opposing side plays differently, but when playing a video game it seems as though once I've done all there is to be done that it is then boring. Going through each level of a game the AI plays, with some variation, in basically the same pattern. If you lose, then you travel back in time and correct your error. But it seems as though once I know where the enemy is coming from and all their little traps and event triggers, that it just is then particularly too orderly to be anything other than deterministic. When there are no surprises, there is no challenge. When you start a game, it may seem like it is full of surprises - since, then, everything is new for you. But after you've gone through it all it seems as though no surprise remains, and thus a game ends it nature of being challenging.

true with single player games but online PvP games are a lot better with being entertaining.

Well, that's true with any hobby. Once you're no longer challenged, you lose interest.

Games are more limited because they are challenging only to the extent that the developer envisions into the product. Some games are better than others. Some games I could play over and over for months. Others, after I beat it once I might as well trade it for something else.

Indeed, it is often a dilemma. However, that's why the more recent games have added varying difficulty levels, achievements, and other goodies (online or otherwise) to reduce some of the monotony. It's also why developers are working of improving AIs within their games to further enhance the experience. This is where online games come in . . . different players make for different experiences, especially in a PvP scenario (as mentioned earlier).

Well I tend to stop playing games when I know I am getting near the end, bad habit that I have managed to push myselves to finish some. It is kind of like a battle between perfectionism and wanting games to last.

But iamnotaparakeet it sounds like you want to play one of the Left 4 Dead games, the games have a feature called the Director that helps with exactly what you have a problem with, it changes the types, amount, spawn points, some enviroments change and changes compared to own style. If you are doing too well the director will try to throw you off especially on harder difficulties where director practicly tries to screw you, it might start to feel like it is lighting up, then sudenly you they send everything at you and as you are recovering send a Tank (zombie on mega steroids) at you. You can actually feel the game interacts to you and changes things up. Basicly it tries to give a different experience each time, the games can also give different dialogue in replays which can be funny when you sudenly hear a movie reference that you had not expected.

That used to be one of the common complaints about the adventure game genre, that once they're played through once it's no longer a challenge. It happens with most other single player games as well, which is why they put in different options and difficulty levels - to make them re-playable. However even then, if you play through the game enough times then it won't be long before you know all the tricks for every difficulty level and the consequences to every one of the different choices you make.

Then again, playing a game through a second time is like watching a movie the second time. The first time you watch a movie, part of the excitement waiting to see what will happen next whereas the second time round no longer has that excitement because you already know how the plot unfolds. But people often watch movies more than once because they enjoyed it the first time. Likewise, I still play through some of my old games for nostalgia reasons because I remember the first time I played them.

The Halo series started with new styles of Achievements in the second game in order to combat this very phenomenon. For instance, there are achievements for simply completing the game mode in Reach on every level except Easy (Normal: The Soldier We Need You To Be, Heroic: Folks Need Heroes, Legendary: Gods Must Be Strong); achievements for accomplishing certain goals in Matchmaking (30 kills in a single game: Like Mike, killing an enemy with grenades: More Than a Handful, getting the first kill in a match: Yes, Sensei); achievements for doing some odd things in the Campaign (kill 7 Moas (flightless birds raised for meat on Reach): KEEP IT CLEAN, go through the 2nd mission without using a vehicle: They've Always Been Faster, complete the 9th mission with the Scorpion tank intact: Tank Beats Everything! [itself a quote from Halo 3]), etc.

Achievements in Mass Effect are awarded for things like completing the majority of the storyline with a given character in your party, taking out a certain number of enemies with a particular weapon, your first landing on an "uncharted" world, using a given biotic power a certain number of times, completing the storyline a second time, reaching certain levels, and so forth.

One in Grand Theft Auto IV that I don't think I'll ever get requires that when you complete the game, all the NPCs still alive like you at a level of 90% or higher. Part of the secret is to accept any invitations to hang out that you get, then call back the ones you didn't want to accept and excuse yourself (that doesn't work as well on Dwayne, if you side with him against Playboy X - after a while, Dwayne starts to take it personally; then again, he is clinically depressed).

You might want to try games that let you create things.

One of my favorite games as a kid was a "stealth assassin" game, you're basically a ninja. It came with a level editor. I was able to design full levels, with enemies that could patrol around, and an objective to complete. I had a blast building all sorts of levels with it. It took me a long time to get bored with it, and it may not have been boredom but just newer game options which got me to stop making levels. That took a long time though!

Little Big Planet is currently on my list of favorites, but I don't own a PS3. I find it disgusting that I have to buy a whole other console just to enjoy the game. I don't think a PS3 is worth the money just for one game (two when LBP2 comes out!), but maybe it is. If I knew I could get a years worth of regular play time out of Little Big Planet (playing on a regular basis), then I'd be very satisfied with my purchase. There is no guarantee of that though.


You could try games that offer more freedom. The GTA series took me a long long time to get bored of. I loved just driving around on them, exploring the terrain. The radio stations are great (GTA4 bombed on radio stations though) to listen to. I'd run a GTA game in the background on a talk station just to hear all the jokes while doing something on my computer, or around the house. Evading the cops as long as possible on a high wanted level was fun too, but that is where a lot of predictability can come in play. The more you do it, the easier it got because you learned their patterns.


You could also try games that require more of a physical approach. Games like DDR or Guitar Hero. The challenge there is not learning the patterns, but learning how to move your legs or fingers. I loved DDR, and only liked Guitar Hero. I used play DDR two hours a day on average for a few months straight. Unfortunately, I don't live in a suitable situation to continue playing it (it can get noisy!).

5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted

Seems like the OP isn't aware of (most) MMOs.

Runescape is incredibly boring. I liked it when I was 12 though