Tag: What I’m Playing

Omnivore Update – October 2022

It’s been a minute, hasn’t it? It’s already midway through October and I’m still unable to process that, so here’s yet another blog/life update.

I had every intention of using Blaugust as a momentum-builder going into the autumn months with the hope of maintaining some semblance of consistency, not just with blogging, but with streaming and…life in general, I guess?

Spoiler Alert: that was clearly some wishful thinking didn’t quite work out like that. I published my half of the Elden Ring collab post with Meghan going over all the enemies(well, some of) we found most annoying while playing the game; I’m still really pleased with how the post turned out and it’s one of my blog highlights from this year. I wanted to keep the momentum rolling and had come up with a number of ideas for blog posts that I had in mind and had even gotten a few beyond the initial ‘That’s a decent idea…’ step and had *actual words written* and then suddenly just felt…like I couldn’t do it. I haven’t been able to write more than a handful of paragraphs in the last month and a half. At first I kinda shrugged it off as “meh, it’s fine. I’m not gonna force myself to sit at my computer and not leave until I have some arbitrary number of words written; this really isn’t the first time this has happened.” Fast forward to six weeks later and…

When this happens, I usually find myself caught somewhere between “I’m not gonna force myself to write up something just to say I accomplished something” and “Fuck, it’s hard to pick up where I left off after this long”. I realize this is compounded by the fact I possess the special ability to make EVERY.SINGLE.THING I attempt much harder than it needs to be – i.e. overthinking the shit out of everything. I’ll randomly think of something over the course of the day that I feel like I could wrestle into some sort of almost-coherent post, but it’s usually negated by stressing myself out over something that I…haven’t even attempted yet? I eventually arrived at the conclusion that writing, just WRITING anything is bound to be better than nothing and will make it easier to get back to where I had hoped to be by now. What’s the easiest way to get back into a rhythm of writing for me? Update posts or lists, usually. Anyways, here’s what I’ve been playing recently…

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

I first played Sekiro…well, attempted to, after picking it up back in 2019. I immediately loved the setting and overall art style of the game, but two things prevented me from ever getting very far in the game: possessing the attention span of a hamster and the fact the game was hard as hell. I played the game here and there over the next couple years and still appreciated everything the game offered, but felt like I had neither the skill or patience to make it very far in the game – in my original playthrough I made it TO, but not PAST the Genichiro fight in Ashina Castle. It wasn’t until 2022 that I fully entered my From Software Era. I obsessively played Elden Ring this past March/April, followed immediately by another playthrough of Bloodborne, which I documented with a series of blog posts. I then dabbled in some Persona 5 Royal, which I’m still currently chipping away at, before I began my next challenge – playing through Dark Souls. It was around the time I made it to the New Londo Ruins that I felt like I had hit a bit of a brick wall and decided to shake things up, so in typical deranged fashion, I started playing Sekiro again.

I’m not sure what it was this time around, but everything about the game started to make greater sense to me. Make no mistake, the game is still among one of the more difficult modern games I’ve played, but I felt like I had a better understanding of the way the game encourages(demands?) you to approach enemy encounters as well as combat mechanics than my previous attempts. The boss battles – which are quite fucking spectacular, became more about rhythm than using brute force and aggression, which is how most of my hours are spent in other FromSoft games. There’s something so satisfying as well as intoxicating the way a boss fight can go from feeling completely insurmountable to being merely another obstacle that you’ve overcome on your journey…if only that translated as easily to real life, right? I’m still finishing up some endgame areas but can confidently say Sekiro has 1000% become a favorite From Software experience(alongside Bloodborne, of course).

Hoa

This past week I had been feeling a little drained by the end of the day and wanted to play a shorter, more relaxing game. I’d still been playing a fair amout of Sekiro & Persona 5 Royal, so something concise sounded like a good idea. I eventually decided to play Hoa, which was highly recommended by my wife, and quite the pleasant surprise as it’s an excellent indie game. Hoa is a pretty straightforward platformer, but still very much worth playing as it manages to highlight how sometimes complexity in game mechanics or story aren’t required for a game to be memorable. Gameplay-wise it’s very similar to Gris in the way you progress from one area to the next, acquiring several new abilities along the way. It incorporates some wonderfully charming animation that looks like a Studio Ghibli movie, and there’s also a whimsical, yet spirited soundtrack similar to games like Ori and the Blind Forest and Death’s Door. It only took me a couple hours to complete Hoa, but it was a perfect change-of-pace game that I greatly enjoyed.

October Plans

It’s that time of year again – Blogtober! Here’s what I have planned for this year…

Nah, I’m just kidding…you’d think I’d have learned my lesson about setting goals I have no earthly possibility of achieving by now, right?

Since I began blogging over three and a half years ago now, I’ve usually dedicated the month of October to writing about a range of different spooky and/or scary games, some of which I’ve played before, and others for the first time. The past couple years I’ve incorporated this into my Twitch schedule(using this very loosely) as I’d stream some of the games from my ‘Blogtober’ list. This past year I wasn’t able to do as much blogging/streaming as I’d intended, so I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again this year. Well…I *haven’t* been as productive as I wanted to be – whether because of rarely feeling in an adequate headspace to get anything written or pure laziness(50/50 maybe?). I am, however, going to get a few things crossed off my list and not just concede defeat halfway through the month. I’ve played a little bit of Resident Evil 0 and Little Nightmares on stream so far and there’s a few blog posts in the works that I WILL get posted before the month is over. So, this is essentially me saying I’m *not* making (too many)plans and just taking things one at a time.

Thanks for reading!

Quantic Foundry Gamer Motivation Profile

“What motivates you as a gamer?” – Several weeks ago Angie at Backlog Crusader posted her results of the Gamer Motivation Profile by the research company Quantic Foundry, almost being a “personality quiz” for gamers. This ties into a question I have asked myself at various times – “why do I play games?”. Being fully aware the simplest explanation to that particular question would be “I have fun playing them”, attempting a more analytical approach to what appeals to or “motivates” me in gaming sounded intriguing, though I still smirk using the word MOTIVATION as it refers to me, anyways…here are my results of the questionaire.

Results

The main categories in which the results are sorted into are Action, Social, Mastery, Achievement, Immersion, or Creativity. Do you play games to be immersed in a far away planet filled with all sorts of different characters and creatures or is gaming much more of a social activity in which you cooperate with or compete against others for a common goal? Do you view games as a puzzle to test your critical thinking or do you simply want an outlet to blow shit up? Here are my primary as well as secondary motivations…

How do you feel about your survey results?

I was not really surprised to see my survey results, my primary motivations are spread out across all categories, but lean most heavily toward the Action side. As someone who spent the majority of their life playing action/platform games like Mario and Sonic and also many FPS titles like the Call of Duty or Halo games. A couple of the survey questions were how much I enjoy explosions or “being an agent of chaos and destruction”, so…I had a hunch about what to expect in the results 😉 Another slightly less prominent category was Creativity in which the secondary motivations are Discovery and Design. I love the element of exploration in games, which probably stems from all the time spent playing Metroid and Zelda games. I love being able to wander around the giant environments in open-world games like Fallout or Assassin’s Creed. Outside of Action and Creativity the other categories are pretty much equal; I like to remain open-minded about any genre of game and know I will enjoy some aspect of it. For every FPS there’s and RPG game I enjoy, or for every game focusing primarily on gameplay there’s a narrative-based “walking simulator” that provides just as much enjoyment and happiness.

Which category is most accurate and least accurate?

I feel the survey results are pretty accurate, games more action-oriented are probably my middle ground as game genres go. I know these aren’t defined boundaries of what games I’m SUPPOSED to enjoy or not. In surveys where your answer is on a scale of how much your enjoy or how important something is to you I find myself answering somewhere in the middle as I can usually come up with scenarios for every answer. I quite often wake up and feel like playing something completely different than the previous one. The survey results show Mastery as my lowest percentile, I mostly agree with that as I don’t do a lot of achievement or trophy hunting in games or spend a considerable length of time trying to get an S-rank on missions. There are always exceptions to this, like all the other categories. If I’m really really enjoying a game, I will spend the extra time to go through and get the platinum trophy or finish everything, like Horizon: Zero Dawn, God of War, Spider-Man, or Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild.

Are there any major exceptions to your gaming motivations?

Not really, this seems reasonably accurate. I actually took the survey a couple times and got the same answers

Do any of these motivations carry over to your non-gaming life? If so, how?

Umm…I guess scoring a bit higher in the Action category is perfectly in line with someone that at times demonstrates the attention span of a hamster or the Creativity category fits well as most of my pursuits in life are less physical and more of either creative or intellectual(Surely obvious, right?).

Which games in your experience best satisfy your gaming motivations and how do they compare to the “suggested games” list from the questionaire’s follow up page?

Most of the games on the Suggested Games list are of the open-world/sandbox variety and should come as no suprise I have played and really liked every one on the list. The only exception is Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, which I regretfully have yet to play. However, other titles like Half-Life 2, GTA: San Andreas, and Super Mario World are among my all-time favorite games. I have also pretty routinely mentioned how much I loved playing through Mario Odyssey. In describing games that best satisfy my gaming motivations I would probably use games like Metroid Prime or God of War(2018) as they are good examples of games that provide a little of everything in terms of action, exploration, and immersion.

I’ve linked the site if anyone wants to take a look at the Gamer Motivation Profile for themselves. It’s interesting to look at how Quantic Foundry has compiled all of the information in regards to what is your primary areas of motivation for gaming versus others. That’s all I have for now! If you take the survey let me know your results below, it’s always interesting to see the results and what games are recommended to others. This coming week, I also plan to finish up my Real Neat Blog Award(x2) post as well as wrapping up my Layers of Fear summary as we enter this Halloween season. And now, I’m headed back to Koholint Island for the evening.

Keep on playing…