Coffee Talk #281: When Games Make You Look Insane

Do you do anything as a gamer that seems wacky to non-gamers? There are lots of ways that gaming makes us seem insane to those not familiar with our glorious hobby. I just had a weekend of “insane” gaming…and it seemed perfectly normal to me.

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Edin Dzeko joining Manchester City, Porsche’s hybrid sports car, or politicizing the Arizona shootings, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Do you do anything as a gamer that seems wacky to non-gamers? Maybe there’s a certain sub-genre of gaming that you enjoy in a way that seems bizarre to your fellow gamers. There are lots of ways that gaming makes us seem insane to those not familiar with our glorious hobby. I just had a weekend of “insane” gaming…and it seemed perfectly normal to me.

I finally got around to picking up my shiny Raikou from GameStop. I forgot that I had a downloadable Jirachi on my Pokemon Pearl cartridge too. Like any self-respecting Pokemon trainer, I spent about 90 minutes getting an acceptable nature and IVs on my Jirachi. For those not familiar with the process, I received my Jirachi, checked its stats, and kept resetting the game until I got one that I was happy with. After that was done, I spent another 60 minutes soft resetting the game until I got a Raikou with strong IVs.

Hardcore Pokemon players understand why I spent two and a half hours getting the right stats. Some non-Pokemon gamers will “get” it too, but I imagine there are many that would find the effort excessive and unusual. Explaining the concept of “soft resetting” to non-gamers? Forget about it. Most people would think that it’s nuts.

Do you do anything as a gamer that the “normals” would find unusual, inexplicable, or insane? Is there an aspect of gaming that you enjoy but couldn’t explain to non-gamers? (And yes, one of the reasons I wrote this story was to justify my zealous Pokemon gaming.)

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

42 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #281: When Games Make You Look Insane”

  1. The insane amount of character customizations as far as equipment loadouts, UI changes, and novelties on my Paladin in WoW are bordering on the eccentric. I even have an epic fishing pole.

  2. I've completely filled all 50 CaW slots in WWE SDvR'11 with characters based on people I know.

  5. Dang I am going to have to think about this one, because the problem is everything I do seems normal to me.

    I do know sometimes I will spend hours doing some menial tasks that are boring as hell to watch in a video game but I really feel the need to level-up or get money before advancing.

    Racing a race 500 times to shave off .001 seconds for a gold.

    Trying over and over to get some worthless trophy or achievement by killing 2000 people with head-shots with each of the 500 guns in a game.

    But like i said, seems normal to me.

  6. @Porsche

    I love Porsche, and can't wait to own one someday (and I will own one). I've been seeing this car for a while and think it is awesome that they have something like this around.

    @Topic

    I would definitely have to agree with spending time doing things like that. My fiance thinks I am crazy sometimes for spending that much time on it, but she also does not understand it fully and I think more gamers find it more acceptable than non-gamers. Speaking of which, I just passed 200 hours on HeartGold, and I have over 150 hours on Diamond. I can't imagine how many hours would be on there if it didn't reset the time for soft resets (but I would love to know).

    I think any game with a grind is enough to cause non-gamers to stare though. Grinding is something that I feel most people see as the biggest waste of time, but I don't see that at all. It is tedious and most times I hate it too, but like anything else that you have to work at- it pays off in the end.

      1. That thing is amazing in what it can do. It is just about as good as any other non-hybrid Porsche. This is why I love German engineering!

  7. I have 54 days played on my paladin which is 1300+ hours. 22 days played on my retired Mage.

    I think I have received my money's worth.

  10. @Ray

    I have an extra Ditto with a 31 IV in Defense. Bashful. 9/25/31/17/16/1. As told by the stat checker- potential is above average overall. The Ditto is level 42, all IV's calculated at level 51 using Rare Candy. Not the greatest all around, but 31 IV in defense is useful with the Power Belt in HG/SS.

  11. To N8, Nightshade and anyone else who has a kid;

    I was reading up on how to be a good parent (since I recently found out that babies don't come with instruction manuals) and I came across this article:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704…

    Apparently, an iron fist works better than a gloved one. I don't know if any of you guys would ever parent like that, but if you can get past the "no computer games, no TV, no theater/drama plays" thing, I would at least consider giving this method some consideration.

    Any thoughts?

    -M

    1. That's insane.

      My son is at the top of his class in all subjects AND is the youngest kid in his class (his birthday is in August and we started him early).

      AND… his favorite pastimes are playing video games, watching tv, wrestling with Daddy, and playing with his friends (in that order).

      The thing is, as long as he gets straight A's the way he does, he knows I won't say no to any material object he wants. In America, we use bribery as an efficient parenting method.

    2. That article is utter horseshit, for all the reasons N8 already mentioned are so many more.

      1. I should mention that my son had a DS before starting Kindergarten (he didn't go to pre-school).

        By the time he got to school, he could read at a first grade level and knew how to read a map all because of video games.

        His teacher was awestruck.

      2. I can see there being some valid points, but I think too many people have an extremely prejudiced idea of what parenting in western society is like and turned into a stereotype that does not always exist. Sure there are western parents who are like that, but that does not mean they are the majority- and this type of article definitely does not take into consideration responsible and intelligent parents (such as the ones on here).

        Calling the children names like the author mentioned is going a little too far IMO, and completely disregards all of psychology, but I also thought the other people mentioned at the dinner party who started crying and had to leave needed to grow up a little more and become just slightly more mature than that.

        Just some thoughts from someone who is not a parent, but has an interest in things like this and pays a lot of attention as to how my brother and sister are raised vs. how my other sister and I were raised (just the difference 10 years makes)- what worked and didn't work, etc.

      3. Also I think it is worth mentioning that this article is written in a stereotypical anti-american way, similar to how a piece from England would read (something that is a common occurrence in anthropological writing). Comments like this, "If a Chinese child gets a B—which would never happen—there would first be a screaming, hair-tearing explosion." Completely denying that anyone in China gets below an A. So apparently everyone there gets 4.0 GPA's, joins Mensa at an early age, and is never wrong, etc. Those small little jabs are really what reinforce the main ideas in this type of comparative writing, and which also tell me that they aren't telling the reader everything there is to know. I do not for one second believe that nobody gets less than an A, and that those are the only recorded results in all of China or Chinese households. That is merely a facade put in place for the benefit of attempting to tear down the notion of America as one of the best places in the world to live.

      1. As a kid; hell no. But as an adult, if I recognize that my parents did that to make me stronger/better, I don't think I could fault them for that.

        -M

  12. I've become quite a trophy whore. I like getting trophies but I refuse to play a bad game for some easy trophies though. However, I will do something I normally wouldn't in a game that I like for trophies like grinding the multi player of Red Dead Redemption.

    @Raymond Padilla

    What do you think of the WWE signing Awesome Kong? I better not see those talentless bimbos pin a 270 pound trained wrestler.

    1. My son used the phrase, "Daddy, can I check my 'chievements," today. I'm so proud. Lol.

    2. If you replace the word "trophy" with the word "achievements", everything you said goes double for me. I've caught myself doing some pretty insane things for those stupid achievements. Mostly pointless grinding, but there are a few that are a genuine challenge that I am proud of.

      -M

  14. Got a text from tmo, getting froyo in the next two weeks. Looks like I'm going to hold off on the G2 for a few weeks.

    1. @RROD

      I think Ivory will be the only one back. He won't be a starter either unless he somehow can convince his body not to break so easily. That injury he has though could be quite serious. We'll see. I like the chances of Mark Ingram getting drafted by us. We tried for Wells, Lynch, and a host of others.

  16. Just got back from seeing the green hornet. It was good! Worth ur movie night money or if ur on a budget, definitely worth ur matinee movie money. U can skip the 3-D there arent many good 3-D scenes.

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