gaming and misbehaving

Gaming and Misbehaving: Spore and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

I swear on my honour that I can be a sensible gamer. I do know how to play games properly. It’s just that, now and then, I am compelled to ignore the path the game has laid out for me. It’s why people think I’m so cool and rebellious. [Turns imaginary cap backwards]

Spore and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion are significantly different games. One is a game a God Game where the player controls the ‘evolution’ of a species from primordial soup-dweller to galactic dominator; the other is an action role playing game set in a mythical-medieval world. Yet there is one very clear similarity between these games where I am considered: the way I misbehaved when playing them.

This is the third week of me admitting my misbehaviour. In Dishonored, I was way more violent than the game suggested I should be. In Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, I lost all sense of respectability. As for Spore and Oblivion, I actually started playing both games as intended. I put lots of hours into each game, following the rules for the most part. However, despite several play-throughs of both games, I have never finished either of them. I would deliberately quit both games at a certain point, and go back to the start.

Gaming and Misbehaving: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

Tomb Raider has always been a relatively sensible series. The odd magic item or mythical monster aside, the franchise is one that wishes to be taken seriously. We play these games for a more level-headed kind of fun. Well, there’s one place where Lara Croft can go to be silly…

Last week I addressed the way in which I ‘misbehaved’ whilst playing Dishonored, taking the game (and myself) to a much darker place than the game creators anticipated. This week, I wish to summarise how myself and a friend made a mockery of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. The main aim of this writ-up is to remind you of all the times you’ve misbehaved in games, but I’m also hoping you’ll try this game out for yourself.

Gaming and Misbehaving: Dishonored

Gamers do as they are told. Video games set the rules, and we follow them. When a game says “jump”, we press the jump button. We will run, fight and sometimes dance when the game demands it. We play the game as intended…most of the time…

Sometimes we get to do things that the game didn’t plan for. We can’t exactly break the rules – unless we want to fall through the game world or glitch out – but we can bend the rules for our amusement. We’ve all done it. (Yes you have, don’t lie). Sometimes we misbehave because we’re looking for a laugh, sometimes we do it because the game isn’t what we expected. Other times, we play the wrong way to see if the video game will stop us.

This was going to be a one-off article with several examples, but I soon realised this was turning into a biiig looong blogpost. So instead I’ve picked out one game that I played incorrectly. If this proves to be an interesting read, then I’ll bring out the other examples later.