I hate difficult games

[Jonkga]

I'm just going to go on record and say I really hate difficult games. I guess I'm just getting old, but frankly, I don't want to be challenged, I don't want things to be hard, I try to just play a little to relax from a stressful day, and the game stresses me out worse than work did. I just want to break stuff now.

I just want a wicked easy game that has all the storyline and character development. I want to quest and kill stuff and all that, but I want it to be a forgone conclusion that I will win and I want to always be successful. My life is a forgone conclusion - I suck and I'm going to fail. I was just hoping that the game wouldn't imitate life. I was hoping my hero would be just that - a hero, not an avatar of my failure.

[EvilGenius]

Okay, seriously? You still need therapy, dude. :p lol!

And go and quest in lower level zones and then you'll totally pwn stuff!

[Lars Porsenna]

First things first: your life sucks only if you let it. Everyone's life has sucky parts about it: for me, I hate my job and my 2nd child can't come home with me. On the upside though, I live in a beautiful house, have 2 fantastic kids, and am working on an accurate kit of the TOS Enterprise. I'm sure if you balance out the suck with the awesome, most times awesome will outweigh suck.

As for games, I take a note from my model building hobby: if there is an aspect that you are getting very frustrated with, and feel the need to vent your anger through random destruction, then it is time to put the game away for a bit and do other things. Sometimes giving it a week and coming back with a fresh perspective helps.

Damon.

[Jonkga]

Well, yeah, therapy would probably be good, but its not going to happen.

And, yeah, I did the right thing and put the game down last night so I could relax, and gain some perspective.

But ultimately, my comment about games still stands. There isn't enough time for me to do all the gaming I want, and so I really want to enjoy the gaming I do. I've just really come to the realization that I don't really want to be challenged to the point where I cant win. I know some people, many in fact, like that type of challenge, but I think I'm not in that camp. I want to have fun, and be successful - I'm not looking for the thrill of overcoming something, I get that enough from making it home in one piece after venturing out into the world each day. For me its more about the journey than the result, but I'd like the result to be good regardless of my performance on the journey. Maybe that's just me.

[setanta14]

Brew beer... it can be a very zen hobby on brewday, plus the results themselves are relaxing.

Relax while making relaxant

[erilar]

Jon, is there something in WoW that's gotten all hard for you recently? You're normally El Tanko extraordinaire!

I'm in a very similar place re. games. I want them to not feel easy, challenge me at the proper level, and then be able to overcome the obstacles. Repetition of a video game task is no longer fun to me at all.

And, I can't disagree with Nate, having basked in the zen pit myself.

[Hardcorhobbs]

Peggle on the 360. 800 points.

[Jonkga]

Jon, is there something in WoW that's gotten all hard for you recently? You're normally El Tanko extraordinaire!

last night's stress was caused by the Argent Tournament's mounted combat. I really like the tournament for the storyline, the content, all that. And many of the repeatable quests are fun in their own right. But once past hitting targets to learn the mounted combat moves, you have to face "live" opponents (not pvp, but moving npc's). I spent 80 levels learning to play my guy well. Now, I've just learned a rather rudimentary mounted combat system, that I suck at, and *must* use that to move on through the tournament quests. I was excited about completing this content, but I've spent weeks (off and on) trying to best this one guy on horseback, and I've lost to him like 80 million times in a row.

I've asked the guild, they gave me great feedback. I searched online and found useful strategies. I just can't implement any of the advice or strategies well enough to move on, and I find that *very* frustrating.