#FeeltheBurnout2016
It's been a while since I played Burnout. Is that an announcer saying? Fun fact: you can get the Wave Race announcer on Gamecube to be super flippant and condescending. It's audio they used as placeholder in the game before they got the real, more enthused announcer.
This is very true. Limiting the time you have with a game definitely reduces Skinner Box factor. But I think you can still be tricked into doing something you don't enjoy to receive a useless award. Even if you only give yourself an hour after work to play games, I think you can be duped into doing something overly repetitive and boring for a meaningless award. Not everyone, but more people than who will admit it.
I've occassionally fallen into these traps myself in games like Metroid, where I don't enjoy going on an item hunt, but I want 100% completion. True, I've been able to say "ok, I have the story ending, I really don't give a shit about 100%ing the game now" after I get bored with it. But the fact I tried is a testament to useless item hunts being apart of otherwise critically acclaimed AAA titles.
Similar thing with Arkham Knight platinum trophy hunting. I'm telling myself it's because I love the game and want to spend more time with it, which is true. But it's also true that if I were being rational, I'd accept I'm only doing it cause a game I paid $60+ for ran out of its main draw of content for me a while ago and this is a tedious way of "getting my money's worth." Which I feel I already did, but why not go after this addictive side game bullshit? I'm enjoying it in a sense, because I'm still playing a game I really like, but I'd be lying if I said I'd be anywhere near as interested in trying this if I had another AAA game to play or there wasn't a trophy system. Since you've not gotten on the achievement bandwagon, this isn't a problem for you, but it's still something tied into pretty much every game now regardless of type, hence my skepticism most people can completely avoid Skinner Box gaming.
I don't think I'm an addict, but I definitely recognize some addictive-type habits in my gaming and I think a lot of people are less immune to this kind of thing than they like to believe. Then again, I've always been the type to say if I'm done with the story, I'm basically done with the game, so I've also known myself to avoid addictive bullshit. I never cared about the Chao gardens in Sonic Adventure and only played non-Sonic levels to beat the game and unlock levels I actually enjoyed. But hell, even those non-Sonic levels were useless bullshit I did to receive an ultimately meaningless award, even if the award was main game completion and other shit I actually wanted to play.
Same for me, but I've been noticing there was an addictive quality to trophy hunting in a lot of my recent gaming. And I'm excited for a Batmobile skin that is technically useless. lol
I've always preferred story-driven games, but I did think about some Animal Crossing-loving folks on here and how the addictive mechanics in that game sounded kind of tempting to me. I guess I'm saved by my shallow preference for AAA titles, since those cost so much to make they pretty much have to end at some point (and outside of Arkham Knight Season Pass, which I'm still not sure I should've jumped on just cause I love the series, I'm not much for DLC).
But at the same time, all games employ some variation of these techniques, not just these "types" of mobile/Warcrack games. I bet a lot more people than who will admit it have chased after useless shit in a game and convinced themself it was because they genuinely liked the rest of the game and wanted to spend more time in it when really they were just goaded into being a completionist. This is especially true for JRPG grinding, which is a genre I bet a lot of the atmosphere/story crowd have admitted to doing. Maybe you don't like grinding, but you do it to get to something you do like, which is absolutely a kind of Skinner Box tactic described in the article.
Damn, I didn't know tablets came with projectors now.
I watched one on the Navy SEALs back in 2012 on YouTube. I'm cocky enough to think with enough training I could handle the exercise, but the freezing cold water would be another story I think.
I'm soooooo willing to do the work to make videos, but I'm soooooo hesitant to buy the equipment needed for a good production value. So I hear you. You've always struck me as a creative person though, so I'm sure you'll make use of all that stuff.
I even tried to join another friend's party between my own invitations. It was a mess last night haha. If I see that you're on, I'll send you an invite. I saw you were on the PS3, but didn't know if that has Rocket League? I try to go to bed earlier these days, so I might miss you after about 9:30/10PM or so.
The thing that sucks about Arkham Knight Platinum is that some of the trophies have to be unlocked via challenge modes if you've already beaten the game, since the gun-totin' peeps are gone from the rooftops and there are no more tanks on the street. Some of these, I'll definitely be lookin' up online.
I wouldn't feel too bummed about Knight, as I can only play so much Asylum or City before my laptop shuts off. I might just end up buying a used 360.
I could go for a frapp.
I just saw the option to play "Foxtales" on my PSN version, and it took me to the Store.
And you seem like a hard worker yourself as well as one of the nicest people I've ever talked to.
NBA Jam was such a fun game. I wish they still had AAA arcadey sports titles like that. DKC looked amazing back in the day too. I remember looking at the instruction manual from Blockbuster because I was so blown away. I have an oddly vivid memory of that.
I have a vaguer memory of the SNES version of The Tick. I remember liking the rental though.
