Playing Games in Unfun Ways

0:00 Last month, I replayed Dark Souls III for the first time since it came out.

0:04 Up until now, it was one of the few FromSoft titles I had only beaten once.

0:08 And it's a shame it took me

0:09 so long to get back to it, as Dark Souls III is very good.

0:13 I can't think of many better

0:14 examples of a studio firing on all cylinders to create stellar levels,

0:19 music, characters, and of course,

0:20 bosses that add up to be so much more than the sum of their parts.

0:24 After finishing the base game and finally getting the chance to play the DLC,

0:27 I couldn't help but

0:28 be swept away by its brilliance.

0:31 And in the joy and excitement of revisiting this masterpiece,

0:35 I was struck by a terrible idea.

0:43 I should get all of the achievements.

0:52 [Music] [Applause] [Music] For those of you who also

0:59 made the mistake of 100%ing Dark Souls III,

1:02 this staircase will be

1:03 irritatingly familiar to you.

1:04 It is the most reliable way to collect the Covenant item for

1:08 the Blades of the Dark Moon called Proof of Concord kept.

1:11 You can exchange 30 of them for

1:13 a ring and miracle that is needed for two of the achievements.

1:16 These two silver knights have a very

1:18 low chance of dropping one.

1:20 I've seen contrasting information across wikis and Reddit posts, but

1:23 broadly speaking, based on the gear I was using,

1:25 the drop rate for the item was somewhere between

1:27 3.5 and 4%.

1:28 On a perfect run, I could do a loop in about 35 seconds.

1:33 And on a not so perfect run,

1:35 well, the time definitely could add up.

1:37 Even when estimating at the higher end of the drop rate and

1:40 a fairly generous run average of 45 seconds per loop,

1:43 the pace would roughly be one proof of

1:45 Concord kept every 12 runs or about 9 minutes per proof.

1:49 Extrapolating it out even further,

1:51 and that's around 4 and 1/2 hours of grinding to get the necessary amount.

1:56 There are five other

1:58 covenants with items like this.

1:59 In fairness, none of the other grinds are as bad as this

2:03 one.

2:03 Most have more efficient farming spots,

2:05 and a couple can be done through summoning a friend.

2:08 But regardless, all of it put together will take most people around 15 hours.

2:12 When I started, I knew this would not be time well spent.

2:16 I'd be doing the exact same motions over and over again,

2:19 not in service of learning something new or getting more skill,

2:22 but rather in service of

2:24 RNG.

2:24 I have no issue putting a ton of time

2:27 into figuring out how to do something challenging,

2:29 but this was not that.

2:31 The challenge was purely in mustering the patience to kill the same two

2:34 enemies hundreds of times.

2:36 Throughout it all, I found myself constantly asking why.

2:39 Why am I doing

2:41 something that isn't fun, that isn't rewarding, that isn't enriching.

2:45 There are hundreds of games

2:47 in my backlog I could be playing instead.

2:49 All of which have the promise of being a way better use

2:52 of my time.

2:53 Like, man, Ultrakill looks so rad.

2:55 And I've been saying I should play Citizen Sleeper 2

2:58 for months now.

2:59 And maybe it's finally time to give the Kingdom Come Deliverance series a shot,

3:03 but then I didn't.

3:04 I came back to the staircase.

3:07 Anyway, I suppose I felt a sense of obligation

3:10 to 100% the game.

3:11 Fromoft has been my favorite developer for a good while now.

3:14 I've gotten all of the achievements in Dark Souls 1 and two for Bloodborne,

3:19 for Elden Ring, and Night Remain.

3:20 It seemed a shame to not complete the

3:22 Dark Souls trilogy just because of some grinding.

3:24 This is a weird impulse I get with certain titles,

3:27 with those that really click with me in a specific

3:30 way at just the right time.

3:31 I feel this desire to honor them, like I owe them something for

3:35 providing me with a monumental experience.

3:37 There's something about having that 100% next to a game

3:40 that feels like it accomplishes that.

3:42 It shows that it was worth it to do everything.

3:45 The thing is, it very rarely is worth it.

3:48 I've talked about this idea in the past, but most games don't really

3:52 have great achievements.

3:53 So often, like this grind on the staircase, they call for you to engage with

3:58 the game in a way that is fundamentally different from what makes the game good.

4:02 The stuff that made me want to get all of the achievements in the first place.

4:06 With Dark Souls III specifically, the

4:08 desire to 100% it came after the high of defeating Medier and Slave Knight Gale.

4:13 Arguably the best fights in the entire game.

4:15 Ironically though, fights that aren't tied to any achievement.

4:18 Despite that, I knew what the achievements would entail.

4:21 I knew it wouldn't just be the fun stuff.

4:24 But once I made up my mind that I wanted to do it,

4:27 it was hard to want to abandon that.

4:29 And once I collected one proof of Concord kept and

4:31 then a couple more and then a couple more,

4:34 it seemed like I should just stick with it.

4:36 It was as if just by starting the grind, I had sullied my

4:40 ability to have my playthrough end by experiencing one

4:42 of the best bosses FromSoft has ever made for

4:44 the first time.

4:45 So, if I couldn't end on peak, I might as well see this stupid thing through

4:50 to the end.

4:51 I wish I wasn't this susceptible to sunk cost fallacy,

4:54 but it happens more often than

4:56 I'd like it to.

4:57 I reach the point where I'm not having fun, and you know, not in a good way that

5:01 will eventually have a real experiential payoff, but I stick with it anyway.

5:05 A very similar thing

5:06 happened to me earlier this year with Clare Obscure Expedition 33.

5:10 I adored the game so

5:12 much that when I hit credits, I didn't want to leave the world behind.

5:15 I wanted to stay in it

5:17 and honor the game by experiencing everything I could.

5:20 And luckily, or I guess unluckily for me,

5:22 Clear Obscure has tons of optional content to engage with.

5:25 Now, some of it is pretty incredible,

5:28 but a lot of the optional stuff is just reskinned versions of older enemies.

5:32 And as it is pretty

5:33 easy to create incredibly powerful builds, most of it becomes trivial.

5:37 Like I didn't even use

5:38 the Stenhal build that could one-shot bosses,

5:41 but I was still beating most things I fought before

5:43 they could even get a turn.

5:45 And that includes the actual cool, unique bosses.

5:48 What had mostly felt

5:49 like a well-paced and decently balanced experience throughout

5:52 the core of my playthrough turned into

5:54 an exercise of just watching lights and colors

5:56 for 15 hours as I collected every journal,

5:59 gathered every record,

6:00 and killed every boss without the grippy narrative to propel me forward

6:04 or the challenging combat to keep me engaged.

6:07 Continuing to play it felt empty.

6:09 Regardless, I kept with it long after I had grown tired of it.

6:13 When I had rolled credits, I probably

6:15 would have put it in my top five games of all time.

6:18 When I got the last achievement though,

6:19 I just thought it was really, really good.

6:21 There is, of course, something to be said about loving

6:23 a game so much that you end up overexposing yourself to it and enjoying it less.

6:27 What better way to honor a game than be

6:30 willing to experience the worst parts of it?

6:32 This is a silly impulse.

6:34 I imagine most developers would probably prefer

6:36 players to not follow through on it,

6:38 but it is an impulse I feel all the same.

6:41 I hope that in 5 years or something, I forget about how I felt by

6:45 the end of my time with Clare Obscure and only remember the best bits.

6:49 It could be argued that

6:50 remembering the experience of me kind of ruining the

6:53 game for myself might help me avoid doing it

6:55 again in the future,

6:56 but I kind of doubt that's the case because only 3 months passed between

7:00 me grinding the end game of Clare Obscure and

7:03 me grinding this stupid staircase in Dark Souls II.

7:06 And the disappointment of that experience didn't deter me in the slightest.

7:10 Now, this grind is not

7:11 the intended way to gather the proof of Concord kept.

7:14 The way you're supposed to get them, as

7:16 well as all the other Covenant items, is through PvP.

7:20 I imagine getting these was more reliable at

7:22 release when tons of people were still playing,

7:24 but now it is pretty hit or miss.

7:27 Not only is it

7:28 exceedingly rare to get summoned as a Blade of the Dark Moon now,

7:31 but in the off chance you do,

7:33 it will almost certainly be into the world

7:35 of longtime players that have crafted specific

7:37 builds for PvP in these areas.

7:39 Meaning unless you are very into Dark Souls PvP, you probably

7:43 will get stomped.

7:44 These items being dropped by normal enemies is FromSoft's way of making the

7:49 Covenant rewards attainable regardless of how active the player base is.

7:54 It's a compromise.

7:55 While attempting this grind,

7:56 I had the Blade of the Dark Moon Covenant insignia on throughout and

8:00 got pulled into an invasion a grand total of three times.

8:03 There are a few things I could have done

8:06 to make it a bit more likely to get summoned,

8:08 but it never would have outpaced the farming

8:10 approach.

8:10 And honestly, based on looking back at old posts,

8:13 even when the game was more active,

8:15 it seems like getting summoned still would have been the slower choice.

8:18 With all of this said,

8:19 I do think it would have been a lot more fun

8:21 to get all of the proof of concords kept through PvP.

8:24 It would have pushed me to engage with a system

8:26 that I haven't really put that much time into,

8:28 to learn the meta, to hone my skills, to be truly challenged.

8:32 The thing is, even if the PvP method

8:34 was more reliable than it is,

8:36 I have a feeling I probably still would have chosen to farm enemies

8:40 instead of other players.

8:41 With invasions, there is so much more out of my hands.

8:45 It'd rely not just on my skill, but also on the skill of whoever I'm facing,

8:49 as well as the number of players who

8:51 are in the invasion, as these almost always are gank fights.

8:54 Not to mention, it also rely on our

8:56 connections to the internet.

8:57 And while I'm sure I would get better at PvP through the experience,

9:00 the uncertainty of a reward almost certainly would have

9:03 been enough for me to just stick with the

9:05 more reliable method.

9:06 I wouldn't know how long it would take me to win enough fights to get the

9:10 Covenant items.

9:10 And even if I played pretty much perfectly, which I know I wouldn't, there still

9:14 would be too many variables that could lead to failure.

9:17 Yes, spending 9 minutes to get one item

9:20 is annoying.

9:20 It is less fun, but it is reliable.

9:23 And when the focus is all about the result,

9:26 that's what becomes most important.

9:28 This sort of thing isn't just tied to 100%ing a game.

9:32 Frankly, it happens all the time on casual playthroughs.

9:34 A while back, Mark Brown of Gamemakers Toolkit put

9:37 out a great video on how game designers protect players from themselves.

9:41 And it centers around a

9:42 quote from developer Saurin Johnson where he says,

9:45 "Given the opportunity, players will optimize the

9:47 fun out of a game.

9:49 It's so easy to fall into the success mindset, to go with a strategy that

9:53 gives you or even just seems to give you the best chance of winning.

9:57 I constantly fall into

9:58 this sort of trap.

10:00 I find an approach that works and become reluctant to try anything else because

10:04 what if that doesn't work as well?

10:06 And games do often make it easy to fall into this.

10:09 Like when you have a limited amount of an upgrade material

10:11 and you've already put a bunch of them into what

10:13 you're using, you won't want to waste anything on something

10:16 that might end up being worse than what

10:18 you have.

10:18 What if you need it for something else?

10:21 The majority of the time though, this just means I

10:23 don't end up using most of what I collect.

10:25 But by the time I realize I could have afforded to test

10:28 stuff out, I'm typically near the end of a game.

10:30 I did this with Lies of P.

10:32 I pretty much used the

10:34 starting heavy blade the entire time.

10:35 And like it was fun.

10:37 I really enjoyed that game, but I'd be

10:39 willing to bet that it is not the most fun weapon to use.

10:42 Not by a long shot, but I was afraid to

10:45 divert resources to something else that might make me less effective.

10:48 I think this sort of success

10:49 mindset also leads to me becoming too focused on the main objective of a game.

10:53 Sure, I do like

10:55 having fun, but it becomes really easy to get pulled

10:57 towards the things that will bring about

10:59 progress the quickest, to get the satisfaction of moving forward.

11:03 ironically to be done with

11:04 the game sooner by avoiding what arguably could

11:07 be the most fun stuff in the game.

11:09 This combination of sunk cost and me trying to optimize

11:12 how I approach games sometimes leads to me getting

11:15 a very small slice of what a title has to offer.

11:17 In general, I'm pretty bad at finding the middle

11:20 ground with this.

11:21 My gaming habits either get me to underengage and miss out on things,

11:24 or like with Clare Obscurer,

11:26 overengage in ways that rely on less interesting gameplay, usually in

11:30 service of efficiency, and inevitably grow tired of it.

11:33 This is why I like short games that don't

11:36 have much you can miss,

11:37 as well as very open-ended titles where everything you do feels like it is in

11:41 service of the main objective.

11:43 I've talked about this many times before, and unfortunately for you,

11:46 I will talk about it many times again.

11:48 But it's why Breath of the Wild worked so well for me.

11:51 While there certainly is a delineation between what

11:54 could be considered main content and side

11:56 content due to its structure, the lines are far more blurred,

11:59 and everything you do builds towards

12:01 the main goal of defeating Genanet in a tangible way.

12:04 It made it hard for me to optimize the fun

12:06 out of it in the way I want to do.

12:09 This is also why I appreciated its controversial durability

12:12 system.

12:13 By having things break,

12:14 I had to constantly be trying new weapons and approaching

12:17 fights in new ways.

12:18 The game didn't really let me fall into my old patterns.

12:21 In Mark's video, he examines the importance of developers creating proper

12:25 guard rails to help players play games in

12:27 the most fun way possible.

12:28 But there is a limit to what developers can do.

12:31 They can't predict every

12:32 player's behavior,

12:33 and adding in too many guard rails may negatively impact the experience in

12:37 other ways.

12:38 With that said, at a point,

12:40 as much as I hate to admit it, some responsibility has

12:43 to fall onto the player to make sure

12:45 they aren't ruining the game for themselves.

12:47 This isn't always easy.

12:48 It's hard to know the intent of every design

12:51 decision and what actually is the best way to

12:53 approach a game.

12:54 How are you supposed to know if you are having the right amount of fun?

12:58 Of course, these challenges don't absolve players from any guilt.

13:01 Just because it is easy to fall into

13:03 patterns that make a game less enjoyable does

13:05 not mean people should let it happen.

13:07 This is something I've been trying to come to terms with more and more.

13:11 I've long recognized and publicly

13:13 admitted that many of my issues with games are me problems,

13:16 but I tend to discuss those issues by

13:18 examining what certain games do or could do in

13:21 order to appeal more to players like me.

13:24 I far more rarely examine what I could do differently,

13:27 how I can break out of my habits, leave my comfort

13:30 zone, better engage with titles that don't match my design sensibilities.

13:35 Obviously,

13:35 I love games that are designed to appeal to the tastes of players like me.

13:39 But if I only play

13:40 those kinds of games, I know I will miss out on special experiences.

13:44 But it can't just be about

13:46 playing games that are outside of my wheelhouse.

13:48 It also has to be about playing them in a way

13:51 that is outside of my wheelhouse.

13:52 Test every system and weapon, even if I'm not mechanically

13:56 incentivized to engage with exploration and side quests,

13:58 even if it doesn't amount to progression.

14:01 make my own fun with the tools I am given.

14:04 Even when or especially when there is no actual reason

14:07 to other than it be fun.

14:09 I want to get better at this.

14:11 I'm trying to get better at this.

14:14 It's hard to get better at this.

14:16 It's so easy to just say play in the way that's the most fun, but sometimes

14:20 fun takes intention and sometimes I don't know what will be the most fun.

14:23 But the only way to

14:25 find out is by trying.

14:26 To be clear, I do think it is very valid to criticize the ways in which

14:31 games incentivize uninteresting play, but there is a balance,

14:35 and I know I could do more.

14:37 Now, in the case of 100%ing Dark Souls 3,

14:40 like I said before, there wasn't that much more I could do.

14:44 The intended way would have required me to sit

14:46 around waiting to get pulled into an invasion.

14:49 And while the gameplay itself would have been more fun,

14:52 it would have taken so long to do and wasted

14:55 far more time.

14:56 Farming these two silver knights just made the most sense.

14:59 I mentioned before that

15:01 during this grind,

15:01 I thought about all the other things I could have been doing, most notably the

15:05 games I could be playing instead.

15:07 However, I think if I truly had wanted to play something else,

15:11 I would have.

15:12 The choice to continue wasn't just that I was

15:14 pot committed or that I felt like I

15:16 owed Dark Souls III something.

15:18 It was also that it suited the headsp space I was in whenever I chose

15:22 to play it.

15:23 It is harder now to be bored than it ever has been before.

15:28 There is just so much always

15:30 and all of it is fighting for our attention.

15:33 Whether it be the call for consumption or the call

15:35 for productivity or the antithetical convergence of the two,

15:38 we are constantly pulled to fill our

15:41 time with something.

15:42 To never let our mind be unoccupied enough to feel boredom.

15:45 Of course, boredom is important.

15:47 It lets the mind wander.

15:49 It spurs creativity.

15:50 It restores mental energy.

15:52 We aren't designed for constant mental stimulation.

15:54 We need time to do things that are less taxing.

15:57 We need time to do things that let our brains settle.

16:00 I could say that I could have been playing

16:02 any other game instead of doing this grind, but that's probably not true.

16:06 In the moments I was

16:07 most interested in getting a few more proofs of Concord kept,

16:11 it wasn't when I wanted to engage

16:13 with thoroughly complex systems or be distracted

16:15 from my boredom with something incredibly fun.

16:18 It was when I was a bit tired from finishing up

16:21 some work and just wanted something to do with my

16:23 hands.

16:23 It wasn't replacing the role of playing a game.

16:27 It was replacing doodling or skipping rocks

16:30 or spinning a pencil.

16:31 Doing something that took a bit of focus but not all of it.

16:35 doing something that kept me a little entertained, but not very.

16:38 And yes, I do recognize turning to video games to

16:41 fill this role means I am cooked.

16:43 I know there are healthier ways to be bored.

16:46 I turn to those

16:47 plenty, too.

16:48 But this does have its value and is far

16:51 better than the easy trap of endless scrolling

16:54 I am prone to fall into when I give myself the chance.

16:57 Despite it being me playing a video

16:59 game at the end of the day, it wasn't a pacifying act.

17:02 And as the actions became wrote, my mind had

17:05 more and more space to wander.

17:07 It wandered to my thoughts on FromSoft games as a whole and why they

17:11 work for me.

17:12 It wandered to my gaming habits and what I

17:14 look for now in games as opposed to years

17:17 past.

17:17 It wandered to every idea I've talked about in this video.

17:21 And once I found myself reflecting

17:23 on and being interested in the things that

17:26 were driving me to continue this stupid grind,

17:29 that became a new drive.

17:30 I needed to finish it so I could share my experience of falling into

17:35 this kind of trap of creating sysophician grinds for

17:38 myself for the sake of honoring a game even

17:40 when it comes at the expense of it.

17:43 And Miyazaki will never even see this.

17:45 It added a new layer of

17:48 meaning.

17:48 And meaning is what I needed.

17:50 I needed a reason to justify using my limited gaming time on

17:54 this.

17:55 And in turn, I began connecting to the grind more and more.

17:59 The sword wielding silver knight

18:01 dropped the first four proofs, so I deemed him the cool one.

18:04 By the end, I think the split was

18:06 pretty even between the two, but that favoritism never wavered.

18:09 __] the spear knight.

18:10 I noticed phantoms of other players wearing the symbol of avarestice,

18:14 clearly taking part in the same grind

18:16 I was, and I felt bolstered in my desire to see it all through.

18:20 Any temptation to use mods in order

18:22 to get the number of proofs I needed evaporated.

18:24 If they had to suffer through this to get the

18:26 achievement, it would be a disservice to them to do it in any other way.

18:30 I read posts online

18:31 about other people doing the grind and I felt

18:34 a camaraderie with them over our shared stupidity.

18:36 Eventually,

18:36 I found the grind to be relaxing and fell into a weird sort of flow state.

18:42 I accepted that it would take however long it takes

18:45 and just appreciated when things did go my way.

18:47 On one run, both knights dropped a proof of Concord kept.

18:51 It felt as good as beating Gale.

18:53 Not long after, I went 20 minutes without a single drop.

18:56 I lived a Dark Souls III experience that only 5% of people

19:00 who played the game have.

19:02 It was a waste of time.

19:04 I would never recommend anyone do it.

19:07 But I did do it.

19:09 I suffered through it for some reason.

19:11 I went up and down these stairs time and time again,

19:15 and it never seemed like a good idea, but I couldn't stop.

19:19 The struggle itself is

19:20 enough to fill a man's heart.

19:23 One must imagine Rasbutin happy.

19:25 Of course, I am not Sisphus.

19:27 This is not divine eternal punishment.

19:29 It is me choosing to play a video game in an unfun way.

19:33 Maybe it started by getting swept up by

19:36 the gaming habits I unconsciously fall into.

19:38 But, as I've already pointed out in this video,

19:40 it didn't take long for me to recognize this.

19:42 Yet, I continued anyway.

19:44 I found meaning in the repetition.

19:46 I made it the kind of suffering

19:48 you look back at fondly.

19:49 I do want to be very clear that this is not me saying it was worth

19:53 it or that the fact I was able to find

19:55 value in playing the game like this is inherently

19:58 a good thing.

19:58 It is simply to make clear that the reason I

20:01 keep playing games I love in an unfun way

20:03 despite feeling like I am kind of ruining them is

20:06 due to the human instinct to dredge meaning from

20:09 any experience regardless of how much it sucks.

20:12 It is in fact pure cope.

20:15 Now, I do think that term

20:17 gets used in a way that is far too dismissive.

20:20 Most things in life do not go exactly our way,

20:23 and it is in our ability to cope that

20:25 allows us to not be miserable every waking minute.

20:28 Being able to find enjoyment in wasted time in missteps is part of being human.

20:33 Ultimately, while I do think

20:35 it is a good thing that I am able to do this,

20:38 I don't think it is necessarily always good when I

20:40 do.

20:41 There are plenty of instances where I think I

20:43 would be better off disrupting the patterns I

20:45 naturally fall into.

20:46 And I hope this reflection of me clearly pointing out to myself and to you

20:51 the ways in which I approach games in unfun ways,

20:54 whether it be just on a normal playthrough or on

20:57 a 100% playthrough will get me to do that a bit more.

21:01 Just because I can make meaning doesn't

21:03 mean I should.

21:04 And I think I need to get better at knowing when to back down.

21:08 I have my doubts

21:09 though.

21:09 For instance,

21:10 a tiny yet not insignificant part of me wants to 100% Dark Souls III again.

21:16 It annoys me that I 100%ed Dark Souls 1,

21:18 Dark Souls II, and Bloodborne on PlayStation and Dark Souls

21:21 III, Elden Ring, and Night Rain on PC.

21:24 It'd be nice to have all of them done on one platform,

21:27 and that's really only possible on PlayStation.

21:29 Also, frankly, Elden Ring and Night Rain weren't

21:31 all that hard to 100%.

21:33 So, the worst part about getting the platinums would really just be doing

21:36 the Dark Souls 3I grind again.

21:38 And look, it wasn't that bad all things considered.

21:41 Now, this would mean doing SRO 2 as I'd want to complete the set.

21:44 And that'd be tough as I've heard it has

21:46 almost as bad of a grind as Dark Souls 3I.

21:48 And also, I'd want to do the original Demon Souls,

21:51 which unfortunately calls for more grinding than

21:53 all of the Dark Souls games combined.

21:55 And then I don't know,

21:56 maybe I should do Scholar the First Sin to get the full DS2 experience and the

21:59 Demon Souls remake as I've heard they changed the

22:02 trophies from the original and Armored Core 6 as

22:05 I might as well do it if I'm doing all the rest.

22:08 I don't think I will do this.

22:10 I really hope I don't

22:12 do this.

22:12 There is a nonzero chance that I will do this.

22:16 What's more likely is I will get swept

22:19 up again in the way I did with Dark Souls III

22:22 or Clare Obscure or the dozens of others before it.

22:24 I will become so focused with the result that

22:27 I won't properly address the process until I've sunk

22:30 too much time in it.

22:31 It is who I've been and who I am and who I will be.

22:35 And in fairness, it has worked out pretty well.

22:38 I love games and I love talking about games.

22:40 And because of that,

22:41 regardless of what an experience entails,

22:43 I always will get something out of anything I

22:46 play.

22:46 The mere existence of this channel has acted as a way

22:49 for me to add value to every game I try.

22:52 And now that it is my job to talk about games that is more true than ever,

22:57 I'm in a unique position

22:58 where a bad experience with a game can

23:01 lead to me making something just as interesting,

23:03 if not more interesting, than a good experience with a game.

23:07 Frankly, this platform kind of incentivizes

23:09 it.

23:09 I try not to let that affect how I personally approach games.

23:12 I don't go into something with a

23:14 negative mindset hoping I can farm it for content,

23:17 but I also don't always go into stuff with the

23:19 intentionality that I probably should.

23:21 I do like the sentiment of playing games in the way that is

23:25 most fun to you.

23:26 And maybe it is just that easy for many of you, but I at least have not found it

23:30 to be that simple.

23:32 It is hard to always be aware of the habits and patterns you subconsciously

23:36 fall into when actually playing something.

23:38 And even when you are, the way games are designed to

23:41 bring about so many variables that can get in the way.

23:43 With that said, while I don't know that I can

23:46 just play games in the way that is the most fun,

23:48 I would like to play them in a way that is more

23:50 intentional to not always get swept up in how I tend to approach them,

23:54 which in one way or another

23:56 always is about me focusing too much on the goal.

23:59 Whether it comes in the form of mainlining

24:01 content for progression sake or hyperfixating on

24:04 completion criteria that is neither interesting

24:06 or fun, I want to move away from it a bit to

24:09 be better at making sure I'm actually getting the

24:12 most out of everything I play to go against

24:15 my instinct sometimes and instead try to play games

24:17 in the way someone else might in order to

24:20 see what my play style might be missing.

24:22 It could be that

24:23 this in itself is a bad idea,

24:25 that it will lead to me having a terrible time in entirely new ways.

24:30 But if this grind taught me anything,

24:34 it is that I will find a way to make it matter nonetheless.

24:43 Oh my god.

24:44 I still have to beat the game two more times.

24:50 This is so stupid.

24:52 Through all of this, I have been thinking a lot about all of the

24:57 games I've 100%ed over the years.

24:59 So, I decided to put together a video where I go over every

25:04 single one I've done and give them a rating

25:07 based on how enjoyable or annoying they were

25:09 to complete.

25:10 It has been a while since I played many of them,

25:12 and there honestly ended up being

25:14 way more games than I would have guessed.

25:16 I had a lot of fun reflecting on my gaming history,

25:19 and I think you'll be surprised by some of them.

25:22 I did also give out one 10 out of 10 for a game

25:26 that I actually think is worth 100%ing, and you might, too.

25:29 If you'd like to watch the video to

25:31 find out which one it is,

25:33 even though you already know it's Outer Wilds, you can check it out right

25:36 now on Nebula.

25:37 I've been a part of Nebula for a good while now.

25:40 You've almost certainly heard me

25:41 talk about them before and will again because it

25:44 is the best place online to watch videos

25:46 from many of your favorite creators like me,

25:49 GameMakers Toolkit to Jacob Geller, King K,

25:51 and tons and tons of others.

25:53 You not only get the best versions of these creators main videos,

25:56 but you also get tons of bonus stuff exclusive to Nebula.

25:59 I'd recommend checking out the video

26:01 I mentioned already, as well as a conversation I had with Jacob,

26:04 Iron Pineapple, and Euro Thug

26:05 4000 about Clear Obscure Expedition 33 and all of our thoughts on it.

26:10 We actually recorded that

26:11 before I had started to 100% it.

26:13 So, it is an interesting little time capsule that shows the

26:16 differences between how I felt right after rolling credits to how I feel now.

26:20 Along with that, there

26:21 are Nebula original shows like Abolish Everything,

26:23 which is sort of a panel presentation show where

26:26 guests make pitches for things they think should be abolished.

26:29 It is a lot of fun.

26:31 Nebula just has a wealth of things to watch and listen

26:34 to made by many of the most thoughtful people out there.

26:37 For those interested in being more intentional with what they watch,

26:40 I can't recommend a better

26:41 place to go.

26:42 So, by going to nebula.tv/resbutin or just clicking the link in the description,

26:47 you can sign up for a year at just $3 a month.

26:50 It is a killer deal and one of the best ways to help

26:53 support what I do as well as all the creators on the site.

26:56 So, sign up, check out my videos

26:58 on all the games I've 100%ed,

27:00 and then enjoy everything else Nebula has to offer.

27:02 Anyway, thanks to Nebula for sponsoring this video.

27:05 For all of you still here, hello.

27:08 As always,

27:08 I want to give a big thanks to my patrons for making this channel possible.

27:12 I hope you all have a great day and or night,

27:20 and I will see you in the next one.