Get away from the mirror, you look fine.

[Bretimus_v2]

After suffering through 18 years of sharing my gaming systems with my little bro. I finally escaped from his "perfectionist" ways. The guy could mess with customizable anything for days. Serious. Whether it was the costumes and look of his CAW character on No Mercy on the N64, or endlessly shuffling through the possible tactics of his party on Dynasty Warriors Tactics. The kid just loves to micromanage. And don't even get me started on racing games. He will fine tune a car's infinite specs to death. And everytime I go over to his house and play, I revisit the past as he decides to take some time to show me "different builds" or demonstate the difference that 3 degrees makes on a turn.

But I was free when I moved out. Until my children started playing video games... I love the little guys and it excites me more than anything that we can share this past time, but I seriously spent 45 minutes watching my sons dress/undress/decorate/undecorate/etc. their puppets on LBP.

I'll be honest. I'm a meat and potatoes gamer. I like the raw viscera, the battles, the moments where I realize that I've been holding my breath. Only on a rare occasion, do I find myself pawing through menus and tweaking characters in order to get that extra 5% of attack bonus or damage, or get that perfect look that's going to have all the baddies falling over dead before I even prep a weapon.

So what's your pref? And what's the last game you caught yourself obsessing over the minutia?

Me? I've been scratching at a FF12 replay and that game always catches me switching weapons/armor and buying licenses in the most efficient, metagame way.

 

[danielrbischoff]

Ummm... I like tactics games... Like FF Tactics will have me looking at every possible move, attack, spell, EVERYTHING. Otherwise, obsessing over the game I'm playing kind of ruins the enjoyment I get out of it. If I start to obsess, like about collectibles or whatever I probably won't end up finishing it.

 

[keepithowitis]

The only collectibles I've gone out of my way to get are the bobbleheads in Fallout 3, the flags in Assassin's Creed, and intel in CoD4. But spending time finding new strategies is completely different IMO. I could spend days finding a new gun combo in Call of Duty, or a different build order in Starcraft.

 

[madster111]

Depends on the game, really, but i like to micromanage until whatever i'm doing is best suited in terms of overall efficiency for me.

 

[used44]

Great topic!

It depends on the game for me as well. I'm right with your brother when it comes to WWF No Mercy and Wrestlemania. Haha. My brother and I would create wrestlers more than we would actually play the game. Same way with Fire Pro Wrestling, etc. We spent years in Forza making graphics and paintjobs, but then I never tuned the cars. Just wasn't interested in that portion of it.

 

[Rinnon]

Probably Civilization. I think I've played IV the most at this point of all of them. Me and my circle of friends all played it, and we'd argue over the tiniest details in game play efficiency. Sometimes, we'd even go so far as to have an "RPG" game. Where we'd create a personality for ourselves and play it out. One of us would be an expansionist, one of us would be a peace lover, etc. The expansionist would just settle ANYWHERE it was feasible, the peace lover would try to talk warring parties into putting down the guns, etc. Good times.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

While I never seem to spend TOO much time trying to get just the best stuff, in some games I grind and whatnot far too much than I should. Like in Raidou 2, I spent hours grinding the loyalty of my demons.

Also, the Sims. But that's different.

 

[UghRochester]

Also, the Sims. But that's different.

Sims is probably the only game I drew a plan for.

As most of us said, it depends on the game. Sport fighting games such as WWE series and UFC series, I would spend a good couple hours aligning the scales that would best replicate what I look like. Other fighting games such as Soul Calibur IV, I would spend probably 15 minutes to create a bad-ass with the best armor.

I usually don't customize my characters when someone is around. They will rush me and I won't get the satisfaction I was looking for.

 

[De-Ting]

I just started a game on Oblivion with the most beautifulest argonian I've ever made and I intend to achieve the highest level possible and max all of my stats and skills and finish every quest in the best way possible.

 

[used44]

Also, the Sims. But that's different.

Sims is probably the only game I drew a plan for.

As most of us said, it depends on the game. Sport fighting games such as WWE series and UFC series, I would spend a good couple hours aligning the scales that would best replicate what I look like. Other fighting games such as Soul Calibur IV, I would spend probably 15 minutes to create a bad-ass with the best armor.

I usually don't customize my characters when someone is around. They will rush me and I won't get the satisfaction I was looking for.

I usually don't try to make a character look like myself, but I made a guy that looked JUST LIKE ME in Fight Night Round 2. I was never able to replicate it in FN3 or anywhere else. It was really funny.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

I had a midfielder that looked exactly like my dad on Winning Eleven. I guess I was wrong I spend a lot of time getting my fighters in Fight Night and UFC games were I want them ability-wise.

 

[Delorean88]

Also, the Sims. But that's different.

I usually don't customize my characters when someone is around. They will rush me and I won't get the satisfaction I was looking for.

I hate when that happens, thanks to impatient friends my game character looks like Seal...

Honestly collectibles and customization in games being appealing strongly varies in my opinion. If someone craves on achievements like me then it becomes a major to fnd all collectibles and if you're a perfectionist you will pour hours in fine tuning. But at least with both you're getting money's worth and adding hours to your playtime. But strangely I don't like it when games give too much of a customization option because I feel overwhelmed, like Armored Core 4. In my opinion there was so much to customize I didn't know where to start, thankfully I was just playing it at a friend's house for a day instead of renting/buying. But I hate a lacking system of customization, if my choices are very little why add it at all? Oh well as long as the game is good...