super_etecoon said:
Almost never. If I’m really, really stuck for a long time I may try a very obtuse search on the internet and quickly skim over the results to avoid anything spoilery, but almost as a rule I refuse to look.
There’s a few reasons for this. As mentioned before, I hate spoilers. I’m also very hard on myself when it comes to puzzle solving and I hate not being able to figure out an answer.
Finally, and this might be the biggest reason, I don’t like to see under the hood of a game. I need it to feel like magic, especially on first play through. Discoveries should feel organic. There needs to be an aura of otherness about the game. Reading a guide reminds me that it’s all been done, it’s all laid out, you’re just following a predetermined path. Obviously those things are true, but when I’m playing a game I absolutely disregard those things as much as possible.
I also have this thing where it isn’t uncommon for me to restart a file after 10 hours of playing a game. It’s almost like a trial by fire tutorial and then I go back in and fix the mistakes I’ve made now that I understand more. I just wish more games had multiple save files so I didn’t have to go to another of my accounts to do that restart (I usually like leaving the original file, sometimes as a keepsake and sometimes because I realize I can fix some of the errors I’ve made and go back to it). |
We are very much aligned :)
I don't restart files, but I do like to keep my first save as a sort of keepsake (it's silly, I know).
I also hate not being able to figure out something myself; it feels like defeat, or even cheating, if I have to rely on someone else to show me the way.
Finally, I totally get your perspective on a game feeling like "magic". I remember someone posting in the forum several years ago about horror games, questioning why anyone would be scared by what is clearly a program in a computer. And I responded saying I'm scared because I go in wanting to be scared. I want to believe in the illusion.
