Video Game Confessional
We've all done things we're not proud of. Sometimes our indiscretions are tiny white lies or being charged with breaking and entering when we were only fourteen. Sometimes though, what we've done, the blemishes in our past, are so dark that we dare not share them with anyone lest these secrets become public knowledge and ruin the very personas we've spent years trying to perfect. I am of course speaking of the skeletons in each of our gaming closets. These go beyond merely games we're embarrassed to have played. I only wish that tapping my feet to Britney's Dance Beat was my greatest crime. I've decided to reveal to the public parts of my gaming past that I have never revealed to even my closest friends. Afterwards I am putting the call out for others to come clean as well, to empty your closets because I saw the new fall fashions coming to department stores near you and you're going to need the room!
So join me after the jump when I reveal my own gaming shame, bring some Axe body wash though, you're going to feel dirty after reading this.
I beat Final Fantasy X using a Gameshark
I've since beaten the game without the use of this horrible device, but on my first play through I was having major trouble on the final battle with Sin. I was young and full of disposable income at the time so I went to my local Best Buy and purchased a Gameshark. When I went home I went into my bedroom, locked my door, and entered in the code for maxing the character levels. I breezed through the final battles and was able to finish the game. The worst part is my best friend at the time was having trouble near the end as well and I confidently told her that all you had to do was take the time to level your characters like I had and she'd be fine. To this day she didn't know I had cheated.
I know every song from Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure by heart and sing it often in my car
The same friend from above and I both own the soundtrack and actually will sing different parts when we're together. I always get to play the role of Cornet though, always! Oh I also thought long and hard about trying to see if I could adapt it to be a stage musical. I stopped that line of thinking pretty damn quick.
I can't ever get anywhere in The Sims without using the money code
In The Sims 2, my virtual boyfriend and I got married and raised a kid together. It sure was easy since we were self made millionaires with a perfectly designed and immaculately decorated house. All thanks to a few keystrokes and massive amounts of cash. This has probably warped my own sense of financial responsibility, seeing as how I try to enter a similar code at the ATM and it just spits my card out and laughs at me.
I never beat Final Fantasy VI
Technically I played the final battle using a friend's saved game. Otherwise I've only gotten to the part where the world gets a Joan Rivers' style face lift. I beat Final Fantasy X-2 three times though, does that make it worse?
I played 4 hours of Halo 3 multiplayer and only racked up 3 kills
This isn't a huge secret since most of my friends know I won't play Halo 3 when other people are in the room. I don't know what it is, I can get through the single player mode just fine. I think real people cheat, or maybe the game is letting them cheat. Whatever the case, don't look for me to pop up in many multiplayer FPS matches. My ego can't take the bruises.
I've bought every Grand Theft Auto game since GTA 3 and haven't played any of them for more than a couple of hours
I hate the driving portions of these games so much that the first time I'm told to race a car somewhere or be picking people up under a strict time limit I break from the game and do my own thing. Causing mass destruction is fun and all, but maybe by GTA 5 they'll actually fix the nasty controls. That's right, bring on the hate mail!
While watching my friend play Final Fantasy VII for the first time, I had him skip saving Jesse at the beginning, causing him to die and allowing me to be able to play while he watched
Needless to say we're no longer friends. I made up for this by showing my cousins how to manage their materia since they decided reading was beneath them. I tend to prefer when people watch me play games and not the other way around.
There is a oddly sexy fan drawn picture of Sigurd from Xenogears floating around the net, it was my desktop wallpaper for three months
There is a site out there that caters to RPG fans. I'm not saying who they are, but they have a vast section of fanart. The Sigurd picture in question I have dubbed "Is it hot in here?" Please don't try to locate it.
I "borrowed" money from my parents to buy a video game console
So when I was 16 and had started a brand new job as a cart pusher at Target, my parents opened a checking account for me and started me out with three hundred of their own dollars. Seeing as how I didn't understand saving at the time by the PS2 was being released my account still had that starting $300 and only that. So what did I do? I would have gotten away with it had my mom not asked me later that day where exactly I found that kind of money to buy a PS2. Whoops.
I tried having my name changed to Link
I won't say when, but I will say it came very close to coming to pass.
Send me your own secrets (I promise to be discreet) and we can turn this into a weekly confessional. C'mon, we're all friends here, what do you have to lose?
TheDoctor
Posted to Miscellany, Video Games on 8 September 2008
· Comments (33)
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I tried to locate the picture in question to no avail. I couldn't help myself. Just so I know that I'm on the right track, does the name of the site start with RPG?
My secret shame is loving the PS1 Sailormoon fighting game. I was good at it too!
I enjoy strategy games...however I get bored with them rather quickly..and hate how long it takes to gather resources and build stuff...so I have never played one through without cheating!
I have only beaten one Zelda game, even though I have every single one of them in my house. I've tried to play each one of them, but I get bored really fast. I think I like Zelda more in theory than in practice.
I went against your wishes and decided to look for that picture...and if it is the one I found...
Well, um, yea...
Anywho!
It seems as though we have a lot of similar confessions. I have the Rhapsody soundtrack on my iPod, can't get enough YuRiPa in my life, etc, etc.
Oh where should I begin
1. Owning a copy of Ranma 1/2 for the Super Nes and loving it.
2. Choosing the Turbographix over the SNES
3. Beating Megaman for my friend before he did.
4. Beating Dungen Explorer for the TG16 in three days after buying it and never played it again but I still have the HuCard of the game now.
last but least
5. Dancing to the music from Streets of Rage 2 with my cousing like we were at a club and I was only 13 at the time.
I'm loving all the responses. Oh and @ Tuck, it does start with RPG.
I think many of us share the inability to finish some rather popular games. I give us credit for going against the grain!
Keep 'em coming guys and gals!
Hmm...memorizing the entire intro to the original Tomb Raider word-for-word?O_o
"What's a MAN gotta do tah get that kindah attention from yah?"
lol I had Tomb Raider 2 and 3 down pretty good Francis lol. ._.
I keep a copy of Guilty Gear simply because of Bridget.
I never beat Final Fantasy 7... I only watched my brother play so I could get the storyline.
I think I am the only person who preferred Yuffie in Final Fantasy 7.
I am currently cheating to complete Professor Layton.
I've never actually finished Myst.
I sing the Sonic R soundtrack.
I skipped to the end of FF8 on the PC by finding a game file that took me to the last battle. I didn't have the patience to play for 90 hours at the time.
I like video games but don't play them too often anymore after I cured my addiction by being a video game tester and working 40+ playing a variety of games and having a manager forcing me to play online strategy games against him during our lunch breaks. I realized I was wasn't an addict any longer when I came home, started a game and looked outside and saw how nice and warm the Cali sun was and just said "fuck this" then went for a bike ride.
You're not the only one with the Rhapsody secret, but with you being inside the castle, I don't see why you would hide that, Doc.
-I actually own Britney's Dance Beat. But it was a gag gift.
I'm a girl, so really, i can get away with most ditsy stuff. Although i'm not actually that type of girl.
It's not game related but, i know all the lyrics to the songs in the Buffy musical episode (Once more with feeling). That's fairly embarrassing.
-I own all The god of war games and GTA games, but never played them. (i will eventually.)
-I can play Super Mario world practically blindfolded.
>>I beat Final Fantasy X using a Gameshark
I still haven't finished this game because I'm stuck on the final battle with Sin. You have given me an idea!
Eddie: that's nothing. I still have a copy of Ranma 1/2 for the SNES, and still play it to this day.
As many times as I've played Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and as much as it's THE Zelda game to me... I've never beaten it.
I've never owned a Playstation
I wound up getting into the major games in retrospect.
And here's the biggie:
I LIKED FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN
I had an Original Xbox, and never owned a Playstation... but this generation I went with the PS3.
I'm actually happy with my choice, all the good Xbox games come out for the PC anyhow. Yet, I can't shake this feeling of seething hatred from all the fanbois boiling up to seek vengeance upon me for my betrayal.
@t-chan
Have you seen Dr. Horrible yet? That is my new guilty pleasure musical
@purin
I really like Spirits Within when I saw it in theaters. Now whenever I watch it I fall dead asleep, no matter the time
@Detritus
I felt the same as you when I bought a 360 over a PS3. I was and am a sony boy at heart so I felt uber guilty with the purchase. Luckily I was able to nab a PS3 as well so I was allowed to get my Sony Fanclub Card back
I've paid over $300 apiece for some collectible rare games. Looking back on the gameplay of these supposed rare titles I'd think twice again. Collectors are crazy sometimes.
I bought gold online when playing Final Fantasy XI, then when I desperately tried to level up and found nowhere else to turn I found that partying with Chinese gold farmers was highly effective. After all was said and done and I had beaten the game I sold my character on Ebay for a large sum of money. During play I probably flirted with a few male players who had no idea I was a guy. Wow that's all with regard to just one game...
My final psychological thesis paper for my Master's degree (got it this week) was about "Pathological Computer Use" and how many users can experience impulse-control disorder symptoms which include "addiction-like" symptoms when playing MMORPGs and even online console games like Halo 3. While the term "video game addiction" will never be an official diagnosis, I may help to further a trend in psychology to view video gaming as potentially addicting, even though I explicitly tried to explain that various factors in users' lives contributed to their developing a problem, many of my peers who reviewed the paper simply didn't get it and assumed that video games should be treated like alcohol or even an illegal substance. At least one researcher commented that video games were also useful as therapeutic tools. But yeah... one out of 35...
You beat X-2 three times and not VI?
That's... I don't even know what to say about that. That's just shameful.
And yes, yes that makes it much worse.
t-chan said:
>>It's not game related but, i know all the lyrics to the songs in the Buffy musical episode (Once more with feeling). That's fairly embarrassing.
That's not embarrassing, it's geek-chic. And if in doubt.... blame the bunnies (or maybe midgets).
(and yes, I too know all the words to that episode - and not just the lyrics)
Sinful gaming exploits? I didn't complete FFVII until eleven years after it was released. I still haven't completed VIII or X. I did complete IX first time round though - but only cos I loved the airship designs and wanted to see them again and again!
And I share the Sims money-guilt - I don't want the hard work of making my sims earn, I just want them to have the life I can't have - luxury, lots of friends and all the time in the world to woohoo to their little digital hearts content.
And in The Sims Makin' Magic, my sim inadvertently turned his female cat into a human and they promptly fell in love (having maxed their relationship scores before the change). Since this put a stop to my getting him with the male sim of his dreams, I built a box room, sent her in it and then deleted the door, trapping her until the reaper paid a visit...
I play Second Life, nuff' said.
Let's see...
I'm deathly afraid of the Tomb Raider T-Rex. In every PSX Tomb Raider. I practically close my eyes and waste medipacks in the process. When they're 32-bit dinos, they look that much creepier.
I really don't like Final Fantasy VII.
I rented Moonwalker all the time as a youngster. It has Michael Jackson turning into a robot!
I used to willingly listen to the Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack (I'm glad to see I'm not alone!)
80% of my N64 titles were wrestling games *blushes incredibly*
I would constantly make the Sims characters cheat on each other. In front of their spouses. On wedding days.
I have yet to pass a GTA title.
I stole a copy of MK II from a friend for a week. I was seriously considering keeping it, but the guilt was too much to bare. So, I slid it into his back pack while he wasn't watching.
I bought MGS4 around launch and still haven't played it.
I watched the Mario Bros. Movie on several occasions. 2 days ago I forced everybody at work to watch the Street Fighter Movie.
I kept a Playstation Underground demo disc for about 3 years because it had a Xena Warrior Princess demo on it..
The Killer Instinct soundtrack was my first ever CD.
oh yeah i forgot
-I used to have to turn down the Mario 3 dungeon music because it scared me. It still does a little.
-And i was terrified of those flying masks in mario 2. So much so that i never beat the game until a few years ago.
I don't know why i'm such a wimp with some things, lol.
This is a great idea for an article!! (But I'm not confessing anything...LOL)
Even though I am a huge fan of Silent Hill, I never beat SH4: The Room...It shames me to say this, but it scared the shit outta me! :-(
I wasted COUNTLESS hours of my life downloading skins of anime characters for the sims, then having them reenact my wildest yaoi fantasies. Ah, to have been a fly on the wall of my gundam wing household...
I was also fond of trapping them in rooms and deleting the door...
7 and 9 are the only Final Fantasy installments I ever beat.
I never beat Super Mario Bros. 3 (I know, I suck.)
I have never beat a single Zelda...
I bought the first Harry Potter game on ps1, even though I swore I would never, ever spend money on a movie based game. (It remains to this day the only movie game I have ever owned, but I'm still ashamed by it.)
And while this may not necessarily be video game related, I feel like I must get this off my chest before I die so that I may rest in peace. *sigh* Alright, here goes: I purchased that Pokemon: 2 B a Master cd...and ROCKED it. I swear to you, I would drive around jamming to the Team Rocket theme, hoping no one I knew spotted me. It was a very strange addition to my heavy metal-centric cd tower...
I feel so much better. Thanks!
-I consider myself a big Zelda fan, but I can't stand A Link to the Past. It's by far and away my least-favorite Zelda game.
--By the way, Zelda is the only series I've purposefully gone Rule 34 hunting for. Some of the stuff out there for it is frightening, but some of it... Um. Wow.
-I just plain don't like Final Fantasy games at all.
-Games that have made me cry like a baby: First, the usual suspects.
-Ocarina of Time (Link leaving Saria)
-Majora's Mask (Kafei and Anju--pretty much everything with them; the father-daughter reunion)
-Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Reuniting Punio and Petuni; Scarlette's letter to Bobbrey)
-Beyond Good and Evil (Jade's lighthouse speech; the death/reunion scene)
The "Wait, WHAT?" suspects:
-Metroid Fusion (Samus' offer of self-sacrifice, though Adam then reveals himself and that it's all good)
-Psychonauts ("Is that really what I look like in your mind?")
-Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (The ending is really sad, folks! I'm not kidding you!)
-Chibi-Robo (Bringing the aliens to the deactivated Giga-Robo, Jenny's "speech" in the hallway outside of her parent's room)
-I'll buy just about any game if it involves raising monsters in some way. Pokemon sunk its fangs into me deep.
-I enjoy games of dubious quality on the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance, particularly corny liscenced games. Although I will fight to defend the claim that "Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite!" was an AWESOME game, conflabbit.
-I think game designers who deliberately include ways to make a game unwinnable should be shot. It's the cheapest thing in the universe and was NEVER a good idea. I'm looking at you, Sierra.
- I have never played a Legend of Zelda game
- though I own each of the Final Fantasy games released on the PSX and PS2 (including X-2 and Tactics), I have only beaten 7, 8, & 9.
- I purchased a YuGiOh! game for the Playstation. actually beat that one.
- my tattoo is from a video game, and the next two I plan on getting are from the same series... I always make people try to guess what game the tattoo is from, but only one person ever got it right.
*my favorite part of playing video games is cheating to become an uber-powerful badass...
i don't like grinding to achieve greatness in my fictional worlds of enjoyment, i want satisfaction now...
*i loved suikoden iv
*i download cracks of bl games
*i hated disgaea
*i make my roommate take his shirt off when he wants to play my PS3... he's comfortable with his sexuality enough to say, "okay!" and i exploit that, heh.
"*i make my roommate take his shirt off when he wants to play my PS3... he's comfortable with his sexuality enough to say, "okay!" and i exploit that, heh."
That made me LOL. :D
I confess that I also bought the Pokemon 2 B A Master CD, and enjoyed it.
The only Final Fantasy game I have ever completed is Tactics Advance, and it's my favorite one of the series to this day. The only other ones I've played are I, X, and X-2.
I've played through Parappa the Rapper and its sequel many times, and enjoy it.
I was always scared, literally frightened, to fail missions in Goldeneye for N64, so whenever it looked bad, I would abort. I was 7.
I borrowed Harvest Moon 64 from my best friend as a child, and purposely never returned it. A while after she moved, I was happy that I got to keep the game...It's still my favorite game of all time.
This one isn't really MY confession, but what a friend confessed to me. I brought Harvest Moon 64 over to a different friend's house, and he loved it as well. We would set his kitchen timer for 30 minute intervals so that we wouldn't fight over whose turn it was to play. He confessed that when he was supposedly "checking the time", he would reduce the amount of time I had so that it was his turn. I was kind of mad at him for that, but he didn't tell me until around 5 years after, so it wasn't a big deal.
When games continually frustrate me, I sometimes get pretty violent with the hardware...Which is why my DS touch screen no longer works. :) Damn Elite Beat Agents.
As a child, whenever playing any type of game, I was afraid to play at night sometimes. I never could figure out why.
A couple of years ago, I paid $30 for a SNES and $70 for Harvest Moon SNES (which is rare), and was completely fine with it.
Not so much a confession as a story. When my two older sisters were teenagers, the oldest was obsessed with Super Mario 64, and would wake up at 6:00 AM, make smoothies, and go into my other sister's room while she was sleeping just to play it. When the other one woke up, the oldest just handed her a smoothie as an apology.
When playing Star Fox 64, I would always sincerely feel bad when I let one of my teammates die...even though they would be back.
I have played many Zelda games, but the only one I have actually completed was Ocarina of Time, using a strategy guide.
That's all I can think of for now.
Pokemon Snap is one of my most favorite games. Ever.
There. I said it.
One other thing I forgot to mention: While playing FF Tactics for ps1, I was always wracked with guilt whenever I had to kick off a teammate. so much so that I actually called my brother over to do it for me. I'd hand him the controller with instructions to kick off a character, then I'd turn my head away from the screen. It certainly didn't help that whenever a character was getting the boot, they'd guilt trip you big time: They would say things like, "But why, we've been through so much together!?" or "Nooooo!!!" It was so sad...