My wife appears to be enjoying Civ incorrectly

[Elok]

After watching me play Civ4 for hours, building up cities and taking over the enemy's, she got interested and asked me to show her how it worked. Of course, I knew I'd be creating a monster--the game's addictive. What I did not anticipate is that she would become addicted without taking the game at all seriously.

A normal, average, and therefore "correct" Civ player will spend every single turn looking to maximize advantage, planning up to several dozen turns ahead. I am not what you would call a good player, but I at least weigh my options carefully. I maximize output from every square and choose what to build next based on how it fits into my plans for domination.

My wife has taken a deeply disturbing and more whimsical approach. She plays around at random, just clicking whatever sounds good and worrying about what it does later. She maintains that it's more fun to just explore the game world without worrying about winning. Also, she likes seeing/hearing me cringe when she does something like send a caravel with a scout to explore the polar regions when half the globe is still blacked out.

It's a subtle form of psychological torture with her. "Ooh, I think I'll build a theater next." "Honey, you don't have any dye and your culture slider is at zero. The theater won't do anything." "Oh well, they can build the theater anyway." "But...but...you're doing it WRONG!"

Then she accidentally knees the PC's power switch, losing at least twenty turns of "progress," and she doesn't get upset! Might my wife be a witch?

[Lorizael]

I have a friend who plays all games (not just Civ) in a kind of similar way. Rather than playing randomly, he decides that the stated objective of the game (or the traditional route of achieving that objective) is boring and endeavors to find new ways to enjoy the games he plays. So he'll specifically avoid using vital elements of gameplay or overuse one particular element just to see if it works. And, most annoyingly, if he finds that he's winning, he quits the game and either employs a different, harder strategy or just finds something else to do.

[Al B. Sure!]

After watching me play Civ4 for hours, building up cities and taking over the enemy's, she got interested and asked me to show her how it worked. Of course, I knew I'd be creating a monster--the game's addictive. What I did not anticipate is that she would become addicted without taking the game at all seriously.

A normal, average, and therefore "correct" Civ player will spend every single turn looking to maximize advantage, planning up to several dozen turns ahead. I am not what you would call a good player, but I at least weigh my options carefully. I maximize output from every square and choose what to build next based on how it fits into my plans for domination.

My wife has taken a deeply disturbing and more whimsical approach. She plays around at random, just clicking whatever sounds good and worrying about what it does later. She maintains that it's more fun to just explore the game world without worrying about winning. Also, she likes seeing/hearing me cringe when she does something like send a caravel with a scout to explore the polar regions when half the globe is still blacked out.

It's a subtle form of psychological torture with her. "Ooh, I think I'll build a theater next." "Honey, you don't have any dye and your culture slider is at zero. The theater won't do anything." "Oh well, they can build the theater anyway." "But...but...you're doing it WRONG!"

Then she accidentally knees the PC's power switch, losing at least twenty turns of "progress," and she doesn't get upset! Might my wife be a witch?

Umm... that's sort of how I played these games when I played them.

It's like SimCity. Yeah, you could go and be a boring nerd about it with planogrammed cities but it's funner to just play.

These are games. Not jobs.


This is also why I don't play StarCraft online because that **** feels too much like work. If you miss building an SCV when you have the resources for it, oh my god! That slight mistake could potentially be what gives your opponent an advantage over you.


Oh and by the way, Civ4 wasn't even all that.

[Al B. Sure!]

I have a friend who plays all games (not just Civ) in a kind of similar way. Rather than playing randomly, he decides that the stated objective of the game (or the traditional route of achieving that objective) is boring and endeavors to find new ways to enjoy the games he plays. So he'll specifically avoid using vital elements of gameplay or overuse one particular element just to see if it works. And, most annoyingly, if he finds that he's winning, he quits the game and either employs a different, harder strategy or just finds something else to do.

Winning is boring. Like when I play EU3, I roleplay and do stupid **** because the rulers at the time would've done stupid ****. And when I get strong enough (usually in the 17th century) where I can destroy a coalition of the next few strongest countries, I stop and pick a new country. I know a lot of EU3 players switch up to a minor at that point and see if they can take on their created blob but I prefer to start countries fresh.


A lot of people find it fun to play around with a game. Try different things. Take Call of Duty. What fun is it in playing the game online with the best weapon all the time? Experiment and have fun. Try every weapon. Use the C4. Use the tomahawk and the crossbow. Try different things.

You get a lot more enjoyment out of the game and a lot more replayability if you aren't focused solely on winning.

[Lorizael]

It figures that a jobless bum wouldn't be concerned with winning.

[Wezil]

Might my wife be a witch?

You should brace yourself for the possibility.

[Al B. Sure!]

See Call of Duty is a great example for discussion. Probably very few of you have played it, especially online, but the game is phenomenally popular so respect the appeal and it caters to everyone. People like you who are focused purely on winning, well, there's leaderboards, kill-death ratios, and all manner of statistics tracked in the game (as well as statistics on K/D ratios with each gun, how many times you died using a gun, how many times you were killed by someone with a gun, accuracy %'s, points scored in each type of match over the past week, month, and lifetime, etc.) so your type would always be satisfied and can determine their most efficient weapon, equipment, perk, play-style, and match combination.

But the sheer customability and the challenges and contracts encourage playing around with the game. Certain weapons like the tomahawk are inferior to the grenades in the slot that they inhabit but getting someone with a tomahawk is fun and funny as hell. Sure, unless you get scary proficient with the tomahawk, you'd always be better off with a grenade, but tomahawks are funner (although sticking someone with a sticky grenade is just as fun).

I've recently ditched my standard claymores that everyone uses for manually-detonated C4 and that stuff is hilarious. It's especially humorous to kill your friends with it. One guy says he owes me two deaths because I got him with C4 twice. I can't wait til he gets me or tries to at least

[onodera]

You have Asperger's syndrome, she doesn't. That's why you think there's a "right" way of playing the game, and she's playing with the game, not playing the game.

[Al B. Sure!]

It figures that a jobless bum wouldn't be concerned with winning.

Games are for fun. If you can have fun AND win, well that would be the ideal, right? But fixation on winning at the expense of fun and experimentation just makes games stressful.

[Al B. Sure!]

You have Asperger's syndrome, she doesn't. That's why you think there's a "right" way of playing the game, and she's playing with the game, not playing the game.

I mean look at who's talking in here. Lorizael and Elok. I mean we already know they're both soulless, joyless nerds

Of course they would say there is only one way to play a game and it comes at the expense of fun.

[Lorizael]

AS, most of my friends and I are very competitive, but generally not in a dick-waving way. We enjoy the challenge of attempting to outsmart each other. Once we've figured out a game, however, we either get expansions or get a new game. We tend not to mess around within a game, with the exception of the one crazy friend. That said, the crazy friend wins a lot because the universe fails to adhere to the laws of physics in his presence.

[Al B. Sure!]

nm

[Lorizael]

I mean look at who's talking in here. Lorizael and Elok. I mean we already know they're both soulless, joyless nerds

It's true. (For me, at least.)

[Elok]

You have Asperger's syndrome, she doesn't. That's why you think there's a "right" way of playing the game, and she's playing with the game, not playing the game.

No, we're both pretty sure she's somewhere on the spectrum, though she hasn't been formally diagnosed...

[Elok]

And Al, we both know you're just trying to get back on my wife's good side. It really hit close to home when you said chicks like her only dig guys like me for the status it gives them...