Do you metagame in your RPG's? Min/max? Powergame? Why?

Once I know there's something I can do to make my character more powerful, I usually do it. That includes exploring every corner of a dungeon, choosing the best items and feats, and doing every side quest. Very few games handle risk/reward well enough that I don't feel gimped choosing the clear lesser of two options. Of course, I'll choose other options on a second playthrough to see where they lead.

 

Morrowind taught me not to and I became a better person.

 

I always powergame. Can't avoid it no matter what.

In a new game I usually begin with a couple of characters to get a feeling of what to expect, then read something about said game here and there and finally make the one character which cuts through anything and persuades muslims that mohammed was a faggot and homosexuality is the righteous path.

 

Yes. Because I can.

 

This.

When I play Slashem I roll a doppleganger undead slayer with the intent of rounding up all the most broken intrinsics in the game and become nigh unstoppable in any conflict- even though it'd probably be easier to win with a gnome healer scribbling some genocide scrolls to take out all those annoying vampires and the like.

 

In the old days I was a power gamer, but then games got super easy and my skills improved due to a lot of multiplayer gaming.

So now I'm a reverse power gamer.

Since games today are so easy, finding the most overpowered and broken builds is pointless, since even slightly efficient builds tend to plow through most opposition.

It's better to analyze the game mechanics and how characters are built, determine the most powerful characters and the most borderline exploitative strategies and tactics, and then build your party in a manner that purposely AVOIDS that stuff and limits your power, so that you can keep a decent challenge in the game.

For example using point buy in TOEE and strictly limiting crafting and use of abusive magic items.

But ultimately I'm a power gamer at heart, I want a game like DC:SS or KOTC where you need to try to win.

 

Sure, just because I get petty enjoyment out of it. I mean, why just 'win' when you can utterly annihilate your opponents with ultimate badassery?

 

To me enjoying a game implies knowing its inner mechanics and exploiting the most of it. Not exploiting in the cheating sense, but having the edge no matter what. I always expend more time tweaking my characters than appreciating the game because that is what I usually enjoy the most, hence why I'm such a "gameplay whore" and this explains why I said D2 is the apex of gameplay diversity on that other thread.

I never roleplay, or perhaps my own personal roleplaying approach involves being like that. I'm like that on my daily basis as well, always aiming for the most effective course of action in menial tasks like driving or operating a microwave oven, and people are usually surprised by my affinity with machinery. So I simply extend that to my gaming habits and I can't see me doing it any other way.

 

This is a better definition of what I actually do. I tend to go with the weakest and by understanding game mechanics I end up with unexpected good results. It's much more challenging and rewarding than simply using the overpowered known combo. But still, it requires study and lots of trial and error.

 

I was a rabid powergamer in you youth. Now not so much. In the past I liked to crunch numbers and optimize my character builds. Sometimes tried to "just play" even after finishing a game for the nth time, but I always found myself power/metagaming.
Nowadays though, it's hard to find a game that's interesting enough that would warrant powergaming from me. I now "just play" and then complain on how shitty the game was. Tis' a sad development.

 

When the mechanics contains enough loopholes to be casually raped into submission, then covertly retaliates by makng the game very non fun, you learn to play nice with it. Then you discover that this style of playing is more rewarding in other games too.

I do powergame in some, like Wiz8, but learned not to if game has something else to keep me entertained.

 

It's a mix of both actually. I go with the challenge path but aiming towards the overpowered path. I start with what people consider to be weak and ineffective but through understanding of the game mechanics and lots of trial and error I end up with an unexpected good character. Most games are designed this way but the majority of people quickly label what is weak and what is strong, so I just pick what is said to be weak but end up turning my farmer into a juggernaut.

Unlike PorkaMorka I don't limit myself to being weak, but I start as weak ass and climb my way into overpoweredness glory.

 

Scratch that, even in Wiz 8 I tend to make characters I deem cool first, practical far second.

 

Do you imply there is anything else to RPGs than metagame, min/max and powergame? Why?

 

Skyway(metagaming);

 

I try to see everything and do everything and go into every remote corner of every dungeon because damn it I'm going to get the most out of this game

then i get bored about halfway through and quit

 

I try to limit metagaming to whatever the designers seem to have intended. Meta-gaming meaning stuff like abusing saves.

I don't even know what it means not to powergame or min/max though. It's the responsibility of the designer not to incentivize stupid or boring shit; when they fail the game has failed to a greater or lesser extent.

edit- I sometimes consciously "anti-powergame" to tiptoe around shitty design decisions to salvage something from a given game I guess.

 

Shut up and get back to splitting puddings

 

I would do anything for !oGA

but I won't do that

 

Depends on the game and what I enjoy in it. Most D&D games i moderately powergame subconsciously due to understanding the rules well enough that I know taking X is stupid and that class Y works well. In other games I try to avoid it until subsequent playthroughs.

For instance, first playthrough of Fallout I honestly made a character that I thought sounded neat and made choices that to me seemed fitting - then in later play throughs I was a 16 year old girl who used sledgehammers and bazookas.

some games however are made for power-gaming and meta-gaming, like ToEE and the Infinity Engine games (not counting Torment).

 

I have tried that, like, roleplaying thing, but outside P&P i found it quite ludicrous. The closer I go is to use nothing but highly specialized builds that have some glaring weaknesses i find fun to play with, like a sorceress focused on her magic skills but having so many physical penalties she gets one hit killed by a disabled Kobold, but i do that because I enjoy that glass canon gameplay style as it forces you to be uber careful and systematic. Other than that I always, like, min max my character's main build or job. It's stupid not to, other than for particular challenges to make the game harder.

In P&P is a completely diferent story, though.