Does anyone else have anxiety attacks around character creation?

[KeighnMcDeath]

Purposely create the worse party and play through. Roll randomly or flip a coin on decisions. And if the game allows permanent death PLAY IT! And boost the settings to the hardest.

 

[TOUGH GUY]

I know the feeling and too find it difficult to "just go with it", and I get annoyed by the idea of "not getting everything out of a game". But exactly like octavius said, time has made it much easier to accept the unpredictable.

And it was not all bad either. Just the idea of clicking the REROLL button countless times and hearing this brings up so many wonderful memories of great fun and adventure:

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

No I don’t. I love when character creation and skills are very complicated. Because it keeps autist faggots like OP away

P.S. is this rpgwatch?

 

[Monkeyfinger]

I was more OCD when I was younger, in that I had to explore every square of a game and do all quests, and visit all stat gaining sites in the Heroes of Might and Magic games.
But I've become more relaxed with age, realizing most games tend to be too easy.
In CRPGs I try to role play if playing a single character, and I try to include all races and classes and both sexes in party based games.
In games like the HoMM games I try to finish the maps and campaigns in as short in game time as possible, even if it means having more under powered heroes in later campaign maps.

Incidentally I feel I've become less "autistic" over the years. I used to be very interested in numbers, statistics, tables, combat calculations and such but nowadays it bores me. I think there is a connection.

Completionism in RPGs is a form of grinding that the person doing it can tell himself "it's not grinding, I'm just exploring all the content."

One outgrows both eventually.

 

[Martyr]

LOL, "anxiety attacks around character creation"?
bro, do you even Gold Box??

 

[Perkel]

If you are making perfect character then you are doing it wrong.
Powergaming is worst kind of fun you can have.

 

[filpan]

A lot of beta cucks here...

 

[hexer]

It sounds to me like the anxiety is triggered by Fear of missing out (FOMO) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out
You can blame modern lifestyle for that.. many people give too much importance to what others say or do.
Instead of Xanax which will fuck up your liver , not to say your mind, you could ...

1) Use your smartphone less
2) Use your social media accounts less or even better, close them
3) Chill out and have fun, that's the most important thing in life

 

[ERYFKRAD]

. I used to be very interested in numbers, statistics, tables, combat calculations and such but nowadays it bores me. I think there is a connection

Yeah, the brain doesn't compute like it used to.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

A lot of beta cucks here...

How ironic, I was just reading the beta play on the inxile forums for bards tale 3 for the TBTT. Some bitch that you can have better characters if you start from that game as you can get up to 30 stats where in the earlier games you can’t. (Wasted stat potential and hp/sp considering the difference). Let’s say it follows a similar formula as the old BTCS manual. Considering I’ve played the game on almost all platforms to completion I wouldn’t care if they implemented up to 30 stats limit in the first two games. Balance would be different but kids today...

 

[RatTower]

I can kinda understand this for MMORPGs
You can't quickly re-roll your character there. If its your main character you're stuck with it. Sometimes for years.
That sucks especially with the name, cause others will constantly use it to refer to you. It's not like you just type it in and forget about it.

For singleplayer games I developed the habbit of going with the RNG approach.
The fun of the game is not min-maxing your stats but turning around the hand you've been dealt (unless you roll really shitty stats - but then it's more a question of whether you wanna deal with that kind of difficulty level and not whether the character meets your personal "aesthetic" standards). Also makes you appreciate the games character system much more.

 

[Kev Inkline]

If you are making perfect character then you are doing it wrong.
Powergaming is worst kind of fun you can have.

You're not supposed to have fun in the first place.

 

[Perkel]

The fun of the game is not min-maxing your stats but turning around the hand you've been dealt

This.
By far the best fun i had with BG2 was when i rolled fighter that was weak as fuck.
Like someone said it is the journey that is important not the destination.
If you powergame then you don't struggle which means game is boring.

 

[hexer]

If you powergame then you don't struggle which means game is boring.

Yeah, what's the point of wasting all that time on optimizing your build in a game that has a difficulty slider?
Just move it to very easy and you'll arrive at the same experience... unless you get your fun value from "beating the system".
Personally, I'm against difficulty sliders in games but that's another topic..

 

[Temenos]

Hmm, I posted before how I thought that just rolling with your character even if you fuck up some stats is still workable, and even mentioned the old Fallouts. Well I'm close to giving up on my current Fallout 2 (restoration patch) run because I'm starting to run into situations where I just don't feel my character is responding as well as it should (e.g. too many quests or misc checks requiring a higher perception than I was led to believe was necessary, combat being too difficult, etc).

The annoying thing is that I don't recall Fallout 2 being this hard before, but I haven't played it for like 3-4 years though so I'm probably forgetting something. I did deliberately avoid that trait which increases all your attributes by 1 but lowers skills and additional skill points, because it's regarded as "cheating", yet I'm starting to think that this trait is always how I've played before and I'm just getting fucked over due to Killap's modifications.

Either that or modern gaming has turned me into a pussy and I've forgotten what true game difficulty feels like. I'm prepared to believe this is also possible.

EDIT: I'm also an idiot and didn't think Per Jorner's build guide was really necessary.

 

[Butter]

Hmm, I posted before how I thought that just rolling with your character even if you fuck up some stats is still workable, and even mentioned the old Fallouts. Well I'm close to giving up on my current Fallout 2 (restoration patch) run because I'm starting to run into situations where I just don't feel my character is responding as well as it should (e.g. too many quests or misc checks requiring a higher perception than I was led to believe was necessary, combat being too difficult, etc).

The annoying thing is that I don't recall Fallout 2 being this hard before, but I haven't played it for like 3-4 years though so I'm probably forgetting something. I did deliberately avoid that trait which increases all your attributes by 1 but lowers skills and additional skill points, because it's regarded as "cheating", yet I'm starting to think that this trait is always how I've played before and I'm just getting fucked over due to Killap's modifications.

Either that or modern gaming has turned me into a pussy and I've forgotten what true game difficulty feels like. I'm prepared to believe this is also possible.

EDIT: I'm also an idiot and didn't think Per Jorner's build guide was really necessary.

Savescum your way to Navarro and steal the Advanced Power Armor.

 

[Abu Antar]

Luckily, I do not have this problem. Character creation is one of the things I like most in rpgs. On a first run, I can spend 30-60 minutes. If I play the game a second time or more, I usually have come up with a new character while doing the run I am on currently.

 

[thekdawg21]

I used to get paralyzed by choice when I was younger but now I typically play the same type of build on a first playthrough, and save the min maxing for the second time through. I cant be bothered to agonize over relatively small decisions anymore and prefer to just get it started.

 

[ultra loser]

I understand you OP.
I spent more time looking for builds for Etrian Odyssey because I didn't want to fuck anything up than playing the game (dropped it really quick because it was just boring random encounter fest).

 

[Chippy]

If the game is good I can do an autistic run easily. I ran into the original bug in BG where the game ran out of resources (whatever the term was) if you did too many quests. Then in F2 the cafe lucky encounter made me laugh because I did what one character build was taking the piss over: I had actually played F1 by pickpocketing every single npc I came across. Took ages, but it was brilliant.

The thought of doing something even slightly autistic in a game like Oblivion though just leaves me here:

 

[Theldaran]

If you are making perfect character then you are doing it wrong.
Powergaming is worst kind of fun you can have.

Well, maybe he just wants a world where he can be the most violent thug out there...?

 

[Baardhaas]

Hmm, I posted before how I thought that just rolling with your character even if you fuck up some stats is still workable, and even mentioned the old Fallouts. Well I'm close to giving up on my current Fallout 2 (restoration patch) run because I'm starting to run into situations where I just don't feel my character is responding as well as it should (e.g. too many quests or misc checks requiring a higher perception than I was led to believe was necessary, combat being too difficult, etc).

The annoying thing is that I don't recall Fallout 2 being this hard before, but I haven't played it for like 3-4 years though so I'm probably forgetting something. I did deliberately avoid that trait which increases all your attributes by 1 but lowers skills and additional skill points, because it's regarded as "cheating", yet I'm starting to think that this trait is always how I've played before and I'm just getting fucked over due to Killap's modifications.

Either that or modern gaming has turned me into a pussy and I've forgotten what true game difficulty feels like. I'm prepared to believe this is also possible.

EDIT: I'm also an idiot and didn't think Per Jorner's build guide was really necessary.

Post your character in the Fallout 2 RP thread so we can tell you that you've fucked up give you some advice.

 

[Temenos]

Post your character in the Fallout 2 RP thread so we can tell you that you've fucked up give you some advice.

Unfortunately I restarted with a new character already (Gifted gunfighter from Per Jorner's walkthrough) so I don't have the old character stats available. I do remember my old char having nothing particularly stupid (tagged small guns, speech and lockpicking, traits were fast shot and good natured). The biggest issue was having a perception of 5 - turns out 6 is a minimum for getting a lot of quests/bonus from keen observation and I wasn't willing to use Jet just to get that minor perception bonus with a high chance of addiction. Should have picked gifted even if Per himself thinks it's almost like "cheating" - fuck that, the game is brutal at times, nothing wrong with a little extra edge.

 

[sser]

I have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, OCD, and one thing that triggers me is character creation in RPG's. Full party creation is the absolute worst. I always want a "perfect" or optimal build and will often just try to find a guide for the "best" party build. But then I get stuck at the character creation screen for hours at a time sometimes, agonizing over my build trying to "get it right". I usually have to take some Xanax by this point.

Then once I start playing, I have to complete the entire game. I want to complete all the quests, get the best equipment, and explore every inch of the fog of war so that the map is perfect. If there is something about the game that would keep me from doing all of this, I just quit playing, rather than finish an imperfect, sub-optimal game.

I can spend ages in character creation, but it's not a matter of min-maxing so much as worrying that I'll get hours into the game and hate how my character looks or realize its class is boring or that their voice effect is annoying, stuff like that. Funniest bits are worrying about their appearance and then 10mins into the game they're sporting a full helm anyway and you never see their face again.

Min-maxing I've never really cared about and missing content due to builds means replaying the game which I don't mind. A good game will do this in a way that replaying is something you'll want to do, like New Vegas and exploring the other factions. Poorly designed games will put it down to inconsequential choices where you'll replay 99% of the same content just to eke out 1% of variance. Not my cup of tea.

 

[anvi]

I don't have any trouble with building characters, I have never built a gimpy character. My problem with RPGs are exploring every inch of every area. The problem is... If you don't explore every inch and under every fucking bush, under every staircase, and in every crate chest and barrel, then you will miss items and gold that you may need later. But that means I either have to just say screw it and not do the chore, or I do it and it adds hours to every game because I am so thorough. I hate that.

For this same reason, if I ever come across a big town in a game, I will likely just uninstall.