I'm bad at starting new games

[Aenra]

Am bad at starting games myself. Getting too old for this shit ^^

Finally convinced myself to try out one of the Assassin Creed titles, see what the fuss was all about. Jeesus almighty, i couldn't even complete the tutorial. Epic fail, lol
Am thankful my favorite genre is easier on the hands, that's for sure

(this is where i'm supposed to say "and harder on the mind", but whom am i kidding)

edit: The OP's issue is autism, not the games or the genre. He's in a different category and am as such disqualified to comment. Something for which i am also thankful.

 

[Thonius]

I think this problem might be solved by the power of Excel!
For example in description to perk in manual or game encyclopedia you can add something like: during the game you'll encounter 20 speech checks.
Although now that I think about it it will make game boring.

 

[Doktor Best]

I'm not bad at starting games, i'm bad at finishing them. Not because the combat becomes too hard or my builds suck and i get stuck or something, but because at some point into almost every rpg you just get ahead of the curve and you become too strong and too rich actually.

I love playing the beginning of even mediocre rpgs because the world is alien to you and dangerous. You have to learn the mechanics, like a puzzle, and you have to learn how to gain and use all of the resources you can extract from the surroundings you can reach while scanning the gameworld for the gamemechanical hurdles and borders that are set for you. As soon as you have absolute freedom and infinite power, all those hurdles and borders crumble before you and i get bored very quickly.

 

[Zombra]

1) Start new game. Make character/party how I envision them
2) Play a bit
3) If the game/characters don't behave how I expected them to, return to step 1
4) Enjoy the game and characters behaving how I want

RPGs have always been this way. Generally I get to step 3 within a couple hours of playing, no big deal. I'd rather restart and lose 2 hours than play for 40 hours with an annoying character.

Note that I don't care about "optimal". I generally play RPGs on "Veteran" difficulty, never Supreme Jerk. It's fine if a character doesn't perform very well. In fact I will often monkeywrench a party's combat power because it's more fun to max out Goldfish Lore or something. But I will restart for things like, oh, I thought that skill would let me climb walls but it didn't work out that way, I should have taken that other skill instead.

I never read guides, they only tell you how to optimize your number stacks (or worse, sell you Football Helmet Clown Shoes Robot). Don't care. What's the point in having all those options if you're just going to use a cookie cutter build anyway?

 

[Tigranes]

If you feel like there's too many games and not enough time because you have kids etc, ask yourself: do you want to play some cookie cutter reenactment of somebody else's build and do it ten times, or do you want to play one game and have fun making stupid mistakes, weird-ass builds? Quality, not quantity. The same FOMO that makes you restart because you missed out on 2% increase in bow damage might be the same FOMO that makes you buy all those games you're never going to play.

Besides, chances are, most of the RPGs you miss out on this way are going to be shit anyway - and the ones that are really good, you'll hear about it enough on the Codex to try eventually.

 

[the_shadow]

I almost always end up restarting an RPG because I didn't optimize my PC, or missed something interesting in-game.

 

[eggdogg]

I am bad at finishing games lately. I can start a game like a boss.

 

[Wayward Son]

Go headfirst like a man. That's the big fun

Half the fun is making random builds and then either struggling through a self-imposed harder difficulty or, conversely, stumbling upon the secret OP builds and lolling at the game as you roflstomp over demons. I have no idea what your issue is, sounds like some form of OCD. Maybe do some yoga or a big bag of weed before starting one up next time?

Overcoming angst

See people? This would not happen if publishers still include manuals to every game copy...

I don't research most games going in and expect to have a subpar setup. I just roll with it and think of it as added challenge.

These. I used to do that, but now, I've found it to be half the fun of a new system.

 

[deama]

Every time i start a game using a system I'm not already familiar with I spend about an hour researching, looking up what people are doing, what builds they're using , which skills are useful and which not. I have this paranoia that Im somehow gonna botch the build and find out what I did wrong 10 hours deep into the game , and I hate having to restart.

So the question is, what do you do when you play a new game for the first time? How do you decide on what stats/abilities you want? Did you ever mess up a character so bad that you had to restart, if so how long did it take you to realize it?

Draw a blank mind and pick what sounds cool.

 

[Tigranes]

Think about what kind of character concept you want to play, or what looks cool on the character creation screen... instead of "what is the best character" or "oh god if i make a wrong choice my dude is going to be 3% weaker than he could be".

It usually takes more time and boredom to hunt down the exact right build and backtrack to get that one extra item, than it does to forge ahead with an imperfect character and take an extra few seconds fighting something.

What if you mess up? Then you mess up. In most games, you never mess up so bad that your game simpy becomes impossible to finish, or unfun as hell to play. And anyway, didn't you enjoy playing through 20 hours as a Bard? Wasn't it fun getting your other characters to bail him out, or finding clever ways to make him do something anyway? Is it really more fun to create that 5 attacks per round archer after Googling for an hour and then instakilling everything?

I mean, OK, maybe the satisfaction of 'beating' the system with the best possible character the first time represents the primary form of enjoyment for some people, and so anything else is a waste of time. I just feel like there's no journey involved, only a meaningless result of roflstomp. (It makes more sense to discover for yourself the optimal character and munchkin to the max on a later playthrough, since then there is a journey of a kind.)

I don't look back at the ideally optimised characters as the most memorable or amazing RPG experiences, even from a mechanical point of view. The instances I remember are when my idiotically built Vault Dweller had to pull out every trick in the book to beat a single Super Mutant... then found there were four more around the corner. Or when you're in Durlag's Tower and you're trying to kill half the enemies by running over traps with your thief, because your stupidly built fighter can't keep them at bay.

 

[Barnabas]

I always rush through the opening screens to get to gameplay then I play blind for awhile but then when I feel like I'm missing a lot I start from the beginning and pay attention to everything and play serious. I take my time with games and usually spend a lot of time reading about the mechanics of gameplay and lore at the same time.

Don't think I ever messed up a character to the point where I couldn't continue the game. I'm really smart though ask anyone.

 

[Lilura]

Basically what happened to me in Divinity OS.

Hah. Shelved that shit indefinitely.

 

[vivec]

My real problem is boredom based on the story. I am not afraid to explore the mechanics, in fact, I enjoy that. But if the story is not catchy and offers no good writing worth reading, if there are trash mobs after trash mobs and the best strategy overall is to use the same overpowered tactics, then yeah, I tend to give up fast.

 

[J1M]

Planning a character build is often more fun than playing the actual game with modern RPGs, so maybe you are just lingering on what you enjoy.

These days I find I have to work pretty hard to find the character build that is actually fun. For example: Dragon Age Inquisition is pretty horrific unless you play as an archer. Lining up Long Shot and Explosive Shot for maximum effect is actually somewhat entertaining, and there's a burst damage 'high score' element to the game once you have the Assassin skill Mark of Death; can ramp it up to 20,000+ damage in one hit.

The cause of this malady is feature bloat with regards to the number of skills and options. Even if a dev team could invent 20 fun character builds, they don't have a way of communicating directly what those are, and the chances that more than a handful will be balanced properly are low.

In conclusion, character building is fun, but to create a higher chance of the gameplay having an element of fun/challenge the character options need to be restricted to a manageable subset.

 

[laclongquan]

Pre-start: define what kind of character you usually run in most game. In my case would be a jack of all trade, intelligent charismatic good old boy.

Step 1: find and read information about games. Thinking about playing but not yet. This is normal. this just meant the games dont SPEAK to you or me at that moment. I got a ton of games I havent played yet, many in top 70.

Step 2: Try the game. This is most likely with a powerful build that faqwriters and players praise the most in forum etc... This in most case should result in a boring game and I restart with my most favourite characters. Example? IWD2. The first time I tried with some minmax chars and it's so boring. Years later my retry is according to my taste and I can proceed far far ahead.

Step 3: Play the game with my char. This more likely result in an abandoned game. This is also pretty normal and in no way reflex quality of the game. I play Fallout New Vegas for 14 months straight, complete and retry DLCs several times but to this day still not bother to complete the game. BG1 I always abandoned, worst is when right at the outside of the temple's gate. BG1 game engine is just shit. On the other hand, BG reloaded module in NWN2 I complete it just fine. BG2 also get completed without issue.

 

[Haplo]

Research, planning and building characters is like half the fun for me. Spend a lot of time on that before even starting.
Systems better have a big impact on actual gameplay, as well as meaningful choices and opportunity costs!

Also absolute balance is not welcome. There should exist some possibility to build overpowered skill/ability combos. However they should not break the game too early and/or to the point of making it a boring slog.

 

[Jimmious]

I actually don't allow my self to over analyze the character creation since most games are in any case easy and made to be played with imperfect characters.
However during the game I can't help but try to constantly optimize every little thing to the point of undressing and redressing whole parties every couple of hours or so

 

[janior]

Don't play bad games and you won't have this problem.

 

[J1M]

Research, planning and building characters is like half the fun for me. Spend a lot of time on that before even starting.
Systems better have a big impact on actual gameplay, as well as meaningful choices and opportunity costs!

Also absolute balance is not welcome. There should exist some possibility to build overpowered skill/ability combos. However they should not break the game too early and/or to the point of making it a boring slog.

You are correct that 'perfect balance' where choices don't matter is unwelcome. It's more a question of if the useful combinations are interesting, and if the interesting combinations are useful.

 

[Zombra]

You are correct that 'perfect balance' where choices don't matter is unwelcome. It's more a question of if the useful combinations are interesting, and if the interesting combinations are useful.

In a pinch, as long as it's interesting, useful can slide.

 

[Timeslip]

Usually do a bit of reading on builds for a first run. If it's a long game, will spend a fair few hours figuring out how game works, then restart with a better understanding. Prefer it to having to play with a hapless character for 80 hours.