Someone asked whether I ever played Doom. No, not really. I told that I've never liked first person shooters and then it hit me. I never liked them as there's too much going on. In fact, I've never been a big fan of any types of shooters, the only exception being Cannon Fodder. Now, with the new-found autistic perspective, it makes perfect sense. Sensory overdrive all the time equals no fun. How about my fellow autistics, any fans of shooters?
@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic I love all types of video games, as long as they're not fast-paced. Ideally, I can take as long as I like with my move. No shooters, no jumpers, no reaction type games.
@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic I used to like them when I was younger. It depended which ones you were talking about though. I was a big fan of the original Unreal.
@LehtoriTuomo
I was a big fan of Doom, Duke N7kem, and even the first Quake and Half-Life.
But then they got far too frenetic, there was far too much going on onscreen, and FPS's soon became painful to play.
About the only games I play now are Cities Skylines and, occasionally, Kerbal Space Program - much more my speed. @actuallyautistic
@stuartb@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic When my (adult) kids play Splatoon I can watch for about 5 minutes to feign parental interest but then I have to leave the room.
@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic Nope, not here. I played a lot of old-school (8-bit max) video games in the 80s, a few of which were first-person-shooter-very-light-and-low-res*, but by the time Doom came out 10-ish years later I had long since given up on the genre. As much for the "too much is going on all at the same time" as for any simulated-violence concerns.
Easily 90+% of all video games and computer games I've played since then are turn-based, again, because the "too much is going on all at the same time" in other styles was seriously Not Fun Anymore.
example: Battlezone, from 1981 or so. Very much a first-person shooter, and yet downright sedate compared to almost anything of that type released after about 1990.
@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic "More than just running around and killing shit" was, honestly, a huge part of the appeal of the classic game Adventure for Atari. You know, the one where you are SpongeBob SquareKnight and the dragons looked like ducks. You did have to run around with your (very pixelated) sword and fight the dragon-ducks, but there was an actual open world (tiny, by today's standards, but utterly unlike anything else before the original Nintendo console) that was at least a much fun to explore as any of the actual game mechanics.
Adventure was one of maybe 2 or 3 Atari 2600 games I was still playing regularly when the console and controllers began to die in the late 1980s.
And then I didn't like so much what else was happening.
Of course a bunch of modern games are also kinda shooter-y, without exactly being shooters. I do play them, if there's enough to pull me. But when things get billed as a shooter, chances are good I'll hate it.
The most modern shooter I enjoyed was Borderlands.
@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic Most shooters nowadays, especially multiplayer ones, are designed for break-neck pace, split-second reaction, and constantly dying and respawning, and I hate all of that.
Never enjoyed any type of 1st person games really. There's exactly as you said WAY too much going on.
I don't enjoy "open world 3rd persons games" either, including plateformers like Super Mario Odyssey, etc because even if the action is often less intense, there are still too many things to think about : staying alive, killing or avoiding ennemies, finding your way while having to be careful not to miss important places (that's a big one, I hate it), replenishing your stocks, all that in real time. Nah, it's just too much for me. I don't have the brain throughput for it.
I prefer games where the field of possibilities is narrower, like racing games, or 2D plateformers where you just have to go from start to finish.
Or management/construction games, or anything where you have time to think about stuff.
@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic Not really. I've played a few and they're ok, but I don't really enjoy them much. I'm ok with 1st person if they're survival type games though (7 Days to Die for example).
@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic I have only enjoyed Borderlands with my partner because they jump in the chaos, I can hang back and snipe people, as well as progression is player driven, not thrown at you. But it's really dependent on my energy levels whether this is fun. I also struggled with getting motion sickness when playing this 😅
Generally I prefer chill and casual games much more!
@LehtoriTuomo @actuallyautistic
Never liked them, no. Too fast, too little opportunity for tinkering and stategizing. The only exception that I did enjoy being Unreal Tournament 2004, which I often played with a group of friends, which was an excellent way of bonding over enjoyment of a shared activity.
I remember in Duke Nukem head-to-head, my one play was putting down pipe bombs in front of a doorway, then hiding in the room with a different weapon - because when a player ran over an inactive pipe bomb, the game would default to picking up the pipe bomb and equipping it, creating an opening for attackers.
So, yeah, exploiting the games to remove uncontrollable factors.
@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic I played Doom back then because it was technically impressive, but I used cheat codes a lot.
I can do adventure games with a shooter component (Rockstar games, Fallout, Far Cry, etc), but I need peaceful exploration between shootouts. There are a couple DLCs for Far Cry where you are perpetually on the move and have no time to breathe, and I hate them with passion though I love the base game.
The worst are Battle Royale games : shooters AND competitive. Irk.
@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic I played plenty of UT99 back in my youth, but I do identify with the notion of "too much going on".
I love games that have extremely deep and complex gameplay, but have simple graphics. Like, I love graphs and grids in games, whether strategy, tactics or role-playing games. I want to have an overview of what is going on, in discrete steps.
Too much eye-candy and I lose track of what is important and what is just visual "noise". ASCII roguelikes are my favorite.
@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic shooters, yes. Not so big on first person unless it's with a light gun. I prefer third person, top down, or ye older side scrollers. But sometimes the overall game is worth it. I love Borderlands.
I should note that I am not very good at them. Fair to middling, maybe. Running away is a valid tactic 🤣
@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic I mostly prefer simulators. With shooters and such I often feel the difficulty comes from the game "cheating" and that just annoys me too much. And yes, the stress and overload factor, tho I have to say it can get quite high in simulators too. Or when playing something like X-com...
@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic I've never got on with shooters. It might well be what you say - too much going on. I tend to find them annoying and tedious.
@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic I'm not. I'm too jumpy (not sure if that's Autism or cPTSD) but I got Quake 2 as a gift way back when and was determined to complete it, so I printed the walkthrough and did it that way, following it!