Ensign Nemo wrote on 2023-01-06, 20:05:
RandomStranger wrote on 2023-01-06, 11:33:
gerry wrote on 2023-01-06, 09:51:
i started Oblivion with a no faq no guide approach, so i have no idea what anything is!
it looks great, especially when first out of the sewers - but from here on i plan to not immediately do quests but just to see if i can find a place to stay and 'make a living' for a while
Awesome! That's how all first time experiences should be. No faq, no guide, no mods.
For RPGs or strategy games, I always look up a few guides first. I understand why people like going in blind, but my backlog is so huge that I don't want to end up with a bad build that makes me start over. I just think of guides like bootcamp. Soldiers don't go to war untrained, so I just look at it like that. Also, I try to use a hybrid of different builds or strategies from different guides. Makes me feel like it's more personalized that way.
I think that spoils the first experience. That makes it feel like you/I replay someone else's playthrough rather than our own. I also have a very long backlog, but I feel like I didn't experience the game properly if I wouldn't go in blind.
For the same reason I avoid save scumming in RPGs especially. It literally stands for role playing game. You supposed to play the role of a character you made up in their head, independent, put yourself in their shoes and progress through the game assuming that role. If that character fails a skill check or didn't end up with the most optimal solution for something, that's up for a subsequent playthrough to address, not an quick load. That's why I think the majority of people play RPGs wrong and that gives a negative feedback for RPG developers. Most people just do a Good and maybe a bad and lastly a neutral playthrough, and choose the options that go in that direction instead of thinking up a character and staying internally consistent with that.
For example it's really a stretch to call Skyrim an RPG, since it has no real RPG system that locks you into the "R" in the RPG. Yet on my first playthrough, I played as an escaped argonian slave from Morrowind, who always helped his own kind, and was very much against everyone hurting his kind and above all, hated the dunmer. That character whenever possible made the choice that benefit dunmers the least and argonians the most regardless of his own benefit, always carried paralysis poisons only so he could get out of a fight against an argonian without killing. That's why he joined the imperials in the civil war, because even though they wanted to kill him out of negligence, the stormcloacks treated argonians poorly in general. That is how one plays a role.
