Playing games with self-imposed extra rules ...

Dave_The_Sheep

I don't recall reading about this before, but I assume other people have done this before as well. I was telling a friend about this Fallout 3 humour post, and the rules the guy role played with (allegedly anyways, I don't care if it's true or not).

It made me remember when I played Pro Evo 6 waaay too much. In Master League mode, I used to make up extra rules, usually when signing players. Such as:

- you're only allowed sign left footed players
- or you're only allowed sign on free transfers
- or you're only allowed have players on your team that are over 30, or under 20.
- you're only allowed score from outside the box.

That kind of thing.

Did anyone else play games in such a way that they make up extra rules that they have to adhere to, to make it a bit more interesting?

I realise this kind of thing lends itself to RPG games more so than others... PC Gamer are running the an Illusionist in Skyrim series at the moments. It's a similar self imposed rule, and makes for an interesting read.

Banjo

The "Nuzlocke" rules for Pokémon (which can be applied to any of the games) have created an entirely new subgenre of the game, usually complete with comics detailing the harrowing journey through the cruel world of animal abuse. I heartily recommend googling it then giving it a go.

(What follows is not that interesting if you're not a pokémon player)
The idea is to address some of the primary shortcomings in the games - the combination of the vast variety of available 'Mon and the subsequent grind to level them up to beat different gyms means you never really have any connection with your team - it's always 6 ringers chosen for a specific job, most of whom you'll discard when that job is complete. Also there's the lack of consequences to losing battles or letting your 'mon get "knocked out". Under Nuzlock rules when your 'mon dies, it dies for good. When you lose a battle, you're dead. This makes Poison and Confusion states particularly terrifying, and some self-sacrificing moves far more heroic. Also you can only catch one 'mon per map area which encourages (and forces, early on) you to use pokemon you might never have previously bothered with.

ShadowHearth

that was the thing of the past, when games had very few modes and people making their own entertainment. we got really spoiled these days.


My favorite thing to do was playing Dune 2 on sega mega drive 2 on last mission. Instead of rushing and killing oponent i would make my defence line and then build cool layout proper army bases. Used walls, turrets, making path. organised factories etc. I could spend hours just making visually cool base, while the only thing that would be still alive in enemy disposal - power plant.

Dave_The_Sheep

ShadowHearth wrote: »

that was the thing of the past, when games had very few modes and people making their own entertainment. we got really spoiled these days.

Ah I dunno. There are still some modern games that you can do things with.

Shogun 2, played a game where I could only use melee units. No ranged. Similarly with Napoleon TW, no artillery. Just Infantry and Cavalry.

Or Deus Ex: HR, where (admittedly, there's an achievement for it) you can play without killing anyone. I suppose that was a game design choice though.

I had a friend who played Hitman 2 (alright, a few years old at this stage) who was never allowed shoot anyone. There were a few levels that he couldn't complete without it, but that didn't stop him trying.

ShadowHearth wrote: »

My favorite thing to do was playing Dune 2 on sega mega drive 2 on last mission. Instead of rushing and killing oponent i would make my defence line and then build cool layout proper army bases. Used walls, turrets, making path. organised factories etc. I could spend hours just making visually cool base, while the only thing that would be still alive in enemy disposal - power plant.

I used to do the same in Red Alert or Total Annihilation. Some absolute monster bases created over the years. Pure turtle.

damagegt

I do this with all fps games.My usual set up is to play the game on the hardest difficulty using only the single fire guns/pistols .It puts an extra edge on the games

I do this through the multiplayer as well only using the full auto guns to get the unlocks/challenges.

RedXIV

I remember me and my brother playign street fighter as kids had a few rules.

You couldn't trap someone in a corner for more than 2 seconds, you couldn't pick the same character as the person you were fighting and fireball spamming was a complete no-no

kiffer

I was playing xcom the other day and remembered that we used to play with a few extra little rules.
1, No armour; 2, "no man left behind" if a guy was killed you had to get another guy to pick up the body and move it back to the Skyranger, even if this meant that you'd lose the mission and the ship; 3, no alien tech. You could research it but not use it... except for somethings.

Also only stun batons was another good one... all melee all the time.

Fall out 3, nothing but pistols.
Pacifist WoW characters... that didnt last long, but I know somepeople have gotten quite far at that...

Taylor365

Used to Play tourneys in Diablo 2 with extra rules.

Green Envy - Only allowed to use set items.

Nomad - Never allowed use the ingame map.

You got a problem - Only allowed to equip gambled items.

All with the usual stipulations of single clears and single player 8.

Good fun

dreamers75

SWAT 4 non lethal :eek:

Burning Eclipse

I used to do this all the time back in my younger days when I couldn't afford games, hence finding a way to prolong the experience.

Played through Goldeneye on the N64 with only the starting weapon from each level on the hardest difficulty. Good times.

Now I'm lucky if I finish all the games I have because I have no spare time!

J. Marston

I refuse to ping pong pass or spam lobbed through balls in FIFA. And I look down my nose at people who do.

TPD

Goldeneye multiplayer only using remote mines was a good one.
A more recent one is in Halo 3, having a purely hammer and sword match, with fastest movement speed and lowest gravity. Some very tense games of that were had.

I suppose they're not really self imposed, as they were within the options of the game... Ah well :P

ShadowHearth

Taylor365 wrote: »

Used to Play tourneys in Diablo 2 with extra rules.

Green Envy - Only allowed to use set items.

Nomad - Never allowed use the ingame map.

You got a problem - Only allowed to equip gambled items.

All with the usual stipulations of single clears and single player 8.

Good fun

that reminds me lol. we used to take off all our gear off high level chars and go to nightmare/hell act 1 and we were only allowed to use what we find .

Genghiz Cohen

dreamers75 wrote: »

SWAT 4 non lethal :eek:

Bean-bag shottie FTW!

Cravez

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Bean-bag shottie FTW!

Alot of servers restrict the pepper gun. Don't blame them as it was very easy to constantly pepper someone until you had them in cuffs . Bean bag shottie takes alot more skill to use

TomCo

A big one in System Shock 2 was to play through the whole game with just a wrench.

Cravez

Might & Magic series (particularly M&M 6: Mandate of Heaven) is to complete the game with one party member only. Using the knight class was the hardest as you had no access to magic.

wnolan1992

One of the most common ones is in GTA games (especially IV where the controls for driving are excellent) I force myself to obey all traffic laws. Used to do this in Driver 2 free roam as well.

YouSavedMyLife

Doing a Soul Level 1 Dark Souls run at the moment. I find alot of the time i try self imposed challenges i get bored pretty easy since alot of the challenges limit you to a single play style and it locks of parts of the game i would consider fun.

Squ

Connect 5

cherryghost

I used to play Goldeneye with a steering wheel.

SeantheMan

cherryghost wrote: »

I used to play Goldeneye with a steering wheel.

I lol'd

Azza

Scrubs in fighting games have been for years making up there own rules that they expect other people to some how and play by.

No throws being the best example, of if you throw someone you must allow them to throw you back. Seth Killian formely of Capcom said he use to know a guy called Ming who dominated back in the arcade days of SF2 by using a very simple and effective technique known as tick throwing. This technique is still around and still effective but its very counterable. But before the internet allowed info to be widely available, ameuter players had no idea what to do.

Any time this Ming guy would land a throw he would apologise and pretend to let the opponent land his free throw only to throw them again as they walked up to get there free throw and repeat this practise.

The guy was also able to demonstrate how dumb it was to not allow throws, as all he had to do was score one hit get a life lead and then block all incoming attacks (or avoid/counter the ones that did chip damage)

But you see this alot in fighting games at low level of play. People don't know what to do, so want the tactics that are beating them disallowed or if your online they start abusing via microphone or messaging you, calling you cheap or low skilled, when its really applies to themsleves.

blaa85

Any time I've started ff9 over the years, I had to hit 1,000 in the jump rope with Vivi at the start of the game before moving on.

Scavenger XIII

Azza wrote: »

Scrubs

They could at least be sensible about it and ban ambiguous crossup cannon strikes instead. :pac:

tuxy

I don't do it myself but I hear many people play with permanent death. If you die you delete your save.

blatantrereg

I impose the rule that saved games dont disappear when I die during roguelike games [aka save-scumming].
It's a proven fact that 100% of people who say they finished games such as ADOM and Moria without doing this are talking through their hoop

ibFoxer

With a few of my mates on ME3 gold multiplayer we sometimes play under the following conditions

Krogan only
Can only use melee
Only carrying a pistol
No missiles allowed

We also used to do pistol only on RDR free roam. Good times.

ShadowHearth

Well I remembered some simple normal ones:

No attacking of harvesters
Knife only im counter strike LAN.
Crowbar only ( you know what game! )
Play resident evil on 2 saves max.
Metal twister 2 - play with each car and then try to finish all game as many times with each car as possible. Have charts and compare with class mates who finished game most times.

Retr0gamer

I often play the Dead or Alive games only using female characters.






And with one hand.

Zapp Brannigan

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I often play the Dead or Alive games only using female characters.






And with one hand.

It must be hard.

delta36

Mates and I got quite good (and then a little bored) playing Modern Warfare 2 in splitscreen on hardcore mode so we ended up with Magnum only battles (a lot harder when you have no targeting reticule) and on occasion melee only fights (involving running towards each other and trying to hammer down on the thumbstick as fast as you can before the other person gets you). Those got quite tense.

CORaven

Nothing too mad:

In Gears of War online matches, I generally do not kill a downed enemy unless I execute them. It makes making a kill more risky and that bit more rewarding.

Black Ops zombies pistols and knife only is tough but fun.

Skyrim I have a mod that disables fast travel and another that requires you to eat, drink and sleep regularly. That makes the game far more challenging.

In Total Annihilation I used to try and capture enemy tech before I could finish the game. The most challenging was to try and capture (but not convert) the enemy commander using the air transport vehicle.

Nuzlocke is tough, I must try it sometime.

Zapp Brannigan

When me and my mates would play PES there was a house rule that there were no cutbacks from the byline allowed as it was pretty much a guaranteed goal.

When we were beginners we also made one of our mates always play stick goalie cos he was way better than us (He'd still run the pitch and score though)

richymcdermott

when i play metal gear games or dues ex or any other stealth game i don't kill anybody and try not to be detected, that leaves a lot of moments where analyze the enemies moments and movement pattern for 15 minutes before you can feel ready enough o move on to your next position.

Patser

Cracked had an article yesterday on Epic but pointless achievements in gaming that seems to link to this thread quite well.

Includes a CoD:MW3 player that only used knife, a Skyrim finisher that only used fists and a pacifist WoW player that maxed out without hurting anything.

http://www.cracked.com/article_20063_the-6-most-mind-blowing-and-pointless-gaming-achievements.html

Doctor DooM

Azza wrote: »

Scrubs in fighting games have been for years making up there own rules that they expect other people to some how and play by.

No throws being the best example, of if you throw someone you must allow them to throw you back. Seth Killian formely of Capcom said he use to know a guy called Ming who dominated back in the arcade days of SF2 by using a very simple and effective technique known as tick throwing. This technique is still around and still effective but its very counterable. But before the internet allowed info to be widely available, ameuter players had no idea what to do.

Any time this Ming guy would land a throw he would apologise and pretend to let the opponent land his free throw only to throw them again as they walked up to get there free throw and repeat this practise.

The guy was also able to demonstrate how dumb it was to not allow throws, as all he had to do was score one hit get a life lead and then block all incoming attacks (or avoid/counter the ones that did chip damage)

But you see this alot in fighting games at low level of play. People don't know what to do, so want the tactics that are beating them disallowed or if your online they start abusing via microphone or messaging you, calling you cheap or low skilled, when its really applies to themsleves.

I came here to post this exact thing!

I've actually been at an SSF4 tournament where there was a guy behind me who decided I was throwing too many sonic booms and started very loudly shouting at me going "AW COME ON DON'T BE THAT KIND OF DICKHEAD". The irony being I was in a final and under the aforementioned ambiguous cannon strike pressure froma good Cammy player, which is just as if not dirtier a tactic than boom spam... I actually had to pause between fights and throw him a dirty look to get him to stop.

deathrider

Not a Fifa fan myself, but a lot of my friends are, and there seems to be an elaborate set of rules in place when they play. If they lose by X amount of goals, they must post a public apoligy on facebook, and tag the winner of the match in it, for example. It's dumb, harmless craic, but I think it's cool.

RedXIV wrote: »

I remember me and my brother playign street fighter as kids had a few rules.

You couldn't trap someone in a corner for more than 2 seconds, you couldn't pick the same character as the person you were fighting and fireball spamming was a complete no-no

I used to have a friend back in the Street Fighter II days, who used to always want to play Balrog mirror matches. But, he used to want to enforce a "no headbutting" rule, so it would be less like a street fight and more like a boxing match. Of course, in the heat of the fight, you'd still end up headbutting him, and thus he'd get all huffy and go home.

K.O.Kiki

deathrider wrote: »

I used to have a friend back in the Street Fighter II days, who used to always want to play Balrog mirror matches. But, he used to want to enforce a "no headbutting" rule, so it would be less like a street fight and more like a boxing match. Of course, in the heat of the fight, you'd still end up headbutting him, and thus he'd get all huffy and go home.

You have no dignity.

Star Lord

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Play resident evil on 2 saves max.

Not an enforced rule so much as a necessity as we had no memory card, but finishing Resi 1 with no saves...
Was always bricking it once we hit the labs!


Goldeneye 64:

"License to Kill" (One hit kills) combined with "Slappers only"



Or the tension and hilarity of proximity mine only games