Hardcore Or Just Stupid?

This is my style of play at video games I'm talking about here.

As I'm sure I've said someplace before, I've been playing video games for most of my life, which means a good 25, at least, of the 35 or so I've been alive. In spite of that, I'm not exactly the best gamer out there. Anything but, in fact.

After all, as I'm sure anyone who's read about my gaming endeavors, or more rarely, has actually seen me play at all, calling me a clumsy gamer is something of a compliment a lot of the time. If you're looking for proof, just check out my player's log of Breath of Fire.

I can think of a few reasons as to why I'm not a terribly good gamer. A large part of it is because I have other hobbies that I've spent, and still do spend, really, as much or more time on. I'll spend as much or more time out hunting and fishing, for example, because that's the sort of thing most of the people I know would rather have me do, as little sense as that seems to make sometimes. I'll get into why that is in a bit.

I've got quite a bit of writing available online, if one knows where to look. Not that such a thing is really an excuse for being a bad gamer. In fact, one would think that I'd play more to get ideas for stories from the games, but I really haven't.

And with regard to more physical hobbies, part of the reason I don't have more interest in them than I do is because even if I was in better shape than I am, I really wouldn't be in much condition for lots of physically challenging things like, say, football, for example, because that's something that would require a better ability to keep my balance than what I've got.

So, with all that in mind, one might think I'd be just the sort of person to use a Game Genie or a Game Shark or some other such tool when gaming, but I really don't. There are a few reasons for that.

One is that I had these things when I was a kid in the late 80s and 90s, and would even try to use them. The thing is, though, it didn't take me long to realize that they were really more trouble than I wanted to go through when I was playing video games. This was made worse the time I actually wound up getting the one I had for my NES stuck in the console. It took forever to get it back out, pretty much ruined the Game Genie, and almost wrecked the console, too. That was just about all it took to cure me of using them.

Beyond that, I did give external cheat codes another shot when I was in college. The one time I remember doing it then was using a set of codes for Final Fantasy VI. In this case, there were no technical issues with doing so. It's just that I found that it actually made the game less fun than just trying to mess around with what was programmed into the game without using any outside help. And that pretty much cured me of using such things.

Lately, though, I've been rewatching County Line Gaming's Apple play through the Origins version of Final Fantasy II. He admits to using the cheat codes, which seems only reasonable, from what I've seen of the game's difficulty in both watching his Let's Play and actually playing the game myself. He's getting beat to crap even with the cheats, and I'm taking it in the ass, so to speak, trying to get through some of those things without them. It's been enough to make me consider getting a Game Shark myself, just so the game isn't quite so frustrating to get through.

All the same, though, I'd kind of like to see if I could beat the game once without such aid. Just to see if I can do it, right? Because I'd like to at least have the experience.

But this got me to thinking about something. Considering that I'm such a crappy gamer, comparatively speaking, does it make me hardcore to play using only what I get in the game as it was programmed? Or am I just being a sentimental moron about it? After all, why torture myself over this hobby when I'm not especially quick to be a masochist about hunting, for example, where I regularly risk a broken leg from tripping on a gopher hole or fallen tree.

I find it an interesting debate, even if it's only one I have with myself, simply because it also makes me think about my tenancy to procrastinate about things. I've also been meaning to see if I could clean up and “unscuff” that Final Fantasy Origins disk for the better part of a year now, and haven't quite gotten around to it

It seems like a worthwhile discussion to bring up in the community, really. At least it'll be something to give my readers to discuss while I work on other projects.

So, to sum up, my question to myself, and everybody else now, is am I a hardcore gamer for playing the way I do, or just plain stupid?