Fun Through Dedication

[Megan]

I was browsing through TV Tropes the other day. To be exact, I clicked through random video game related tags, because I wanted to waste a little bit of time. And while I was looking for interesting topics, I stopped when they brought up the phrase "Fun Through Dedication", something that I found particularly interesting. So interesting that I thought talking about it would be a good idea.

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Now, first of all: what does "Fun Through Dedication" mean? At first glance it sounds like having fun by dedicating your time for picking something up that your interested in (like a random game that you just happened to start for the first time).
Fact is, that's not the answer, or rather: it's only the smallest part of the it. Yes, you need to start playing a game, but in this case, chances are, you won't have any fun with it.

People who've been playing games like Dwarf Fortress, any Roguelike (The Binding of Isaac, Nethack, etc.), or pretty much every platformer from the NES era (or most of the Indie titles), know what I'm talking about. If you don't know exactly what you're doing, you're going to fail and failing is obviously seldom fun. Only if you pour in a substancial amount of time, learning about the mechanics, trying out tons of different strategies, or finding others to help you getting into the game, you can get good enough in them, so all the things that gave you trouble turn into fun.

One thing we can all talk about is Pokemon. Pokemon is pretty easy to pick up and play, no trouble involved whatsoever. However, after you beat the E4, do all the ingame postgame things, what do else? You either restart it, move on to the next game, do breeding stuff...or you want to beat other people's Pokemon with your team.
Maybe it's because of how much people get pampered in the games, but you often hear people complaining about competitive play not being fun. People seem to get annoyed quite easily when they realize that having played the game is not enough to prevent other people from annihilating them in a battle. When they get faced with a hugh amount of additional information they need to process, just to be able to stand a chance against other people, it's somewhat understandable when they react that way and turn around whenever the term "competitive" comes up.

However, if you take your time and learn more about the competitive game, it not only allows you to get better at battling, but also allows you to look at the games from a different angle, making a lot more ingame options available, that you may have overlooked before.

 

[acatfrommars]

Different people have different preferences. Some people prefer the competitive scene, where some just like to unwind and play more casually. Then there are the completionists who must do every single thing in a game (which seems ludicrous to me). Pokemon games can be short if you just play through the main story and beat the E4. However, there is a whole other world in Pokemon with competitive battling and breeding. These two things can take up a lot more time, there are people that do these for hours a day which only helps the franchise.

I remember when I first stumbled across the competitive battling scene in about 4th. grade. I had had Diamond for about a year and had beaten the game. I hadn't played the game for a few month when I stumbled across a Smogon-like site (or some other Nintendo/Pokmeon site I don't really remember) and started going into chats and trading and battling with others. As a kid it was an exciting time for me because it was like I discovered a new way to play the games that I had grown up enjoying. That's when I opened up and started playing Smash and other games competitively as well. I'm sure many others have had a similar experiences as well; it's great playing a great game with other exciting fans!

Binding of Isaac Rebirth is one of my favorite games by the way! Even in college me and a few friends will play the game late at night. It's such a hard game, and it was so worth it to finally be able to beat mega Satan after like 3 months of working up to it. Rogue-like games are some of my favorites! I believe that the harder the game, the more satisfied you'll feel after beating it. But maybe not, maybe it's how much you enjoy the game? I don't want to play a stupidly hard game, like Wings of V, in hopes of beating it. I'd way rather play through an easier game like Pokemon. However, Wings of V can be a nice alternative to play every once in a while when I'm looking for a challenge. I honestly think it just depends on the gamer.

 

[donavannj]

Maybe it's because of how much people get pampered in the games, but you often hear people complaining about competitive play not being fun. People seem to get annoyed quite easily when they realize that having played the game is not enough to prevent other people from annihilating them in a battle. When they get faced with a hugh amount of additional information they need to process, just to be able to stand a chance against other people, it's somewhat understandable when they react that way and turn around whenever the term "competitive" comes up.

The time sink required to get good is probably the biggest reason I've personally never dove seriously into competitive battling. The TCG is more my speed of competition and is a pretty big time-consumer to keep up with itself as it is.