Have you ever played a game the way it wasn’t intended, either by choice or completely unknowingly?
Can games be played on wrong way? That’s an interesting question that I don’t really have a simple answer to.
On the one hand, some games have their own rules and punish the player when he breaks them. For example, in Assassin’s Creed, you can’t be the guy who attacks civilians – the game will play you desynchronize if you do because it wasn’t designed for that kind of gameplay. Grand Theft Auto offers more freedom, but rampage has its consequences and the game actively tries to stop the player by sending in the police force.
On the other hand, some games allow the player to conduct various experiments in them. Certain titles allow us to play in a way that is not intended – doing bizarre or nonsensical things.
On the third hand, some games can be so layered and complex that they can be played the wrong way without realizing it. For example, some strategies give you plenty of resources and don’t limit you in what you can build, and that’s often a recipe for completely misjudging how something should be played.
For the purposes of this discussion, we are interested in which games did you play incorrectly or in a way that was not intended. Have you ever played something the “wrong” way, either consciously or unconsciously?
In my early days as a gamer, I often practiced the deliberate destruction of cars in games. I was always fascinated by games that had a somewhat realistic way of deforming vehicles, models from which things fell off, etc. And then instead of racing, I would know how to create chaos on the track – cause crashes, drive in the wrong direction, things like that.
What are your examples of playing games the “wrong” way?