Video game developers take great care in creating rules and restrictions that define the gameplay of their virtual worlds, but sometimes those rules aren’t good enough. In today’s rule-breaking edition of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Pibbles explores the joy of playing under your own self-imposed strictures.
You know how sometimes playing games properly just isn’t enough?
I’ve been thinking today (inspired by the story on Kotaku about the Skyrim Pacifist play-through) about how sometimes we go out of our way to play games in a way that they weren’t necessarily intended to be and how these self-imposed rules can make games more interesting, present a new challenge, or bring people together in multiplayer.
If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, let me give some examples. There’s a few games I play with friends regularly. When we play FIFA it’s an unwritten law that you’re not allowed to pick your own team; you have to random it. Even if it means Barcelona are playing Crawley Town. We’ve got our own system of random, where you have to random the country, the league and the team, and you have one chance to respin but only one. It’s the sort of rule you devise after a few whiskeys to bring a little extra spice to the game.
We play Marvel Vs. Capcom, and again, have to random. We play Mortal Kombat and if you don’t manage to get the fatality right you’re mocked and have to drink a shot. We play wrestling games and come up with a set move at the start of the game that is the only move you’re allowed to pin your opponent with.
I suppose it’s a fun system of getting more play out of our games. Playing them to death and then making up our own rules. I’m interested in what rules other people impose upon themselves in their games, be they single or multiplayer.
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Image: “MVC3 FTW” by Hugohugo
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