So in case people haven't been following me on Plurk (understandable, it's a niche-ass social media site with no real userbase outside of the Dreamwidth journal RP community) as of early March I've taken up a 52-in-52 challenge.
What's that? It means I want to beat 52 games in a year, an average of one game a week. Since I started in early March, that means I already was lagging behind, and still technically am. However, inspired by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
xyzzysqrl's own journal entries, I've decided to at least put my thoughts to words here about the games I beat, and maybe the ones that beat me.
However, that means I have a catch-up to do, which is half the reason this entry exists. The other half is to put in writing somewhere exactly what rules I'm putting up.
1) The goal is to clear 52 games in 1 year, or 52 weeks.
This is obvious, and failure to do so is failure of the challenge. Failing the challenge means I feel bad about not being able to commit to anything. Ideally, I would want to finish on December 31, 2017, but since I started late, I would accept finishing before March 8, 2018.
2) The games beaten must be games I have not beaten before.
Equally obvious - otherwise I could get this just by running FF5 a whole bunch (like I intend to this summer, the same way I do every Four Job Fiesta).
3) In addition, they must be games I actually own, or games I have formerly owned.
I'm sure I could get through this super easy by just downloading a bunch of GBA/DS shovelware and trooping through it, but not only would that not be fun, it also wouldn't help clear out my backlog. The "Formerly Owned" addendum is for games that I've had and wanted to beat, but due to having to resell games for emergency money, cannot play hard versions of (For example, Spyro on the PSX, or my most recent clear).
3a) Single games on a compilation are counted if they meet all other requirements.
This isn't as helpful as it seems since most retro games are actually really hard and/or unfun! But I'll count them.
3b) Episodic games (ex. most Telltale games) must have all episodes cleared to count.
Consider it a balancing factor for the first addendum. It's not too relevant.
4) Cheating to bypass difficulty is forbidden.
Another obvious one. It's not a challenge if I can just save-edit or CheatEngine my way to victory.
4a) On a per-case basis, using non-cheat external assistance to bypass tedium is allowable. Said exploitation must be noted.
Less obvious - basically, if I'm frustrated with an adventure game, I could spend five hours rubbing everything on everything else, or I could just read a damn guide. Same goes with using Virtual Console savestates to bypass a lack of saving. However, it's still a game "defeating" me on its own terms, which should be admitted to, for the sake of fairness.
5) Games must require some conscious input or controllable factor.
For clarification, Heavy Rain (if I owned it) would be acceptable, but a visual novel without any player agency would not. Basically, if I can complete it by setting it to "automatically progress text" and walking away for several hours, it doesn't count as a "game" for the purposes of this challenge, no matter how good Umineko and Higurashi are.
6) After this point, a game must be talked about, however briefly, to count.
I want to give people something to read, plus I want to make sure I actually have the ability to focus and put my thoughts to words still. It's important to me.
7) (edited addition, as inquired byxyzzysqrl) A game must be standalone and feature-complete to count.
That probably requires a bit of explanation. Xyzzy's actual wording was "Freeware/fan games and such", which falls into several categories on its own. Free games made in, say, RPGMaker or Game Maker (think original Cave Story) would count. Fan-games would count if they reached a 1.0 state and are considered "complete". I ain't playing Pokemon Uranium for this. Likewise, Early Access games are out of the pool. Flash games on Kongregate or Newgrounds or so on do NOT count, that seems like dirty pool. Finally, romhacks are right out; if I wanted to tally Link To The Past Randomizer or Aria of Sorrow Randomizer runs, again, there's little to no point of doing this.
With that said, a rundown of what I've cleared thusfar, along with a brief decompression of my thoughts on said games!
( Under the cut, of course. )
Anyway, I'm caught up on what I've cleared thus far, so hopefully I'll be able to go into more detail as I clear from here on out!
What's that? It means I want to beat 52 games in a year, an average of one game a week. Since I started in early March, that means I already was lagging behind, and still technically am. However, inspired by
xyzzysqrl's own journal entries, I've decided to at least put my thoughts to words here about the games I beat, and maybe the ones that beat me.However, that means I have a catch-up to do, which is half the reason this entry exists. The other half is to put in writing somewhere exactly what rules I'm putting up.
SWORD'S 52-IN-52 PERSONAL RULESET
1) The goal is to clear 52 games in 1 year, or 52 weeks.
This is obvious, and failure to do so is failure of the challenge. Failing the challenge means I feel bad about not being able to commit to anything. Ideally, I would want to finish on December 31, 2017, but since I started late, I would accept finishing before March 8, 2018.
2) The games beaten must be games I have not beaten before.
Equally obvious - otherwise I could get this just by running FF5 a whole bunch (like I intend to this summer, the same way I do every Four Job Fiesta).
3) In addition, they must be games I actually own, or games I have formerly owned.
I'm sure I could get through this super easy by just downloading a bunch of GBA/DS shovelware and trooping through it, but not only would that not be fun, it also wouldn't help clear out my backlog. The "Formerly Owned" addendum is for games that I've had and wanted to beat, but due to having to resell games for emergency money, cannot play hard versions of (For example, Spyro on the PSX, or my most recent clear).
3a) Single games on a compilation are counted if they meet all other requirements.
This isn't as helpful as it seems since most retro games are actually really hard and/or unfun! But I'll count them.
3b) Episodic games (ex. most Telltale games) must have all episodes cleared to count.
Consider it a balancing factor for the first addendum. It's not too relevant.
4) Cheating to bypass difficulty is forbidden.
Another obvious one. It's not a challenge if I can just save-edit or CheatEngine my way to victory.
4a) On a per-case basis, using non-cheat external assistance to bypass tedium is allowable. Said exploitation must be noted.
Less obvious - basically, if I'm frustrated with an adventure game, I could spend five hours rubbing everything on everything else, or I could just read a damn guide. Same goes with using Virtual Console savestates to bypass a lack of saving. However, it's still a game "defeating" me on its own terms, which should be admitted to, for the sake of fairness.
5) Games must require some conscious input or controllable factor.
For clarification, Heavy Rain (if I owned it) would be acceptable, but a visual novel without any player agency would not. Basically, if I can complete it by setting it to "automatically progress text" and walking away for several hours, it doesn't count as a "game" for the purposes of this challenge, no matter how good Umineko and Higurashi are.
6) After this point, a game must be talked about, however briefly, to count.
I want to give people something to read, plus I want to make sure I actually have the ability to focus and put my thoughts to words still. It's important to me.
7) (edited addition, as inquired by
xyzzysqrl) A game must be standalone and feature-complete to count.That probably requires a bit of explanation. Xyzzy's actual wording was "Freeware/fan games and such", which falls into several categories on its own. Free games made in, say, RPGMaker or Game Maker (think original Cave Story) would count. Fan-games would count if they reached a 1.0 state and are considered "complete". I ain't playing Pokemon Uranium for this. Likewise, Early Access games are out of the pool. Flash games on Kongregate or Newgrounds or so on do NOT count, that seems like dirty pool. Finally, romhacks are right out; if I wanted to tally Link To The Past Randomizer or Aria of Sorrow Randomizer runs, again, there's little to no point of doing this.
With that said, a rundown of what I've cleared thusfar, along with a brief decompression of my thoughts on said games!
( Under the cut, of course. )
Anyway, I'm caught up on what I've cleared thus far, so hopefully I'll be able to go into more detail as I clear from here on out!
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