What's Your Gaming Achilles' Heel?

[marurun]

I did learn to make a certain peace with the right shoulder trigger on the Saturn pad, but everything else is a pain in the butt.

Ah, I'm triggering myself! So many shoulders...

[PartridgeSenpai]

I have a few, but I don't think they're so connected.

Puzzle games where you need to be able to think ahead of possiblities or combine what you have in such a way to make chains. I just don't have that forward-faculty to do it quickly enough. Such why I'm so trash at Puyo Puyo and PuyoXTetrix.

RTS games. I just can't divide my attention well enough, and I really don't enjoy them enough to make any attempt to get better at them.

[laurenhiya21]

Any point and click adventure game. I just can't wrap my head around those sorts of puzzles, even if the game doesn't use too much moon logic.

Also I can't do RTSs or any other game with heavy real-time planning. I can barely plan well enough in a tactics RPG, so having to do that sort of planning and strategy in real-time is next to impossible for me.

[Soldier Blue]

Games like COD..etc where you go around and murder people. I just never cared for those, but lately I might just be overly sensitive all of sudden. I'm not sure why but I cant play anything similar. Its almost like I have PTSD or something.

[Key-Glyph]

I am really enjoying all these responses so far.

That shoulder button conversation is really interesting. Related anecdote: Animal Crossing: New Leaf on the 3DS does not have an option for speeding up text. You either double-tap the touch screen, press B (but this is risky because B is also the "cancel" button, and if you aren't careful you might offend a villager or accidentally shut down a trade), or -- you guessed it -- hold a shoulder button. I've been doing the shoulder button thing recently because it's safer, but the angle for that on the 3DS is so super awkward! And you have to hold it, not just press it. Sometimes I miss having baby child hands.

One of my Achilles' heels (and the prompt for this post) is my lackluster buttonmashing. My right thumb started complaining while I was playing the original Contra the other day, and that isn't even a "mash like your life depends on it" kind of game like WCW World Championship Wrestling or Super Spike V'Ball. I was just sitting there thinking thoughts like, "Really? Am I this old already? Is my body starting to fail me?" and "Come on KeyGlyph, can there be any skill easier than just slamming a button a lot?"

I'm trash at it in arcades, too. So it's not just my crotchety thumb.

Oh, speaking of that, another Achilles' heel would be arcade controls in general. I'm not good with using my whole hand to bash buttons or using a legit joystick for anything dexterously involved. I just feel like my execution lags so far behind my mind when I'm not using thumbs.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Oh, speaking of that, another Achilles' heel would be arcade controls in general. I'm not good with using my whole hand to bash buttons or using a legit joystick for anything dexterously involved. I just feel like my execution lags so far behind my mind when I'm not using thumbs.

I don't think I've ever played an arcade game that required that! The only ones I've ever played to any extent have been MVS games like Metal Slug that have such horrendous slowdown, you always have the time to be able to think out where you're gonna go XD

I will admit though, having a panel you don't gotta hold in front of you certainly makes it far easier to mash the fire-button into oblivion in those games where you can fire as fast as you can mash.

[AaronC]

I always joke I'm bad at games, which I'm kind of serious about haha! I love playing, but it takes me longer then most to beat them because most of the time I can't figure it out.

My big issue is just navigation. I even have hard times finding things even when I have it on a map haha! I was playing Horizon and I was trying to find a side quest so I could activate it and it took me a lot longer then I care to admit. I just kept going the same way and thinking "I'm right here! Where is it?!" Come to find out I just haven't explored enough to find the stairs, but I kept just going the same path thinking, magically, it would just appear.

I'm terrible with navigating in real life as well so I guess it carried overt the virtual one haha !

[Ack]

Platforming puzzles cause my palms to sweat. I don't like heights, and this surprisingly translates into video games. As a result, I often overcompensate on the controls and get killed in platformers. Hence why I generally don't like the genre.

Pierrot, your issue with FPS and looking at the ceiling...are you using an optic mouse? They sometimes do that on their own. Also, some FPS feature weapons or roles where accuracy is less important...flamethrowers or spray and pray weapons sound like they'd be more your speed. I tend to favor them for crowd control over single shot precision weapons in FPS games myself

[marurun]

I have this issue with 3D and isometric platformers as well. Dark Savior on the Saturn made me so nervous. And that's on top of how stupid hard the game is.

[Gunstar Green]

I'm terrible at most kind of strategy games, RTS and especially 4X games. I just don't have the patience or ability to multi-task.

Games like COD..etc where you go around and murder people. I just never cared for those, but lately I might just be overly sensitive all of sudden. I'm not sure why but I cant play anything similar. Its almost like I have PTSD or something.

In recent years I've had trouble playing games based on real wars or set in a realistic war setting. It sort of happened suddenly because I used to always feel it was just fantasy but now playing games like this makes me feel awkward. Maybe it just hits too close to home for me now.

I'm not against these kind of games existing or anything, I just can't stomach them anymore. The more outlandish the setting the more I'm able to tolerate it though.