OCD vs. Video Games

[Luke]

I enjoy to do general maintenance on my consoles and games, maybe a little re-organizing around once a month. I take care of my stuff, but not OCD about it at all, or when playing them. Cleaning the games and consoles, and doing a little organization reminds me a lot of when I use to catalog my old comics. Sometimes you stumble across a few things you forgot that you had, and loved.

There was a period when I would try to make perfect runs on every game, and it just wasn't fun anymore, so I gave up on it. I guess that was the limited time of my OCD on games, if that counts.

[J T]

I understand the fear of drowning. But why are so many people afraid of water on here? The human body is comprised of roughly 60-70% water. There's no reason to be afraid, kids!

It's usually because somebody had some negative experience where they nearly drowned, but the fear generalizes to water in general. It doesn't make sense to be afraid of water when you're not going to drown in it, but that's how fear works. Fear generalizes from one situation to other related situations in order to keep you from getting into similar predicaments in the future. In fact it doesn't make sense to be afraid of any thing in a scary movie or videogame because what happens in movies and videogames is imaginary. That doesn't stop me from feeling afraid when I play a survival horror game alone at night though. And thankfully so, since the fear is part of the fun.

If you expose yourself repeatedly to things you are scared of that can't hurt you, you will eventually stop being afraid of them though. That's the major treatment for phobias. You face your fear until it becomes boring and your brain's emotional system learns that whatever you are irrationally afraid of won't actually harm you. It's a strange thing about phobias that we can logically say to ourselves that something won't harm us, but we still feel the fear. It takes repeated exposure to the feared stimulus in a safe context for our brain's emotional system to get the message.

[Luke]

Thought I'd throw it out there...

Fact: My dog can't swim, as a lot of pitbulls can not because they are too top heavy.
But! She can sing like a bird.

[Niode]

I understand the fear of drowning. But why are so many people afraid of water on here? The human body is comprised of roughly 60-70% water. There's no reason to be afraid, kids!

I'm not scared of water, that would be ridiculous, How would I clean myself or anything like that, I'd be walking down the street, it rains, I run screaming for cover. That would be funny as hell to see but I don't think any is that neurotic!

It's drowning/fear of the unknown that I'm scared of the most. You can't see what's in water, unless It's a pool of course but even that still doesn't make me want to get in it. I just don't like the loss of control, it causes me to panic, which in turn makes me start to drown. I get panic attacks from loss of control/anxiety, when water is added into the equation, it multiplies the result.

Anyways, can we get this topic back on track? I've already derailed one of JT's threads this week.

[thetooth]

Getting a perfect score on EVERY level in Yoshi's Island on SNES...

[Weekend_Warrior]

I understand the fear of drowning. But why are so many people afraid of water on here? The human body is comprised of roughly 60-70% water. There's no reason to be afraid, kids!

I'm not scared of water, that would be ridiculous, How would I clean myself or anything like that, I'd be walking down the street, it rains, I run screaming for cover. That would be funny as hell to see but I don't think any is that neurotic!

It's drowning/fear of the unknown that I'm scared of the most. You can't see what's in water, unless It's a pool of course but even that still doesn't make me want to get in it. I just don't like the loss of control, it causes me to panic, which in turn makes me start to drown. I get panic attacks from loss of control/anxiety, when water is added into the equation, it multiplies the result.

Right. But I don't think the water seen in a video game is going to hurt you any more than the raindrops outside or the shower in the stall will. That's kinda what I mean - being afraid of water in a video game

[Yukima]

Oh yeah... I definitely am OCD when it comes to video games. Especially Pokemon - I want to own every version of every game, in English and in Japanese, and own all the strategy guides for them because I like the game art, etc. Any game I buy for any system must be complete with the case and manual (at least for disc-based games - for cart-based games I don't care as much) Any guides I get must be clean and not creased too much and must not have writing on them... unless the writing is so hilariously fail-tastic I can't help but keep them around for laughs (like lots of unnecessarily extensive game notes or comments or whatever)

For RPGs, I'd like to have everything complete before challenging the final bosses. I also have high anxiety and get really nervous if there's a lot of crazy stuff going on in a game I'm playing... so for any games that end up getting ridiculously hard and require superhuman skills to beat, or at least more time than I can afford to develop those skills, I use cheat codes. I want to finish the games completely, and it isn't worth giving myself heart attacks, headaches, or high blood pressure just to finish them.

[Kebo]

I understand the fear of drowning. But why are so many people afraid of water on here? The human body is comprised of roughly 60-70% water. There's no reason to be afraid, kids!

My fear is of things in the water. I've always been able to swim since a young age, but I have always been fearful of creatures in the water with me, even little fish. I'm not sure what it stems from, maybe because I saw all the Jaws movies as a kid. I once had a big leech in my belly button too. And recently, I was on some rotting dock, a board broke and my leg fell through into the murky water, that was nightmareish to me. I have no fear of water itself, in fact, I'd love to have a pool. It's the idea there's other creatures, in their element, while I'm out of mine, that freaks me out. If I'm in a forest, I can run, swing my arms. If I'm in the water, I feel slowed, trapped. Despite this, I'm actually fascinated with water and what's in it. I wish big sea serpents were real. I just don't like to be in the water, and since I can get into games, I don't like being in 3D water with hostile creatures in games. I have no fear of drowning.

[J T]

Oh yeah... I definitely am OCD when it comes to video games. Especially Pokemon

[Dakinggamer87]

As far as games I just try to beat 'em and move on. I have too large of a backlog to play and I enjoy them more when for example I'm not doing random/boring side quests for trophies/achievements or something I'm spending time on that is pretty boring when it can be spent on my next game. I will sometimes play an RPG and try to do every side quest, collect the best weapons, and rare items before the final boss but I rarely do that. I like to enjoy the story the best aspect of RPG's and go to my next game. The only RPG games that I will do everything in is the Final Fantasy and Chrono series.

Video game collecting I like to have my games organized and I clean my systems regularly. Cosmetic condition for games I'm very strict with unless the deal is amazing. I like to avoid greatest hits/platinum hits/player's choice just because it sticks out when displayed on my shelves. It mainly depends on price but if it's only a small price difference for original/black label I will go for it. Any game I buy for any system must be complete with the case and manual for disc-based games but for cart-based games I don't care as much. I would like to have the original box but it's not a problem. Strategy guides I get must be in like new condition,clean, and if possible not have writing on inside.

Overall, I guess I'm more leaned towards collecting aspect than doing everything in a game!!