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  1. #1

    How often do you play games blind?

    Topic. I usually play games blind my first playthrough, but my completionist soul hates missing stuff as I play through games and sometimes you simply can't find everything on your own.

    Case in point, I am replaying Dark Cloud 2 after many years and it would annoy me greatly knowing I may have missed any ideas, inventions, or scoops. Debating whether or not to use a guide.

    What are your thoughts on the subject?

  2. #2
    Everytime. I buy games based on developer or team or simply a new thing that interests me with its box art. Its how games like Demon's Souls and Valkyria Chronicles sold me on a PS3.
    In my opinion not going in blind defeats the point. Its a game, a puzzle or challenge for you to overcome. Throw that out you may as well watch a movie, which nowadays is a little ironic considering most folks probably spoil games by watching a lets play of it first.

    Only downside is you have those agonising moments in some games where you reach a break in the path and one route may lead to a cutscene that ends the area and the other might lead to a treasure you can never get again this playthrough which for OCD completionists sake is a nightmare.

    But man not going into games like Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Final Fantasy VII or Breath of the Wild blind would really ruin a lot of the great moments for me. Its why nowadays i avoid a lot of movie trailers since they are just a condensation of the plot. Probably comes from being a film buff really, studied film at Uni and my pet peeve is being able to predict a films ending before it happens so from being a kid i went into movies knowing as little as possible and when i got into games more seriously with rpgs in my preteens that carried over and stuck.

  3. #3
    I really need to start playing single player games completely blind more. I always ruin the games I play by beginning to research stuff and then I go deeper and deeper and then end up constantly restarting so I can play a better or more efficient build or something. Witcher 3? Skyrim? Dark souls? Ruined and never finished.

    It's silly because it's single player and I'm not competing against anyone or whatever. Just so used to the multiplayer mindset sometimes.

  4. #4
    Old God endersblade's Avatar
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    Most of the time. It isn't so much that I hate having things spoiled (I really don't), it's that I like finding out what KIND of hidden things there are in the game. If it's a game, like DOOM, that lets me go back to find things, then I will run through several stages, finding what I can, continuing on, and then eventually go back and gather what I've missed.

    In games where I find out that there are things I CAN permanently miss, I will most often start over. It drives me bonkers playing through a game only to find out that I missed something that could be awesome to have, either cool to see or say more power or something. I HATE that.

    And being a completionist, if it's something like trying to get a 100% Beastiary filled in, I will use google-fu to make damned sure I don't miss a single one! MUST HAVE ALL LOGS COMPLETED.

    Or games like Divinity Original Sin and Wasteland 2, where you run across things that require certain skills to complete...I will either start over numerous times until I find out the best starting skills to have, or I'll just look it up eventually.
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  5. #5
    Banned Video Games's Avatar
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    I never don't.

  6. #6
    Pandaren Monk MisterBigglez's Avatar
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    I always go in blind, its more fun that way and I find it to be a more enjoyable experience.

  7. #7
    Immortal TEHPALLYTANK's Avatar
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    Depends, if the game is short then I'm far more likely to play it blind. If it has missable content and the length of a playthrough exceeds ~12-20 hours, I don't play it blind.
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  8. #8
    That depends on what I am playing on. If it is a PC game, then I always go in blind and will usually stay that way until I realize that I might miss something really important/cool. With Xbox games though, I will read through the achievements list and see if anything is missable before even loading the game.

  9. #9
    If I can, I prefer to go into a game blind. Unless of course it's a game that screws me over for not knowing information ahead of time as so many games do.

  10. #10
    Very rarely. Games like Portal I will play blind because seeing even 1 guide would feel like cheating to me. Also games I am very excited for and know will be great like Skyrim, but that doesn't last long usually.

  11. #11
    Bloodsail Admiral Gutler's Avatar
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    pretty much every game I play is blind (except PoE needed a build guide there).
    Last edited by Gutler; 2017-08-21 at 02:03 PM.

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  12. #12
    Every time, sometimes I look up a thing or two on a wiki while playing, did that a lot with Dark Souls/Bloodborne as they are ambiguous games where I feel get more out of the game by looking up info about things. All other singleplayer games though, always blind, I dont want to spoil the fun that I will have with a game before even starting

  13. #13
    Titan I Push Buttons's Avatar
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    I go in blind for strategy games and action games, but not RPGs.

    With all the bugs and non sequitur narratives these days, I fear playing blind in RPGs.

    With regard to the bugs, look at Fallout 4, for example... Half the quests in that game have bugs and half of those bugs can prevent progress... Things like "if you talk to this NPC at the wrong time, it will break them and you can't turn in the quest" and other such things like that... I wouldn't know that playing blind and could destroy my save with it. Especially the ones on chain quests, a lot of the time some of those bugs are like "if you pick the wrong option in quest one, in quest five the NPC will be glitched..." Playing blind, I could do that first quest and then several hours could go by before I reach the bug and that would all be time wasted since I would need to load a save from before quest one, if I even still had one at that point.

    And non sequitur narratives... A lot of RPGs today have quests/stories that don't flow logically and especially don't have logical conclusions. How am I to make informed decisions in these games with the absence of logic? By not going in blind.

  14. #14
    Every time. I'm not a completionist. That said, if I know there's some super spectacular awesome hidden thing, I'll look up how to get that one specific thing as I'm playing. Like the Meshweave armor in Horizon, the "secret" armors in most Assassin's Creed games, or the Master Sword in Breath of the Wild.

  15. #15
    I always go into a new game blind. Otherwise it's just a chore.

    I find it tedious to sit around looking at a guide while playing a game, especially since I tend to check over and over again to make sure I did things right, so I'd hate to spoil the fun on my first playthrough. Even more so in a game with story or the like.

    Once I've completed the game, or find myself being absolutely stuck cuz I'm a dumb dumb, then I'll find a guide and get as much as I can so I can experience just about everything other than insane collection-based tasks, like getting every item in an RPG.

  16. #16
    I rarely buy games unless I happen to see a bit of it somewhere and it catches my attention so I'm rarely playing anything blind in that sense. I don't really go out of my way though.

  17. #17
    The Lightbringer
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    Depends on the game type for me . Thou I will always buy a CE hardcover guide if it's available
    Survival horror/action games I usually go blind and try to survive on my own(resident evil/dark soul type) till I hit a brick wall then I will check guides.
    Fps games (cod type games) I won't check any guides till I beat the game.
    Adventure games(Zelda botw type)I'm check the guide and get as close to 100% complete before I finish the game.

  18. #18
    Honorary PvM "Mod" Darsithis's Avatar
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    If blind you mean without reading spoilers or guides? Always. I never look up the game ahead of time beyond the basic synopsis and reviews.

  19. #19
    The Lightbringer Cæli's Avatar
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    you have to know if you want to complete a particular game 100%.

    first time ever, I'd suggest to always go blind. to make a completionist game file, you must know the game, understand the game collecting mechanics, if some places are made inaccessible, and you also need to be sure you actually enjoy the game, and that you want to "select" it as a "completionist" game. there is much more "average/bad" games than very good games worthy of your time.
    take FF3 on ds for instance, by the look of it you could think that you'll like it for sure, so you start collecting and maxing everything. actually, you might not like it because the game is quite inferior to the other FF on the ps1 that might have lead you to like FF in the first place. but it's still a game probably worth it to do for your video game culture.

    so, 1st playthrough blind and collect stuff if you want but don't spend hours trying to figure out missables and grind everything, then second playthrough, 100%.
    on every game that I tried to complete 100% the first time, I had to restart because I missed something, or because a better version came out.

    you need to enjoy the game you're playing without completionism. completionism could lead to very strange ways to finish a game, and with the number of games out there, you might end up not doing anything at all. keep your completionist soul for the best games that you know you want to complete 100%, the best games in your view.

    I'll finish by saying that there's probably some exceptions. take a banjo kazooie or a DKC2 for instance. those are perfectly appropriate for a 100% run at first playthrough. also some very, VERY long games, like wow or maybe morrowind, you can't really afford to do them 2 times. perhaps botw is starting to be too big for this too. in the case of an "old" j-rpg, probably better to go blind first and then to go full 100% with missable guides. hope this helps
    Last edited by Cæli; 2017-08-21 at 08:11 PM.

  20. #20
    I try to go blind everytime. For first hours at least...

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