I’m my own worst critic. From writing to martial arts, I’m harder on myself than anybody else could ever be. I feel that that by never being satisfied with myself, I can push harder towards greatness.
Sometimes, though, my attitude causes me to devalue my accomplishments, especially when comparing them to those of other people. This happens most often with my writing, but it occurs a fairly regularly when I play video games. Though I’ve been playing games for 25 years of my life, I don’t feel that I’ve gained the level of skill you would expect from that kind of commitment. For every win, I suffer dozens of frustrating failures, and eventually, I forget the wins entirely and come to the conclusion that I’m a shite gamer.
When you can’t see the forest for the trees, it’s time to take a hike and get reacquainted with nature. A friend suggested that it might be a good idea to think back on some of my gaming victories in order to get some perspective, so that’s what I did. The following is a list of six gaming achievements that, while relatively insignificant compared to what the best of our breed is capable of, meant a lot to me. I thought I would share them with the Bitmob community, in the hopes that you’ll share some of your own gaming accomplishments in turn.
Personal Victory #6 -- Completed BlazBlue: Continuum Shift in a Japanese arcade with one credit
The follow-up to BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger arrived in Japanese arcades last November, and I was lucky enough to get a crack at it before locals started cutting class to practice with the new characters. I had played a fair amount of Calamity Trigger at home prior to trying Continuum Shift, but even on the easiest difficulty setting, I was never able to beat Arcade mode without continuing at least once.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I sat down at a free station, dropped in a 100-yen coin, and proceeded to beat the entire Arcade mode without losing a match. Better yet, I wasn’t even using my main character. I had some difficulties with Hazama, the new final boss, and his health-draining aura, but I managed to pull out a clutch victory in the final round with no health left on my meter.
It was the first time-- and hopefully, the last time-- I ever shouted in victory in an arcade. I’d like to thank the regulars at the Akiba Taito Game Station for regarding me with the same patience and stoicism that they afford to all excitable gaijin.
Personal Victory #5 -- Finished Contra: Shattered Soldier
I still have nightmares about this one. Designed to be one of the hardest in the series, Contra: Shattered Soldier required you to hit every single enemy in every level without dying if you wanted to reach the last few levels of the game. Anything less than an “A” rank on every level resulted in a truncated ending and a tacit implication that you should probably stick to playing Bob the Builder, which is probably more your speed. Jackass.
While I didn’t earn the “S” rank required to see the special, hidden ending, I managed to fight and defeat the last boss with weeks of practice and some help from Japanese YouTube videos. I accomplished this on a borrowed copy of the game, a copy that my good friend gave to me to keep after I had effectively dominated it. It still sits in my game cabinet, a medal of honor from a war I never thought I could win.
Personal Victory #4 -- Didn’t suck as a Hunter in World of Warcraft
Hunters are the most-played class in World of Warcraft. Their ability to send in pets to take on difficult monsters while safely dealing damage from a distance makes them a popular choice for new players and soloists. The unfortunate downside is that few hunters ever have a reason to group with other players, so when they reach the endgame and begin raiding, their performance is often unimpressive and laughable. I decided to play a proper hunter, just to show everybody how it’s done.
I started raiding Naxxramas at level 80 after a friend of mine put in a good word for me with her guild. They were short on ranged damage dealers, and I got my break after agreeing to put some serious time into learning how to maximize my damage output. I studied spreadsheets, poured over forums, and practiced on training dummies for hours on end, working out optimal shot rotations and positioning. Over a period of two months, I steadily improved, eventually becoming one of the top 5 hunters on my server and guaranteeing my place in my guild’s nightly raids.
Though I gave up World of Warcraft last summer due to politics and a lack of time, I’m still proud of being able to kite Gluth’s adds with single-digit stacks, doing 5k DPS on Patchwerk pre-3.2, and coming up with the strategy and execution that ultimately led to our guild’s first Razorscale kill in Ulduar.
If all of that makes no sense to you, don’t worry. You’ve just seen the sun more than I have.
Personal Victory #3 -- Completed the original version of Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening
People who visit my gaming space often ask why I own two copies of Devil May Cry 3. Why keep the original, inferior version when I have the Special Edition, with all of its improvements and extra content? Like Shattered Soldier, the original Devil May Cry 3 is a trophy that serves as a reminder of one of my greater conquests.
When Devil May Cry 3 came out, critics universally panned it for being overly difficult. Limited lives and the insane level of damage that enemies could deliver rendered it unplayable for all but the most dedicated. As a fan of the series, I was used to this level of challenge, and though it broke me on multiple occasions, I finally finished it on Normal.
What I didn’t know at the time was that the US version of the game had skewed difficulty. Our Normal was actually the equivalent of the Japanese version’s Hard mode. This was fixed for the Special Edition release, which also included an option to continue an unlimited number of times. I had beaten other games in the series on penultimate difficulty, but only while bringing in all of my purchased techniques, health upgrades, and stockpiled items from previous playthroughs. I realized in retrospect that I had just completed a completely fresh Hard run of Devil May Cry 3, with no preparation or carried-over enhancements.
It’s not something I would have attempted had I known better, but at least I get to chuckle to myself when I hear people complaining about how hard the Special Edition of the game was on Normal.
Personal Victory #2 -- Earned a tactical nuke in Modern Warfare 2
My first -- and to date, only -- game ending nuke in Modern Warfare 2 was almost a total fluke. I never expected to get a 25-kill streak when I set up shop on the most concealed vantage point in Highrise with a Barrett .50cal sniper rifle. My goal was to earn bullet penetration kills to earn the last upgrade for the Barret. I learned earlier that day that firing a bullet through a window counts as a bullet penetration kill, so I set to work, moving from window to window on the upstairs balcony, cracking glass and skulls with every round.
Usually, my aim isn’t anything to write home about, but something was different that night. Maybe it was the relaxed pace I adopted as I tried to make every shot through the window count. Maybe it was the fact that I wasn’t concerned with earning a nuke at all. Maybe it was the fact that the other team, for all their combined skill, couldn’t seem to keep up with my movements effectively enough to counter snipe me. I can’t really say.
Whatever it was, 7 sniper kills led to a Harrier, and that Harrier got me my Chopper Gunner at 11 kills. The enclosed space of Highrise turned the Chopper Gunner into an airborne executioner, and within 30 seconds, I was up to 20 kills. My Barrett did the rest, and with only two spare rounds remaining in my last magazine, a spray of red mist marked my 25th straight kill.
My only regret is that I didn’t switch to in-game chat before I launched the nuke. Having been nuked on a number of occasions, I know what kind of trash talk accompanies the dawn of a game-ending nuclear winter.
Personal Victory #1 -- Completed Ninja Gaiden Black on Hard
Most people never beat the first boss of the original Ninja Gaiden on Normal, so beating the more difficult version of the game on Hard is probably the greatest gaming achievement of my life. Though there are two whole difficulty levels above Hard, the incredibly steep incline from Normal to Hard is nothing to balk at.
Not only do higher difficulty levels of Ninja Gaiden Black throw tougher enemies at you, and more of them, they introduce new types of enemies whose sole purpose is to confuse you with new attacks and patterns that defy anything seen up until that point. Cat women who can perform an unblockable grab move from 15 feet away? Giant berserkers with juggle combinations that take you to death in one volley? Clones of yourself that can do everything you can do with machinelike precision and timing?
Clearly, the game hated me and wanted me to self-harm.
I made three major attempts over the course of a year, finally pulling out a win. I had to quaff a full stock of healing potions in almost every boss battle, and the amount of time I spent farming weaker enemies for the money to afford those potions bordered on ridiculous. There were a few points where I had to employ cheap tactics to trick the AI into giving me an easier time, but I won most of the fights in the game through blood, sweat, and tears alone. I’m not exaggerating about the presence of any of those fluids, either.
Now that I’ve recalled my greatest achievements, it seems as though I do my best work in one of two states. Either I was so stubborn and determined that I couldn’t be stopped until I finally achieved my goal, or I was so relaxed that amazing things happened when I wasn’t even working towards a specific challenge.
Those two polar-opposite approaches are generally how I find success in most things in life. Either I work hard at something and finally achieve it -- as is the case with my Bachelors of Applied Communications in Professional Writing with Distinction -- or I take a relaxed approach and stumble upon opportunities. My writing on Bitmob definitely falls into that category.
