Breakfast Topic: Casual shame

I don’t like PVP in WoW. I tend to play Heroes of the Storm against AI. When given difficulty options in games, I usually leave it on Normal — or whatever the default is called — and rarely turn it up.

I used to be ashamed of that. For a long time, there has been a prevailing thought that you aren’t a real gamer if you don’t PVP or play on the hardest possible difficulties or whatever else. Only scrubs play PVE or play a game on Easy. I let myself believe those things for years. I had myself convinced I was bad at games or didn’t deserve to play with others because I liked taking it easy. I forced myself to raid at the highest level in WoW for a number of years despite not enjoying it whatsoever.

Only now, at almost 30 years of age, after a lifetime of gaming, have I decided I don’t give a damn.

I play games to relax. How people play games, and how people relax, differs from one person to another. I’ve known people who find a tense, tight game of League of Legends to be relaxing. I don’t understand how that can be true, but I’m cool with it. How they spend their time is completely up to them. Me? I need to be able to turn my mind off a little to relax. I need the ability to zone out on something mindless, maybe even a little tedious. If I’m playing a narrative-driven game, I’m playing it for that narrative — I want the story beats, I want the characters, I want the plot. Ratcheting up the difficulty to the point every encounter is a struggle is the surest way for me to lose interest in that narrative and, by extension, the game as a whole.

I game for those two things: relaxation and/or immersion. I’ve yet to run into a game where making it more difficult is more relaxing or immersive for me. Again, I know that isn’t the case for everyone and I respect that. Ultimately, we’re all playing (and paying for) the same games, even if we’re playing them differently. We’re fans of the same things. We’re supporting the same developers. Why not be comfortable with how we play our games and respect how others play them? Why not be friendly toward one another anyway? I bet we’d all make good friends if we’d stop snubbing each other over what we do with our mouse and keyboard.

No, I’m probably not as hardcore as some of you. And I’m cool with that. I’m not going to feel bad about it anymore when someone rolls their eyes when I say I play Heroes against the AI. It’s unfortunate that view exists — that you are lesser because you play a certain way — and I’m not going to succumb to it anymore.

What about you? Why do you play games? Are you in it for the challenge or do you take it easy? Are you the kind of person who’s in it for the narrative or the cutthroat competitive scene? Both? Something else entirely?