My Life As A Gamer: Turns Out I Want The Same From Vidya

In light of my recent decision to quit all things Activision-Blizzard, down to purging them from my hard drives, I figured that this was also a good time to think about what I want out of a videogame experience. I did this with tabletop RPGs a while ago; it's only reasonable to do this again for another medium.

To make a long story short, my preferences with tabletop RPGs carried over to videogames. I want a wargame scenario, no narrative logic whatsover, with defined objectives and end states. No respawns after I clear an area; it's cheating. No magic bullshit adds; make the possibility clear before the fact so I can counteract it. I want to know the scenario parameters, what I have to work with, what my objective is, and what the end states are. Then? Get the fuck out of my way and let me get to work; I'll do it my way and that's enough.

Of the well-known titles to come in the last few years or so, we have the Sniper Elite series set in World War 2 as coming closest to my ideal. Super Robot Wars is actually close, as the narrative interruptions are predictable and thus can be prepared for. If Harebrained's BattleTech was a pure wargame to conquer a peripheral territory, it would be up there. (But Seattle, so no.)

With one exception: arcade games.

Side-scrolling brawlers in particular are my jam. They hit most of the wants I have, and being repeatable the bullshit adds and other narrative bullshit can be accounted for and prepared against. If only the Capcom brawler pack would go on sale.

Now to get a proper arcade stick. I think those fight sticks will do. Doing Warriors of Fate on a controller is wrong.