Playing Games in the 'Wrong' Way

There are a ton of ways to play a game outside of how the developers intended it to be played, and people's desire to do that has always fascinated me. What about certain titles makes them so interesting to mess around in and why is playing games in weird ways so appealing to so many people? So this video is a look at some of the reasons I (and others) enjoy playing games in the "wrong" way.

Special thanks to honorary bagbutens Kay Kay and WilliamGlenn8.

An additional thanks to @wizawhat for looking over the script and to @CodexEntry for talking about Melee with me.

[thespiffingbrit]

*Wait are you telling me Todd Howard didn't intend the fork to be the default weapon to beat Skyrim with?*

[DarkTwinge]

A related aspect is the "the developer actually thought of that??" effect. When you try something decidedly weird that the vast majority of players would never think to try, *and the game actually responds appropriately* - that is one of the most satisfying experiences for me. It's like this secret little conversation I'm having with the developer.

[MrSpeakerCone]

I played Cyberpunk 2077 while following all traffic laws I could. Stopped at red lights, maintained lane discipline, checked my blind spot before turning, overtaking with plenty of space, the whole thing. Ended up in a traffic jam once or twice.
I'm reasonably certain the devs expected me to play these sections like a racing game, but for some reason it felt more fun to drive as I would in a real life city

[jonathanturner]

Playing games wrong is why I love the "Let's Game it Out" channel. It is genuinely interesting to see how someone can play a game in ways you never considered. It is also hilarious. I do appreciate when developers embrace those playstyles instead of limit them. To me this is what truly differentiates gaming from other entertainment, the ability to shape your experience and determine your own outcome.

[lukesams]

I spent my first BotW play-through completely ignoring the main story quests, running around shirtless and climbing everything. I only entered Kakariko Village after I had gotten the Master Sword, cleared all four Divine Beasts, and completed ~115 shrines, and it was so I could complete yet another shrine. My roommate at the time kept asking me when I was going to go to Kakariko, to which I frequently reminded him that it wouldn’t happen, only to finally get there and realize the shrine in question was a combat tutorial. Having already beaten most if not all of the tests of strength, I found this absolutely hilarious

[Blizzic]

My friend and I once had a “race for last place” in Mario Kart Wii, where we drove the course backwards and tried desperately to hold onto 12th place. The race wouldn’t end until we both finished, so it was like an endless mode. Whenever we got the bullet bill power up we screamed “NO!” because it would take us in the wrong direction (forwards) and the only way to get rid of it (so that we could use other power ups) was to use it. We laughed our asses off the whole time, it was great.

[Doctor-Infinite]

the best case i’ve ever had of “Playing a game wrong” is playing Forza Horizon 4 like a driving sim. I would put on a podcast, put the controls on the most realistic settings, I followed stopped signs, i followed red lights and green lights, and followed speed signs, followed traffic laws and looked at the pretty sights like a tourist.
It was extremely relaxing and extremely odd in a fun way as I knew this was not the intended way to play the game XD

[foxglovelove]

I love how DougDoug gave a shoutout to Raz's channel on stream the other day, and this feels like Raz being such a stupidly nice guy that he made a whole video to give DougDoug a shoutout back. Both of you guys are awesome!

[imboredsoimhere]

There are few constants in life. But Outer Wilds making an appearance in a Raz video essay is certainly one of them.

[coffeeris]

I used to play all the Halo games with my dad as they came out, and I can remember this one mission in Halo Reach where you're in a warthog and they put a barrier in the way so you have to get out. What my dad and I did is we took a banshee and boosted it into the warthog to get it over the invisible wall above the barrier, and then kept it alive all the way until this point where you're supposed to get in an elevator, at which point we discovered that the elevator, despite being too small for the warthog, just lets the warthog drive all the way in. We pressed the elevator button, the doors closed, and the warthog started freaking out inside the wall so fast it killed both of us before exploding. This is probably one of my favourite memories from my childhood, we both cried from how hard we were laughing

[erindizmo]

The number of fortresses I cleared out in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey by just buffing my eagle, standing at a distance from the place, and just having him attack people repeatedly until they were dead still tickles me.

[Kamehouse]

My second, full, "white robe" playthrough of journey was perhaps the most memorable and emotional video game experience I've ever had. I was going for the trophy where you've shared the majority the journey with 1 player, and was immediately paired with another white robed player. We preceded to fly through the game by giving each other infinite flight, as if we both knew exactly why we were playing this playthrough. But the real beautiful moments came from the surfing scene where we couldn't go faster than the game intended, so we spontaneously criss-crossed paths. From then onwards, and at the very end of the game, we continued to weave patterns together. Journey is honestly such a fantastic work of art as an exploration of human communication.

[Anteksanteri]

I fricking love the entire genre of let's plays where players try to break the game or intentionally don't try to do what the developers intended. RTGame and Let's Game It Out are some of my favourites.

[jackmcnulty]

I think the beauty of Outer Wilds, at least before the DLC, was that there isn't a wrong way to play it. The game doesn't push you towards a specific order to approach things, it just gives the player an interesting mystery then gives you a spaceship and sends you on your way to explore it's universe in any way you please.

[unfrogettable]

The point made about flexibility at around 8:15 reminds me of a lesson I learned when pursuing illustration and artwork as a hobby in the past years. Having limitations breeds creativity, just like having resistance to a players creativity makes a player want to do more to see what they can get away with. It's a lot like an artist stuck with just one brush, one pen, or maybe a selection of just 3 paint colors for their canvas. When a person is presented a limited range of options they will use those options in ways they probably never would of imagined they could.

[LeRoyt]

The line at 14:17 "He chose not to see the glitch as a mistake" is so poetic here since the Journey's ending was made after a playtester experienced a glitch right before the end!

There's a video called "Composing Journey" where Austin Wintory talks about how difficult it was to write the ending of the game until that experience. If you like Journey, I highly recommend seeing it.

Edit: I didn't realize that part wasn't in the polygon video, which is still an excellent interview to watch. It was actually in a video called:

"How Journey was made and why the developer went bankrupt" by a channel called ThatGuyGlen

[tinykites]

My brother once asked me to playtest a level he'd been building and was dismayed when I took the controller and immediately jumped into the completely cosmetic river and tried to walk up it underwater. He was asking me to stop when his girlfriend cut in and said "Let her do it. This is exactly the kind of stupid stuff people are going to do."

It has to be a weird 'kill your darlings' moment for game devs to realise that the beautiful path that they've constructed is a challenge of limitation to others in a way I didn't really think about until then.

[Eric-upsk]

I really like how you included Human Fall Flat in the footage - I think that game does a really great job of suggesting that finding your own solution to the puzzle can be just as entertaining as solving it in the way the devs intended

[burglekutt]

One of my fondest gaming memories is my sister and I playing "gardner" in Mario Kart 64. Staying in last place and getting the star to see who could remove the most trees from Peach's Castle

[ty_sylicus]

"The most rewarding part of pursuing dumb things is doing it with others." 11:25
Well said sir.