Why do you keep playing?

[thejasper]

I honestly don't know why I do. I mean I am monumentally bad at this game, I have about 1 win per version, if that. I like to be good at things and there are plenty of games I am good at that I hardly need the frustration of losing...but this evil game just keeps me coming back for more. Part of my problem with this game is that I don't pay attention or have the patience to do things in a safe way. I know the problem I have with this game is me and I am not likely to change...so why I do kill several characters a week (or sometimes per day) with very little improvement in skill over the last years? I really hate losing too...having lots of fun then bam its over I lose...and I lose because of me. It's so frustrating...and yet here I am about to start up another character. I am not a masochist either. I think.

So what keeps you playing?

[Sar]

I don't

[Sprucery]

Because it's fun!

[mopl]

Greateroctopode.

And greattransmuter too...

[thejasper]

Because it's fun!

I know, but it shouldn't be. It's like a drug.

[Aethrus]

I'm still improving, I like the fact that the game is still in development and constantly being refined. Sometimes these changes are even improvements!

That and though I have a few wins under my belt and a 15 rune, there's still so many playstyles to try and different builds. I've got a bunch of new character types I wanna try still - never really explored or gotten far with ranged combat, Eylvilon, Jiyva, half a dozen other gods I've barely tried, summoners, transmuters, lichform casters, etc.

Replay value is enormous, I imagine later on it can get repetitive, especially for those who might tend to focus on win rate and build all their characters into the same three or four builds and Gods to win reliably.

[triorph]

Replay value is enormous, I imagine later on it can get repetitive, especially for those who might tend to focus on win rate and build all their characters into the same three or four builds and Gods to win reliably.

Does anyone really do this?

[all before]

It seems like you have two options--either accept the pleasures of playing sloppily and remind yourself that you've made that decision whenever you die and feel frustrated (which I'm not knocking--drunk crawl is fun because you don't really care about winning), or see if you can take pleasure in playing more slowly and cautiously. I know the sequence of emotions you describe, and I sympathize. I also feel the game is too long and repetitive. But I also think that when I get into a rut of playing poorly, the game starts to become more monotonous because I don't stop and reflect at situations that could only potentially be dangerous. I just play my usual way through them and most of the time it's fine, except for when it isn't and I'm dead. Playing well means I notice more variety in encounters and am less repetitive in my actions.

[tabstorm]

For highscores

[archaeo]

Crawl is basically a slot machine except with worse graphics.

I mean have you seen slot machines lately?

[le_nerd]

I pretty much play because it presses the right skinner boxes for me. Every time I get an unexpected ?ACQ or portal timer a skinner box "Variable Ratio Reward" button in my brain is pressed, hopelessly rewarding me for stupid stuff like dipping into elf/shoals/spider/depths the moment I see the branch. Eg. I am mildly addicted.

[radinms]

Because I'm not a smart player, I do early game at every game.

[thejasper]

I really do have fun with the game, it just baffles me that I have fun at something I clearly am not that good at. There is a lot of variety, and apart from a long string of DECj I tend to switch between different types.

Also, highscores are the last thing I care about in this or any other game. I score by entertainment value.

And I never ever play while inebriated. No never. Well...hardly ever.

[Croases]

He hardly ever plays on booze!
Then give three cheers and one cheer more
For this abstaining user of the Tavern board!

[daggaz]

I like stabbing things. Or hitting them on the head so that they start moving all funny even though they are gonna die soon. Sometimes I just like skinning animals for no reason.

Crawl has all of these things, and I dont have to talk to people either. Plus you can light stuff on fire. It's really a great game, thanks Devs.

[Utis]

One of the best things is that I can leave it running in an xterm while pretending to actually do some work.

[mopl]

Also forgot a thing : I keep playing for titles too...

[shnurlf]

I binge for a month, don't think of the game for another 8 months, and then I come back. Been that way for 7 years and I don't know why...

[tasonir]

Replay value is enormous, I imagine later on it can get repetitive, especially for those who might tend to focus on win rate and build all their characters into the same three or four builds and Gods to win reliably.

Does anyone really do this?

Oh, absolutely, and I don't think it's as rare as you might think. It'll depend on how widely you consider two characters to be the the same, is building all of your characters as melee the same, or do they have to be both melee and the same god, or all of melee/god/heavy vs light armor the same, etc etc. I play about 50% of my wins with Chei, and while I've done 1-2 chei casters to experiment, they're mostly all melee and generally pick up statue form as soon as possible. Some games it doesn't generate, of course.

This isn't so much because I'm going for the highest win rate - it's more that I can't tolerate characters who need to be babied for a very long time. Once you're set up with chei and strong melee, the game becomes very fast and fault tolerant, which is what I want. I recently played a SpEn^gozag and was just so frustrated having to stab everything that I tried to convert it into a statue former of chei, which I would have liked a lot better, although he sadly didn't survive the conversion (berserked fire giant from gozag wrath hits pretty hard). Probably should have not done the god conversion and statue form conversion simultaneously.

As for how much I actually play these days, it's pretty low, but that's more due to my girlfriend's anxiety disorder than me personally choosing not to play.

[TeshiAlair]

@tasonir hang in there buddy I know that feels


I've been playing for about 7 years now and still suck. I go on and off with it, but my latest streak has been a really long one primarily because being able to ssh into a game and play during my lunch breaks is amazing.

[Baldu3]

Because it's one of the most interesting games that currently exist.

[WalrusKing]

They won't let me out until I bring them the orb

[xentronium]

Comborobin.

[tasonir]

@tasonir hang in there buddy I know that feels

I've been playing for about 7 years now and still suck. I go on and off with it, but my latest streak has been a really long one primarily because being able to ssh into a game and play during my lunch breaks is amazing.

I'm thinking I should switch to console just for the ability to semi-convincingly get away with playing at work. Then realize I don't get enough done here as it is, and I really don't need to make it worse

[thejasper]

I've been playing for about 7 years now and still suck.

Oh good it's not just me

[yesno]

because usually my roommate is using the computer that is fast enough to run dark souls

[Whelk]

I got really into DCSS when it struck me as "a roguelike, but with an extra helping of fun flavor!" Lately, though, the Crusade for Maximum "Interesting" Challenges and Trimming Out of Stuff That Pros Find Trivial And Annoying (Or Just Not To Their Liking) has turned me off to the game.

I still come back now and then because there's some interesting flavor left to make me want to at least play a game or two. It's the only roguelike I've preferred to play with graphical tiles over ASCII, and I like the concept of all the different gods and stuff. All the different vaults are really fun to see, and seeing which flavor of the Temple I'll get is always a highlight of my early game (I still hope to see that Autumnal Ruin Temple again someday). Some of the spells are pretty fun, too, and I usually avoid magic as much as possible in games.

I really enjoyed playing that game mode where you have to defend the Orb, particularly after suffering a big normal game death, but that got axed.

But yeah, it's like a drug. I still come back every now and then for my fix.