RBBlitz: Playing Competitvely, or Playing For Fun

[jeronemitchell]

I've been thinking about why some people have such an extreme dislike for the coin system while others, like myself, have no problems. I have a couple of theories, but one of them, I think, involves how you play.

I play RBB in a manner that I will call "for fun". "Playing for fun", in this context, involves playing without regard to leaderboards. Yes, I got a fun charge up my spine the one time I beat someone on my friends list (either my Friends are all spectacular, I suck hard at this, or some combination thereof)... but that's not why I play. RBB has become my way of enjoying Rock Band either (a) when my wife/kids are asleep, and I can't RAWK OUT without waking them, or (b) to play those songs that I don't like on or are frustrating in my favorite instruments (bass and vocals). Much of my time has been spent "rediscovering" old tracks that have gone untouched in Rock Band while clearing out the Facebook goals.

If I were to play a track competitively, I would probably do so with only one powerup (Bandmate or Jackpot) to figure out HOW I want to compete, and then make decisions accordingly. I view it in a manner similar to path optimization in Rock Band.

In many ways, I think the difference between "For Fun" vs "Competitively" is how often you repeat a track. I have, in the near-week this game has been out, only repeated a track twice by the time I'd hit the "you've played 50 tracks) achievement. I would imagine someone playing competitively would have repeated tracks much, MUCH more often.

I'm not advocating one style of play over another. I am curious, though, how many people play here for one reason vs. the other...

[T-Hybrid]

Isn't "playing for fun" what we all do? I can't imagine those who compete for scores would do so if it wasn't fun for them. Heck, I'm not a hardcore competitive person...but I tend to get some satisfaction setting up score wars and seeing the "YOU BEAT YOUR RIVAL!" message while playing through a song.

This game is built around being passively competitive. You are CONSTANTLY being tracked between your friends both on the PSN/XBL and via Facebook, if you want to be or not. The difference is that it enforces it's competitive nature by not letting your restart your session without taking a penalty.

And I don't see the problem in that. Sure, it's not how RB3 or other music titles worked. But newsflash...this ISN'T your traditional music title. It's a hybrid pattern-matching/music game with an arcade style format. You put your money in and THAT is your run.

It's no different than if you put your quarters into pac-man and then halfway through realized you screwed up. It doesn't matter. You can't just unplug the machine and expect it to give you a free game when you turn it back on.

And we're ALL playing by the same rules. So nobody's getting screwed out of their imaginary space money.

[Lowlander2]

Yeah, but...wouldn't you prefer to play Pac-Man for free? If you own a copy of Pac-Man, of course you're going to put into place the Free Play mode, because now you fully own the game, why not play whenever you want?

[DragoonXD]

Isn't "playing for fun" what we all do? I can't imagine those who compete for scores would do so if it wasn't fun for them.

One of the people on my friends list is ridiculously good at guitar in Rock Band, and is often #1 or 2 on very hard songs, but hates playing the game. I don't understand it either, but it happens.

[jeronemitchell]

Isn't "playing for fun" what we all do?

Of course. I needed a term that did not imply competition. Please don't take saying "Playing for fun" to mean that a more competitive mindset isn't "fun". My apologies if it seems like that's what I was saying. I just needed a word there.