Setting arbitrary objectives for oneself is a bandaid for a larger wound

The best solution is the gameworld being dynamic based on several factors only some of which are player influenced.
See Warband and Dwarf Fortress for examples.

I find challenge runs fun, but I'm also autistic. When I play dark souls 2 I have to light every single torch in the game, even though they do nothing.

No they're not.
They're like another difficulty setting.

I wish we lived in a parallel universe where Looking Glass Studios got the overblown budget and MGS died off.

I agree.
It's only a way to willfully keep bad design choices away from the player's eyes.

Are you talking about MGSV and how theres so much weapons that some combinations are really overpowered like the silenced tranq rifle?

I just noticed everyone pushing the "ghosting" meme usually comes from MGS.

I did a run of Call of Chernobyl where I played military and set out to kill all the faction leaders. That was fun.

To the people who do challenge runs, yes, for the satisfaction of "I did it because I could." Some people enjoy exploring their own capabilities. or simply sating curiosity.

What's wrong with them? I do cosplay runs and may try some challenge runs one day simply because I have done it all in DaS. If setting yourself restrictions and weird goals help extend a game's play time, then I'm all for it.

just fuck me raw

I've seen this image so many times but never once her dick. I'm not answering shit until I get what I need, god damn it.

It's cute how you manage to feel smug about your retardation, user.

How can you have fun without successfully completing the Have Fun achievement in the latest AAA game you preordered? You think you don't need validation, you think you remember video games not being a social network and second job for those who are both asocial and jobless? You'll be back, you'll buy the next game and all of its DLC! YOU'LL BE BACK!

If I find a game's difficulty to be too easy and there's no way to change it or it's already on the highest difficulty, I set other objectives from myself from the start.

The one that sticks out in my mind right now is Far Cry 2.
Being able to save anywhere completely destroys the game's difficulty and making it back to a safe house after you've got your malaria meds, stealthed 2 missons and drove straight through 3 checkpoints with only 2 bars of health is very satisfying.

In almost all modern militray shooters I have ever played I always tried finishing campaign missions with the weapon and ammo you get at the start of the mission.
I remember limiting myself to the default weapon in the first Crysis games.
I never used the blink or stop time ability in Dishonored.

And yes I agree with you OP, this is a sign of poor game design. And if the game isn't modable, like many recent titles aren't, it almost becomes mandatory to set these kinds of objectives for yourself to get any amount of enjoyment out of a game.

Well, stupid controllers and streamer gimmicks aside, a game first needs to have alternate styles of play that are relatively equal in value and viability. Meaning there can't be one optimal, undeniably intended playstyle that players must use.

Dark Souls, for example, has many different builds and a couple different styles of magic and different covenants with different bonuses to aim for. Playing through the game with a "Pyromancy only!" build is technically a self-imposed challenge, as the game allows you to build your character however you please.. but it's also rewarding to see a build through to the end as a means of experiencing the game in a new way.

Most games don't do this or allow for this, however…

I'm the kind of person that absolutely absolutely always tries to climb that mountain, even if that mountain has invisible walls or rubberband borders on it.

I experiment within the confines of the game, but I find it absurdly difficult to limit myself to suboptimal choices for a "challenge run." I'm not going to play through a game again with a flight stick and a switch joycon to inject artificial challenge into a game if it's not challenging me, I'm just going to find another game.

It does disappoint me, however, when a game has challenged me or at least given me plenty of options to explore up until a certain point and then suddenly drops off and doesn't get any better from that point onward.

...

That's literally real life. It pointless unless you give yourself made up goals to do. But in the end you'll die anyway just like everyone else and anything you did or didn't do won't matter

Let's start with ignoring achievements. It's one of those things that newfags follow blindly, "as instructed" like a pavlovian dog.

Valkyria Chronicles was like that but in a different way. The game was perfect right up until after you defeat the giant tank boss. It was appropriately challenging, you could experiment and use different tactics and strategies and it was varied and fun. Then BAM, challenge shoots through the fucking roof and missions become completely impossible without knowing ahead of time exactly where the 50 enemy tanks will spawn in so you can pre-position units behind their spawnpoint, and then it all just devolves into a mess of scout rushing because otherwise you can't fucking make it work.

What?

No they come from splinter cell and hitman

youtube.com/channel/UCYDnJiF0_RqSjkjvjRbG1tA/videos