Day 10 – Favorite gameplay mechanic
Though I have tried to clarify this category a bit, I still find it rather confounding. So I am just going to focus on a few aspects that I enjoy.
Cooperative – I am always willing to try a game that supports cooperative play. Preferably something that let’s me team up with friends and go up against the computer; even better if we can sit side by side in real life.
Collecting – I like to think that I have some ancient dragon ancestor, because I seem to have inherited a hording instinct but with a dragon slant. See, I really like collecting stuff, but only if it isn’t required. Yup, it has to be of my own volition. Games like Pokemon and Animal Crossing are total crack for me; while in World of Warcraft I collect things such as 
leatherworking patterns (totally useless items).
Turn based – This may seem rather archaic, but I really love turn-based games. I like having the option to pause, take my time and think about the next best move. Not that I don’t get impatient sometimes, but I find it entertaining to contemplate strategy. Plus I like the freedom of being able to run off and get ice cream or go to the bathroom anytime I want. =P
Resource management & building – There is immense satisfaction in sending out peons to go collect wood and ore and gems (go slaves go!); in building up a town and creating more peons to scour the map for more resources. It’s certainly my favorite part of strategy games. In one of the Age of Empires games you could team up with a friend and divide the teamwork by having one person handle the resources and town production while the other person took care of all the armies. I have to say that was quite an inspired division of labor. =D
This certainly isn’t the end of the list, but I figured I should probably stop now, before it gets out of hand. I even tried to pick fairly broad answers and I left much of the RPG stuff out since I covered that on Day 3. Oh well. =)
Tags: 30 days of video games, cooperative, dragons, friends, loot, pokemon, real-time, resources, strategy, turn-based, world of warcraft
August 10th, 2012 at 10:36 am
I went with talent trees here. I think that might be an unpopular choice but enjoyed spending a lot of time working on various talent builds in games such as WOW & Diablo 2 or what have you. I like the customization of abilities, it meets my need to be a generalist in RPGs.
Resource management is a fun one too, and what a great game Age of Empires 2 was! :)
August 10th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
I can’t say that Talent Trees rank very high for me, though I do like putting points into skills to increase the power potential of my character. I just find the min maxing rather frustrating.
But I’m glad you picked it, and bravo for sticking to only one choice. =D
August 11th, 2012 at 2:12 am
Resource management & building! Holy hell, I remember I used to be obsessed with strategy games when I was a little kid… Like Sim City, or Tycoon Rollercoaster; stuff like that.
Cooperative play is a big must for me. Most games I play are multiplayer; its just more fun when there’s someone there you can scream over the mic haha!
August 11th, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Partners in crime can really make a game so much better. =D
August 16th, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Twitch? Is that a mechanic? I love platformers so any game based on me twitching to jump/twist/get the hell out of the way makes me happy. Especially if I can get to the point where I run on autopilot.
August 16th, 2012 at 7:20 pm
So is Rainbow Unicorn Attack your current favorite? =D