• Welcome to ZD Forums! You must create an account and log in to see and participate in the Shoutbox chat on this main index page.

Worst External Obstacles

Joined
Dec 29, 2019
Gender
Male
Sometimes when you're having trouble progressing or accomplishing something in a game, it's because you're struggling with the game itself (for reasons good or bad).
But sometimes, it's not yours or the game's fault. Power outages, other people butting in, hardware issues, loud noises outside distracting you... All of these and more are things outside the game that can give you trouble - sometimes even more than the game itself ever could.

So, what are some of the worst external obstacles you've had to contend with in a game?

For me, one of the most annoying while growing up was parents (especially my mom) trying to limit screentime. At one point it was as bad as a half-hour cap. These limits led to me sneaking on to play at night while parents were asleep just so I could get things done. A lesser annoyance was accidentally hitting the turbo button on some controllers - oh man rapid-fire opening and closing of the pause menu.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

Mr. SidleInYourDMs
Joined
May 5, 2012
Location
American Wasteland
oh I can't forget this, during middle school and high school, it was my stupid little brother coming into my room then whining about wanting to use my system, and my mom always making me let him play, to this day I still find it infuriating looking back
 

Ronin

There you are! You monsters!
Forum Volunteer
Joined
Feb 8, 2011
Location
Alrest
Literally time itself is the biggest obstacle keeping me from diving in fully. There simply isn't enough of it to go around, so much so that I often have to plan around things such as errands, work, food, and sleep just to eke out as much progress as I can out of a game. As an addendum to that point, openworld games are among my favorite in the genre, but some of them have stupid limits in place that can be frustrating to traverse, such as fall damage insta-killing from a short drop or quests doling out scarce exp (*glares at Witcher 3*). It's the buildup of all these little things that make time my biggest bar to clear, as the small amounts of freedom are precious and fleeting.
 
I live with a bunch of guys so we all need to share. Having a Switch is good for me because when they want to use the TV (which is fine with me) I'd just undock, but I have really bad JoyCon drift now so I just can't play it sometimes now.

Other times are when the postman knocks because a package won't fit through the door puts me off and sometimes that can happen multiple times a day.
 
Joined
Dec 29, 2019
Gender
Male
Here's another one on my end: The Wii's sensor bar jack getting damaged the last time the bar was disconnected. Kinda makes me wish Nintendo had used a proprietary connector for it, just because their connectors tend to be pretty rugged.
 

Cfrock

Keep it strong
Joined
Mar 17, 2012
Location
Liverpool, England
Maybe this doesn't count but, oddly enough, playing games with friends. There are times when I want to make some progress with something like, say, The Witcher, but then a few friends come on Discord wanting to play Jackbox, or Halo, or Siege. Since I can only play with my friends when they're online (go figure) I like to make the most of those opportunities, and my progress in something more single player focused often stalls while I go play something else.

This most often happens when new GTA Online content first comes out, new seasons of Siege start, or we just get the itch to go back and play some Payday 2 again. I specifically made a point of dedicating time to finishing the Witcher 3 DLC before Halo Reach came to PC to avoid not making progress with it for a few weeks right before the end.

Having a Switch is good for me because when they want to use the TV (which is fine with me) I'd just undock, but I have really bad JoyCon drift now so I just can't play it sometimes now.
Can you not prop it up undocked on its little leg thingy and use the pro controller? Me and my nephew set it up like that so we could play Mario Kart while my brother watched the match last time we were in his.
 
Maybe this doesn't count but, oddly enough, playing games with friends. There are times when I want to make some progress with something like, say, The Witcher, but then a few friends come on Discord wanting to play Jackbox, or Halo, or Siege. Since I can only play with my friends when they're online (go figure) I like to make the most of those opportunities, and my progress in something more single player focused often stalls while I go play something else.

This most often happens when new GTA Online content first comes out, new seasons of Siege start, or we just get the itch to go back and play some Payday 2 again. I specifically made a point of dedicating time to finishing the Witcher 3 DLC before Halo Reach came to PC to avoid not making progress with it for a few weeks right before the end.


Can you not prop it up undocked on its little leg thingy and use the pro controller? Me and my nephew set it up like that so we could play Mario Kart while my brother watched the match last time we were in his.

I could but I'm incredibly clumsy
 

Princess Niki

Allons-y
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Location
Alola
My parents hate video games so as a kid I could only play major console titles at my neighbor's house unfortunately their friends would erase my save file or we would play a lot of multiplayer games so I didn't beat anything too big till I was 19.
 

Ragnarokio

AVATAR NOT BY JIMMU
Joined
Jan 19, 2018
Gender
If you don't identify as the default options of Male/Female, you may enter your gender here.
things like needing to sleep and eat can really cut into my gaming time
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom