Playing the game - or getting played by the game?

I had been playing mobile games for quite a long time - how long? I don't remember the first one I played, probably Clash of Clans or something like that. Probably that's when I was at secondary school's second year, since I had that one tablemate that spends more time playing than studying (and still performs better than me in class) for that year. He was also responsible for dragging me into Tower of Saviors which made me who I am now, a 1500 day Tower of Saviors player. That's like...4 years. I'm surprised that a game managed to keep me for so long but it did.

We play games for fun, and that's the main reason we all play stuff. But, throughout the 4 years playing Tower of Saviors, I saw various types of people on forums and now, Discord (I'm a mod there). There are indeed people who are unhappy playing and complain all the time, no matter it's about draw rate, stage design, or anything that can make them go mad.

I have saw multiple replies on Bahamut (a gaming forum) mentioning the phrase "you are playing the game, don't let it sound like you are getting played instead". That looks...pretty psychological but yeah, you are the player, you should be the one enjoying the game instead of the opposite. It is not that easy sometimes, but for most of the times, it is. You only need that twist of mindset, and view it as a game. Or, just gamify it.

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Source

There's one stage in Tower of Saviors in which we say is one of the hardest stage ever made (one of the hardest, because there are harder things compared to this one but I'm not going to mention them). It's called "An Uphill Battle", labelled as a transmigration stage. For non TOS-players things may not tick for you but let's think it this way - it's a huge ass 50-battle stage with tons of gimmicks here and there, and it only gets trickier when you approach the end. Best part: You cannot revive if you died, so if you failed somewhere you have to restart everything from the first.

Sounds pretty painful? It is. I did it once, and there is a reason why I only did it once.

Even though it's the second time the stage is released (most of the times if the stage is released again it will be easier thanks to new cards and setups that can handle more gimmicks and hence make the thing less sadistic), it is still a headache to most of us. At the 32th battle, you have a 1/3 chance to meet a mob that smacks you with insane damage before you can even do anything. Of course, there are teams that are tanky enough to not die to it, but it's not like everyone has that team. And, it is pure luck if you get to meet that or not.

Imagine that you are super lucky to go through everything before it with a breeze, then die to that stupid mob somewhere at 60% of the stage, and you have to do it all over again.

Not fun.

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Source

So one day, I'm thinking of some cosmetic roles for server users because apparently there's one guy in there that does this stage all day long with various teams and he already had a community title called the Transmigration Rapist. I don't really want to give the role right away, listing out the requirements to get the role and let everyone know how to get it sounds like a better idea. When I was thinking of role names, this little annoyance popped out in my mind...

I died to that thing for a few times, so I totally understand how it feels. Plus, stages after that one are actually intensely crazy, to the extent I don't feel like doing it in any way because it just feels like you can die in any point if you are not focused enough.

What if, we can just stop at that annoying thing? So here we go, I set an achievement on the announcement channel. A cosmetic role will be given if you manage to meet that stupid mob with 10 different teams, regardless if you survive it or not.

The idea is, since the other two cosmetic roles' I set has requirements that are a little too high for most casual players (pass the entire stage for 7 times or pass the entire stage with some weak team), I want to have something that is achievable for casuals (passing the first half of the stage is not too hard for most people who played the game for some time). Plus, it is fun to change how the stage works - you are supposed to pray to not meet him, but now you have a reason to just meet him and end things there. And, memes. Why not?

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I thought that people will just slap me everywhere for setting this stupid role with this stupid requirement, but...well, there are indeed people that went for it.

And looks like they are pretty happy with it.

Games are like extra fun when you play them in the way you want. That's the reason I don't ask for the best things in the game, the best here, the best there, bla bla bla, because I don't need to know it. All I need is to play the game in a way I like, and I feel happy from it, and yea that's why we all play games. To find happiness, not to find more trouble and stuff like that.

Remember, you are the player, you are the one who determines if you are going to play it in the way you like it, or not. Play the game, not getting played by it.

Happy gaming, back to trying to find this annoying little mob - wish me luck!

--Lilacse