I crave organic experiences in gaming

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As much as I love a well-crafted storyline delivered flawlessly - especially in open world games where you have real, legitimately impactful choices - the best gaming moments I’ve ever had are the ones that came about organically.

I feel like saying that throws shade on games with a more controlled experience, like.. Well, Control, but those games are amazing too in their own right (and goddammit I need Control 2 in my life fucking soon). There is absolutely nothing wrong with these games.

I just have a special brain-boner for gameplay that builds your own internal narrative without any prompting; these special snowflake experiences are fantastic, frequently rare, and full of high-fidelity fun for people like me.. Even when there are bugs.

Let me share a story of an experience I had just last night in DCS (yes, yes, I know, fuck Eagle Dynamics - still not giving them more money, but I am fucking enjoying what I paid for).

I was flying CAS (Close Air Support) over Caucasus in my AH-64D Apache (of course); I decided to swap out my rocket pods with additional Hellfire missiles, because I was going to fucking need them in the AO, for sure; There was a lot of anti-air and heavier targets, and I wanted to keep my distance as much as possible. I didn’t care if I had to fly back to reload; I was going to survive, and not try to strafe with the rocket pods (which I am not good with yet).

Once the ground crew finished loading me out, I took off and flew out to the target area.. That was thick with enemies.

I decided my first targets were the pair of KA-50s harassing the other ground forces; Those could be problematic for me, too, given their mobility.

As I got closer and could see them on radar, I flew to about 1200ft, which was well above the elevation they were at as they were targeting friendly tanks.

I gave George the weapons-free order on guns, and he went to work as I circled and chased them off my friendlies’ asses. The first went down quickly, but the second was pushing his KA-50 to the limit trying to evade my fire, unable to respond in kind due to being well above him.

Eventually he dropped too, so I was able to focus on the ground forces in the AO.

I took out 2 of 3 of one tank column, with the 3rd running straight into a friendly tank column that quickly took them out.

A second tank column was in my sights, and I launched a Hellfire at the leading target. They were booking it fast; I didn’t realize how fast T-72s could move until now.

I watched the TADS display from George’s sights, and saw a direct hit.. But no damage report.

The T-72 column continued.

I fired off Hellfire after Hellfire, and.. Nothing. Switched up targets, and nothing.

I was down to 4 hellfires left (out of fucking 16), so I decided it must’ve been a bug and moved to another target (as this column was going in the direction of friendly tanks that would hopefully have better luck).

I turned 90 degrees to the right, let that column keep going away from me, and engaged another column.

This one started going down fine; I eliminated 2 targets, with 1 left, and only one Hellfire remaining.. And then I got the laser ranging warning from that bugged column.

I didn’t think they had anti-air capabilities, but out of an abundance of caution I did a little evasive action and readied myself to drop chaff/flares.

As I was performing evasive and about to get George to fire off my last Hellfire at the remaining tank from that previous column, I watched a missile fly up from the area.

I am pretty sure that T-72s don’t have anti-air missiles, so apparently there was something else with that column that did.

I fired off that final Hellfire right as I saw the missile approach me, and it was fucking booking it. I had no time to drop countermeasures, and as I worked to continue to evade I got hit.

I began to spin out; I slam on my pedals, hoping to hell I still had my tail rotor..

..As it turns out, I didn’t. I see on the ENG display that my tail rotor is effectively gone. Hell, my entire tail section is gone.

And I’m at about 1100ft, spinning out and dropping into a mountain and forest region.

I do everything I can to reduce the spin and keep from blacking out; I drop my rotor speed down, tilt over, and try to guide myself to a clear patch so I can crash land and survive..

As I get closer to the ground, I edge up my collective to attempt to soften the impact. I spin faster, but I know I’m already in a good clearing, so if I can just reduce the actual impact itself, I can survive.

I hit the ground.

I bounce, and am struggling to maintain a vertical orientation. I come back into contact with the ground, cut collective and work to control my tilt with rotors that are not in good shape now.

I settled down on the ground, vertical.. And live.

All of this happened from the Instant Mission Creator.

I didn’t even care that I was taken out, or that it all was borne out of a bug where some enemies were invincible. This was fucking awesome.

It was also 100% an experience that did not happen as the developers designed.

Some games attempted to create organic experiences via guided systems; Left 4 Dead’s “Director” comes to mind. For those of you who are young, Left 4 Dead’s “Director” would attempt to adjust the spawns of enemies to increase the tension in ways reminiscent of classic zombie horror films. It was incredibly innovative, and cool, but it never quite captured the true organic experiences I’m talking about.

Another good example of organic experiences in gaming is Star Citizen.

Ordinarily, I despise PvP, but with Star Citizen? I’ve had a lot of fun both winning and losing in unique experiences that came about completely organically.

Just to provide one (short - this has gotten way too long because I had to fucking talk about that DCS experience at-length like I’m a goddamned nature documentarian) example: I decided to do some PvP bounties..

.. Just after the Idris was released.

The Idris is a large ship with a massive laser cannon on the front. It’s so big it has it’s own hangar, for fuck’s sake, and the people who spent shit-tons of real money to buy these? Yeah, they also seemed to be.. Dicks.

I approached my bounty target, and - shocked Pikachu face - it was a goddamned Idris.

Oh well, we’ll try this anyway.

I’m in my F8C: I boost in, and attempt to get behind and below while hammering away at them. I’m trying to fly INTO their open hangar; I figure, if I can get inside and land, I could potentially take out the crew from the inside.

Unfortunately, the pilot had at least some skill to go with their money, and I ended up blowing myself up against the back-end of the ship.

“Ok, let’s try a stealthy approach” I say.

I grab my Talon, set up my power signature for maximum stealth, and approach the target again.

I got so goddamned close before they noticed and started engaging me. As they are moving around - fighting other players at the same goddamned time - I try again to fly into the hangar.

I - yet again - failed, and crashed into the ass-end of this bastard of a ship.

Even so, I fucking enjoyed it.

Organic experiences in gaming has more value to me than the negatives in most cases..

..Although if CIG would make it so I can see what ship the target is in before I accept the bounty, that would be kinda nice.