Computer games are a one thing which totally mesmerizes every child, and its not just the children, people of all ages get attracted to them. And people actually achieve great heights in it. There are online games, competitions, and even prizes worth thousands at stake. So now the innocence in the play and the approach to it is lost I feel, and the vying goes to much higher levels.

I too have played ands still play my share of games. And of all the genres, I love and play the strategy and sport the most. Many others I haven’t tried, and maybe will never try. And I am not great in any of these games. I came to know about it when I saw LAN games being played in our college. And boy! Don’t people play to extreme levels? But I never played so much of the games, and I realized that my approach to playing these games has been totally different. As far as strategy games go, the main thing is to like defeat the opponent with a stronger army, stronger weapons or that sorts. Or earn lots more points, money or whatever is the objective of the game. So once that objective is over, the game gets over.

Well, I never play these games to win. I mean I do, but that is not my sole motive. Now I will furnish this with an example, so that it becomes clear. For instance, Age of empires. I am sure you have heard that name. If you haven’t, then really, you have no right to live. Hehe. But ya, so in age of empires, what people do is create their town very quickly, and annihilate the opponents. But I like to savour all the facilities provided. I never build my town in a haywire manner. I love to arrange the buildings in a very systematic way. Like the houses should all be together, and then the academic and templar buildings should be near the houses, but not to near. Then the army etc should be surrounding the residential area. The wall should be atleast some minimum distance away from any building. I usually build a three walled wall. With bombard towers placed strategically so that their areas of coverage don’t overlap, and still they don’t leave any area insecure. And then the bombard towers can’t be attacked directly by infantry or cavalry since there is a wall separating them both. Then the farms are a little outside near the forest etc, and near the water source. In short I like to have a big area in which I can arrange all stuff very very nicely, so that anyone will be proud to see such a village.

Now you may come up with a point that there is no time for all these niceties since the others attack in the meantime. Hence, I never play with more than 2 opponents. Then I play at the easiest level. So that I don’t get bothered while decorating all this. And this is the approach I use every time I play.

Then while attacking, I send the troops in a very nice formation. And send the army on three sides. And attack together. And it feels so nice to play this way, because you feel like you can really vanquish the enemy this way. Again, I love to perform conversions a lot. And hence have a whole army of priests at my disposal. I know people hardly use priests and missionaries, but I love using all those.

Then again, I found another thing I love doing is pitting the different war characters in it against one another. In a race I mean. It really is wonderful. And I send them from one corner to another, and had at one time actually calculated the speed of each animal or infantry or whatever different men are present in it. I don’t know why, but this is the way I enjoy playing.

Take another example. Transport Tycoon Deluxe. By far the best, most addictive game I have played till now. In it you have to own a transport company, and set up rail, road, ship and air travels by building stations and airports etc in cities. There are bridges and tunnels and all that in it. It’s just wonderful. In that too, I never built or used the roads already provided. I built all the roads myself, and all were at their most lengths straight. So that the buses attain their maximum speeds on them. There were never rail and road crossings, because the buses used to get run over by trains in that case J. Even the station and the airport etc were stationed so that they will be in the core cities. As you advanced, you got faster and stronger vehicles. But I never replaced all the vehicles. I used to keep one of each type till the end. And continue their services. It was fun seeing the buses overtake their older counterparts. The thing is that I hate a mess of roads and rails as I saw the computer bots in it built. Or even the other people I have seen play. I like things very systematic and very orderly. I know it beats the purpose of the game, but then, there are never directions as to how to play. So as far as I am enjoying there should be no problem. Just wanted to ask, does anyone have any such weird ways of playing any games, which totally beat the purpose?

Anyway, nothing great, but just thought that it’s weird and hence felt like sharing it. The thing which triggered this is the competitions they show on TV about LAN games like AOE, CS and the likes being played. So this thought..!!!