Gamers aren't all the same. Everyone has their own favorite games, preferred genres, and chosen systems. Even titles that are beloved by most have their fair share of critics. So, it's an industry filled with differing opinions and viewpoints, but that doesn't mean gamers are different in every single way.
There are plenty of similarities between players, especially in regard to how they all play games. They may have distinct tactics and strategies for certain titles; however, there are many things that nearly all players do.
Updated on March 31, 2023, by Kristy Ambrose: Gone are the days when gaming was a niche activity only indulged in by the nerdy few. Everyone has their own quirks while gaming, and then there are also those that use games as distractions or time-wasters and just have them on for noise in the background while real life is happening. A plethora of games are available on different platforms, with even RPGs making headway into mobile devices, making it possible to bring a game everywhere. No matter what a gamer's motives are and the type of game they're playing, it still holds true that there's a bond among gamers when it comes to personal quirks and habits.
11 Reloading Your Weapon When It's Not Needed
The last thing you want during a firefight is to use up all the bullets in your magazine. After all, you're likely to be taken out while reloading. Therefore, it's understandable to put a new clip or magazine into your most powerful weapon fairly regularly.
However, gamers often take it to the extreme by reloading after firing one or two bullets in a gun that holds 30 or 60. In fact, it becomes a habit where you just automatically hit the reload button after any shot. Those few extra rounds could end up saving your life, but you could also get attacked while performing an unnecessary reload.
10 Regularly Checking The Leaderboard
When you're doing really well in a PvP multiplayer game, you probably find yourself regularly bringing up the leaderboard. Not to see what team's actually winning - that's usually displayed on screen - but to see if you're personally doing better than everyone else.
It's fine to be competitive, yet it can get a little ridiculous if you check it after every kill or death to ensure you're still near the top. After all, it doesn't exactly matter if you're first in the leaderboard two minutes into the game - it's about where you are in the end.
9 Playing Games While You're Gaming
It seems the gaming community has reached a saturation point. Let's be honest, some games have long downtime, especially if you have to run back to your corpse or wait for everyone to rebuff after the raid wipes. Getting 40 people together takes forever, and that's before you even get started. Why not play another video game while you wait?
This is also where mobile games come in handy. If you can't get that summon and need to travel to the dungeon on a PC game, it's too easy to pull out that tablet or phone and play another game. It doesn't have to be a simple game, either, since almost every game ever made also has a mobile version these days.
8 Saving Good Items For When You Need Them... And Then Never Using Them
While making your way through a game, you may sometimes happen upon a devastating item that'll help you significantly in battle. Perhaps it's a powerful potion, a rare explosive, or even a weapon with limited ammunition. Your first thought is to pick up and save it for when you come up against a more dangerous enemy.
Inevitably, though, you end up acquiring so many of these types of items that you don't need every single one of them for the final boss. And when the credits roll, you're still holding a litany of great stuff that never came in use.
7 Trying To Take Shortcuts That Aren't Supposed To Be Shortcuts
Even the most beautiful open worlds can be a pain to traverse at times. After all, everyone has been in that situation where an ill-placed mountain is blocking your progress, and the only option is to take the long path around it. At least, that seems to be the only option.
You can also try to create your own shortcut by jumping or driving over the mountain. Sometimes it works - other times, you end up getting stuck or simply wasting more time than it would've taken to go around.
6 Picking Up Junk You Don't Need
In games like Fallout, there are plenty of things around that you can pick up. Most of it seems pointless, but you can never be sure. Who knows when you're going to need a certain piece of junk to craft something?
So, you often end up acquiring loads of garbage, hoping it comes into use later. In some cases, it even takes up space in your inventory, and you have to drop a bunch of stuff when you can't collect a shiny new weapon or piece of armor.
5 Obsessing Over Optimization
No matter what else a game has to offer, it's easy to get sucked into one feature, whether that's your armor score, damage output, or some other metric. This isn't the same as getting sucked into a long grind, but the two things are related. And once you look at the stat block, it's impossible to look away.
Although it's more prevalent in RPGs where gear and endgame are bigger factors, it can happen in any game that has power-ups or buffs. It's always about social status since some types of gear or accessories are only available after you've killed a boss or accomplished a special achievement. "Judging people who buy optimization with real money" could be another entry on this list, but this is close enough.
4 Not Trusting Autosave
Autosaving has been around for many years at this point. Yet, you probably still don't trust the function completely. You can see the little autosave icon show up and still go into the menu to save manually anyway.
For some reason, we all have this internal belief that a manual save is more reliable than an autosave. There's no actual reason for this belief, as it's not like autosaves are known for failing to load. Many gamers share this theory nonetheless.
3 Jumping For No Reason
The ability to jump is included in all sorts of different games. Of course, the purpose of the mechanic is to give you a way to get over obstacles. Yet, whether you're playing Super Mario, Halo, or GTA, you sometimes jump for no reason at all.
You're just walking somewhere and decide to do multiple jumps on the way there. In most cases, it's not even faster than walking - it's just more interesting. However, it's not something most people would do in real life.
2 Inventory Issues
There isn't a single player in the world that doesn't have storage issues. It's certainly not an issue in all games, but RPGs of both the stand-alone and MMO variety always have how much you can carry as a factor in the gameplay, and they seem to fill up with a whole lot of nothing really fast.
If you have a whole party to organize, it's an advantage because they all have bag space you can use. In other games, players have to get creative when it comes to making extra space, whether it's a "bank alt" or makeshift piles of items. Some of the highest-level awards in some of the most challenging and biggest RPGs are bigger bags or expanded inventory space, and that's not even a joke.
1 Ignoring The Main Objective
In most games, there is a main objective or primary path you're supposed to follow. But it's not usually the priority for gamers. You need to do a litany of side quests, play great minigames, or simply search around the environment before you even think of progressing in the game.
Often this is the correct way to play as you can acquire plenty of experience or important items by veering from the main path. If only certain NPCs would understand that instead of repeating the same line of dialog trying to convince you to go towards the objective.