Cortyn loses a lot of life time due to a gaming quirk. Credits must always be watched to the end – every damn time.
Hand on heart. Everyone has that one quirk while gaming that isn’t entirely rational to explain. Some have to sort their inventory alphabetically in World of Warcraft, others can only leave cities in Final Fantasy if they have at least 99x Potions and 99x Antidotes, because anything else would be totally unsafe.
I have a quirk too and it steals my life time:
I have to watch the credits in every game in full.
Yes, you read that right. Those walls of text with all the developer names scrolling endlessly across the screen and only rarely adorned with some images.
Waste of time that I can’t shake off
I fully realize that this is an absolute waste of time. These long walls of text can easily go over 10 minutes and list all the participants to the sound of the game, scrolling slowly across the screen. I just can’t help it and have to watch it.
Over the years, even the reason why I watch them has changed.
Today I can’t even say exactly which game started it. It was probably one of my first games that I “actually” played through for the first time – it must have been Grandia or Final Fantasy IX.
Back then, my thought was: “These are the people who entertained you for hours with a game. It is respectful to look at their names.” Kind of a tribute to the developers who were responsible for my entertainment over the past weeks.
It even goes so far that during the credits, I don’t even go to the fridge to get a new drink. No, I stay politely seated and watch until the end.
That I can’t remember any names from it anyway and that even while reading the names, they leave my mind again should be clear to everyone.
And of course, this thought is silly. I was already aware back then that the creators probably don’t care at all whether I read all their names. I wasn’t sitting in front of the TV thinking, “Ah, sound designer XYZ, I’ll remember that name.” Three lines later, I had forgotten everything anyway – I didn’t even try to remember it. Why would I?
After all, many games have adopted what we mostly know from Marvel movies. After the credits, there is often an additional scene or a little teaser for a possible sequel. The first time I consciously noticed this was with Final Fantasy X. The ending was quite sad. After the million developer names, their pets, all their neighbors, and all the people they have ever met or would like to meet, there was still a little scene that turned a sad ending into a positive one for me.
Since then, I can at least easily convince myself why I endure the credits in every game. After all, there could still be a little scene – right?
Very rarely, this quirk is even properly rewarded. There are a handful of games that manage to captivate even in the credits and turn it into a mini game. The most famous example is probably “NieR: Automata,” where the credits turn into a small shooter in the style of Wing Commander. The developers succeeded in making the credits through this mini-game, the soundtrack, and the character instructions so significant that you think “Holy Shit, this is the most important scene in the whole game!” But unfortunately, that’s only a pleasant (and very crazy) exception.
Even now, nearly 20 years later, I still have the urge to watch the credits and not to leave the screen. I still find it somehow “rude” to want to skip it, but I use the time differently now. While the names scroll by, I mentally review the entire game again. I think back to the most emotional scenes, the biggest shock moments, or just the best laughs. Or I think about why I’m actually watching it again and come up with the idea for this article.
Do you also have a “gaming quirk” that you just can’t explain and that comes out in every game?
