My stupidest OCD symptom XD

Discussion

I am a casual gamer. I like video games. However, my brain has lots of very specific rules about how i "have" to play games in order to not disrespect the developers who put so much work into their games. A few are:

No mods - this is pretty obvious. If i change the game the developers put so much effort into, im disrespecting the source material. And thus, disrespecting the devs. So ive never played a game with mods! Even though there are some TS4 mods id love to try since they seem fun, and stardew valley expanded looks like it would give my fav game a fresh experience, i just cant. Ive never played a game w/ mods. I also very rarely watch youtube videos of people playing games with mods for the same reason

No cheats - even if a cheat is built into the game (like keepinventory in minecraft or increasing money in the sims or infinite ammo in the last of us part 2) i cant play it because it is not the "intended" way to play.

Always play on moderate/medium difficulty (ultra dumb) - i play every game on moderate or medium difficulty. Why? My brain says this is the difficulty the game was designed around so i have to play it like this. Doesnt matter than playing on hard or easy was also built in for the player to utilize. Medium difficulty is what i have to play on.

Intended play path - with games like LoZ: Breath of the Wild, i have to play the game based on the path the devs originally designed. BOTW is open world. There is no set, specific path to follow. I am aware of this. However, i have to play the path my brain believes the game was "designed" to be played in. For BOTW, this means i have to (spoilers) >!beat the great plateau, meet Impa, do the divine beasts in the following order: vah ruta, vah rudania, vah medoh, and vah naboris, and then beat Ganondorf. Other quests must be mixed in "appropriately"!<

Anyways, this problem has made it difficult to play games at times. I have a youtube channel and am planning on making a series "playing video games to treat my OCD" in which i break these rules (which will certainly be stressful)

Note: im not pretentious about this. I dont care at all if other people cheat at their games and will vehemently defend peoples rights to play their games how they would like. These rules only apply to me.

Posted Jul 26, 2026, 11:53 PM UTC

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