Not all games are group experiences. Not everything you want to share. Not every game works best with group discussion and analysis.

Picture this: a friend of mine, who I will label Stew, has been playing Lost Odyssey. Stew lives with a friend of his, who has a similar schedule to that of Stew. Stew's friend has been watching him play it, and tends to sit down by him on the couch, and when it gets to a dream, will start reading it out loud and making fun of it. He makes fun of the dreams, and the fact that you are forced to read for ten to twenty minutes at a time. "What are you playing this for? This is boring!"

Keep in mind that these stories are touching vignettes of the regrets, experiences, and acquaintances that have touched the hero's life. They are artfully rendered on the screen, words fading in, music slowly rising and falling as you read. They are beautiful, often poignant, and tragic.

Do not fuck with me, or Stew, while I am reading these things.

Remember how I said before that no JRPG had lulled me into their world, or story, or in any way made me care? Lost Odyssey, so far, has scrapped all that. I get into it. I don't think I could ever enjoy reading these dreams with someone sitting next to me, let alone commenting on it. It's private. It feels personal, because it does bring up emotion. It's reading, and to me, reading is something that I do on my own, with no distractions, no noise. Lost Odyssey is a rare game where I turn off my podcasts or whatever while playing.

So in reading this, it brought me to the thought:

What games are best played alone?

There are many. For some, you just want to play it alone because you are doing it at your own pace, and don't want someone telling you how to play or what to do. Many games, especially adventure games, are made worse by having someone around who has played the game before and knows what to do.

Games can have different reasons for being better played alone. There are those where the very act of playing can be amusing or ridiculous to others, such as:

Guitar Hero and Rock Band - Now, these games are fine playing with people who are participating in the game with you. This is key. They have to be involved in it, either playing along side you, switching turns with you, or just really enjoying the songs and singing along, watching. Playing this with someone who isn't into it, constantly laughs at the spectacle of you pretending to be a rock star with a plastic ukulele, or just interrupts with wisecracks isn't going to help. Especially since at the harder difficulty levels, these games require so much concentration that having someone badgering you can completely remove you from the rhythm you have to catch. Stew's friend also likes to barge in while Stew is performing in these games, either singing along, making fun of the lyrics, or just being generally... a hassle. An old roommate, too, made playing Guitar Hero impossible. He would guffaw any time I would attempt to play Guitar Hero, and take pictures. I couldn't do it in front of him, so I ended up not playing it at all until I moved out.

These games are in a category of their own because there are two factors here that can be easily shattered - the fantasy of being a rock star, and the technical mindset which you have to attain to excel. I play Rock Band and Guitar Hero for the former, and Rooo plays them for the latter, and both experiences require complicit minds to not break.

Other games seem to be better played with as little input as possible from gamer friends, websites, FAQs, and reviews. These games are such sequential experiences that any form of outside input on them shatters. For instance, take a look at:

Portal and Bioshock - Both games are excellent, but can be absolutely ruined by the outside influence of others. Both games are similar in that they rely on a building progression of story and mood, one that relies heavily on inference and retrospection. To have both games work fully, the key concepts have to be experienced in sequence. If you are made aware of them before hand, the illusion is broken to some degree. While the mechanics of the game may remain enjoyable, the experience of the game manipulating your mindset, surprising you with unexpected narrative shifts, and the pace at which events unfold are intrinsic to these games as experiences. You want to figure things out for yourself, whether ahead of the narrative through deciphering clues, or at the moment of the dramatic reveal. Having someone point out key elements, whether they are emotional hits, plot points, or puzzle solutions, botch the game severely.

Yes, you can play these in tandem with someone else, but they have to be in it with you completely. They have to be as absorbed in the narrative and game structure as you are. Or it can break you out of what the designers spent so much time trying to create.

Finally, there are games that are so exactingly technical that you just don't want to be doing it in front of other people. Whether it's performance anxiety, or from the discomfort of having someone else in the room, these games can become impossible with others present. Think about:

Project Gotham Racing and Super Mario World - at higher difficult levels or later challenges, these games become hard. Very hard. They require multiple attempts, working down patterns, getting to know the layout. When games get to this sort of difficulty, you can exhibit emotional or physical reactions. You freak out. You don't want someone watching you when you do this. You become so mad at the game that you may, in the case of PGR, restart the race after six seconds due to an unfortunate first turn, or in Super Mario, become increasingly infuriated to the point that you make simple mistakes early in the level. These gaming blocks can be overcome, either by working through them, or stepping away from the console for a while and doing something else. What you don't need to hear during this time is someone asking "Why are you playing this if it makes you so mad?" or "Don't forget to jump over that first koopa trooper!" It won't be good for them, and it won't be pretty for you.


And then there are the games that are retroactively attacked for you by nefarious agents. What does this mean? A game that you either are currently enjoying, or loved, that was slavishly picked apart for you by some asshole jerk, in a sometimes successful attempt to undermine your opinion, such as:

Final Fantasy VIII and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey - If you pick up a game without delving too much into the criticism of it before hand, because either it's a title that seemed interesting to you but never bothered to research, or it was one you didn't want spoiled, you may have the unfortunate experience of someone intent on invalidating your gaming experience. For instance, with Final Fantasy VIII, I was somewhat happily chugging along through it, when a friend of my boyfriend at the time came over, watched me play, and then proudly declared that I was "doing it all wrong". Evidently my junctions weren't up to snuff, my characters weren't, I dunno, boosted or something, and my skill at the game was just terrible. As much as I'd like to think I'm a self-confident person, it was hard to ignore this kind of criticism. Being faced with the feeling that I'd wasted the first sixteen hours of the game, I just gave up. That is one of those situations where outside influence in the form of someone who "knows the game better than you" was seriously detrimental.

For Dreamfall, it was a little different. I'd heard the incredibly mixed reviews, but I was a sucker for a good story so I went for it. I loved the game. The ending was fantastic. Afterwards, I wanted to find a place to discuss it, so I went on to the Longest Journey boards. This was a mistake. To them, the game was such an affront to the previous entry that it wasn't worth talking about. Their fan fiction sequel was much, much better. When I said that I liked it, they answered back: "You... liked that game?" and then said that once I played the first one, I'd know the second one was terrible. Dreamfall, to me, has one of the best endings of any game I've ever played, but it just pisses me off that this entire group devoted to the franchise could attempt to make someone who does like it turn away. Good grief.

Has having someone watching over your shoulder ruined the game for you? Are there games you are happy to have played in complete isolation? Games you absolutely won't play with anyone around? Or, what about the reverse: have you felt that some games work better with an audience, a willing friend to watch you play or who can take turns, give support, and offer good suggestions?