Dumb things you did in video games as a kid.

I still do dumb things in video games to this day. Most of which is slipping through grates and into the water in Splatoon.

As for ignorance:

• 2D Fighting games - Surprisingly, I didn't button mash! But I tried to abuse moves that I thought were OP. First, throws, which get me beaten up while walking to the opponent. Then projectiles, which got me promptly beaten up by the computer or other players via jump-ins. Then jump-in combos, which get anti-aired a lot. And when supers came about, I threw them out right when the meter filled up. Also it took me about 3 years to learn to do a Shoryuken properly.
• 3D Fighting games - I still tried to use whatever I thought was OP. I can't believe I actually memorized Nina's multithrow since Tekken 2... of course, I die because I try to land that move all the time, leading to getting ducked and punished. Also, I didn't know how to juggle until Tekken 4. Which ironically was when juggles took a huge nerf.
• Super Mario - For a long time, I didn't know how to run.
• Pokemon - Using the starter + the bird with fly almost exclusively. But since my first game was Sapphire, this wasn't a huge problem. All I had to do was keep Swampert away from May's Sceptile, and eliminate said Sceptile with my Taillow. Then sweep the rest with Swampert. BUT AT LEAST I learned basic type matchups right there! Also, I must have Earthquaked a lot of levitators in Sapphire. Then in Pearl, not using Earthquake vs Spiritomb.

edited 14th Aug '15 2:31:49 AM by FlamingoKai

In Diamond, I was so addicted to contests that I kept entering my Dialga in the Normal Rank Smart Contest several times.

In NASCAR '98 I used to turn on the invincibility cheat and I would race in the opposite direction and crash the other cars so I could win. The reason it was dumb is that game would keep track of how many laps you took racing in the opposite direction so after the other cars where eliminated you had to race the number of laps the race is plus the laps that was wasted going in reverse.

Other times I turned on the cheat that allowed my car to shoot the other cars. This wasn't dumb but it was cheap.

edited 14th Aug '15 3:10:39 AM by Halberdier17

Huh, I actually realize that there's a higher contest ranking even when I was a kid.

I liked mixing up deaths for enemies. Like, for example, killing an enemy and knocking them off a ledge during the death animation. Did that a lot in Spyro.

I also liked dying on purpose in Crash for the death gags, but then I'd train my brain to suck and die without meaning.

[quoteblock]die without meaning[/quoteblock]

dude that's deep

Anyway I remember never catching any legendary in Pokermans Sapphire because I never realized they COULD be caught.

I'll take that further. Also back in Sapphire, I thought Legendaries could only be caught with a Masterball. Blame low catch rate. So I put Kyogre in one. (It's the story legendary, so, this was probably the one with higher catch rate...) Then held off hunting the others until I could find more Masterballs. Which didn't happen.

edited 18th Aug '15 3:03:03 AM by FlamingoKai

In Command & Conquer, it was not rare to see a Nod flame tank turn an enemy soldier into a torch before running them over.

when I was a kid playing dynasty warriors 3, I thought I could prevent the battle of yiling by playing as guan yu and riding up to liu bei during the battle.

Is that what really happened in Three Kingdoms? If so then that wasn't a dumb moment on your part, it was simply Gameplay and Story Segregation which you did not expect.

edited 27th Aug '15 9:17:42 PM by FlamingoKai

Not really as a kid, but having recently replayed The Last Of Us, I realise now that the first time I played I was stupidly obsessed with clearing every encounter as close to perfectly as possible (not getting spotted by enemies, using as little ammo as possible, stuff like that). This time I just rolled with it whatever happened, and had a lot more fun. Shit goes wrong in a pseudo-zombie apocalypse, and I felt a lot better when I embraced that.

Dumb things I did in Neopets as a kid:

• Selling every item at 5500NP.
• Making a Feepit guild where only those who had pets with Feepits could join.
  • Posting Feepit-themed stories to what seemed to be an imaginary audience.

I might've forgotten the rest...

These seem to be a lot more common, but the only ones I really remember doing are wasting a Master Ball on a Clamperl in Pokemon Sapphire, since I heard they could evolve into Huntail or Gorebyss, and even more common was continually pressing the A button whenever I wanted to catch a Pokemon.

Increasing catch rate was always an urban legend. Until today, I still time pressing A when the Pokeball closes. It has a... psychological effect.

Arceus you people are idiots. You're supposed to press B.

I never pressed buttons to catch Pokemon, but I did HOLD Up+B to catch 'em.

Whenever there was a Monster House, I'd list out loud the Pokemon who drop in the dungeon room, like this: "It's a Monster House! (lists the kinds and numbers of mons) (in a singsong voice) Oh no, a Monster House!"

I had to press A with a specific timing, I think when the pokeball was shaking, to increase the capture chance. :P

I played Kirby and the Amazing Mirror without realizing that the cartridge had a busted save battery, so when my game started over when I turned it off, I thought I had to save manually but couldn't find the option to do so. I eventually beat it in one sitting but it only dawned on me years later that the save battery was dead.

I still hold down and A as a Poke Ball closes on a capture in most of the Pokémon games. The sixth generation finally broke me of the habit, because I swear that it always guaranteed a failed capture whenever I tried it. That said, whenever I go to a previous game in the series, I still do it.

I have an odd habit of triggering Unwinnable by Mistake moments on purpose if I find them myself - like I'm proud of marching to my doom like a lemming.

I have a habit of doing a light jump as a corrective momentum measure after a really long jump in any platformer. Even when I know I should keep my momentum or at least not jump into the Spikes of Doom right above me. I started this habit as it was what finally got me to clear various Super Mario Bros. games, and I find I'm still most likely going to do it in those (on a related note, guess how often I run afoul of this in Super Mario Maker?).

I went almost halfway through The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker before realizing I didn't have to keep sister Aryll's telescope equipped all the time. But I ended up keeping it anyway. It felt like a nice reminder of my mission.

In Pokemon Gold, I named my rival ??? because I thought he'd get mad at me if I didn't give the name he gave me.

I had a habit of constantly forgetting to stock up on potions or healing items in general in RP Gs of all kinds.

In Sonic Heroes I would restart the level every time I was about to die. The reason this is dumb is because when you restart the level you lose a life anyway while restarting the entire level regardless of your last checkpoint. And to everyone saying that only using your starter in Pokémon was a dumb idea, it wasn't. You just beat the game the easy way.

IIRC, Sonic Heroes punishes you pretty heavily for dying, score-wise, so that's understandable.