Strategic but not strategy: when video games feel like work

Is there a type of video game you should like, but really don’t?

My work colleagues and I were recently asked to take part in personality assessments for a team-building workshop. Our senior managers had decided that the CliftonStrengths talent analysis would be a good way of us all learning more about each other and how we can work better together.

I’ve completed a few similar exercises since starting with my employer and know that assessments like this nothing to worry about. They usually take around an hour to complete and involve answering a series of questions about yourself online. Generally speaking, the reports produced are pretty accurate – those I’ve received before always feel like they were written about me and so there aren’t usually many surprises.

This current analysis is a good example. According to the output from CliftonStrengths, my top five themes (out of a total of 34) are Strategic, Achiever, Analytical, Relator and Discipline. I’m strongest in the Strategic Thinking area of themes, which means I’m at my best when helping individuals absorb and analyse data that can lead to making better decisions.

Participants are given a personalised report which describes each theme and summarises their strengths. The section in mine which amused me the most was: ‘Like a detective, you sort through large amounts of information, attempting to identify pieces of evidence. Following a few leads, you might begin to see the big picture.’ I’ve talked about my love for detective video games in blog posts before and can often be found streaming investigation games during our weekly Twitch sessions, so this fits nicely.

The part of my assessment which doesn’t make much sense in that regard then is my top theme. Strategic came out in first place which means I’m able to ‘see solutions before other people know there is a problem’ and ‘generate numerous ideas before sorting to the one that makes the most sense in a particular situation’. You might assume then that I’m partial to strategy releases. That’s really not the case though: I tend to avoid them as much as possible, along with anything featuring turn-based combat.

There are therefore several well-known franchises that I have very limited experience of. I’ve never completed a Pokémon game for example and haven’t even played any of the Civilisation or Fire Emblem series. While I have managed to finish a Final Fantasy title, my dislike for them is the basis of a long-running joke among friends. This is why it was particularly funny when ChatGPT recommended we play Final Fantasy XIV for the RPG section of our upcoming GameBlast24 stream in February.

The only reason I completed Final Fantasy XIII a few years ago was because of a collaboration project with Ellen from Strength in Sarcasm. We agreed to suggest video games for each other and so she ended up playing Her Story in return. After 50 hours of the Command Battle Synergy (CBS) system, listening to a particular non-player character (NPC) constantly whine about his predicament, and getting randomly one-shotted by the final boss at 03:00 in the morning, it’s safe to say that I’m never going to finish another one.

Whenever I’ve been asked why I don’t like turn-based combat in the past, I always gave two reasons. The first was that it’s hardly representative of what would really happen in a fight. When you come face-to-face with a huge monster, you’re not going to politely wait while it takes its turn to strike – you’re going to hit it with everything you’ve got to prevent it from doing damage to you first. There’s no way I could see myself saying, “I couldn’t possibly attack, that would be far too selfish! After you, good sir.”

The other reason was that I felt like I just don’t have the patience for strategy games. I’d much rather get stuck into the action, running in screaming at the top of my lungs while brandishing a sword. This clearly isn’t the case though according to my CliftonStrengths assessment. The Strategic theme in me should be all about analysing the information available, weighing up the options and choosing the best path before proceeding. What exactly is going on here then?

I think a conversation with streamer-friend Ashnas holds the answer. During a weekend away for a LAN party this month, we started chatting about various subjects while the others played a game together. He’s a massive Final Fantasy fan who has been working his way through the series on his Twitch channel every Sunday. When I mentioned that the releases were too strategic for me and how this didn’t match up with the results of my personality test, he said: ‘It’s because you see being strategic as work.’

He’s absolutely right. When a colleague asked me last week what I like most about my job, I told them that it was finding and fixing problems that others may not see. I really enjoy being able to take a process or service which isn’t working in the best way and come up with various solutions for how to make it better for everyone involved. This is primarily why I decided to leave database administration behind and return to a role IT service management (ITSM) in November last year.

But Ashnas hit the nail on the head when he said that I associate behaving like that with being at work. That’s not to say that I don’t ever think strategically when I’m at home or don’t try to come up with solutions when there are issues in my personal life. It’s just that this way of thinking is my comfortable space when I’m in the office. It’s where my mindset naturally goes to when I turn on my laptop in the morning, and where I feel I’ve achieved something when I switch it off at the end of the day.

My brain wants to visit somewhere else when I’m finished with work. Instead of thinking about a situation logically, I often want to pick up a sword and go running headfirst into a dolmen in The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) or start firing my ships cannons at skeletons in Sea of Thieves. At other times, I prefer to spend time with a story-based adventure and get swept along in a deep narrative. But what I really don’t want is to be yawning my way through turn-based combat while I wait for an enemy to decide what it’s going to do.

Our preferences in video games can often mirror our inclinations and comfort zones in life. While my personality assessment picked up on my skill for strategic thinking, my conversation with Ashnas made me realise that my reluctance towards strategy games doesn’t stem from a lack of capability but a subconscious association with work. Understanding this difference shows how everyone needs a mental sanctuary where work and play live in separate realms, and how different types of video games can offer an escape.

Now over to you: are there any genres or mechanics that you should enjoy according to your personality, but would rather steer clear of?