Set yourself some guidelines for when it is acceptable to re-load and follo0w them absolutely. When you feel the urge you don't act upon it, you step back and you think about it, talk about it with yourself. Just don't do it impulsively, if your doing it without thinking, catch yourself in the middle of the act.

That's assuming this is one of those developed habits that's just gotten out of hand. I don't know much at all about OCD but I hear it comes with feeling of anxiety and in the worse cases down right panic attacks if you don't continue with the action. Even if you don't get these feelings as such it might be worth going to a doctor and disusing it if it'ss affecting you in more than one area of your life.

I think I have similar brain damage. For instance, if I'm playing a RPG and I clumsily run/walk my character into a wall, I find myself tempted to reload from a quicksave (it's okay, I quick save every 10 seconds ;). Having an otherwise useless 'walk' button to more easily navigate tight areas is a MAJOR feature for me (this was TW2's biggest improvement over the original for me, seriously). It's not OCD, it's ... uh, about the immersion. Yeah! ;)

ME2 was a 60+ hour playthrough for me.

*sees men with straight jacket approaching*
Errr... I'm not even going to talk about dialogue. ;)

I also don't find myself quickloading over real mistakes/ suboptimal paths. Those were my choices and it generally feels more immersive to me to own them (tend to stay away from guides).

Despite this, I still enjoy games. I love RPGs\ dialogue heavy games but find they require so much mental stamina that I need to take breaks between them (I'm about ready for another but haven't played one in about 3 months). In between I play more pure games where the whole idea of story or immersion breaking actions is an alien concept. I'm not so concerned with walking into walls when I'm busy performing a rocket jump or getting eaten by hordes of zombie reindeer. Take a look at your library (assuming you haven't already done so). Do all the games you own cause this negative behavior? How about something like Pacman?

I generally load if I find something unsatisfactory with my expectations, but most of the time even failures tend to show you something you would not normally see, so unless that somehow completely changes the situation I just deal with it.

What I'm most proud of is, unless I play for the challenge, I self medicated myself on the "pick up and stash everything you see, never use unless absolutely necessary" front. Now I can, without much grief, just fucking drink that potion of strength for a minor hard battle as opposed saving it for a later fight which never comes. Please people, just start using those potions and scrolls, you ain't gonna find yourself in a position where that generic flask would change everything, forever.

Final Fantasy always does everything it can to encourage this kind of gameplay. Miss a conversation, lose access to a character's best armor. Kill bad guy instead of capturing him, miss out on the only source of a rare ingredient. There are so many obscure secrets in those games that you basically need to play with a walkthrough the entire game to have any chance of finding more than a third of them.

But there are games where save-reload might as well be expected. Wizardry series is nearly impossible to play straight through. That's a series where boss fights demand every available resource. Doom style games can be difficult to recover when your health or ammo drop too low.

Modern games are a lot more forgiving. I didn't obsess too much over inventory management in Borderlands, because the design discouraged it. Random encounter RPGs often heal and cure the party after battles so you can use your skills frequently. Bioshock provided enough resupply options to allow lots of ability flexibility.

You do sound like you have a bit of OCD. It's a very common problem, some studies have 1 in 4 people having some form of this, so you are not crazy. However, if this is causing you distress, there are therapies and medications that can help. I think that the place to start is by turning off the PC and getting some exercise. Regular exercise that causes you to sweat for at least 30 minutes per day. You might find that this alone will help you take control of your head again. If not, a therapist can give you good advice on other methods of control. You should break the pattern though - the sooner you do, the easier it will be. And yes, you should be able to keep gaming, but you need to take a step back.

I have OCD Anxiety Disorder, and am on meds for it. Your problem actually sounds a lot more severe than mine (although I do find myself doing similar things). I really don't think you should be ashamed to see a doctor or talk to someone. That's really the best thing you can do for yourself.

However, a few self-treatment things that I've found can help:

Exercise, as someone already mentioned, will help. I'm not sure medically why, but it seems to get rid of some of the stress that is associated with OCD.

Getting enough sleep helps me with the anxiety part of my OCD Anxiety disorder, and you might find that it helps. I dunno.

Strangely, I've found that eating right (less starches especially) has helped. Again, not sure why.


Medication is mostly used as a "bandage" of sorts, to give you some room to learn to change the way you respond to OCD urges. Therapy can be helpful to an extent as well.

Not sure if this will help any or not, but the 'loop' seems to be predicated on the assumption that there is a 'right' way or 'wrong' way of doing anything; this is not so.

Ask 10 different people, and you'll get 10 different ways of doing anything, so just pick an avenue and follow it - there is no right or wrong.

If it makes it easier, good, if not, you just deal with it; you're up to the challenge. If you didn't like the outcome, or it goes against your basic self, handle the next opportunity differently.

In games, it is easier than life, but man always achieves and fails throughout; this is the human condition.

Sometimes I might bump into a doorway after I've miscalculated a few drinks, but to hell with going through the doorway again right at that moment; it is just a consequence of my action, and if I didn't like the consequence, then I'll adjust my action the next time.

You master the situation, it cannot master you unless you allow it to.

It might sound stupid, but look at my avatar. I could shit toward the left or right of my diaper, but does it really matter? My diaper is shit all the same, and soon I'll be using a toilet, so what sense would it make to obsess about it anyway?

I wish you the best of luck, but I think you can grab this and kick it in the ass if you so choose and, if not, don't hesitate to seek professional assistance in giving you a hand.

Best of luck, and you'll feel great slaying this demon when you do.

With rpgs.. The choices are the meaty part (also whorehouse). If I would play witcher 2 just one time and always loaded to see all the options. That kind of would ruin the game for me. but I sometimes do that also (in witcher 1 couple keypoints).. Well, I'll save if it is an option very often. Too often but I just sometimes make so bad decisions. So, it's a good thing that they make that patch, because I'm already playing in hard and die pretty much. (still a first time) So insane is insane for me.
And in final fantasys there are no choices. Well, couple of hidden bosses and summons.. Even those couple in seven was really hard if we think how easy that game was normally.

*youtubet some of the summons*

It also depends how many times you're planning to play the game. Something like Fallout or Planescape: Torment provides so many options that there's no reason to try to be completionist. Whereas it's possible to see just about everything in Baldur's Gate in one playthrough, if that's what you want. It's not always attractive to play the exact same game from start to finish three times in order to see three different ending cutscenes, or to experience a few different branches in the middle of a linear storyline.

I hear you.. But 2 times, some games. Well, baldur, long.. never finished, so, the sale was good, I bought those classics and this time I hope that they don't crash often and I will live with those decisions.. Well not then if my best buddy leaves the group. =)

Edit: didn't plan to play to play w2 16 times but couple and in the second time I could perhaps load a little and see what happens. Well in those game pretty much decisions affect later so.. I don't know.