Simple question really: Do you create your own mini-games inside the video games that you play, and if so how?

I'll give you an example: My favorite example of this was GTA Vice City, where I made a promise to myself to sneak onto the second island, finish all the random mini-missions like Ambulance or Police missions, collect all 100 packages and unlock the Apache before doing ANY story missions or using ANY cheats. For me it was worth it to bring the Apache back and to do the storyline missions such as "drop off the hooker" or "kill the pizza boy" using an over-powered military helicopter with unlimited ammo.

But no one knew if I used cheats, I didn't HAVE to do the police and ambulance missions before any mission, and nothing stopped me from just using a cheat and spawning an Apache but I made a mini-game, like a mini-challenge, to myself like I do for alot of games. Does anyone else do that and if so, in what way (examples please)?

In Mega Man games I tend to always try to beat entire levels without using special abilities regardless if they're stronger than my buster.

GTA games, I tend to want to collect all the hidden packages/tags, sub-missions, etc before the story starts and each time a new area is opened to me.

Devil May Cry 1, I never want to turn devil trigger on.

Shadow of the Colossus: Sometimes I feel it's like a fun little game to try and shoot the colossus in the eyes with my arrows even if it does nothing. This is before I decide to find the most ridiculous/hardest way to get onto the beasts. (screw the scripted ways..finding new harder ways is much more satisfying!)

Metal Gear Ac!d. I will continue to repeat a certain level until I've gotten through with No kills, No alerts, and the Speedy *.

In GTA instead of playing the game properly and doing missions I dress all in black, preferably a suit, and get a black car and pretend to be like CIA, even going to the lengths of shooting at civillian cars so they'll run away and I have someon to chase. ^^

Rick-Banana:
In GTA instead of playing the game properly and doing missions I dress all in black, preferably a suit, and get a black car and pretend to be like CIA, even going to the lengths of shooting at civillian cars so they'll run away and I have someon to chase. ^^

lol this is borderline psychotic, I like it!

In MGS1 I try to bet the first disk in a record time so far its been 4 hours
Same with all the other Metal Gear games

Sometimes for fun I explore as many ways possible that a game will allow me to die in it.

Hmm... trying to beat the GoW campaign while doing nothing but shooting from the hip is my favorite example of this, although there are always the fun (read: idiotic) things you can do on Halo, like beat the whole game with nothing but plasma pistol mêlées.

Oh, and of course there's systematic genocide of whole towns via sneak attack with the ripper in Fallout 3.

EDIT: maphacking as far away as physically possible on any game is a popular choice too. This is especially fun on LoZ:OoT.

Some of mine:
1. I play shooters with more interest in my K/d ratio than my score, as a good k/d means more contribution to your team than the other team.
2. I often deem weapons or strategies in an online game N00Bish and will play at the highest levels without their use, fun if frustrating.
3. I like to beat the hardest mode in the hardest fashion, such as using all the difficulty cards on CoD: WaW, and playing veteran.
4. I like to stage games of teamkill tag on hardcore games, it is great for messing with people

Me and my buddies used to strip naked and help newbs in WOW. Key part being we would NEVER talk to them, just wait for them to tag something then kill it. Protect him from horde, that sort of thing. Some of them would yell at us "Why are you helping me?" "Who are you?" that sort of thing. We'd do this sometimes for hours.

Get on my horse, naked, and run around greeting ppl in Tanaris.

I'm with you on the apache in GTA3 from the start, My favourite, assasin missions from the pay phone.

"Catch and kill this guy. He's on a bike so get something fast."

You think to your self... Well, apache's are fast. Begin mission, press trigger. I win.

Getting to level 20 in Oblivion before starting the main quest.

Oh my goodness, I thought I was the only one who did that. Here's a few examples of what I do:

GTA IV - Sometimes, when I'm in one of my "I think I'll just walk/run everywhere instead of taking a vehicle" moods, I'll end up walking next to some pedestrian and, for reasons I may never understand, challenge myself to beat him to the end of the block, by any means necessary.

Super Mario 64 - One day, I was messing around with Mario's backflip and thought, "Hey... I'm gonna play through this entire game using only the backflip to move." The only exceptions I allowed myself were places where it would be impossible to continue without a long/high/triple jump. Good times.

Star Fox 64 - In the stages where you're forced into battle against Star Wolf, I always take out my teammates and see if I can handle all four mercenaries on my own. It's harder than it sounds, especially during that last battle on Venom when they can only be damaged by very well timed charge shots.

Super Smash Brothers Melee - Sometimes, I'll try to complete a go of Adventure Mode without jumping at all, using only the character's "Up + B" recovery move to get to higher places. Really difficult with some characters.

Every Tennis Game Ever - I have the tendency to play a very aggressive net game when I play video tennis, so sometimes, I'll challenge myself to play an entire match without once crossing midcourt to approach the net.

RPGs - I've always been a huge fan of the "Fighter/Monk" job class, so at some point in every RPG I've ever played, I've tried to see how far I can get without weapons or magic. It never turns out to be far, since trying to win a fistfight as a scrawny mage is pretty much a deathwish, but it's definitely fun.

- In Mega Man games I use mostly the normal Buster
- I made a "dont use any enemy power" run for Kirby´s Adventure
- once, I played the german campaing in Panzer General II with a "no tanks" rule
- in Tetris DS, my "gap" for the long one is always on the right side
- I have the strange habit to save too much ammo in FPS. So, I prefer using the weak standart weapons over the big ones, because "later, I might need em more !"
- I never declare war to anyone in Civ games
- I dont use characters I dont like, even if they are considered to be "better"

warthog launching
in fallout 3, i kite super muties, i had 40-45 following me at one point, lagged like hell though

A fun one for when your getting bored is trying to kill people while doing 360 degree jumps.

Either that or just go on a mad pistol run :)

First of all GTA is the perfect series for that kind of "Make up your own game" type thing. I had all sorts of crazy minigames I made for San Andreas. One of the best: flying over the restricted area then race to the top of the mountain in the south, then grab a bike and try to make it down the mountain and back to the airstrip, on the bike.

I think MS noticed these expanding goals in games and that's why they made the achievement points. It's kind of unnecessary as you pointed out but some people really like them.

SeniorDingDong:

- I have the strange habit to save too much ammo in FPS. So, I prefer using the weak standart weapons over the big ones, because "later, I might need em more !"

Oh wow, I do that too. So strange. Also, if I come across some ammo but my gun already has a full clip, I'll fire off a few rounds just so I can pick up the spare ammo, reload and not feel like I'm wasting an opportunity.

Half Life 2: How many times I can chuck stuff at the combine at the start before they club me to unconciousness.

Morrowind: How long I can stay up in the lighthouse in Seyda Neen shooting arrows at people.

Command and Conquer: Generals: How many Scud Storms I can build in one game.

Howlingwolf214:
Command and Conquer: Generals: How many Scud Storms I can build in one game.

Civilians aren't innocent bystanders and mere 'casualties' in that game to me. They're the TARGETS! XD!

In GTA3 I liked to use two cheat codes, the one that makes everyone hate you, and the one that gives everyone random guns. Than I would try to make my way across the entire map. Its incredibly hard sometimes, what with every single pedestrian firing rockets and bullets in your direction.

Good times.

Rick-Banana:
In GTA instead of playing the game properly and doing missions I dress all in black, preferably a suit, and get a black car and pretend to be like CIA, even going to the lengths of shooting at civillian cars so they'll run away and I have someon to chase. ^^

haha in gta 4 i used to point my handgun at someone and if they run chase them it used to vary between them being stupid and me killing them for it or them running infrount of a moving car and me killing them few times neither happened and i lost them after a while :( was a sad day

In SR2 or other games that allow that kind of character customization, I deck myself out in a black suit and tie, with a nice hat, also black, black gloves, and sunglasses, and treat every like a professional hitman. I once played Oblivion as my own kind of vampire, forcing me to kill someone after I fed on them. It was fun. I come up with tons of little mini-games or my own invented subplots, though i can't quite recall that many of them at the moment.

Syphonz:

Howlingwolf214:
Command and Conquer: Generals: How many Scud Storms I can build in one game.

Civilians aren't innocent bystanders and mere 'casualties' in that game to me. They're the TARGETS! XD!

xD Yeah. A match isn't finished until every building and every person that's not my armies color has been destroyed. >:]

I Fable 2 I made my personally mission to sleep with as many people of varieing sexes as possible at one time.

I'm a little dirty yes.

I do sometimes, in fallout 3 I play, let's slaughter the whole town! Then I reload later on.

Rick-Banana:
In GTA instead of playing the game properly and doing missions I dress all in black, preferably a suit, and get a black car and pretend to be like CIA, even going to the lengths of shooting at civillian cars so they'll run away and I have someon to chase. ^^

OMG I thought I was the only one¡¡¡

Space Spoons:

SeniorDingDong:

- I have the strange habit to save too much ammo in FPS. So, I prefer using the weak standart weapons over the big ones, because "later, I might need em more !"

Oh wow, I do that too. So strange. Also, if I come across some ammo but my gun already has a full clip, I'll fire off a few rounds just so I can pick up the spare ammo, reload and not feel like I'm wasting an opportunity.

Yeah, I feel that.

I've played through like 85% of the campaign of Timeshift before using grenades.

Space Spoons:

....Super Mario 64 - One day, I was messing around with Mario's backflip and thought, "Hey... I'm gonna play through this entire game using only the backflip to move." The only exceptions I allowed myself were places where it would be impossible to continue without a long/high/triple jump. Good times.......

....Super Smash Brothers Melee - Sometimes, I'll try to complete a go of Adventure Mode without jumping at all, using only the character's "Up + B" recovery move to get to higher places. Really difficult with some characters.

Wow.....that's borderline sadistic! Just kidding, I wish I had that kind of patience.

I remember blasting through The Punisher ONLY using the "quick kill" button on normal, with the exception of the bosses. Absolutely no problem at all. All power to the Q key!

Rick-Banana:
In GTA instead of playing the game properly and doing missions I dress all in black, preferably a suit, and get a black car and pretend to be like CIA, even going to the lengths of shooting at civillian cars so they'll run away and I have someon to chase. ^^

I'm glad I'm not the only one! lol - I wish they had programmed in some random events, where occasionally there's just a crazy person that flips out and starts running over people, giving you the opportunity to go take them down. Occasionally, it does happen naturally because of a car accident or something, but it is usually because of something the player did to frighten a NPC.

I don't know if this counts, but I try not to use Star Power in Guitar Hero and see how many songs I can make it through on expert.

I sometimes lie off the edge of the bed, so I view the screen upside down, adds an extra difficulty for a while and a feeling that your head is getting steadily more heavy....