I have a win rate of 87% in Against the Storm, and have won up to Prestige 2. Thing is, that’s not super high. AtS has four basic difficulties, plus twenty more Prestige difficulties, so I’ve only really won up to six of twenty-four. One of my losses was two games ago, on Prestige 1. And that loss? Well, I would have lost on a lower difficulty as well.

Let me describe Against the Storm a little bit. You’re made to go out into a world of evil rainwater, and build a small town in order to bring supplies back to the Smouldering City, the only place that doesn’t get destroyed by the rain. You gain reputation throughout, while ever having to fight against the growing Queen’s Impatience that’s waiting for you to finish. Prestige 1 isn’t that huge a jump from Viceroy, the previous difficulty. No extra hardship is added, you just need to gain a few more reputation points. And that means that, even on Viceroy difficulty, which is probably “normal”, I would have lost.

I don’t remember how far behind I was, because I unfortunately didn’t grab any screenshots. But I was doing pretty badly. I only had three or four reputation points, and my impatience meter was nearly full. I wasn’t going to get to the fourteen I needed to win at Viceroy, which means I absolutely wasn’t going to get to the eighteen needed to win at any Prestige difficulty. And you know what? That made me kind of happy. Obviously, winning is fun, and I was pulling back the difficulty even though I could win at higher levels. Probably past Prestige 2, if I went at it. But I wasn’t only pulling back the difficulty to score constant wins, it was because I liked playing a cool, relaxed game of Against the Storm. Still, scoring myself that loss felt good, because I want a relaxed game without just constantly pressing the win button. I’m still going to be mostly playing between Viceroy and Prestige 2, although I plan to eventually go to the higher stuff. But even if I never do, I hope I lose a few more times.

I was originally planning just do do this about Against the Storm, but while scrolling though my games on Steam, I found Dotage, which I hadn’t played since November. Now, I didn’t have a lot of time in that game, so I can’t talk as much about it, and I’m certainly not good. The first achievement I got was for losing a game, because normal difficulty isn’t for new players. And I still haven’t won, because, well, like I said, it’s not a easy game, and I put it down a while back, partially as I started getting good at AtS. But when I restarted, I had almost completely forgotten what to do. I actually started a new profile so I could play the tutorial again. Now this is a game that I don’t know if I’ll up the difficulty much, like I’ve done in Against the Storm. But it is something I have a lot of fun in, and I think my playtime will go up a lot, as long as I don’t turn my head away again. And I might up the difficulty as I play some more. I had just over seven hours of play time when I got back to it, and with that time of Against the Storm, I was probably still playing at the very lowest difficulty. And they’re both the same in that previous runs–whether they be wins or losses–give you the tools to play future games. When I started the tutorial again, some of the stuff started flowing back into by brain, and some things I was like “wait, I can’t do that yet?” Parts of that were just because of the tutorial, they often keep you on a leash, but a lot of it was because I hadn’t unlocked that part of the game yet. Which might be my best tool to relearning what I have already learned, eight months ago. I started a new profile to reset the tutorial, but that new profile might help by getting somewhere and remembering, “hey, couldn’t I do blank before?” And the same actually goes for Against the Storm, I might start a new profile in that just to try it out without the loads of unlocks I have in that game.

In any case, I’m looking forward to finally winning at Dotage. But, I’m also looking forward to losing again, just like I was able to do in Against the Storm. I absolutely want to score wins, who doesn’t? But sometimes, I want to score a loss as well. Dwarf Fortress and RimWorld are both right: losing is fun.

Do you have a game you usually win at, but still manage to lose? Did that loss make you feel a bit of happiness, or just depression? Make sure to tell us in the comments below, or on Facebook!