Just yesterday I had a longer conversation [not online, but face to face, beer by beer] with a doctoral student of mine ↑who does deeply immersed fieldwork around and within the ‘StarCraft II’ (SC2 | Blizzard Entertainment 2010) pro-gamer scene. Matchingly enough the day before yesterday I reread ↓Bearman 2008 and ↵watched ‘King of Kong’ (Gordon 2007) and ‘Chasing Ghosts’ (Ruchti 2007), wondering at the lengths high-end arcade-gamers go. Well, he told me about the lengths the SC2-specialists go, especially in terms of analysis of the game, its patches, actual matches, etc. Up to writing book-lengths compendiums. After enough grinning head-shaking—to cover up our fascination and admiration—we went on to the topic of games we have played recently. He did ‘Rage’ (id Software 2011), which still sits unopened on my shelf, and I did, well ‘Batman: Arkham City’ (Rocksteady 2011). When I told him that I am not only 100% through with the main story and all side missions, but although got 332 of the 440 Riddler challenges, it was him who shook his head on me.
    Yes, I collected all the Riddler and Catwoman trophies, destroyed every single one of the Joker teeth and balloons, the Demon Seals, Penguin statues, Tyger surveillance cameras, fried every single of the Harley Quinn mannequins, hacked every Tyger console, and scanned every riddle—in Park Row, the Amusement Mile, Industrial Quarters, the Subway, the Bowery, the Steelmill, the Museum, and in Wonder City.
    The final eight I am still missing are all from the physical challenges category, see above.
    I did quite well especially with the navigational challenges. E.g. required were 250 metres gliding with grapnel boost allowed—I did 427.8 metres as my best. Or 150 metres of gliding without grapnel boost were required—my best was 364.8 metres. I am still searching an online record table for those.
    The eight missing ones are all combat-related. Hardly surprising, as I never was very prone to beat’m’ups. Nevertheless, a 30x combo was required, my best till now was 37x. But I am completely at sea with things like ‘achieve a 5x variation’ … All right, I am absolutely willing to do that, but what in Serious Sam Hill is it?!?
    There seems to be no way around consulting abaddononion2’s 33,000-word ↑Batman: Arkham City: Combat Mechanics Guide.