RE: We chat about videogames and videogame accessories.
09-15-2013, 06:49 PM
re: game handholding
I think there really is an happy medium here. The bullshit where a popup window explains how to do every new thing, not just once, but EVERY TIME YOU SEE AN APPLICABLE SITUATION (I'm looking at you, Legend of Zelda) is extremely obnoxious and immersion-breaking. But on the other hand, when I was 10 I got stuck in Minish Cap because I didn't realize cracked walls were A Thing and not just aesthetics, so there really are people who need help. Probably help more useful than popup windows which always say the same thing.
In my opinion, developers do need to tell the player button combinations in game, because I personally do not find it fun to hit all the combinations of buttons just to see if they do something. I think modern games (with exceptions, especially first person shooters and third person action) have been getting better about showing you the controls in play and without an onerous tutorial, but that said there are still way too many onerous tutorials holy shit.
As for how your capabilities interact with the world, this is one area where I feel modern game design is both obnoxiously wrong and is failing to move in the right direction. Standard adventure game hint structure is to have an npc/journal/sign obtusely mention that you can do x to y if you z, which is pretty dumb because they just told you the answer. I wish games just made the interactable object vs. non-interactable object distinction very clear and let me experiment without doing something like bombing every wall in a building because they all look the same as the one that breaks.
I think there really is an happy medium here. The bullshit where a popup window explains how to do every new thing, not just once, but EVERY TIME YOU SEE AN APPLICABLE SITUATION (I'm looking at you, Legend of Zelda) is extremely obnoxious and immersion-breaking. But on the other hand, when I was 10 I got stuck in Minish Cap because I didn't realize cracked walls were A Thing and not just aesthetics, so there really are people who need help. Probably help more useful than popup windows which always say the same thing.
In my opinion, developers do need to tell the player button combinations in game, because I personally do not find it fun to hit all the combinations of buttons just to see if they do something. I think modern games (with exceptions, especially first person shooters and third person action) have been getting better about showing you the controls in play and without an onerous tutorial, but that said there are still way too many onerous tutorials holy shit.
As for how your capabilities interact with the world, this is one area where I feel modern game design is both obnoxiously wrong and is failing to move in the right direction. Standard adventure game hint structure is to have an npc/journal/sign obtusely mention that you can do x to y if you z, which is pretty dumb because they just told you the answer. I wish games just made the interactable object vs. non-interactable object distinction very clear and let me experiment without doing something like bombing every wall in a building because they all look the same as the one that breaks.
"The parties are advised to chill." - Supreme Court of the United States, case opinion written by Justice Souter