Gaming

Man this post made me think about why some games that seem right up my alley (fallout, cyberpunk, etc) I just can't seem to finish. I have a perfectionist issue where I feel I need to do all the available side quests before moving onto the next mission/level/boss. I might try to pick up cyberpunk again after I complete my fallen order replay and just stick to the larger missions.

I am really looking forward to starfield but I really don't know if I'm prepared for it.

For me since I quit smoking weed something in my mindset changed and it just seems like too much effort overall to play most games, especially bad with open world with hundreds of quests. The quest log tends to remind me of my ticket backlog at work.

I mainly play some small and quick to pick up and put down games with tight gameplay loops atm.

To have fun instead of trying to see all content is the way to make most of the experience. In ToTK I just turn off the UI and try to get lost.

I reflected on that as well yesterday. I started Botw on Cemu after hearing so much good about the newest instalment and wanted to see what all that fuzz is about. I really really like it, I always thought it would feel empty from the vibe I got from gameplay videos and screenshots but it doesn't. I played for 40 hours and now I'm on a tipping point.

So after thinking about it yesterday I found a good comparison for me. I thought about ice cream. Bare with me. Imagine buying a really big pot of a new kind chocolate ice cream. It fills all the space of your freezer. You try it and it's awesome, you don't want anything else to eat right now. So you eat it every day for every meal. It still is awesome but at some point it's nothing special anymore and also last time you went shopping you saw that awesome looking strawberry ice cream for which you don't really have space right now in your freezer. So what is your next move. Jugging down the chocolate ice cream until you reach the bottom but hate it or throw it away and buy something new? So here is what I try: I want to get over my FOMO for the strawberry ice cream and try eating just a bit of the chocolate ice cream every other day. I mean, it couldn't be healthy to eat ice cream for every meal and every day right? And if it isn't going to be special anymore I don't need to eat it until I finish it, I won't get any more enjoyment out of it if I'd do.

I hope this makes as much sense to you as it does to me

I hate the current trend of open worlds everywhere.

It makes sense for some games (e.g., Skyrim, GTA), but most games would be much better with a more linear world. The open worldness just makes most games boring after 10-15 hours of gameplay, in particular when game devs like to include collectible quests everywhere.

I can certainly understand that! I kind of am the opposite though; I like not knowing the exact extent of the game, or where everything is, because to me it then feels more like a real place that I'm really exploring. I don't need to see everything, and honestly I hope I never do see everything because then the magic is gone. I like feeling like a small fish in a very big ocean.

I guess I'm an anti-completionist in that way.

Seems like you found the correct Lemmy instance.

Absolutely! I just picked up the Mass Effect collection and the Dragon Age collection when they came in a bundle a couple of weeks ago. I am really, really intimidated having like 7 big games all in my backlog now. I'm just playing Bioshock Infinite and Hades in my happy little box.

I think TotK dropped a lot of hints about not playing it like BotW, but most probably didn't pick up on it. I made the mistake of exploring a lot on my own and ended up skipping several of the quest stories as a result. When the world is so large, you really need a GPS for your map to constrain your path. It's kinda hard to tell the user "this time is different, follow the guides" when it seems so familiar a place.

There was a lot of effort made to ensure there was guide based content posted online immediately upon release, but this assumes the user will go looking for it.

I have this with big Minecraft modpacks. Sometimes I just get overwhelmed with all the stuff to do, and I get none of it done. I wonder if it's related to ADHD or autism. I've not been diagnosed with either because I avoid doctors like the plague but when you check literally every box for a disease... Welp.

Back in the day I remember Gabe from Penny Arcade saying that he used to feel this way until he went on anxiety meds. Going on the meds made it feel like a free playground to explore instead of being an infinite chore where something could be missed.

Not overwhelmed so much as after awhile the content in these open world games starts to feel too similar and I lose the motivation to finish. I think going forward I may stick to the "main quest" and only tackle side content if it's genuinely interesting rather than trying to complete everything, which can feel like a chore. I think a lot of it behind being overwhelmed as well is just sheer bloat/filler in some of these games.

I don't feel this way about open-world games because they do usually have an end and you can skip a lot of the open-world filler content. I get this anxiety about sandbox games. I hate it because I really enjoy games like Cities Skylines and I'd love to get into Dwarf Fortress, but I can't play them anymore because I could spend 1,000 hours in one of them and never finish. That open-endedness keeps me from playing.

Absolutely.

I'm playing Street Fighter Five until I started Diablo 4. Now Final Fantasy 16 is out. Uffda.

A little, but I kinda love it. It's a feeling of so many options and I find it kinda exciting.

Yeah, I've felt this at times, but games are meant to be fun and low stakes. If certain games make you feel this way I think it's worth reflecting on what about the game triggers this response. Perhaps there's a way to avoid that thing or reframe your thinking around it. Otherwise, there's no shame in not playing a game that makes you feel bad!

This is why I have so much trouble with the Fallout series. I love the games and their universes but I just can't deal with how overwhelming it is to actually play and realize how much there is to do. I never had this issue with other games like Subnautica for some reason.

Felt the same way in BotW. I wandered for a while and had fun with it for a while before resorting to a walkthrough. I don't have a lot of time to game anymore and it became a sort of treasure hunt and was still fun having the walkthrough available as needed.

The older I get the more I just appreciate the story. If I get any busier I'll probably start watching others play through on youtube.

I greatly prefer games that wrap up in thirty minutes or less... you know, fighting games, old-school arcade games, puzzle games, that sort of thing. Sometimes it's fun to just wander around in an open world, but big video games are big time sinks that require a big commitment, especially at the start when you have to learn the ropes. Sometimes these big games aren't well explained and you have to fumble your way through their complicated play mechanics, an issue I had with Biomutant. Struggling and confusion are not a part of the gaming experience I particularly enjoy.

same for me with the witcher 3 and horizon zero dawn

It's funny that you got that in Skyrim, really felt like that game was terrified that I'd miss some random quest and shove it in my face

Yes, these big open world games always feel overwhelming when I start to play them. I then remind myself to take a step back and treat each side mission as a separate game. Embrace when an NPC all of a sudden gives me a new quest, and just keep it on the back burner until I'm done with the current quest. Engage yourself in the story for each quest.

Modern games do a great job of organizing your quests.

Edit I would also like to add that owning a Steam Deck also helps a lot with playing big open world games. It's great to quickly pick it up and get a side quest completed or level up my characters.