This is the exact same instinct that drives us to run away from the obvious path first. “Clearly that’s where the final boss is. Let me just check what’s down this way first…”
“…oh no wait, there’s a point-of-no-return ledge here. Ok, so maybe that other way was actually where the secret was. I’ll go back…”
“…hmm, there’s another ledge on this side too. Let me just put in a save point and…ok, yeah, this one is the final boss. Let me reload and check the other path…”
“…ugh, it restarted me way back here? And respawned all the enemies when I reloaded? That’s frustrating…”
In Breath of the Wild after the tutorial plateau, players are supposed to go between the two big mountains that are easy to see and easy to pass for a beginner. There they find a steed and this weird korok guy.
I on the other hand decided to go the direct route up a steep cliff where two guardians wait to tell you that this is not the way. After I snuck past them, which took me about 2 hours and like 20+ retries, I nearly stopped playing cause “the game was so hard”.
I have a bachelor in game design btw…
I play games this way too, but I feel like the bigger factor in my playtime way higher than necessary is that I don’t want to miss any dialogue so I talk to every NPC until they repeat themselves. Most of the time that’s the second time you talk to them so I definitely get a lot out of that.
This, plus looking at a tiny little toe-sized piece of unexplored minimap on the opposite side of the world and thinking, “but what if there’s something important there?!”
This is the exact same instinct that drives us to run away from the obvious path first. “Clearly that’s where the final boss is. Let me just check what’s down this way first…”
“…oh no wait, there’s a point-of-no-return ledge here. Ok, so maybe that other way was actually where the secret was. I’ll go back…”
“…hmm, there’s another ledge on this side too. Let me just put in a save point and…ok, yeah, this one is the final boss. Let me reload and check the other path…”
“…ugh, it restarted me way back here? And respawned all the enemies when I reloaded? That’s frustrating…”
“…THEY BOTH. LED. TO THE SAME. EXACT. PLACE.”
In Breath of the Wild after the tutorial plateau, players are supposed to go between the two big mountains that are easy to see and easy to pass for a beginner. There they find a steed and this weird korok guy.
I on the other hand decided to go the direct route up a steep cliff where two guardians wait to tell you that this is not the way. After I snuck past them, which took me about 2 hours and like 20+ retries, I nearly stopped playing cause “the game was so hard”.
I have a bachelor in game design btw…
There’s an old adage that says “doctors make the worst patients.”
I wonder if the same is true for game devs making the worst players.
WTF I don’t come here to be attacked like this
This is why I have 120 hours in 40 hour games.
this is the first time I realize where that sentence comes from. jumped ship from Facebook so long ago I didn’t even know this was a thing
I play games this way too, but I feel like the bigger factor in my playtime way higher than necessary is that I don’t want to miss any dialogue so I talk to every NPC until they repeat themselves. Most of the time that’s the second time you talk to them so I definitely get a lot out of that.
This, plus looking at a tiny little toe-sized piece of unexplored minimap on the opposite side of the world and thinking, “but what if there’s something important there?!”