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Spindel on 20 October 2024
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Chrkeller said:
Spindel said:

Sense of discovery is still there if the game is designed in the right way, it’s just that most games aren’t designed in the right way nowadays.

BOTW is an example of a newish (it was released 7 years ago! Time flies damn it) that awoke the sense of discovery as long as you didn’t look things up online.

But let’s take games released fairly â€Âcloseâ€Â to each other where the dumbing down of the game franchise killed it. Morrowind you start and then have to figure out what to do and where to go from your journal (that is filled by events and talking to NPCs). You have to explore, understand ques given about directions and the geography and while trying to find your way you discover a bunch of stuff. Oblivion and Skyrim isn’t even go to the x on the map it’s just go where the arrow points. This in combination with a bunch of other changes make Oblivion and Skyrim so shallow compared to Morrowind with ni sense of discovery and exploration. Morrowind is a superior game because of this, even if the visuals are dated as hell.

I tend to agree with Morrowind vs Skyrim.  Skyrim never clicked for me.  Many modern games do feel cookie cutter.  But there are some gems.  I thought Elden had great sense of discovery.  

I think part of the issue with many new games is too many items.  The original Zelda had 3 swords, so finding a new sword was exciting.  Finding a new weapon in Souls isn't as exciting because weapons are around every corner.  

I also think new games should stop putting worthless collectibles.  Banjo 1 was perfect with collectibles having purpose.  Puzzle pieces open levels, musical pieces open doors, Mumbo tokens are needed to collect puzzle pieces and musical notes.  Jinjos play a role late game.  Even NPC conversations matter.  

So many new games need to put less in and spend more time making things serve a purpose.  

Having said that I still remember games like MegaMan 2 with constant slowdown, my character disappearing and unbalanced gameplay (metal kills everything).  

Edit

And absurd side quests are a major flaw with old games as well.  Don't get me wrong, I love FF7, but the gold chocobo breeding to awful.  Some heart containers in Zelda are just a giant PITA.  

I think what has killed discovery in new games is the internet.  Back in the day talking with friends and sharing secrets was fun.  There was excitement when a magazine was released.  Today, just Google the answer.  But that isn't gaming's fault.  

Edit 2

The one place I wholly agree with Leynos is missing manuals.  Tutorials are boring and I would rather discover gameplay or gets hints from manuals.  As a kid I would scour manuals figuring out how to play and what items did.  

Fully agree with you that collectibles that does nothing are just padding. On the other hand collectibles that does nothing are not essential to the game and can be skipped, just as achievements on some consoles/steam which is another feature I find useless and don’t care for. But sure time spent making those things could be better put intou actually making a good game.

Regarding internet destroying the exploration aspect (for people with no self control) an interesting mechanic would be a robust system that randomizes things in games. This system would need to be robust and not wonkey and should encompass not only the game world/level design but also stuff like movement patterns and weak spots of bosses among other things. Hard as hell to pull off but if done right would be awesome. This would never emerge from a big studio game in this day and age.

I have many great ideas for a potential game but lack the skills to make one. Also since I do like punishing games with no hand holding the potential game I would make would flop so hard after the first 3 people played it and then spread the word on internet.