Mental exhaustion

[kinn]

Does anyone else get mentally exhausted from all the searching and click/press A button on everything to see if you pick something up?

Back in the day I used to love visiting towns in RPG’s to see what the npc’s there had to say and search barrels, book shelves etc to see what I could find etc. But nowadays it just feels more like a chore than anything else to me.

Maybe it’s due to most games today having hidden items/stars/packages to collect or find. I don’t know but every time I encounter a new area in a game world a small part of me dreads the task of having to search every little corner for fear of missing out on something

Maybe it’s just me getting old and lazy?!?

[Gamerforlife]

Yet another reason my interest in rpgs has a tendency to wane from time to time. Frankly, this is just another example of how today's games are too big, with too much hidden crap to find. I think 3-d is part of the problem. I used to enjoy finding everything in games like Donkey Kong Country 2, but finding every thing in some of today's big, complex 3-d environments can be a bit more frustrating.

In some games, hidden stuff seems like an afterthought. I just used faqs to find the hidden stuff in the Ratchet and Clank games, because the real fun of those games was figuring out how to stay alive and blast your way through enemies, while acquiring and upgrading weapons. Finding the hidden stuff was really not much fun or rewarding so I just pulled out a faq for that stuff.

Oh, and good luck finding all the hidden packages in the MASSIVE worlds of the Grand Theft Auto games without a faq

I like collecting stuff in games like Lego Star Wars II though. The levels are linear so finding hidden stuff is just a matter of being observant and keeping your eyes open. Plus, the games lets you know what you haven't found yet. Very handy. As for getting Jedi status in each level. That task requires you to get lots of bolts, which just means destroying everything in the environment, which is actually fun

Getting back to rpgs though, I loved what they did in Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. Everything you could interact with was highlighted and you didn't even have to be very close to whatever it was for the game to highlight it for you. You could even cycle through every interactive thing with your controller. Made it very easy to keep track of everything.

[tHePhAnToM!??!]

Back then you did not mind searching because most of those games sent you on that quest to begin with. You know, the rainbow material in the chrono series and what not in the other rpgs. The town folk raving about the old legends and myths about the forests to the south and the mountain caves to the north east. It was fun. It was not just some collect the 5 golden strafish that have green stripes and you will get the secret whatever. It just was not boring back then.

[kinn]

I think 3-d is part of the problem. I used to enjoy finding everything in games like Donkey Kong Country 2, but finding every thing in some of today's big, complex 3-d environments can be a bit more frustrating.

I guess your right there. I used to enjoy looking for secret places etc in 2D games. But with 3D its just a nightmare! I'm sure some people like this aspect though in that it lengthens a game a bit.

Crackdown was the only recent game I can think of which did'nt drive me insane in collecting its hidden orbs. Maybe its due to the fact that the main missions are straightforward short i.e. the game wasnt bloated. I would sometimes just put on a custom soundtrack and just jump around and explore the city. It was kind of relaxing in a way.

I would love it if this collecting mechanic was turned on its head or something i.e. you started the game with all the hidden packages/items and it was your job to hide them in the game world and then see how well NPC's could find them instead

[NebachadnezzaR]

I don’t know but every time I encounter a new area in a game world a small part of me dreads the task of having to search every little corner for fear of missing out on something

Same here. When I was younger I loved to see a new giant area for me to explore. Nowadays, I just think "Man, I just want to play and have fun, not search every piece of land for hidden stuff...".

Maybe it’s just me getting old and lazy?!?

Probably, nowadays I don't have the same patience that I had when I was younger...

I think 3-d is part of the problem. I used to enjoy finding everything in games like Donkey Kong Country 2, but finding every thing in some of today's big, complex 3-d environments can be a bit more frustrating.

I disagree. I think you just say that because when you played 2D games you had the patience to find all the hidden stuff and enjoyed it, unlike today, but I bet that if you play a 2D game today that you've never played before, you're gonna find the hidden stuff a pain in the ass to find, just like in any 3D game.

[Gamerforlife]

I don’t know but every time I encounter a new area in a game world a small part of me dreads the task of having to search every little corner for fear of missing out on something

Same here. When I was younger I loved to see a new giant area for me to explore. Nowadays, I just think "Man, I just want to play and have fun, not search every piece of land for hidden stuff...".

Maybe it’s just me getting old and lazy?!?

Probably, nowadays I don't have the same patience that I had when I was younger...

I think 3-d is part of the problem. I used to enjoy finding everything in games like Donkey Kong Country 2, but finding every thing in some of today's big, complex 3-d environments can be a bit more frustrating.

I disagree. I think you just say that because when you played 2D games you had the patience to find all the hidden stuff and enjoyed it, unlike today, but I bet that if you play a 2D game today that you've never played before, you're gonna find the hidden stuff a pain in the ass to find, just like in any 3D game.

Well it's a lot easier to actually see stuff in 2-d games because the environments are smaller. You can see everything within an environment by simply moving right or left. With a 3-d game, you often can't fit everything in the environment onto the screen and so you have to keep jumping into first person view and looking around at everything, or just swinging the camera around. A lot of 3-d games are very nonlinear, which means bigger environment that require much more searching around than the smaller, linear 2-d environments most games had.

Ulitmately though, it really just comes down to exactly how big designers want to make a 3-d area and this seems very much related to how linear an experience they are going for. It's not too bad searching for stuff in simple games like the original Spyro the Dragon or Lego Star Wars II, but finding hidden packages in Grand Theft Auto Vice City is a very, very, very difficult task.

[aaron]

Does anyone else get mentally exhausted from all the searching and click/press A button on everything to see if you pick something up?

Back in the day I used to love visiting towns in RPG’s to see what the npc’s there had to say and search barrels, book shelves etc to see what I could find etc. But nowadays it just feels more like a chore than anything else to me.

Maybe it’s due to most games today having hidden items/stars/packages to collect or find. I don’t know but every time I encounter a new area in a game world a small part of me dreads the task of having to search every little corner for fear of missing out on something

Maybe it’s just me getting old and lazy?!?

yeah dude i totally back you 100% on this. i was the guy who cut down every fucking bush in link to the past. i just don't have the time/patience/interest to do it anymore. it's like masturbation, really.

well maybe not QUITE like masturbation.

[tHePhAnToM!??!]

yeah......you always find the treasure when you do the.......thing.....