This is why I couldn’t take the Ready Player One movie seriously. Gamers would’ve figured that shit out in a few hours
Few hours? More like few seconds. I know it’s a movie made for 13 year olds but if there were actually an MMO that basically every young adult was playing 24/7, they would figure out all the secrets in an instant. Have you SEEN how quickly people solve ARGs? Usually developers have to slowly drip information or else everyone will crack the extremely difficult hidden code within an hour or something.
Seriously, we have people beating Dark Souls with a guitar hero controller and running a game for over a month to make it crash, hard to believe people hadn’t figured out how to clip through the course entirely.
Over the last several years, WoW has been getting some secrets that have taken months, sometimes over a year to be completely solved. There is a Discord server dedicated to solving them, and it’s hit the max member limit a few times.
Although, most of the secrets have just the slightest hint that they even exist.
Oasis as a game kinda discouraged this thought process because the stakes were real-world, not purely virtual.
But almost everyone died when doing that race. Not one person thought “forwards isn’t working for the thousand time. Maybe backwards?”
People would have already become desensitized to the “real world” consequences because participating would have already been introducing a consequence that has overtime seemingly has become too unlikely to avoid. People would have started throwing out ideas, shotgun style, and the wildestest ideas, such as trying driving backward. If people would do it in Mario Kart 64, then why not in a high stakes game where there is a huge financial/influential incentive? Movie did the dumb thing and got greedy with product placement galore instead of following the book.
The movie was disappointing garbage.
The book was alright.
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Yep. Also gotta check under every stairwell and waterfall. And if a NPC is telling you to hurry, it means it’s time to check every nook and cranny to make sure you haven’t missed some loot.
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I believe it was Deus Ex where you could fail the first mission if you took too long exploring.
As anxiety inducing as it would be, I think it would be nice if occasionally a game would come out where the entire thing was timed. Take too long and the bad guy will complete their evil plan and win.
Fallout 1 had a timer. XX days til your home vault dies of dehydration.
I’ve been thinking a real-time fantasy RPG could be super interesting. Like there’s a huge battle that takes place on, say, day 3 or something, and if you’re not there on that day then you just miss it.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker is entirely real time (as in, like you suggest, events are on a schedule and you can’t do them all in one run). I can’t speak for the sequel as I haven’t played it.
I personally found the mechanic infuriating (modded a workaround), but you may like it if you like crpgs.
You just made me realize why I stopped playing Pathfinder: Kingmaker. It would have events that said something like “come to this mountain top for the portal to open” and I’d end up missing it and being beyond frustrated. My brain has been programmed by years of video games to try to complete everything and not accept that some paths are closed off. It’s also a reason I couldn’t get into Disco Elysium. I felt like I had to try every dialogue option available, which isn’t how those types of games are meant to be played.
I blame early Sierra and Lucas Arts adventure games.
I share your exact experience. I had the same frustration with Disco Elysium too, though I enjoyed the writing so much I ended up playing through regardless lol
Yes! Freakin’ Secret of Monkey Island…
The new Monkey Island is definitely worth checking out if you haven’t already!
Wrath of the righteous has less time constraints but definitely has some in there still. (People were not happy with how tight some of those were in kingmaker cuz they wanted to explore everything.)
First large battle happens after a few days and you’re basically dragged there the night before if you weren’t there. There are things you could have explored before that change things etc.
The best ending requires you to finish on an exact date.
Anyways this is to say definitely play WotR it is an amazing game. Much better than kingmaker.
Thanks for the WotR review, I’ll definitely give it a try now. I was genuinely afraid to try it because of how time-focused Kingmaker was lol
Oddly enough I think the concept still holds water, but perhaps for action rpgs? The strategic aspect of crpgs just didn’t mesh with timed events for me I guess
I think it would work if designed better. (Which WotR is.) Kingmaker tried but it was also basically expected you do pretty much everything in order to be able to keep up. If you’re going to put in time constraints it’s gotta have A: choices that matter and lock people out of things and B: a much more relaxed XP curve so people don’t feel forced into doing ALL OF IT.
WotR had a section where each thing you looted lead to more soldiers being killed, which is a great example. Most of the game isn’t that urgent at all, but does lock you into choices that actually affect the entire story which is cool.
if there isn’t a giant red flashing countdown, take your time. but even when there is, look everywhere.
I’m always blown away by time to complete times. I will easily spend twice as long simply for this reason. It’s usually not even loot worth grabbing!
Screams in trunic
This mentality has mutated into a principle of doing anything other than main quest in open world games for me. In the latest zelda game I spent way too long trying to figure out how to unlock the map by traveling to different vantage points, climbing towers etc, before deciding to do a little bit of the main quest and the map is almost the first thing you do.
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I used to do this too, but now I’ve realized that today’s games have way too much unnecessary crap and I end up way over powered. I’ve reverted to beelining the main story until it gets too hard and then exploring. This has it’s own pitfalls, like some games including key items in those side areas, but usually I would have had to explore the areas twice anyway due to needing a late game skill.
I’m sure it works for a lot of people, but for me it’s kind of ruined pacing in games. Either you end up overpowered for the main game by doing too much side content, or you end up finishing the main game too early and end up unable to experience the side content in the way it was meant to be enjoyed. Side content tends to be more fun if it is interspersed with the main game, so that there is a steady progression for both, and so that any time-gated side stuff doesn’t pile up and end up feeling tedious. But when it’s left to the player to manage that balance, they are unlikely to hit a sweet spot. At least, I usually fail to do so. Can’t plan an optimal route through the game without reading through a bunch of spoiler-packed guides ahead of time, which destroys organic exploration and feels like work anyway.
I get that. If the game makes it interesting enough I’ll deviate from this and explore. It’s gotta be fun though. If I find the side content repetitive or unrewarding then I cruise!
I guess I should try to learn that as well. I got a bit underwhelmed by the main quest bosses in the last zelda game because of that.
I’ve just stopped caring about main quests. The exploration is what I like, so why care about my lost kid or whatever
It has honestly made open world games very difficult for me to focus on.
I’m like 100 hours deep in RDR2 because of this shit. I spent like 3 real life days trying to find a god damn badger. Now it wants me to win 3 hands of blackjack by hitting 3 times? Aghhhh!!
badger badger badger badger badger badger!
mushroom mushroom!
I do the same, but I just like exploring and wandering around. That’s where the fun lies in for me in open-world games: unlocking the full map, interacting with NPCs, doing random sidequests, finding hidden stuff, seeing cool locations. Going through dungeons and fighting bosses usually feel like a stressful chore that I have to get through if I want to advance the story.
Yeah, it’s the same for me, but I don’t mind the bosses and dungeons. It’s just that as soon as something is defined as the main quest I stay away. I had the full overworld and sky in Tears of the kingdom before fighting the first main boss just because of that. I also had close to maxed out gear. It made the main quest bosses quite underwhelming.
Funny that you mentioned Tears of the Kingdom, I actually spent a few weeks fully exploring the surface and the depths before doing the first temple. Zelda is one game where I think avoiding the main quest makes a lot of sense considering how the game just ends if you complete it.
When BotW first released, as soon as I got the paraglider, I thought to myself “If this game is truly fully open world, I’m going to try to get the Master Sword before doing anymore of the main quest”.
The forest was literally the last area of the map that I went, haha.
That’s why I’m playing it twice!
Thats not OCD. OCD is a debilitating condition.
You think Tim “I wrote loss” Buckley cares about using a mental illness wrong?
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Sure, but a person with OCD could also do this as part of their OCD. I’ve struggled with what I am pretty sure is OCD, and I relate a lot to this. I can’t even enjoy big open world games anymore because I feel like I need to explore every corner, find everything, talk to everyone. It becomes stressful.
That secret entrance behind a waterfall in the original Legend of Zelda meant that I’ve been checking every waterfall in every game I’ve ever played since 1986.
It’s just so disappointing when there’s NO secret behind the waterfall
I have been playing the new game sea of stars and its an old school rpg. I check all the places and several have had chests behind waterfalls and it always puts a smile on my face when I find them there.
Don’t go chasing waterfalls
There’s a secret behind the Zora waterfall in TotK too.
I think I remember there being one in A Link to the Past on SNES also
But not in any of the other 60 waterfalls in TOTK
It can’t be too secret, I’m mean I haven’t even played TOTK and even I know about it.
Joking aside, I have been playing BOTW and I check every body of water and mountain peak I come across because theres usually something, but that’s also because there’s so many things to find. SNES games though, 99% of the time there’s nothing, but everytime I see dark spot in the ground, I’m smacking the shit out of it in hopes i get a fat stack of bananas.
It’s a common trope. I won’t link it but I’m sure there’s a TVTropes page for that.
You go left to find a secret. I go left because games can’t tell me what to do.
We’re not the same
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Same with smashing against the back wall of every waterfall in every game ever.
And then along comes Tunic, where I’m surprised when there isn’t anything behind a waterfall.
Image Transcription:
A 3-panel CTRL+ALT+DEL comic by Tim Buckley.
The first panel shows a blond man wearing a green sleeveless shirt, long brown pants, sturdy brown boots, brown bracers, and a belt and sash, standing against a forested backdrop with a signpost to his right reading “START”.
The second panel shows the START signpost is far to the right edge of the panel and the blond man has turned and walked directly into a rock wall with an onomatopoeic WHUMP!
The last panel shows a brown-haired, bearded man in green shirt, blue pants and glasses, sitting on a cream-coloured couch next to a blond-haired boy wearing a blue shirt and black shorts. The man is holding a controller for a video game console. The boy says “Why do you always start every level in every game by turning around and running backwards?”. The man replies “because one time a game hid a secret behind the start position and my OCD decided I have to suffer for the rest of my life.”
[I am a human, if I’ve made a mistake please let me know. Please consider providing alt-text for ease of use. Thank you. 💜]
Good bot
Beep boop
The beginning of every Far Cry game I have to sit there and not do anything and see if I “beat” the game.
You wanna know the definition of insanity?
The definition of insanity… is
Morrowind made me jump and look into every tree stump in every elder scrolls game because of one god damn axe.
The Chainsaw in Doom 2
Chainsaw go BRRRRRR 😁
Super Mario Bros 2 World 6-3
This is incredibly relevant to me. I just finished playing through it last week.
What a coincidence, same here!
B^ U
Some Rayman levels are like this
Not just that - I’m pretty sure you can’t beat Rayman 2 without re-visiting a level and going left!
Oh god this was my first thought seeing this meme. My last collectible for Rayman Origins turned out to be behind the start. It took me hours of searching before giving up and watching a walkthrough.
I feel you on this!
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Important distinction is that you needed to travel both left and right to get through Metroid, while DKC was a strictly to the right affair (with some up and down as well.
Limbo
