How modern games have made me a lazy player

EDITOR'S NOTEfrom Layton Shumway

Patrick makes an interesting point -- as games continue to target a wider audience with less time to play, our patience has gone by the wayside. Even our fearless leader Shoe isn't immune.

Grand Theft Auto 3

I used to love open-world games.

I remember playing Grand Theft Auto 3. That sandbox Rockstar created absolutely blew my mind. A game where I could drive around and do absolutely anything I wanted was completely unheard of. I can even get out of my car and shoot people? Sign me up.

For me, part of the appeal of open-world gaming was experimentation and exploration. Discovering new things, finding secret areas, learning to fly the dodo (quite an accomplishment, actually), and just generally seeing every tiny corner of that vibrant world was a thrill.

But here I am today, contemplating the idea that I really don’t enjoy the open-world experience as much as I used to. And I think it's because today's design choices and difficulty levels have turned me into something I didn't expect: a lazy gamer.

Grand Theft Auto 3

When I purchased GTA3, I didn’t know much about it. The entire experience was new. I spent hours driving around listening to music and taking in Liberty City’s scenery.

I liked not being told what to do, and the concept that I could do what I wanted when I wanted in a video game was completely fresh to me. As I think back to that time in my life, I probably couldn’t imagine ever wanting to go back to playing something more linear. Now I can.

Maybe it’s because I don’t have as much time to play anymore. I’m no longer a 12-year-old -- I have a job, I go to school, and I have a girlfriend. On good days, I probably only have an hour dedicated solely to gaming. I don’t have the time to search and explore a world for hours on end. So I sort of want to be told what to do and exactly where to go.

I think this feeling also evolved from the extreme hand-holding today's titles frequently use. I’d blame this on the industry’s effort to reach a broader audience. Games today need to be ridiculously accessible. They’re for you, your mom, and your little sister, after all; that’s just the way the business has evolved.

Remember classic adventure games like King's Quest? If you forgot to pick up a specific item early on, you were essentially screwed. You had to either start over or pray you had an earlier save file from before your game-ruining mishap. Extreme difficulty levels simply don’t exist anymore. Can you honestly remember the last title you found challenging? I certainly can’t.

I understand that this is a pretty extreme example, but you get the idea. You’d never see something like this happen in a modern release. These days, you've got arrows pointing out where to go, on-screen hint systems, the ability to completely skip certain sequences (like in L.A. Noire)...all of these have become standard aspects of gaming.

LA Noire

In the end, all they’ve made me become is a lazy gamer. When I boot up something new on my Xbox, I want and need it to have all these features. I don’t want to replay certain sequences over and over again. I want to plow through the entire experience uninterrupted.

I understand that some games need to still implement an open, freedom-based world. Can you imagine a linear Grand Theft Auto title? It just wouldn’t be Grand Theft Auto anymore. Final Fantasy 13 also comes to mind -- I couldn’t stand that game’s linear design. It just wasn’t Final Fantasy to me. Where was the exploration? Where were the towns? It felt like an on-rails, stale-as-shit RPG. And that’s not what Final Fantasy is supposed to be.

Sometimes I honestly wish I could somehow regain that sense of wonder that came from playing GTA3. I’ve never experienced that complete utter freedom and experimentation since then. Part of me misses that sense of accomplishment gaming used to bring me. Maybe I just can't put in the effort any more.

After saying all this, I know I’ll probably still pick up Skyrim. But the question is, will I actually have time to play it? And will I even enjoy it?

Tags: L.A. Noire, grand theft auto, Final Fantasy 13, King's Quest, Grand Theft Auto 3, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

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Scott Deakin

July 29, 2011

I know how you feel. I too grow a little sick of freedom in games. Sometimes I just want a good, linear game to hold my hand and just let me experience something that follows through.

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Jason Lomberg

I'm starting to feel the same way. The freedom afforded by sandbox titles can be liberating, but it comes at the expense of a tight, cohesive story. More and more, I find myself drawn to story-driven games--Heavy Rain, Uncharted, L.A. Noire, Mass Effect--and this necessarily excludes open-world gameplay.

You can't give the player too much freedom or it impinges upon the story. But he/she must feel as though they have a stake in the proceedings; our ability to affect the outcome is what distinguishes gaming from other entertainment mediums.

I like David Cage's thoughts on the subject:

"Everything is about creating invisible boundaries where the player is free to do whatever he wants. If the boundaries are too tight, the experience is linear and boring, if they are too large, there are too many options, your player will get lost...

My trick to do this is to create a situation providing a clear context for choices. By doing this, you limit the options of the player to what makes sense in the context. He has the feeling that the game allowed him to do whatever he wanted, although in fact he only did what was logical in the context."

Patrick O'Rourke

August 05, 2011

I think I agree with David Cage's reasoning. It's a delicate balance when it comes to open world games. You don't want a world that's too large but you also don't want one that's too small.

July 31, 2011

Hey guys, thanks for the comments. That's how I feel. I used to love the freedom of open world games but now like both of you stated I enjoy more linear experiences.

Michael Rousseau

Open world games are never difficult. The emergent nature of the gameplay ends up removing challenge, because you can approach any situation in a way that the designer didn't think of and therefore wreck it. So I don't know if talking only about open world games when you say that games these days aren't difficult is entirely apt :)

I always cite Ninja Gaiden and DMC3 when people say games are too easy.

Dewan J. Haque

I agree, excepting the FF13 comment. I still haven't finished the game, but only because the game suddenly opened up. I felt 'lost' so to speak and had no real idea on where to go next, except to explore and find 'side quests'. Suddenly all my characters can be everything, and the idea of doing that was overwhelming. Up until that moment I was enjoying it quite a bit.

Jonathan Oyama

August 06, 2011

Yeah, I wasn't sure what to do when I started that last section. Thankfully, the world reaches its limit after a certain point. But yeah, Gran Pulse can really make people feel lost.

Reggie Carolipio

August 08, 2011

I loved the part about King's Quest because I've felt the same way at certain points in my own gaming, especially when it comes to RPGs in general especially after seeing casual trends develop as they have in today's market.

The good news is that there are still developers out there that realize that too much handholding can ruin an experience as much as others' metrics say it can improve it. Titles like Demon's Souls and The Witcher 2 show that there's still a deep hunger out there for the kind of gritty crunch that a relatively open world - and open character development approach - can bring. Don't give up hope!